Do you already hold ff m/ship with a One World or Star Alliance airline?
What cities do you plan to visit?
We went to the USA last year and booked directly on the website of each airline.
One point to note is you very rarely get the cheapest deal for nonstop flights or at peak business times and in most cases the best deal to be had is the one which involves taking connecting flights via a hub city.
I think the
cheapest fare we got which was only booked a few days prior to departure was USD59.00 pp for SEA/xSLC/LAS on
Delta which was middle of the day on Sat 31 Oct 2009 Halloween. Bags were thru checked from SEA to LAS & you even got light refreshments for that price. Other fares same day earlier or later in the day were as much as US600-700 - a huge difference.
I found the
best flight we had for new aircraft/facilities on board/fare was
Virgin America. They also charge a change fee of USD50.00 per person which covers multiple VX flights if all in the same pnr whereas other airlines can charge up to USD150.00 per change so it's often cheaper to just buy another ticket.
The
best inflight service from flight attendants was on
Continental & Delta as they were middle aged, sensible and customer service orientated & I very much felt that they would know what to do in an emergency.
Other sectors we did were:
SFO/SEA on AS
SEA/xSLC/LAS on DL (as stated above)
LAS/JFK on VX
LGA/MSY on NW
MSY/xCLT/MCO on US
MCL/xIAH/SAN on CO
SAN/SFO on VX
You could try
www.priceline.com when searching for fares from one city to another in the US.
