How We Find Cheap Flights From San Diego

Price is the easy part.\n\nEvery morning we look at fares out of San Diego across the routes people here actually fly — Mexico, Hawaii, the East Coast, Europe and Asia. Most of what turns up is normal. Normal does not make the list.\n\nWhen something is meaningfully below normal, the second question starts: who is operating it, how many stops, how long is the layover, what dates does it actually apply to, and would we book it ourselves. A $420 fare to Europe with a 14-hour overnight layover in a closed terminal is not a deal. A $530 fare with one civilized connection often is.\n\nThat is what the fire rating means. One flame is a good price. Two is a great one. Three means we would seriously think about rearranging our own calendar.