Ironman1

Are there any web sites out there they let you search for simply the cheepest ticket price for a range of dates and locations. For example, if my wife and I want to go to say Italy but we do not care if we leave on a Monday or a Thursday of if we fly into say Milan, Pisa or Rome. We are on an open schedule so we are simply searching for the most economical way to get to a general location as our schedule is adaptable. The same would hold true for domestic flights. It is rather time consuming to change your trip search multiple times for dates and locations.

Any ideas?

laurie_ann

You might try www.momondo.com. It was recommended by Arthur Frommer at a talk he gave at a travel show last year. It is more comprehensive than kayak. You search for specific dates and specific destinations but then it shows you a bar chart as to the same trip for every day that month which lets you spot a date the fare would be lower. It doesn't though give you alternative airports. You would have to try different destinations on different searches.

mztery

if you search on kayak.com you will see a box next to your search with a calendar of fares for that month

eliztravels

I heard about this site from a Fodorite and haven't needed to use anything else since. You can select by month and specify trip duration (e.g. September, 14-16 days) The cheapest fare for each date will be shown on the calendar, and it also displays cheapest flight for each airline. It is quite easy to compare airlines and flights for different destinations and also monitor prices over a period of days or weeks to watch for fluctuations and jump on one that seems like a good deal.

You can not purchase flights on this site. You have to go to the airline's website or another site such as Kayak to book your flight.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com

eliztravels

As a followup : I booked September flights to Prague yesterday after watching the itasoftware site for several weeks. Most airlines that I would be interested in using had been showing prices between $1,200-$1,600. For a while Finnair had something around $1,000, then their prices shot up and BA dropped to under $1,000. I went with BA at $983; today the same dates are about $300 more.

It's a mugs game trying to find the cheapest fare, but with a little persistence and good timing you can get something you are satisfied with.

Ironman1

Thanks to all I will attampt the suggestions.