Frontier usually has a bunch of sales. Jet Blue just had a sale recently (might still be ongoing) though I didn't see any deals for flights out of Houston. Southwest seemingly has deals every few weeks now. Skyscanner is a pretty good app. You can mix and match with two different airlines and try to get a cheaper round trip ticket that way. Honestly, a lot of international deals for flights pop up on Slickdeals. Best thing to do is to set up a Slickdeals alert so any time a deal comes up for your favorite destination or favorite airline, it will send you an alert. As someone mentioned earlier, EscapeHouston -- another great site I've used in the past.
I hopped around Europe using skyscanner. It's great if you're flexible. Spirit and Frontier is the devil. If need be, read the fine conditions, and book with a nice credit card with ample travel insurance. If you haven't flown, the ticket essentially grants you travel with a carry on. Protections mandated by the federal government are sometimes things you can call and complain about. Customer service is not their priority, but if you fork over more money, they might give you a smile or two while they shove you into the plane.
I once got a ticket to Seattle for $5 roundtrip on United. There was a glitch in their booking system for a few hours one day, and all domestic fares were going for $5. Flights to Hawaii were selling for $10. I was too busy congratulating myself for that one ticket, and I didnt realize in time that I could have booked more https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/sep/13/united-airlines-honours-cheap-flight-tickets
Add in the carry-on bag charge for Spirit and you might already be more than Southwest. The only reason I don't fly SW any more is because we moved to The Woodlands and I hate driving to Hobby. When I was in Austin, it was all I flew.
I didn't have travel insurance (that I can recall) but they did give me a full refund. Still doesn't help that I had to pay a lot more than expected to book the Southwest flight, since Spirit had zero available seats on flights that would get me home the next day to avoid having to burn two extra vacation days unexpectedly.
So after I booked the flight I used skyscanner to see if the $36 flight would pop up and it was a totally different price on skyscanner. It was listed at $180 on there, but $36 on the United app.
Are you sure that price wasn't through some external site like Flyfar instead of the official airline's website? I've had that happen to me only to realize the price was from Flyfar for a Southwest flight. Other than that, I don't think I've experienced any bugs on it like that that has shown a different price than the airline itself. I usually always double check the airline's website to make sure everything is correct and that it isn't any cheaper.
Thanks for the advice about Frontier to those of you who mentioned them. I just checked Orbitz and they have a $33 flight from Austin to Chicago (even tho' I'm not in Austin, nor am I going to Chicago :grin.
Surprised not to see any mention of the Skiplagged app here. The app basically reviews itineraries and keeps projections of ticket markets to exploit the cheapest prices. I found a flight with United Airlines through Skiplagged that was my return flight from Denver to Houston. It was actually a flight from Denver to Miami with a layover in Houston. No checked bag. It cost me $30.00.
I didnt know you could do that. I thought it was illegal by law or something. I remember a friend looking for a flight from mexico to houston cost 150 more than a flight to san antonio. The funny thing was that the flight to san antonio had a stop in houston, but the airline said that he couldnt purchase the san antonio trip and get out in the middle of the itinerary at houston.
Its not illegal. Southwest allowed me to do this. All they asked was for me to call them and let them know once I arrived at my final destination/layover to let them know I was not continuing the flight. If I didnt let them know, then they would cancel my return flight as well.
