Any experience booking cheap, same day flights?

[Acadie]

Considering a one-day roundtrip flight to NYC, tomorrow or Sunday. Regular flight searches are driving me bananas, and I'm wondering about just packing a bag, going to bed early and checking flight options in the wee hours for tomorrow. If that fails, I could just book for Sunday or try for same day tickets again.

Trustworthy sites, or ways to figure out if there's likely to be same-day availability? 

Or burst my bubble and tell me there's no simple or cheap way to do this! 🙂

[Sneezyone]

Google flights and southwest are your best bets. Even bereavement fairs are super high. I’ve had excellent luck using American Airlines award miles for last minute  (24-48 hrs out) Tu-Thu and Sunday flights too. DH and DD are flying last minute on  Monday. The cost is stupid but only because it HAD to be that day. If you have even a modicum of flexibility, there are more options.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Sneezyone

[Katy]

Delete cookies & try kayak.com

[Arcadia]

 

25 minutes ago, Acadie said:

, or ways to figure out if there's likely to be same-day availability? 
🙂

When I was flying back for my mom’s funeral, United was not full for a few flights (non-stop, with transits) so I knew it was safe for me to wait until my country of origin approved my entry permit (pandemic rules). I end up booking my flight at around 7am pacific time to fly out of SFO that evening on a nonstop flight because it’s faster than the daytime flight with transit. 

[TechWife]

You’re more likely to find seats on Sat & Sunday flights. It’s hard to gauge availability these days,  because airlines are offering fewer flights now and they are packed. My dh has super purple glitter polka dot status on his airline of choice & he is being waitlisted for his upgrades because people are actually buying them now due to other seats not being available. Previously most 1st class seats went unsold, then qualifying people would get upgraded to an unsold seat and the airline would sell the vacated coach or business class seat to someone flying standby. Sunday might be busy going into NYC because of all of the international flights - people start flying eastward on Sunday afternoon/evening so they can be in Europe at start of business on Monday. No matter what you do, expect flights to be more expensive, too. 

[TechWife]

You can go look at flights with times that you would consider taking and see how many seats are available, that might help you figure out if it’s feasible to get a good fare. The fewer available seats, the higher the fare. They try to find the sweet spot without pricing people out of taking the trip altogether.