You might not be as nerdy about travel as we are at Thrifty Traveler, but there's one thing we can all appreciate: Cheap flights, especially when they're less than $100 roundtrip.
We search for cheap flights all day, every day for our Thrifty Traveler Premium members and an undeniable trend has emerged lately: Sub-$100 roundtrip flights within the U.S. are back in a big way .
It's a much-needed win for travelers looking to fly somewhere without breaking the bank after more than a year of skyrocketing domestic flight prices . While sub-$100 roundtrip flights never disappeared entirely, we keep seeing more and more cheap flights popping up for destinations across the U.S. for this summer, fall, and into next winter, too.
Why Are Domestic Flights Getting Cheaper?
Domestic airfare has been abnormally high for about a year now, and that's been tough to stomach. In that time, we've been telling travelers to empty their bags of tricks to find the best deal. We've told them to use their credit card points , burn those SkyMiles , and even ditch the idea of domestic travel altogether and look abroad for the best airfare .
So it gives me great pleasure to declare that cheap domestic flights are back. But why is this happening?
Travel demand hit record highs in 2022, and domestic flight prices increased to match it as airlines hope to squeeze everything they can out of Americans eager to travel again. What happened, though, is that those higher prices might have scared away many domestic travelers who closed their Google Flights window and opened a Google Maps window to plan a road trip instead.
But now that summer is fast approaching and seats are still empty, airlines are suddenly willing to slash prices back to reasonable rates.
The end result? April and May travel within the U.S. suddenly got crazy cheap. And then, as the days went on, summer flight prices started to drop, too. It all came to a head last week when we found this flight deal from Minneapolis (MSP) to Charleston (CHS).
Many of these ultra-low fares have been booked already! Get an alert for the next great domestic deal with Thrifty Traveler Premium !
But it wasn't just the one-off MSP-CHS route. We found exact same cheap fare flying to another southern hotspot, Savannah, Georgia (SAV), too. And Detriot, another Delta hub got in on this deal as well.
By the time we checked the fares again, we realized the sale was even bigger than that, folding in Asheville (AVL), Destin (VPS), Myrtle Beach (MYR), and New Orleans (MSY), too – all under $100 roundtrip.
We heard from a family of 26 people (26!) who all booked this flight deal to book a family vacation to Destin, Florida. Without sub-$100 airfare, taking a family of 26 anywhere is literally impossible. That's how you use your Thrifty Traveler Premium membership!
Those are just a few examples of the renaissance of sub-$100 flights across the U.S. Where else can we get for less than $100?
Roundtrip Flights for Under $100
You don't have to be flying out of Detroit or Minneapolis to find sub-$100 flights within the U.S. In fact, we've had a crazy run of sub-$100 roundtrip domestic fares recently. Let's dig into them.
We found a slew of cheap fares flying to Phoenix, Arizona (PHX) recently, but the highlight of this deal was this $90 (actually $89 and a few pennies but Google Flights rounds up) roundtrip flight from Los Angeles (LAX) and back.
The rest of the fares on this deal were pretty sweet, too! Most of the departure cities were bookable at a savings of about $200 or more off normal prices.
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Another one for our Los Angeles (LAX) subscribers was this shuttle to Las Vegas (LAS) that would run you only $99 roundtrip!
If you have a good night at the blackjack table, you might make money on this trip! There were tons of other great fares on this deal, including summer and fall nonstop fares from dozens of cities.
A summertime trip to Chicago, Illinois (ORD, MDW) should already be on your list. Chicago isn't known for being a beach town, but you'll be hard-pressed to find a better vibe than the beaches of Lake Michigan on a bluebird day in the summer. That's when Chicago is at its best. And it would only cost you $97 roundtrip to get there from Boston (BOS).
The deal included many more cities and a ton of August availability. Normally, summer flight prices like that would run you $400 or more, but in today's domestic airfare climate, all you need are a few Benjamins to make it happen.
I'm sure people who've been to Miami got a good chuckle at my touting of Chicago's beaches above because the Miami area is famous for its beach scene all year around.
This Nashville (BNA) to Miami (MIA) nonstop went on sale for $97 roundtrip a few weeks ago as did dozens of other fares down to South Florida.
Thanks to the competition of Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL), Miami (MIA) fares have stayed pretty competitive for this summer and fall.
Remember when we said sub-$100 fares didn't disappear entirely over the last year? This route is one that always stays cheap.
For just $89 roundtrip you could fly between D.C. and NYC thanks, in part, to the fact that there are upwards of 30 nonstop flights a day between the two metro areas.
But Washington, D.C. flights have been cheap from all over the country, too, not just from the eastern seaboard. This deal included nonstop flights under $200 from places like Minneapolis (MSP), Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW), and more!
Our Other Best Domestic Flight Deals
Look, we can't all luck out with double-digit roundtrip airfare, but there are some amazing domestic flight deals out there right now that are worth celebrating (and booking), too.
Besides the broader trend of cheap domestic flights, another trend we've been eyeing is cheap flights to the Massachusetts islands of Martha's Vineyard (MVY) and Nantucket (ACK).
This Nantucket deal reached all the way to the Midwest for travelers to connect to the island for less than $275 roundtrip. Normally, a peak summer flight to Nantucket would run travelers north of $500. Not this year!
The same goes for Montana, which is a world-renowned summer destination with its unspoiled landscapes and access to both Yellowstone and Glacier national parks.
Montana is a marvel, and for that reason, everyone wants to see it in its best month: August. June is still a little snowy and July is the busiest season, but August is just right for visiting Montana. We were blown away to see all of these flights this cheap for August travel.
That wasn't even the whole list, either! While none of those fares are close to double digits, they're about as low as they get to all of those amazing Montana cities.
Another reliably cheap place to fly is Colorado and our latest flight deal to Denver (DEN) was yet another example. Sure, the cheapest flight was not under $100, but for between $117 and $199, you could book a Rocky Mountain getaway this summer or catch a show at Red Rocks (pictured below).
Finally, we will sprinkle some love on the most desired travel destination in the entire U.S.: Hawaii.
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Cheap flights to the Hawaiian Islands are catnip for our Thrifty Traveler Premium members! Our internal numbers show us that there's nowhere else you all would rather be. And as luck would have it, cheap flights to Hawaii are getting easier to find, too. This latest deal had low fares in the $300s and included fares in the $400s from all over the U.S. That's as much as $500 or $600 off in some cases.
Bottom Line
Cheap domestic flights had all but disappeared for many months, but now, you can find a cheap flight to many destinations across the U.S., and for less than $100 roundtrip in some cases!
The airlines overextended themselves with high airfare earlier this year, and now they're playing catch up by offering cheaper domestic flights for this summer and fall. When airlines make mistakes like this, let them! Now's the time to book your next domestic getaway.
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