I need to fly out to the Washington DC area later this summer. What is the best cheapest way to get a ticket now? There are so many ways to buy tickets. I can travel any day of the week and will stay about a week.
I don't really know. I have to buy my tickets through the corporate (internal) travel-booking site. And prices are constantly fluctuating -- sometimes I'll go to book and find the lowest-price fare is a carrier I don't like, then I'll try the next day and it's my preferred!
And depending upon where you're going you've a choice of airports: IAD (Dulles), DCA (Reagan National), or BWI (Baltimore). BWI is usually a bit less expensive than the others -- and you can say "Hi" to NnBob as you fly over. Many sites you can enter airport code WAS for Washington D.C. area airports (i.e. "try all").
I think, but am not certain, that the lowest fares come somewhere around 3 weeks before departure. I tend to stop watching when I've booked a trip. *\;^)
Whoops... LoM knows a site through which you can shop all the wholesalers: http://travelzoo.com
And don't forget to check the wholesaler's fare against what you get from the airline direct.
We just ran a sample search on TravelZoo and it came up with Alaska, who apparently has a new non-stop to D.C. -- new routes tend to have the lowest fares.
Try Expedia, Orbitz and Priceline. The latter may give you the best deals, especially since you don’t seem to have time constraints.
There is also hotwire.com, which can give you good hotel rates.