In the last 12 months, we’ve sent thousands of deals to members departing from nearly 200 US airports. We found those deals available on 97 different international and US-based airlines.
You might be wondering which airline is most likely to offer a great deal on flights from your state. While there are so many variables and making broad generalizations can mean missing out on some great deals, there are some lessons to be learned from the data.
Check out the map below to find which airline offered the most flight deals from your state in the last year, and read on for more details.
The results point to a few lessons when it comes to finding cheap flights.
Lesson #1: Despite dozens of international airlines serving the US, most deals from your airport will be bookable on one of the big three US carriers.
We have high standards for the deals we send members, and there are certain carriers—including Sun Country, Spirit, and Frontier—that we never send to our members.
However, three US legacy airlines still dominate when it comes to the best deals. In every state, the airline that we most frequently found great deals on was either American, Delta, or United. Note, though, that this means a deal was bookable on that airline, not that the flight was operated by the airline, as sometimes the flight is operated by a codeshare partner (more on that in a bit).
Despite not being US-based, Air Canada had the fourth highest number of cheap flights for US travelers, followed by US-based JetBlue, Alaska Airlines, and Southwest.
You might assume that if we found the most deals on an airline, it’s because that airline offers the most flights from that state. But that’s not always the case, as we’ll explain below.
Lesson #2: At an airport monopolized by one airline, the best deals are usually on their competitors.
Some airports are known as hubs for particular airlines, and in some cases, the airline’s presence is so strong it essentially has a monopoly on that airport. For example, Atlanta is Delta’s biggest hub, and the airline’s flights account for more than half of the daily departures from the Atlanta airport, which is Georgia’s largest airport. You might think that with so many flights, Delta would have the most good deals, but we actually found more deals bookable on American, and almost as many on United.
In fact, when one airline has a monopoly on an airport’s flights, a good rule of thumb is that the greatest number of deals are typically offered by competitor airlines.
Lesson #3: Don’t ignore the international carriers and smaller US airlines.
Of all the deals we sent, 61% were bookable on one of the big three American carriers: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines. These airlines all codeshare with at least a dozen other airlines, which means that many of the deals we send are bookable on both those airlines and another international airline, and the flight may actually have been operated by that other airline.
But that doesn’t mean you should only look for deals on the major airlines. Nearly forty percent of the deals we sent were on smaller US airlines such as JetBlue, Alaska, Southwest, and Hawaiian, or foreign carriers like KLM, Air France, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, or Qantas.
In some cases, these smaller airlines and international carriers are the only airlines that go to these places; for example, if you want to visit Malta, you’ll need to fly an international carrier. Though the flight may be bookable on a US partner airline thanks to codesharing, at least the final leg would be operated by an international airline.
Lesson #4: It’s hard to beat Star Alliance.
For the second year in a row, across the board, we found the most deals on airlines that are part of Star Alliance (which includes United and Air Canada). In fact, 33% of all the deals we’ve found in the last 12 months have been on a Star Alliance carrier.
Lesson #5: More airlines flying from that state = more deals.
The single biggest factor guiding how many cheap flights there are on a given route is simply how much competition there is between airlines. Cities and states with more flights tend to see more frequent deals.
The bottom line: Cast a wide net when looking for cheap flights.
One of the worst things you can do when looking for cheap flights is to only search for flights on one airline. The airline that dominates your region or the airline that’s your typical go-to may not offer the best deals for your particular trip, and you could miss an incredible deal on a perfectly safe, reputable, comfortable airline you didn’t think to check.
For the best chance of snagging a great deal, use a search site like Google Flights to search multiple airlines. Or join Going and let us do the searching for you.
Breakdown by State
Alabama
Number of deals we found: 3,030
Number of airports we search: 3
Airline with the most deals: American
Alaska
Number of deals we found: 445
Number of airports: 5
Airline with the most deals: Delta
Arizona
Number of deals we found: 2,401
Number of airports: 3
Airline with the most deals: American
Arkansas
Number of deals: 2,002
Number of airports: 2
Airline with the most deals: American
California
Number of deals: 15,957
Number of airports: 18
Airline with the most deals: American
Colorado
Number of deals: 4,317
Number of airports: 8
Airline with the most deals: American
Connecticut
Number of deals: 1,305
Number of airports: 2
Airline with the most deals: American
*Delaware
We don’t currently search for deals from any airports in Delaware, but airports in Maryland or Pennsylvania are 1-2 hours away.
