Atlanta, Georgia has one of the largest airports in the country. It is also the Delta hub. With so many flights going in and out of the Atlanta airport finding a travel deal is fairly simple. As with most shopping bargains the best place to start is the Internet.
If you have Frequent Flyer Miles, or if you have a preferred carrier of choice you can always hit their website to check flight prices. Generally speaking, they aren’t that much cheaper, if any, than Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, or Priceline. They do offer some same-day discounts that you may not find in the flight clearinghouse sites, so it is worth checking out first.
Priceline, Orbitz, and Expedia provide a very good side-by-side comparison of major carriers. You put in your dates, number of passengers, time of day, etc and click “Submit” to see all the flights going in and out at their lowest possible rates. Most of these larger agencies allow you to switch carriers in the “To” and “Return”, giving you the best possible rates for those dates and times. There are smaller, less well known agencies that deal in last minute travel that also provide some very good deals in and out of the New York of the South. You need only start searching the Internet using the typical: cheap, flights, Atlanta and you will be provided with a plethora of agencies all willing to help you get to your destination.
If you have the ability to do so, Priceline has an added feature of “Pick Your Own Price”. This is a semi-risky proposition because you could see yourself landing in Atlanta at 12:00 midnight or going out before the sun is up, but it does allow you to set a flight within your budget range and for some people that is more important than when they get in. You put in the dates of arrival and departure, your maximum price, and your credit card number. This is important because it locks you in to buying a ticket at that price; so if you aren’t serious about the trip don’t go this route. However, if you are serious about getting to Atlanta cheaply then you can play with the numbers to get the lowest possible deal—up to 70% off the listed price of the flight. Airlines know they don’t always fill a plane so they are willing to take you on at a low rate rather than allow a seat to go unfilled.
A similar approach, again risky, is to wait the day of and call the airline. Ask what you can get that day for a particular price. This only works when you are within three hours of a flight, so you have to be flexible about the days you can leave. If they say “no” then it’s “no”, but there is always that chance they will say “yes”. Lucky for you, airlines know that with travel time to the airport, parking, security check-in, etc that they will not be selling many tickets with only three hours to take-off, and they are sometimes willing to haggle the ticket price with you a bit. On that same principle, you can also try checking Priceline or Orbitz within hours of a flight to see if the price came down in the three to four hours prior to a flight.
