Airfare prices change constantly, fueling plenty of myths about the best time to book and how to find the lowest fares. Scott Keyes, founder of Going — a travel app formerly known as Scott’s Cheap Flights that sends out airfare deal alerts — has heard them all.

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“You’ve heard the advice to book on Tuesday at 1 p.m., or Saturday at midnight, or exactly 63 days before,” Keyes said in an episode of NerdWallet’s Smart Travel podcast. “The fact that there are so many different rules about when you’re supposed to book should kind of be the tip-off that it’s a little bit of a myth.”

While there is no golden rule, Keyes does have six tips and takeaways from over a decade as a professional flight deal finder.

1. There is no ‘best day’ to book a flight

Keyes says the best time to book a flight isn’t so much tied to a specific time or day, but rather how many months in advance you make your purchase. He recommends booking within what he calls the “Goldilocks window.”

“It’s not too early, not too late, but just right in the middle,” he said, describing this ideal booking time.

Here’s the Goldilocks window for each type of flight:

Domestic flights (off-peak): 1 to 3 months in advance.
Domestic flights (peak seasons like summer or Christmas): 3 to 6 months in advance.
International flights (off-peak): 2 to 8 months in advance.
International flights (peak seasons): 4 to 10 months in advance.

2. Incognito mode won’t help you find cheaper flights

Some people believe that airlines are “watching” your computer usage by way of cookies, which track how you interact with websites, and using this data to charge higher fares to those who search repeatedly for flights.

Keyes says these theories don’t make sense though — especially given his line of work.

“If airfare prices changed based on repeated searches, we’d see it because we track millions of airfares every single day,” he said. “If somebody was going to see higher flight prices impacted by repeated searches, it would be us. Yet we don’t.”

3. Don’t count out budget airlines

Budget airlines like Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines are known for charging fees for carry-on bags and other services. But their ultra-low base fares could help some travelers spend less.

“If you’re traveling with just a backpack, budget airlines can absolutely save you money,” he said. “I’ve looked at flights from my home airport in Portland down to Las Vegas, and the Spirit flight cost $25 each way when the next-closest Alaska Airlines flight costs $130.”

And you might be surprised at the convenient routing options on budget airlines, too.

“Especially to destinations like Las Vegas and Orlando, budget airlines actually have the most nonstop flights,” Keyes said. “If you’re flying from say, Minneapolis or Des Moines, Iowa, you actually might be able to get a nonstop flight on a budget airline.”

Just be aware of the extra fees for things that are often included in other airlines, such as carry-on bags and even an in-flight beverage. Once you add up those costs, the total price can sometimes be more expensive than full-service airlines.

4. Know your back-up options

Avoiding layovers when possible (especially if it involves saving money) can reduce travel time and also mitigate the risk of snowballing delays.

If you book a flight with a layover, find out what your alternative flight options might be if a delay makes you miss your connecting flights. You should aim to fly with airlines that have multiple flights a day to your destination from the connecting airport.

“If you’ve got a flight on Spirit and that flight gets canceled, it might be a while until there’s the next available Spirit flight to your destination,” Keyes said. “They don’t have partnerships with other airlines to put you on a different carrier, so you could actually be waiting sometimes days to get a replacement flight. That’s something that usually doesn’t happen if you’re on Delta Air Lines or United Airlines.”

(Photo courtesy of Scott Keyes)

5. Don’t hesitate when you find a great fare

One thing Keyes has learned over the years: Airfare deals don’t stick around for long. It’s important to act fast, he notes, or they can slip away.

“I once found a deal to India for $212 round trip,” he said. “My heart skipped a beat. I had sweaty palms. I was so excited. But instead of booking it immediately, I spent a couple of hours figuring out my itinerary. When I went to book, I missed it by 30 seconds.”

The lesson?

“Book first, ask questions later,” he said.

