Tips for cheap flights please chaps?

[Ari]

Ok I've got to get to Lake Erie in the USA for two to three days in the next fortnight or so. I've got to organise and pay for it myself, so I need to keep the cost down.

Days are flexible (subject to their fitting in with the people I'm seeing), so can be mid week, weekend, whatever.

I've never done anything like this before, are there any good ways of keeping the prices down? Travelling weekends for instance, or avoiding weekends, or booking more than a fortnight in advance, or at the last minute?

I've got a degree of flexibility, I just need to know the cheapest way of going about it. Currently it looks like it's going to cost over £1,000, I could really do with reducing that.

Any pointers gratefully received.

[Ari]

Ok this is weird. Tried a few sites, Kayak, Skyscanner etc, they're all coming in at about £1,000+

Tried BA just out of interest ,expecting it to be much dearer, it was, they're quoting about £350 outbound, and circa £1,300 back in. Except for Sunday, when it's £392!

Am I missing an obvious catch to this? £750 to fly there and back by BA seems too good to be true.

[nw28840]

Staying the Saturday night is pretty much always cheaper....

[andrew311]

Book it before it becomes more expensive would be my advice. Sundays will be cheaper I'd have thought due to lower buisiness demand.

I normally use Skyscanner if I'm unsure who flys on what route then go direct to compare. Try AA, Continental, US, Delta too. I always find Virgin on the expensive side when flying to the US.

[Ari]

yup, Sunday seems to be the key. Tried it in Kayak and now I'm getting flights at about £500, half the original cost. Depending on the cost of hotels it's looking like it'll be cheaper to have a few extra days.

[JonnyFive]

IIRC midweek is also cheap, I could be wrong though..