Several year ago my husband had a relative dying a far distance away from our western New York Home. We looked at what it was going to cost in gas to get there, and found it would cost hundreds of dollars at the post-Katrina Gas rates. A friend suggested we look at the discount airfare service like Priceline.com and see if a late booked flight might not actually be cheaper. It was indeed cheaper and easier than driving over 1500 miles. Since then I've recommended this strategy to many people. Please check and save. I've placed and example below for you to follow.

Example:

A Trip from Buffalo NY to Orlando, Florida.

1) First check your probable gas rate by going to a site like Gas Buddy or MAPQuest.com:

Mapquest.com


In this case the rate would be $240.00 one way $480.00 round trip.

Akkk..

2) Compare using some Discount planners like priceline.com

Priceline.com


The cheapest rate for a two day round trip in the middle of the week came up $267 dollars!!! Certainly cheaper than $480.00 for gas for driving! A huge difference and less hassle.

A quick look at some other discount services shows rates of:

Travelocity.com at: $297.00

Expedia.com at: $337

All these vary from day to day and whether or not you are getting a desperation sale of a last minute seat they need to fill at any price.

This would give our mythical Buffalo Traveler a much less stressful trip at a savings of $213 dollars at the best rate. And they would not have to drive that whole way thus saving time and wear and tear on the vehicle.

So checkout out these rate finders and compare! It may be cheaper to fly!