Airfares for Christmas: LAX to the east coast

Our frequent flyer miles on U.S. Airways seemed to be the most economical way for us to fly from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh this coming Christmas. We'd fly out Christmas night and return either January 1 or 2. There are 5 adults in our family flying and 3 of us have frequent flyer miles.

But when we called, we discovered U.S. Airways restricts frequent flyer miles from December 8 to January 8. Instead of having 25,000 miles or more for a free ticket, you need to have 50,000 or more. That was disappointing.

Flights straight from LAX to Pittsburgh were costing $ 450 and higher.

So we found flights for less than $ 300 per person into Baltimore-Washington and Dulles International.

But, to my surprise, we also found a flight to Johnstown, PA for about $ 360 per person on United Airlines. It would fly from LA to Dulles and then connect on a smaller plane to Johnstown. Then we'd only be about 45 minutes from our destination.

For about the same price, we could fly from Los Angeles to Altoona, PA -- of course, only if we wanted to torture ourselves. We would fly Los Angeles, D.C., connect to Johnstown and then connect to Altoona.

However, we went ahead and made reservations from Los Angeles to Baltimore-Washington and then we'll drive from there to western PA. But if we really calculated the cost of the rental car, gas, etc., perhaps flying to Johnstown would have been worth the higher air fare.

When you're searching for competitive airfares, mid-size to small airports may sometimes have bargains. In the spring, I had to fly back to Latrobe, PA. I was only checking flights to Pittsburgh and Cleveland. But just for kicks, I put in Northwest from Los Angeles to Latrobe's Westmoreland County airport and got reservations for $ 218! Going out, I only had to make one stop in Detroit and on the way back, there was a brief layover in Detroit and then a brief layover in Minneapolis.

But one rule of thumb when making airline reservations on Orbitz, Travelocity or others - if you see a flight that's really low in price -- grab it! So often, when you log on again, prices have gone up.