I have to buy an airline ticket one day in advance. Whats the cheapest route

Question

Flying from Houston to Detroit

Answer 1

Priceline b/c they are best at last minute travel

Answer 2

Depends where you need to fly from and to.  Generally speaking, it's much more expensive to purchase airfare last-minute, but this is a world-wide forum in English language, and your results may vary depending which country you'll travel from/in.  Please update your question to add this important detail, and you'll probably get better answers.  I'll check back later.

=== ok, thanks for adding details

Since you're in USA, try http://www.bookingbuddy.com which covers Hotwire and Priceline, as well as airlines direct for any late sales, and your Orbitzes, Kayaks, Expedias, etc. etc.  Southwest is also on this route, and does not show up in other booking sites, so check http://www.iflyswa.com as well.

If you'll need hotel or car, then it's sometimes cheaper to book them together to get a last-minute price break.  http://us.lastminute.com will help you find these.

Answer 3

You're basically out of luck - one day in advance you will be charged very high fares, and airlines have limited spare seats as much as possible.  Standby is really iffy, and used to change times; there is no real standby ticket any more.

Your best bet is to do a LOT of looking.  Use one of the sites that consolidates other sites, like Kayak, Qixo, or Sidestep.  Make sure you open up times and airports as much as possible - giving as much time flexibility as possible, and as many alternate airports as possible.

Once you have tried that, try the airline's own web site.  Sometimes they have a better deal.  Usually Kayak.com catches them (I use Kayak all the time, since I find them the most usable) though.

Lastly, if you are flying in the US try southwest.com.  Sometimes they are cheapest, and they do not show up in the other aggregators.  

Answer 4

It really depends on what day you are flying and what day you are buying.  But for reference, I looked at sidestep.com today for flights tomorrow, and the cheapest it gave me was $389 one way on Airtran.

Southwest has the same rate, a flight from Houston to Detroit tomorrow would be $369 one way.

You could always try priceline to see if they have any good deals, or if you can name your own price.  Just put in a price that you would be willing to pay because as soon as they accept that offer, you are booked.