Cheap-O Air, Hotwire, Orbitz, Priceline, and Travelocity are all names you might want to get familiar with if you're looking to book a cheap flight to Las Vegas. In addition to that, it's almost the time of year when the prices are at their lowest. Since summer is the hot weather season, the prices for flights into McCarran International Airport and the hotel rooms are the hottest. Move off the Las Vegas strip a little bit and those deals get even hotter.

For the air traveler heading to Las Vegas for a brief getaway or a week's vacation from the snow and the cold, the party probably starts the minute you step onto your flight. The prices right now on round trip flights to Las Vegas are running around $280 from locations like Miami and New York if you book flights from one of the online ticket brokers mentioned above. But as the weather begins to heat up in Sin City, so do the deals. Supposedly this is the slower "Off Season", but you won't think it is as you enter the casino atmosphere of any of the terminals at McCarran International.

Flying into Las Vegas after dark is a real treat, too. The bright lights of the strip make you wonder why they even turn on the runway lights at the airport. Granted, McCarran is located in the little unincorporated area of South Las Vegas (called Paradise ironically enough), but it is only about 5 miles from the heart of the business district, and only about 10-15 minutes off the southern end of the Strip. And the cabbies are just lined up and waiting for their next fare into the city.

Just as summertime is the best season for cheap flights to Vegas, you can still find great prices at those online brokers in the peak months of the fall and especially the winter. Leave all that snow behind, pack a few Hawaiian shirts and a few pair of comfortable walking shorts and just go enjoy yourself. Specials on air fares run off and on even during the peak period, but they are running constantly between April and October when things are heating up.

Here's another suggestion. Don't forget that Las Vegas is now a big business conference and expo site, so make sure you try to avoid booking a flight into the city during those times.