When cheap travel is a primary objective you will often find that the least expensive cheap fares, be they cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation packages, include itineraries where you have to make flight connections.
Many experienced travelers will tell you to avoid selecting an itinerary that includes connecting flights entirely because of the risk of missing a connection. Often it is worth paying a little more to get a nonstop flight. If you usually fly out of a small airport that does not offer nonstops to your destination, consider driving to the closest larger airport that does offer nonstops.
Any time you can drive to a larger airport that offers nonstop flights in three hours or less, the recommendation is to drive. Often such airports will offer cheaper prices as well.
If there is no way to avoid connecting, check on your flights on time history prior to purchasing a ticket. Given that planes are flying so full these days, the last thing you want to deal with is missing your connection and then not being able to get on later flights because there are no empty seats.
A website called FlightStats is a good resource to find current information and historical compilations for most domestic flights on time records.
Be aware that typical published minimum connecting times offered by airline allow almost no room for unexpected delays. Connecting times on domestic flights are as low as 30 minutes. Connections in major airports such as Boston, Chicago, Houston, Newark and San Francisco can involve inter-terminal shuttles, some of which require exiting and then re-entering security.
Savvy travelers try to select connecting flights that have at least two hours between when one flight arrives and the next is scheduled to depart.
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