Southwest Is Offering Flights For How Much??

If you've even been possibly, kind of, maybe thinking about taking a trip, it's time to lay down a little bit of cash. And I do mean a "little" bit. Southwest Airlines is having a nationwide ticket sale that seriously — I'm not joking — lets you buy plane tickets for anywhere between $49 and $149. Having grown up in Alaska, where flights to get anywhere in the Lower 48 are like $700 or more, this is some seriously amazing news to me. But the 72-hour sale ends on Thursday, so if you don't have a vacation planned in the next few months, you better figure one out quick.

So, it boils down to this: You can book a flight at these prices for the majority of the days between Aug. 25 to Dec. 16. There are obviously some restrictions. The flight can't be between the days of Sept. 3 - 5, Sept. 7 (covering their Labor Day bases), or Nov. 20 - Dec. 1 (clearly not going to lose out on that Thanksgiving travel profit). And the price obviously depends on where you're leaving and where you're going, etc., etc, but let's not get bogged down by details here, guys. They're selling plane tickets for less than $100. Have you ever been to New York City? Washington D.C.? St. Louis? West Palm Beach? Oklahoma City? Spokane, Washington? Dayton, Ohio? Who cares? Have an adventure with your best friend and go somewhere random for a couple of days.

OK, so the restrictions might hinder any sort of weekend getaway — you can't get the cheap ticket for any Friday or Sunday flights — but use that as an excuse to take a couple vacation days and really stretch the trip out. Go from Thursday to Monday so you can see all the sights!

The flight prices vary from $49, $99, $129, and $149, depending on what locale you choose (if you're in Akron/Canton, Ohio, man are you in luck). Here are some examples of what costs what if you're leaving from NYC's LaGuardia Airport:

• To Akron, Ohio: $49
• To Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, or St. Louis: $99
• To Denver or Houston: $129

Now if you're trying to go TO New York City, here's an idea of what those prices might look like:

• From Akron, Ohio: $49
• From Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, Kansas City, or Milwaukee: $99
• From Austin or Houston: $129

There are a lot of other options if NYC isn't where you're at or where you want to go. But for real, if you ever wanted to plan a spur-of-the-moment trip, the timing doesn't get much better than this. There's a ton of stuff out there in the U.S. that's worth seeing, so pack a carry-on, and get going.

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