In the U.S., federal regulations make it easier to get a refund if you change your mind after booking. Under the 24-hour rule, airlines are required to refund your money to the original form of payment if you cancel within 24 hours of purchasing that airfare.

6. Book to prioritize price

“Most people say they want cheap flights, but they go about finding them in the exact opposite way,” Keyes said. Rather than looking at prices first, he added, they look at destinations and dates first.

He suggests flipping the process:

Start with price: Identify the cheapest flights available.
Pick your destination: Choose from the available deals.
Select your dates: Work within the cheapest available timeframes.

“What I tell folks is like, ‘Look, if cheap flights are a priority, make them the priority,’” he said. “By setting price as the last priority, we end up with some pretty expensive flights.”

Sally French writes for NerdWallet. Email: sfrench@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @SAFmedia.

The article Professional Deal Finder Reveals Truth About Cheap Airfare originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By JAIMIE DING, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge is set to decide Friday whether to proceed with resentencing hearings for Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted of murdering their parents, in light of Los Angeles’ new district attorney opposing their release after 30 years behind bars.

The brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at ages 18 and 21 after being convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. While the defense argued they acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.

Los Angeles County’s previous progressive district attorney, George Gascón, sought resentencing for the brothers before he lost reelection to tough-on-crime candidate Nathan Hochman in November. Gascón had asked a judge to change the brothers’ sentence to 50 years to life, which would make them immediately eligible for release under California law because they committed the crime when they were younger than 26.

But last month, Hochman submitted a motion to withdraw that request, saying he did not support the brothers’ resentencing because they had not admitted to lies they told as the case unfolded about why they killed their parents and did not “fully recognize, acknowledge, and accept complete responsibility” for their crime.

On Friday, the court will decide whether to allow prosecutors to withdraw their resentencing motion. If that request is granted, the judge also will decide whether to proceed independently with the brothers’ resentencing hearings, which are tentatively scheduled for April 17 and 18.

The district attorney’s opposition poses a major hurdle for the brothers, whose path to resentencing was all but certain with Gascón’s support.

The family’s relationship with Hochman also has soured. Most of the brothers’ extended family supports their resentencing. Milton Andersen, Kitty Menendez’s brother and the sole relative who opposed their release, died last month.

Tamara Goodall, a cousin of the brothers, submitted a complaint with the state asking that Hochman be removed from the case, citing his bias against the brothers and alleging he violated a law meant to protect victims’ rights.

Hochman had a “hostile, dismissive and patronizing tone” in meetings with the family and created an “intimidating and bullying atmosphere,” Goodall wrote.

In their response to the district attorney’s motion to withdraw the resentencing request, attorneys for the Menendez brothers questioned whether Hochman had legitimate reasons for doing so or was influenced by “a change of political winds.”

The attorneys pointed out that Hochman demoted Nancy Theberge and Brock Lunsford, the two deputy district attorneys who filed the original resentencing motion. Theberge and Lunsford have since filed lawsuits against Hochman alleging harassment, discrimination and retaliation for their work on the Menendez brothers case.

“The law requires fairness, not personal vendettas,” Anamaria Baralt, a cousin of the brothers, said in a statement. “Erik and Lyle have not only taken responsibility, they’ve become the kind of men this system is supposed to help create. If rehabilitation doesn’t matter here, when does it?”

Hochman’s office denied any political influence on their decision-making in their reply and doubled down on the position that Erik and Lyle Menendez “fabricated their self-defense claim” in the murders of their parents and had not achieved full rehabilitation.

Without resentencing, the brothers would still have two other pathways to freedom. They have submitted a clemency plea to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has ordered the state parole board to investigate whether the brothers would pose a risk to the public if they are released. The parole board is scheduled to hold its final hearings June 13.

The brothers also submitted a petition for habeas corpus in May 2023 asking the court to grant them a new trial in light of new evidence presented. Hochman’s office also filed a motion opposing the petition.

