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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.