Want cheap tickets? The Saturday night stay is back

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By Herb Weisbaum

It wasn't so long ago that to get the cheapest plane tickets you had to stay over a Saturday night. The Saturday night stay went away as discount carriers captured a larger share of the market.

Surprise: the Saturday night stay is back, designed to force business flyers to buy more expensive tickets.

"Unfortunately, it's catching some leisure travelers who don't want to stay a Saturday night," said Rick Seaney, CEO of Fare Compare.com.

Seaney said almost half the flights on major US carriers now have some sort of stay requirement -- it could be a Saturday or Sunday night -- it could be a minimum of two or three days.

Most of the cheap international fares now require a Saturday night stay.

"So if you're flying international definitely try to get that extra Saturday night in there because you'll save yourself at least $500 to $1,500 on your ticket."

Seaney says there is a way to fly domestically and not get stuck with a minimum stay; checkout Southwest, AirTran, jetBlue and US Airways. They have one-way airfare structures with no minimum stay requirements.

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