What are your best "tips" to beat the low cost carriers?

Inspired by today's article:

THAT’S THE SPIRIT! HOW TO BEAT SPIRIT AIRLINES AND THE LOW-COST CARRIERS AT THEIR OWN GAME

My biggest "pet peeve" with ULCCs and LCCs is they seldom "bend the rules." It's quite difficult to "social engineer" anything for free.

So, what have you done to save money and beat the low-cost carriers? 

Simple - I ONLY fly Southwest. 

That's a viable solution. Exception could be city pairs (and desire for a nonstop). Not to mention, I find Southwest (WN) quite expensive these days. Especially, if you don't need to check multiple bags. I love the change policy, always loved it. Open seating, not so much. 

If you are an unflexible traveler the best days to fly are Tuesday and Wednesday as they typically have the lowest fares.

But if you are a flexible traveler it frequently benefits to travel late Sunday, late Friday, and early Monday.  Why?  Those are popular travel times with buisiness travelers and those are flights airlines frequently overbook.    Which means you have a good shot at being offered a large voucher in exchange for giving up your seat and taking a later flight.    Works great on those busy holiday travel days too.    

The problem with the super low cost airlines is sometimes there is no "later flight".

Michael- I just booked a trip to Vegas. Leaving  Monday,7:50 am, 5- Aug, returning to Houston Friday, 6:55am, 9 Aug-- cost $53. each way ( I used points that I had accrued with my Southwest Chase credit card). I changed my departure flight from Houston AND my return flight from Vegas @ NO CHARGE. No bag fees, no change fees, free drink coupons from yearly credit card renewal. Both legs non-stop. If I need to change my flights again or cancel entirely, my points go back into my account - and no change or cancellation fees. Is there any other airline that can match what I have described above? To me, flying Southwest is a no brainer.

It's a great deal. Though, so much has to do with flexibility. When I used to do Vegas from the East Coast 4-5 times a year (Boston area) it was always Thursday/Friday, returning Sunday or Monday. (I always found Friday to Vegas to be tricky....) My "go to" flight was Southwest for the 16:00'ish nonstop LAS-MHT (arrived just before midnight). I dislike early flights ex-LAS (heck, I dislike all early morning flights). My "game" was to buy a Delta discounted first class ticket which could be changed with SDC (same-day-confirmed) on the outbound and use WN for the return (because of the MHT nonstop). I still don't love the idea of open seating. I tend to carry on my bag, so checked bags was never an issue. The reasoning I dislike open seating is that I don't want to necessarily board early. Though, that's debateable sometimes with carry-on only bags (due to overhead bin space). For international flights (of which, that's 90% of my flights these days) -- I really like to board as late as possible. 

Saturday can also be a very good day to travel. It can vary a bit. But, for example a Saturday afternoon flight into Vegas (from the East Coast) will often be priced very competively. Makes sense, most people don't really want to arrive in Vegas on Saturday night. Also, it's at "odds" with non-comp room prices. You get a great price to fly to Vegas but still have to (potentially) pay a lot (or a premium) for a Saturday night room. 

Regarding oversold flight (any airline):  It is worthwhile to discuss IN ADVANCE with spouse/traveling companions if volunteering for a later flight is agreeable if offered.   You don't want to be indecisive either way at that moment.

My brother has the nerve and patience to search those multi-airline "best fare" web sites for a cheap last minute fare at low cost, usually the last seat(s) to be sold.  Good for solo travel.  I don't roll that way, but he is good at it, and doesn't sweat a very early or late flight.  Not the best plan for a family vacation, I'm sure.

In our household, it's assumed that we're going to take the bump unless previously discussed! Our kids are very used to one parent arriving separately from the rest of the family.

One "problem" that we have: We usually fly Delta, who offers you the option to get an American Express gift card instead of a travel voucher. The gift card is only good for six months, so we try to dispose of it as quickly as possible. Our previous strategy was to load it to Amazon, since we know that we will use that money eventually, but our Amazon credit has gotten so big that it's going to take a lot longer than we thought to burn it off! 

@PJ Stroh had the best idea: Fly when its most busy and you'll have the best bump opportunities. Our last bump occurred on the first day of spring break on a flight to Orlando. Seriously, can you imagine the riot if a gate agent had to tell a family that their trip to Disney would be delayed because they had overbooked the flight?

Mike

I think "working" the bump strategy is very effective. Not to mention, in some instances you can request a more direct routing (or even an upgrade to First Class). Of course, a lot depends on the number of volunteers.

Many times, people do NOT want to volunteer on international flights. A friend of mine was compensated $3000 when Delta oversold a flight to Athens and she accepted a connection via Amsterdam (at least, I believe that was the routing, it was a few years ago). I have heard of a few instances where the VDB (Voluntary Denied Boarding or "bump") compensation is north of $1000.