American air fares

I am a British citizen hoping to do some traveling in the US this Spring. I will be flying to Knoxville, Tennessee in May and am planning on going onward to San Fransico shortly after. Any suggestion, website or other info on how I can arrange this? I will be looking for the cheapest route possible given my budget.

Cheers,

Mark

Nashville Airport (BNA), approximately 2 1/2 hours from Knoxville, is normally very considerably cheaper due to more competition from budget airlines such as Southwest (think RyanAir), whose fares usually do not appear in airfare search engines, such as Expedia.com.

The drive between these two cities is an easy Interstate highway one.

Good luck.

check for Knoxville to SFO on kayak, then check from Nashville. Probably Nashville is cheaper; if it is enough cheaper to make the trip, only you can decide. ALso check Southwest web site, which won't be on kayak.

You can check hotwire as well.

If you are flexible on days/times, then you can try www.priceline.com<BR>You can name your own price for a specific day, but you can't see the flight information. I've gotten flights for more than 50% off. Also, check out www.travelzoo.com -- they give a lot of last minute deals. Good luck and have a blast!

OP, if you've never used Hotwire or Priceline's 'name your own price' service before, please note that they sell totally nonrefundable tickets that can't be changed. I like the cheap fares (I too have gotten tickets for more than 50% off), but only use them when I'm certain of my dates.

Also, please note that Hotwire and Priceline sell only return (roundtrip) fares, but you may find that these are cheaper than the single (oneway) fares you could book elsewhere.

On the other hand, with increased passenger loads these days, the airlines aren't as often giving Hotwire and Priceline the remarkably cheap deals that they used to.

where are you flying from?
Nearest larger cities would be Atlanta, Memphis or Nashville
use google maps to workout the nearest.

I've been very impressed with Kayak (www.kayak.com). If you set up a free account, you also get the flexible dates option, which may save you more money if your schedule isn't yet solid. You may find cheaper fares from Atlanta, Charlotte, or Washington (DC) as they have bigger airports than Knoxville, assuming you can work out transportation from Knoxville to the bigger city.

If you're traveling this spring, I'd buy tickets now for the cheapest fare available. My guess is you won't see much of a price dip. Many airlines (including Delta) will issue refunds if the fare drops by over $50, but you have to keep looking and ask for the refund. Check their policies if this is important to you, but my hunch is that the fares will not change enough to trigger this option.

Have a great time in the U.S.

-- Joe / Atlanta / USA