How to Find Cheap Airfare for Memorial Day Weekend

For many people, Memorial Day weekend travel plans usually include nothing more than heading to the backyard of whichever friend or relative hosts the best barbeque in town. But if you’d like to have grander plans for this kickoff-to-summer weekend, then you might want to consider some places you can’t easily drive to. Which means you’ll want to figure out how to find cheap airfare on Memorial Day weekend.

Getting a deal on a Memorial Day weekend airline ticket usually involves some of the same tricks and tips as finding cheap airfare at any time of year does – but it’s even more important to pay attention to those tricks and tips when you’re talking about traveling over a major holiday like Memorial Day. You won’t be the only one traveling, or the only one trying to finagle a deal on a flight, so you can’t approach this quest without some knowledge in your back pocket.

>> Memorial Day in 2012 is on Monday, May 28.

Here are the tips you’ll need to find cheap airfare for Memorial Day weekend.

Flexibility is Key

The top tip whenever you’re looking for a cheap airline ticket is to be flexible. You’ve probably seen it listed elsewhere, but what exactly does it mean?

There are often particular travel windows during which airfare is significantly cheaper than even a few hours on either side of those windows. If you start your travel research with one specific day and time in mind for your flights, what are your chances that you’ll end up within one of those cheaper windows? I’m not a betting person, but those aren’t good odds.

By expanding your search to include more hours or – better yet – more days, you stand a much greater chance of finding one of those cheaper windows and scoring a great deal. Using the “my dates are flexible” box that’s available now on most booking sites is the easiest way to do this (let them do the work for you!).

Learn Which Days & Times are Cheapest to Travel

There are certain days of the week and times of day when flights tend to be cheaper across the board. There are exceptions to these rules (as there always are with rules), but these are good starting points when you’re trying to find cheap fares.

The cheapest days of the week to fly tend to be Wednesdays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays. And the cheapest times of day tend to be the earliest flights in the morning, followed by flights leaving late at night (including red-eye flights). The cheapest days of the week won’t necessarily make for the easiest Memorial Day weekend travel plans, but at least you can set that extra-early alarm and get on the first flight out in the morning!

Get Last-Minute Deals Notifications

You might be a procrastinator and have a habit of waiting until the 11th hour to book your trips, or you might be someone for whom the words “last minute” aren’t in your vocabulary. Either way, this is something to at least consider when you’re looking for cheap Memorial Day airfare.

Let’s say you don’t absolutely have your heart set on flying somewhere for Memorial Day. Let’s say you’ve got a decent backup plan for the weekend, but you’d take a trip if the right deal came along. If that’s the case, then don’t wait for the right deal – make it come to you.

Most booking sites have a way for you to sign up for email notifications of last-minute travel deals – some of them even let you set not only your home airport but also the destinations you’re looking at. Sign up with your favorite booking site (or a couple, to cover your bases), and then you’ll get messages with last-minute deals and offers delivered right to your inbox. If the perfect deal comes along, you can pack your bags in a jiffy and be on a plane. And if nothing comes along that fits your budget, you’ve got your weekend backup plan.

Look Up Alternate Airports for Your Destination

No matter where you’re headed for Memorial Day, be sure to find out all of the airports that serve that destination. Most big cities (the ones with the big hub airports) have more than one airport in the area, and sometimes it’s the lesser-known airport that has the cheaper fares.

Just because an airport is the largest in a particular metropolitan area doesn’t mean it has the best deals. Sometimes it’s another area airport that charges lower rental fees to airlines, making it more popular with budget carriers. Sometimes that airport is closer to the city center and so is more popular with smaller regional carriers (which can also be the cheaper airlines). In any case, it’s worth finding out which airports serve an area, and then looking at airfare costs to each one of them.

>> Learn more about alternate airports in the USA

Don’t Overlook Budget Airlines

There are a few budget airlines with names most people recognize, but they’re still not as big as the major airlines – so it can be easy to forget about them when you’re planning a trip. But it’s important to see if there are any budget airlines serving the airport you’ll be flying into for Memorial Day weekend, since they could save you money.

Many budget airlines are rightly considered regional airlines, as they don’t serve the entire country. So even if you’re familiar with the budget carriers serving your home airport, do some research into the low-cost airlines serving your destination airport, too. Also, don’t count on seeing airfare results for all the budget carriers on the big booking sites – some cheap airlines don’t provide results to those sites. So after you’ve done your preliminary research on the big sites, go visit some of the budget airlines’ websites to continue looking for cheap fares.

>> Here are most of the budget airlines in the USA

photo by Ed Yourdon