Florida
Number of deals: 19,575
Number of airports: 17
Airline with the most deals: American
Georgia
Number of deals: 3,834
Number of airports: 3
Airline with the most deals: American
Hawaii
Number of deals: 1,211
Number of airports: 5
Airline with the most deals: United
Idaho
Number of deals: 1,102
Number of airports: 2
Airline with the most deals: Delta
Illinois
Number of deals: 6,550
Number of airports: 6
Airline with the most deals: American
Indiana
Number of deals: 4,048
Number of airports: 4
Airline with the most deals: American
Iowa
Number of deals: 2,226
Number of airports: 2
Airline with the most deals: American
Kansas
Number of deals: 1,092
Number of airports: 2
Airline with the most deals: American
Kentucky
Number of deals: 3,650
Number of airports: 3
Airline with the most deals: American
Louisiana
Number of deals: 2,255
Number of airports: 2
Airline with the most deals: American
Maine
Number of deals: 1,396
Number of airports: 1
Airline with the most deals: American
Maryland
Number of deals: 1,647
Number of airports: 1
Airline with the most deals: American
Massachusetts
Number of deals: 3,588
Number of airports: 2
Airline with the most deals: American
Michigan
Number of deals: 3,146
Number of airports: 3
Airline with the most deals: American
Minnesota
Number of deals: 2,745
Number of airports: 3
Airline with the most deals: Delta
Mississippi
Number of deals: 1,841
Number of airports: 2
Airline with the most deals: American
Missouri
Number of deals: 3,410
Number of airports: 6
Airline with the most deals: American
Montana
Number of deals: 459
Number of airports: 5
Airline with the most deals: Delta
Nebraska
Number of deals: 1,699
Number of airports: 2
Airline with the most deals: United
Nevada
Number of deals: 2,383
Number of airports: 2
Airline with the most deals: American
New Hampshire
Number of deals: 948
Number of airports: 1
Airline with the most deals: American
New Jersey
Number of deals: 2,508
Number of airports: 1
Airline with the most deals: United
New Mexico
Number of deals: 1,208
Number of airports: 3
Airline with the most deals: American
New York
Number of deals: 13,231
Number of airports: 9
Airline with the most deals: American
North Carolina
Number of deals: 8,098
Number of airports: 7
Airline with the most deals: American
North Dakota
Number of deals: 1,723
Number of airports: 2
Airline with the most deals: Delta
Ohio
Number of deals: 4,561
Number of airports: 34
Airline with the most deals: American
Oklahoma
Number of deals: 1,782
Number of airports: 2
Airline with the most deals: American
Oregon
Number of deals: 2,928
Number of airports: 4
Airline with the most deals: United
Pennsylvania
Number of deals: 5,985
Number of airports: 6
Airline with the most deals: American
Rhode Island
Number of deals: 1,459
Number of airports: 1
Airline with the most deals: American
South Carolina
Number of deals: 5,155
Number of airports: 5
Airline with the most deals: American
South Dakota
Number of deals: 1,747
Number of airports: 2
Airline with the most deals: American
Tennessee
Number of deals: 5,409
Number of airports: 5
Airline with the most deals: American
Texas
Number of deals: 10,609
Number of airports: 15
Airline with the most deals: American
Utah
Number of deals: 836
Number of airports: 3
Airline with the most deals: Delta
Vermont
Number of deals: 1,462
Number of airports: 1
Airline with the most deals: American
Virginia
Number of deals: 9,692
Number of airports: 7
Airline with the most deals: American
Washington
Number of deals: 3,037
Number of airports: 6
Airline with the most deals: American
West Virginia
Number of deals: 1,183
Number of airports: 1
Airline with the most deals: American
Wisconsin
Number of deals: 4,516
Number of airports: 4
Airline with the most deals: American
Wyoming
Number of deals: 564
Number of airports: 4
Airline with the most deals: Delta
Methodology
The Flight Experts at Going use a combination of technology and human-powered flight searching to look at thousands of possible airfare deals every week. When we find a deal that meets our high standards, we send it to our members with instructions on how to find and book the deal.
To reach our conclusions on the best and worst airlines, we tallied up the number of deals sent from each airport we serve in each state and counted the number of deals that were bookable on each airline. As noted above, there is overlap; some deals are bookable on multiple airlines due to codesharing and price competition.
Want to know the cheapest places to go from each state? We've got you covered there too.