By TARA COPP, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The commander of a U.S. Space Force base in Greenland has been fired after she sent a base-wide email breaking with official messaging following Vice President JD Vance’s visit to the Danish territory that President Donald Trump is seeking to annex.

In a statement late Thursday, the Space Force said Col. Susan Meyers was removed as commander of Pituffik Space Base in Greenland over a “loss of confidence in her ability to lead.”

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“Commanders are expected to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, especially as it relates to remaining nonpartisan in the performance of their duties,” the statement said.

Military.com reported Thursday that Meyers sent the base-wide email defending the base’s relationship with Denmark and Greenland following Vance’s visit two weeks ago.

A U.S. official confirmed Friday to the AP that Meyers sent the email and its contents showing support for Greenland and Denmark. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to provide additional details not made public.

Greenland is a territory of Denmark, which is a NATO ally of the United States. Trump wants to annex the territory, claiming it’s needed for national security purposes, and Vance’s visit in late March set off heated rhetoric between the U.S. and Denmark, with Trump refusing to take the use of military force off the table.

In a post on X late Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell linked to the Military.com story and said that “actions to undermine the chain of command or to subvert President Trump’s agenda will not be tolerated at the Department of Defense.”

Meyers’ firing was the latest in a series of terminations of senior military leaders, including several female leaders.

The Trump administration has previously fired Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan and U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the only woman on NATO’s military committee.

Other key firings were Gen. CQ Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Tim Haugh, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency.

By Maxwell Williams, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — The ball pops up in the air and soars into an arc, drifting against the blue sky, then comes down with a plunk on the glass wall behind Jon Guerra. Out.

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“Your swing is too hard,” Guerra says to me.

Guerra, who goes by Coach Jon, is sending lobs across the net toward me and three other students at the Padel Courts, a hideaway just off Sunset Boulevard in Little Armenia. We’re learning padel, a racquet sport played with foam paddle rackets on a tennis-like court surrounded by tempered glass walls. And it’s proving to be quite a challenge.

“Don’t go toward the ball, let it bounce to you,” Guerra says after a ball boomerangs off the wall toward me and I miss it completely.

A sport that began in the 1960s in Mexico, padel has already exploded across Europe and South America, and fans are hopeful it will do the same in the U.S. It’s been steadily gaining traction in Los Angeles, with new padel centers cropping up around the county: There’s Padel Up at Westfield Century City, Pura Padel L.A. in Sherman Oaks and at the courts at L.A. Galaxy Park in Carson. This summer, the Los Angeles Padel Club, co-founded by L.A. real estate developer Steve Shpilsky, will open a padel clubhouse in a restored Hollywood-era mansion in Culver City. Later, the King of Padel, an indoor padel and pickleball club, will join San Pedro’s West Harbor development.

The Padel Courts, where I’m trying the sport, resembles a Thumbelina-sized country club. It has a cozy vibe — there’s a fireplace in the clubhouse and a record player with Tyler, the Creator’s “Igor” album on it, alongside a wall full of trypophobia-inducing fiberglass-and-foam padel rackets.

Guerra, who reached a ranking of No. 13 in the U.S. in 2023, started the day’s clinic by explaining the difference between padel and tennis — the obvious one being the playable walls surrounding the court. You can either volley, play off a bounce or let the ball ricochet off tempered glass walls before you hit it. If your return hits the wall first, it’s out.

The fuzzy ball looks like a tennis ball but has a slightly lower PSI, meaning it’s a little flatter and less bouncy. Serves are underhanded and aces are slow, intricately placed shots that bounce at an angle off the side glass. It’s a game of mistakes, Guerra tells his students — you’re waiting on your opponent to misfire a ball in a way that allows you to make a shot they can’t return.

And there’s an important rule: Padel is played doubles. Always. Much of the game involves strategizing in tandem.

“Move up with your partner,” says Guerra as he sends balls toward the front of the net for us to volley. “Partners move in to volley together and back to the baseline together.”

