I'm looking to visit NYC from DFW sometime this year.  I'm not too
concerned with when, although I like the idea of doing single weekends
like American Airlines Netsaaver fares (http://www.aa.com/netsaaver). 
My question is, what are some inexpensive ways to fly when you don't
care when you go?

For example, I've heard of things like flying standby.  What is
involved in each option; e.g. have to stay a week, or only get a seat
if it's available, etc.

Have you considered www.priceline.com? You name your price and they
pick, essentially, when and who you fly through... The caveat is that
you must buy at the time you ask, because if they make your price, you
have to take what they give you. However, it seems that this may be
what works for your situation, since you don't exactly care when...

I am not a Google Answers Researcher.

I've keep hearing about Priceline, but the very idea of it boggles my
mind.  It seems like you'd have to have a great idea of what a good
price is, in order to know if you're really getting a deal.  Seems
like they make a lot of money off of prices that someone named higher
than what the flight actually cost.  I don't want to be that guy!

Bottom line, it seems like I'd have to do a lot of research to figure
out what price to name.  That's what I want to avoid :)

True, I do understand your concern, but your budget is your budget :)...

If you've already checked travel.yahoo.com, orbitz.com, expedia.com,
hotwire.com, and the individual airlines' websites, you already know
what the going rate is ... sometimes you can get last-minute fares,
sometimes you can get early booking fares. :) Still, if you ask for a
(example) $75 flight from DFW to NYC, and you get it, are you going to
complain? :)

Hi Severisth,

I work for Qantas. I don't do airfares, I balance aircraft for your
safety, but I can tell you this much.

There is a group referred to as Yield Management. It is an interesting
area, as airfares are based on a passenger kilometre rate formula as
long as your arm, in 10 point text. Bottom line is this: They look at
seasons, events, competition, months, weeks and days of the week. The
demand over these times is then calculated into the percentage of
airfares available over a given route, day etc. back to the season. If
you have comprehended that so far then please read further.

The number of X fares available on Tuesday on your route, on that
particular flight may be 12. On Friday that number may reduce to 4,
due to historic demand. The aircraft is not fully booked, but the cost
of available airfares will increase with the demand. The closer you
book to departure time, the higher the airfare.

So, let's simplify this for you. The best deal for you for uncommited
time is to simply book and pay as far in advance as you can. Forget
trying to consider that agents are paid are comission. Their comission
is paid nett of the wholesale price as I understand. This means that
you, the customer is not disadvantaged. An agent may choose to
discount, but will do so at their cost, or as a contra deal with an
airline if the agent is big enough to command a deal through their
volume of past sales records.

Book and pay ahead. Also consider the overbooking noshow factor. We
overbook by up to 3% depending on noshow factors and yield. There is
always a minimal chance that you will be "bumped" due to overbooks.
The hierachy of offload depends on the real day circumstance. You may
be the last to check-in on a late notice disrupted flight. Then you
will be first off. If the disruption is known hours ahead, then
offloads will occur firstly on last booked, then platinum, gold,
silver and even Zircon members of frequent flyers booked. Chairman's
Lounge Members are last to be offloaded. Anyone from the Qantas Club
membership is irrelevant. My next door neighbours dog has membership
there, so don't start barking in the lounge. Anyone can do that, and
it will ensure you a seat at the rear of the plane in a centre seat
surrounded by 2 Summo wrestlers.

Decide what it is you want. Dollar saving, or service or both. Qantas
can not be of assistance to you intra-country in The States. My only
parting words I wish to share is that United Airlines just happened to
employ some very grumpy flight attendants last week on a flight from
Sydney to Los Angeles. My close friend was aboard.

BOOK AND PAY AHEAD IF YOU ARE ON A BUDGET, regardless of the airline
of your choice.

Kind regards, Phil

A greatway to search all airfares within a given time frame or
specific dates is itasoftware.com  This will show you the lowest price
on all possible routings.  You can then use sites such as
priceline.com or hotwire.com to try a lower price, but you may already
be happy with the price you found here!!

I like travelocity.com's search for best price/flexible dates option.
It allows you to look up fares from several airlines by month, and
once you select the cheapest fares shows you which dates are available
at that rate.

 You can also try site59.com for discounted last minute fares if you
can fly out with just a week or two notice and don't plan to stay more
than a weekend.