Cheap flights to
South Carolina

Finding a great deal on airfare might seem like it’s all down to luck—but when you pay attention to the price changes as much as we do, you notice some patterns. There’s this period before a flight, for instance, when you’re most likely to get a good deal on a ticket. It’s 1-3 months before a domestic trip and 2-8 months before an international one. We call this sweet spot the Goldilocks Window: not too early, and not too late.

There are some situations when you’d need to add more time to the Goldilocks Window. If your travel dates aren’t flexible, or if you’re planning a trip over a big holiday or during peak season, add a few months to the math. And, despite what you might have heard, super cheap last-minute fares are extremely rare. On the contrary, airlines nearly always raise prices as a flight nears, especially 21, 14, and 7 days before departure, so be sure to book before those points.

Another money-saving tip we love to share is something we call the Greek Islands Trick—but it works for destinations all over the globe. The gist is that sometimes flying directly to where you want to go isn’t the cheapest option. Sometimes, you can save a bundle by looking instead for the cheapest flight that gets you pretty close to where you want to be and then finding a separate transit method (another flight, a train, or even a road trip) to close the gap.

Flying from Los Angeles to South Carolina might not seem terribly expensive when you find fares around $250-350 roundtrip, depending on the arrival airport. But if you move the map a little bit, you might notice there’s a fare from LAX to Charlotte just over the border in North Carolina for a little over $150 roundtrip. That kind of savings might make the drive from Charlotte to your South Carolina holiday spot well worth the time. These kinds of two-part itineraries do require more attention to detail, especially if the second part of the trip involves another airline ticket, but the savings may be worth it.

This tip is sort of the flip side of the Greek Islands Trick. In this case, rather than looking at other options for the arrival airport, we’re checking out fares from different departure airports. If you live in a place with a few big airports nearby, you probably already do this—but it’s a habit all travelers should get into. We see surprisingly great fares departing from airports all over the country, big and small, and if you’re only focused on one departure point, you could be missing out.

Let’s say you live near Madison, Wisconsin, and you want to fly to Myrtle Beach. You see that flights from Madison to Myrtle Beach are around $260 roundtrip. That’s not bad, but before you click the buy button, you take a peek at the fares to Myrtle Beach from Chicago and find nonstop flights are around $130 roundtrip. With an extra $130 back in your travel budget, the 3-hour road trip to Chicago could be very appealing.

This sounds like an obvious point, but it’s more nuanced than it sounds. After all, if it was easy to know when it’s cheaper to fly, you probably wouldn’t need to read tips about saving money on airfare. What we’re talking about when we say “fly when it’s cheaper” is flexibility. Plan your trips during the shoulder seasons (or, even better, the off-season) rather than the costly high season, and you can save big on airfare.

The reality, though, is that not everyone has the luxury of flexibility when planning trips. We’re hemmed in by work and school schedules or by the warm weather that’s required for our dream beach holidays. There are still a couple of ways you can stay flexible in travel planning and save a little bit. If you have no option but a summer vacation, check out fares in the first two weeks of June or the last two weeks of August, which tend to be some of the cheapest summer weeks to fly. When scheduling flights, try to avoid the more expensive days to fly (Fridays and Sundays), and book flights on the generally cheaper days (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays) instead.

Most people have better things to do with their time than scouring the internet for cheap airfare. Luckily, there’s an automation solution that’s easy to use. When you’re considering a trip, set up a fare alert for that itinerary. You’ll then get an email when the price drops so you can track ticket prices and know when it’s a good time to buy. If you’re thinking about a few trip options, just note that you’ll need to set an alert for each itinerary. Or you could join Going and hand over the whole project to our airfare deal experts.

The busiest airport in South Carolina is Charleston International Airport (CHS), but Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR) and Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) are close behind. With three airports that have relatively similar passenger traffic numbers, you stand a good chance of finding a great deal on a fare from almost anywhere in the US.

Charleston is an operating base for Breeze Airways, with service from a dozen other airlines. There are 52 domestic airports with nonstop flights to Charleston.

Myrtle Beach’s airport, despite the name, has only domestic flights. There are 10 airlines serving MYR, with most flights handled by Spirit and Allegiant, and 50 domestic airports with nonstop flights to Myrtle Beach.

Greenville’s airport is another with “international” in the name but only domestic flights. It’s served by seven airlines, and there are 25 domestic airports with nonstop flights to Greenville.