Cheapest Flight to Anywhere

May 27, 2008 11:27 AM

Cheapest Flight to Anywhere: I have a large flight credit on Continental Airlines that I need to use with in the next few months. I'd like to find the cheapest ticket for a same day departure/return so that I can get the remaining balance refunded. Is there somewhere I can find all Continental flights originating from Newark, NJ (EWR) over the next few months? Kayak.com is great but I have to know the destination to get the prices.
posted by nivekraz to travel & transportation (11 comments total)

Matrix from ITA software should be flexible enough for you.
posted by iamabot at 11:37 AM on May 27

Same-day return will probably make the ticket more expensive then there's an overnight stay.

It probably will be cheapest if it includes a Saturday night stay. Do you not get the refund until you've actually flown? If you get the refund when you buy the ticket, then you can just not take the flight, which may give you the ability to find cheaper tickets.
posted by winston at 11:41 AM on May 27

Also, is it required that it be a return flight? (If you don't have to actually get on the plane, a one-way short Bosnywash shuttle flight sale price might be cheapest)
posted by winston at 11:43 AM on May 27

You might want to also look in to the flyertalk forums, sometimes great continental deals come up and you might find a nice trip somewhere in line with otherwise unplanned vacation.
posted by iamabot at 11:49 AM on May 27

if you just need to buy a ticket, check out their weekly specials, sometimes as low as $39 roundtrip for say, newark to buffalo

this week there is Newark to Bermuda for $120 round trip, but it is not unusual to see much cheaper deals
posted by Mr_Chips at 11:56 AM on May 27

I always use Fare Compare to figure out where we can go for spontaneous weekend trips. Then again, I've never purchased a flight through them, I always just see what is cheapest and buy directly from united.com or whoever. I'd really like to find a tool like that one but with the ability to show only Star Alliance or One World or whatever instead of having to search each member airline individually.
posted by foodgeek at 12:43 PM on May 27

The best site for this question is Flyertalk.com.

Here is a link to their forum specific to Contninental Airlines. If you post this exact question there, I am certain that you will have an answer with a rediculously low fare by the end of the day.

Outside of MeFi, Flyertalk is one of the most useful websites out there for questions specific to air travel. I am not affiliated with them, FYI.

(Looks like iamabot beat me to the punch with a reference to Flyertalk.)
posted by xotis at 12:50 PM on May 27

Have you thought about booking on an overbooked flight, get bumped and get a free flight coupon + cash back, plus get your original amount back on a later flight?
posted by blue_beetle at 12:51 PM on May 27

... oh yeah, and the term for flights like these on Flyertalk are "Mileage Runs." Many people will do a super cheap same day return flight just for the miles/segments to achieve elite status with an airline. There's a huge comunity of people who do this on Flyertalk.
posted by xotis at 12:52 PM on May 27

nth-ing Flyertalk.

The best tool for this USED to be Travelocity's "Dream Maps" feature, but they discontinued this feature a few weeks ago.

In the Flyertalk discussion of suitable Dream Maps replacements, I found out that Yahoo offers a sort-of-similar feature. Take a look here for Yahoo's list of flights out of Newark. Your ability to restrict to Continental flights with a same-day-return seems quite limited.

The ITA tool (linked by iamabot) might be the best to show ONLY the same-day return fares (use "ewr ::co" and "___ ::co" to restrict to Continental flights only; you can select a random city and then "or any airport with 300 miles" to get to alternate airports) -- but ITA isn't that great at offering wide-open alternative dates.
posted by QuantumMeruit at 2:17 PM on May 27

You can get the cheapest flights to anywhere from a particular airport using Kayak.com. You just need to use their Buzz feature. You don't need to have a particular destination in mind.
posted by peacheater at 6:34 PM on May 27