How to Find Cheap Airfare to Lollapalooza

Once you’ve secured your festival tickets to the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, your next order of business should be figuring out how to get there. And if you’re located in a place that’s not within an easy drive of the Windy City then you’ll first be hunting for airfare to Chicago.

Luckily, Chicago is home to one of the nation’s biggest and busiest airports, so there’s plenty of choice when it comes to getting a flight to the city. The problem comes when you’re looking for a cheap flight. Summer is the high travel season, so the fact that Lollapalooza is smack in the middle of the peak season doesn’t help in the cheap fares department, and anytime you’re booking a flight to a major event or festival like Lollapalooza you’re bound to run into airlines that raise prices because they know more people will be traveling to that event. All this is to say you’ve got to be more creative than you might ordinarily be when you’re looking for cheap airfare to Lollapalooza.

Here are some tips to help you find cheap airfare Lollapalooza in Chicago – most of these tips are useful no matter when you’re looking for budget airfare or where you’re flying, but they’re especially useful if you’re traveling to a special event, flying during the high season, or going to a popular destination. Since traveling to Lollapalooza means you’re doing all three of those things, it’s important to be savvy when you’re searching for cheap fares.

>> Lollapalooza is from August 3-5, 2012
>> Don’t miss this Lollapalooza travel guide

Be Flexible With Travel Plans

If you’ve ever done research to find cheap airfare, you’ve no doubt seen the two words most often quoted as advice in this area – “BE FLEXIBLE.” It’s not a yoga mantra, it’s some of the best travel advice you’ll ever get – and it could save you quite a bit of money.

There are dips and peaks throughout every day and every week when it comes to what airline tickets cost. Travelers whose plans are so rigid that they’re only checking one specific travel day (or, even worse, a few hours within a specific day) stand a much lower chance of hitting one of the times when the prices drop. By looking at a range of a few days on which you might fly, you’re more apt to throw the net around one or more of the times when airfare is lower.

Most airfare booking sites these days make staying flexible easy on customers by offering a “my dates are flexible” box you can check near where you put in your travel information. Look for language like that and the system will usually provide you with flights over a 3-5 day range from which you can choose.

Look at Alternative Airports

Some cities are fortunate to have more than one airport in the vicinity that’s within a reasonable distance from the city center and can therefore be considered when looking for cheap flights to that city. Chicago is blessed with four airports you might want to check out.

While the monstrous O’Hare International is the Chicago airport most travelers will think of, it’s good to include other Chicago-area airports in your search for cheap airfare because a different airport will have a different selection of airlines that use it, which in turn means there’s a different set of airfares to look at. Some airports charge airlines less to lease terminal space, and that can reduce the ticket costs for passengers. Some airports are more popular with budget airlines, again making that airport a cheaper option. Unless you’re very familiar with all the area airports in a given city, it’s best to look at all of them to find the best fares.

Know When it’s Cheaper to Fly

You might look at that title and think, “That’s a mystery!” or “That’ll take ages of research to figure out!” – but it’s not, and it won’t. The truth is that while there are fluctuations in the price of airfare over the course of any day or week, there is enough consistency in when prices are lower to make a few certain days and times good places to start when you’re doing trip research.

The cheapest days to fly are generally Wednesdays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays – and the cheapest times of the day to fly are usually the first flights of each morning and late-night departures (even red-eye flights). When you begin your hunt for cheap airfare to Lollapalooza, those are the days and times to start with. Given that the festival begins on a Friday and ends on a Sunday, you might have trouble traveling on Wednesday or Tuesday (unless you’ve got loads of time off), but you can certainly opt for pre-dawn flights to take advantage of lower fares.

Don’t Forget Budget Airlines

Ask anyone to name a few airlines and they’ll likely come up with the big ones – but there are some smaller regional airlines that shouldn’t be overlooked when you’re on the hunt for the cheapest fares you can get. Not only that, but there are some budget carriers that aren’t exactly so small anymore that should also be considered.

While you’re checking out all the area airports around Chicago for Lollapalooza, be sure to check out all the budget airlines that fly into those airports as well. Some discount airlines will show up on regular airfare search sites, but some won’t, so you’ll have to look at those airlines’ websites to find out whether they’ve got a killer deal on offer. One of the more well-known budget airlines is Southwest, but that is by no means the only discount carrier to check.

>> Read more about budget airlines in the United States

photo by tacvbo