Fly me to the ... Gateway to the West!

Despite airline baggage increasing in price (very rarely and under certain conditions do you get free baggage; some even charge for carry-on.) people are turning to air travel more and more. Airlines are making profits again and know their services are in demand. So what is a cost concerned customer to do.

The cost of air travel and our current subjective and corporate economic status found us contemplating not flying to see family over Christmas. Tickets were 600-700 on a good day and often more, particularly as the season got close, prohibitively so.

What are a couple of newlyweds trying to be responsible in the face of high flight prices to do?

This instant, found us dabbling with Priceline. You know the ones where Bill Shatner goes to bat for you.

Actually, we had used other discount flight aggregators before but my wife was browsing around Priceline to see what it was about. She found flights for almost half of what they cost on other sites. The only cost, in my mind, was one of convenience. You wouldn't know when you were flying until you booked. Small price to pay to spend Christmas with part of the family.

The key; bid low. If your bid is rejected, they'll tell you and you can bid again. Simple as pie. Is that an expression?

In short: If you're flexible and like taking a chance, Priceline has saved us, and could save you, hundreds of dollars on flights.