vk, did you name your own price or was that an advertised price?   I have been afraid to name my own on a flight..  Had great success with hotels and car bidding though..   On a side note, a month or so ago, booked our flights for $360 round trip direct flights on SOuthwest out of Chicago...

Check the Southwest website on Tuesdays and Wednesdays - those are the cheap days. Got ours out of Milwaukee for $320 after they had been $375 for eons.

And one thing about Southwest is that if prices come down you can rebook at the lower price for no fee ... you get the difference in credits for a future flight that must be booked within a year of the prior booking.

And no baggage fees on Southwest for first 2 checked bags!

Southwest is the way to go it seems.  I booked a round trip ticket out of Atlanta for $288.00 a few weeks ago.  It had been up in the mid $400s.  But I knew that pretty early in the morning is the time to go airfare shopping.  I logged straight into Southwest's site around 7:30 on a Wednesday and saw the fares for very cheap.  However, the fares were for March through May.  If you went out in June and July, the fares went back up.

If it is still a couple months out before you go, I would still be patient and make sure you jump on every morning as early as possible and see what the fares are.  If you go in less than a month, you may be stuck with the higher fares.

Another option, is instead of flying out of Chicago or wherever, you may want to check around to other airports within a reasonable driving distance of not only your hometown, but maybe fly into Sacramento and drive over to Reno (120 miles?).  I have done that a few times.  Once I flew into SAC and saved about $150.  Another time, instead of flying out of ATL, I flew out of Birmingham Alabama on Southwest and saved a good amount of cash.  When we went to Corpus, I flew into San Antonio and drove down and saved some more cash. 

$543 roundtrip today, so much for Wed being the cheap day.  This is the highest ive seen it in weeks. Are you guys flying nonstop or connecting flights? Ive flown connecting flights from USBC the last two years and lost a 3 ball tote each year.

I have a connecting flight each way.  So far I have not had an issue with lost equipment. 

Stockton isn't really a good option as the only connection is through Las Vegas. So if you are going to connect through Vegas anyway, take the Allegiant hope from Vegas to Reno instead. You can find a lot of Allegiant flights into Vegas, but be aware, they don't all run daily.

If you all are adamant on SWA (I am to, so don't get me wrong), you may want to look at Ding! for your fares. You'll generally get them cheaper through their app than what they post on their sites on Tuesday and Thursday. Again, you'll have to jump on them fast, because the Ding! offers end at certain times.

Right now, here's where you'll want to fly into if you want alternates to Reno, in order of distance (closest to farthest from Reno):

SMF (Sacramento)
SCK (Stockton - be aware, this would be Allegiant, and they don't fly everywhere)
OAK (Oakland)
SFO (San Francisco)
SJC (San Jose)
FAT (Fresno - This may be a puddlehopper, so may be more expensive)

If you are looking for the 7 - 8 hour drive, instead of Vegas, and dealing with the 2-lane drive all the way up, consider SLC (Salt Lake City). It's roughly 8 hours east, and all on I-80.

But I'd definitely say that SMF is your best bet for an alternate. I also recommend it because.. well, I live in Sacramento!

If you decide to fly to sacramento or san fran and drive to Reno, make sure to check car rental rates.  I was going to fly from Chicago to san fran, drive to reno, and fly home from reno to Chicago.  But the one way charge for a rental car was $400 for about 1 day since I was returning to a different state and not the same location that I rented from.