I played tennis competitively in high school — not very well, but I held my own in some matches. But on this day I am struggling to hit any good shots whatsoever. The game feels a little slower, more reliant on careful lobs than power; it reminds me a little of billiards, though squash is probably padel’s closest relative.

Guerra tells me to twist my body into a closed position that feels counterintuitive to the open stroke of a tennis swing. Padel swings are short and precise — and extremely awkward. I know I look stupid as I smack a return into the net.

“I have friends who are older people in the country club where they start playing that have tennis experience that find it hard to learn after you are bonded to your ideas,” Guerra later tells me in the clubhouse after the clinic. “It all depends on how much you are able to forget.”

The sport began in 1969 when Mexican businessman Enrique Corcuera modified the squash court at his holiday home in Acapulco. He initially named the game “Paddle Corcuera.”

In 1974, Corcuera’s friend Alfonso de Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a Spanish prince and hotelier who dated Ava Gardner and Kim Novak, imported the game to his tony Marbella Club Hotel in Marbella, Spain. It quickly spread as a country club sport due to its foursome nature — many liken its companionship quality to golf. Today, Spain has more than 16,000 padel courts, making it the second most-played sport in the country behind soccer.

Despite its country club roots, padel is competitive. It’s more dynamic than pickleball, and the curve to learn it is a little steeper. By the time I finally punch a backhand onto the other side, it’s been a few tries. I do feel triumphant. The next volley pongs off my racket and lands just in front of the base of the glass wall, making it difficult for my opponent to return.

“Perfect shot,” says Guerra. I am overjoyed. My teammate and I touch rackets to celebrate as if we’re Agustin Tapia and Arturo Coello (the co-No. 1 players in the world).

Padel is still most popular in Spain, where Guerra is from, as well as Argentina, but it’s surging in the States. There were fewer than 20 courts in the U.S. in 2019 — now there are nearly 500. Houston and Miami are hotbeds. Floridian rapper Daddy Yankee opened the 10by20 Padel Club (courts are 10 meters wide by 20 meters long) and owns a pro team, the Orlando Florida Goats.

L.A. is a little slower on the uptake but that is sure to change as padel’s popularity grows. There’s a professional team called the Los Angeles Beat in the Pro Padel League (PPL), the American circuit, that is mostly made up of internationally ranked Spanish and Argentine players. And the Los Angeles Padel Club’s new Culver City location will be the home of the first youth development academy on the West Coast.

“Los Angeles has the perfect ingredients to stake its claim as one of the most important cities in the world for padel with its strong tennis and racquet sports heritage, ideal weather, international community and emphasis on wellness and social interactions,” says Christ Ishoo, co-owner of Los Angeles Beat, which also will be housed at the Los Angeles Padel Club clubhouse.

Still, the idea that padel will follow the path of pickleball is questionable. The sport doesn’t have the same accessibility as tennis and pickleball, which can be played for free on the many municipal courts in the city. Time at the Padel Courts is $100 per hour (which isn’t too bad when split four ways) and should be reserved about a week in advance.

Yet Guerra sees great promise. “I feel with pickleball, it’s like when you see an entrepreneur that becomes a billionaire,” he says. “You don’t see the 20 years that he had to struggle to hustle.”

There was chatter that padel might become a competitive sport for the 2028 L.A. Olympics, but that effort fell short (it will be a demonstration sport). Yet there’s still hope that it will be accepted for the 2032 Summer Olympics in Brisbane, Australia.

Most importantly, padel is challenging and fun. During a demo, my partner and I are making a few nice shots and getting into a groove. I return a ricochet in a way that surprises even me. I work up a sweat. And I feel like I’ve made a little progress.

Maybe an old tennis player can learn some new padel tricks. Guerra points his racquet at me and looks pleased. “The earlier you lose fear and you forget, and you are less aware of how you look, the earlier you stop feeling stupid, the better,” he says.

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.