Hope someone can help me. I'm an expert at all things road trip, but when i fly, most of my flights are arranged by my company.

Trying to make last minute flight ressies for DD and i for next week - yes i know i'm gonna pay big time being this late - but really had no choice (don't ask, its not an emergency and it would bore you anyway lol)

Can anyone give me any tips where (or how) to find the best rates? I'm searching all the major lines, plus orbitz, itasoftware, travelocity etc.

I've heard flight schedules are updated after midnight tuesday, and i once scored some amazing rates that way.

So, while these may be lame questions, am i correct in assuming that waiting until after midnight tonight isn't going to help at this late date? In other words, should i just grab what i can asap?

Would really appreciate any of your savvy, expert advice.

There are those who have secret info about time of day/week to search, but I think it is still a mystery. I have searched airfare, gone into the next room to discuss with my husband, and come back and found the fare differed by 1/3 up or down.

Only other suggestions I can give is to try itasoftware.com You can research there and book with airlines, but sometimes I can't find fare on airline site - it may be sold out.

The other is to try newer airlines that do not show up on expedia, etc. such as JetBlue, Spirit, Southwest, etc if they go where you need to go.

I am always searching for last minute fares for our son, who never seems to be able to decide un til last minute when he will/can fly.

site59.com for last minute package. Just toss the car rental if you don't need one.

And, for things like this, just tell us date and route. We'll help you out.

Thanks guys. What exactly is canadair? Who are they affiliated with?

So in other words, i better not wait until after midnight to snag a flight, right?

I will try to answer your specific question.

I will use only 3 fare codes to simplify the example, so please understand that there is more to it, but here is the short answer.

BTW, the other assumption is that you want to leave a week from tomorrow.

Let's say Friendly Airline has 3 economy fare codes:

Y fare - full fare, no restrictions, no advance purchase necessary.

B fare - few restrictions and 7 day advance purchase.

S fare - many restrictions and at least 14 day advance purchase.

Now let's assume that the availibility for your specific flight is showing (at this moment) as follows:

Y7, B3, S0

That means - Friendly Airline is willing to sell <b>at least</b> 7 more seats at full fare, <b>only</b> 3 more seats at the middle of the road, B fare and <b>zero</b> at the cheapest S fare.

Now let's say that the airline releases some seats on Tuesday night for that specific flight, because some people cancelled, some just didn't purchase reservations on hold, etc.

Let's say it was a total of 3 seats.

Friendly Airline will not put them back as S fares, but they will put it into the B fare since they are low on that particular inventory at the moment. And here is another important note. In my above example they would not fill the S inventory simply because it requires at least 14 days advance purchase, so even if the Y and B inventory was full, the S inventory would be gone for good no matter how many seats the passengers gave back to them.

So, sometimes the Tuesday night theory works, sometimes it does not. The Tuesday night thing is actually becoming absolete as the airlines re-load inventories and fares more often these days, but I believe Tuesday night is still good for award seat releases, but basically the fare codes dictate which fare the released seat(s) will go into, not some last minute decision by a person sitting at the Friendly Airlines HQ on a Tuesday night.

Hope that helps.

Where to/from/dates, EG?

Wow, thanks so much AAFF. Makes total sense. Gardy, we're trying to get to the LA area as cheaply as possible, considering its last minute, long term parking, car rental etc etc...

Since i travel for work i can essentially arrange to fly from any east / midwest airport.

Thats why its confusing; there are so many airports and websites to cross reference. I'm using cheap tickets (any red flags?) site59 and itasoftware, and will probably go thru ORD since there are more options - altho it's not as convenient getting there w/my work schedule. Sigh.

Still open to any advice - or magic wands

Thanks again. (did i mention i prefer road trips? LOL)

gail already mentioned itasoftware.com. This is especially useful for you because you can search for origin and destination airports within a 300-mile radius of a particular airport. That will give you lots of options.

What are the dates of your super secret trip?

The budget airlines will not be listed on most of the search engines you are using. You will have to check their individual websites (Southwest air, etc.)

LOL rkkwan, its whenever i can find reasonable flights without a zillion connections (i really and truly do not like to fly) within the next two weeks. Very limiting parameters, as you know.

With such a wide paremeter, it's impossible to tell you what's the best deal out there. But by checking ORD-LAX fares, I find that with 14-day advance, you can fly USAirways/America West for $270 roundtrip. If you need to go sooner, or if you want non-stop, it'll cost you more.

I doubt that you can find anything much cheaper than that, including Southwest.

To go sooner, you should really try site59.com. 7/22 - 7/25 ORD to LAX is $273 per person (for 2) with a rental car. Earlier dates cost more.

And if you want to try Southwest, search for flights going to Orange County (SNA). It seems to have more low fares than the other airports - LAX, BUR or ONT.

Thanks rkkwan.
Re cheap tickets. Their site says it's possible to cancel / reschedule without penalty, other than their service fee. Anyone know what that fee is? And have you found that to be possible to do, without complications?

Also, when cross referencing cheap tix flights to the carriers websites, i often find the exact times (departure/arrival) but different flight numbers. ??? Am i confused? (its likely)

Thanks so much.

I don't know about Cheaptickets, but I doubt they can change for you without fees on a discount ticket. Maybe they mean they won't tack on extra fees other than those from the airlines - which can be very high.

If you see two flights at the same time, then it's one flight. The practice is called &quot;codeshare&quot; when one airline can put their flight number of a 2nd airline, and sell tickets to you. In general, the non-operating airline will have a large 4-digit flight number. Say, the flight is listed as UA205 as well as US6024 (totally made up), then you can be 100% certain that it's a UA-operated flight.