The Cheapest Flight Ever

I have to share the cheapest flight I ever booked.  AirTran¹ ran an early-bird special from Atlanta to less visited cities for $29, one of which was Kansas City.  They had a simultaneous sale for flights out of Kansas City, and to Atlanta it was only $59.  So I grabbed two round-trip tickets, leaving early from Atlanta and returning on KC's special fares, and the trip (with taxes and fees) rounded off at $217.60!  I even got credit for four frequent flyer flights.  It was pretty sweet.

On a similar note, have you ever used Orbitz² or Travelocity³?  I found something I think is much better — SideStep⁴.  If you've never used it before, you have to test drive it.  They don't sell tickets.  Instead, they market themselves as a "search engine," connecting you with all the major airlines to find the cheapest flights.  When you select a flight through their site, they redirect you to the carrier's site and you can purchase the tickets (more cheaply) there.  It's a great experience, and you know you're getting the cheapest flight.

What I like the best is that the searches load dynamically, without refreshing the page, in a cool ajaxy sort of way.  You can refine the time of day you want to take-off or land, going or returning, and it updates it the results dynamically.  You can even refine the airlines you want or don't want to use, and even which airport you want to layover in — if you would ever "want" to have a layover.