Budget Travel - Booking a redeye flight or connection?

Hey guys,

Kinda glad I passed over this forum--you guys are so far beyond me, but I havent been on a plane in 12 years(besides the one I fly myself) :-P

I was wondering if anyone could help me out here:
I'm trying to schedule a same day return flight from TPA(Tampa Int) to DFW(Dallas-Ft.Worth) on 11/22(Thanksgiving) for the Cowboys game in Irving. I've found plenty of flights that will get me there(DFW) on time, around 12:35...but for some reason, and I HAVE searched everywhere, the latest flight for almost all airlines that even fly DFW-TPA is 6:00 PM? I checked at the DFW site and it gave me this

08:45 pm 11:59 pm 1:59 American Airlines
1138
NON-STOP
738
MT...SS 04/10/07 - 12/12/07
Apparently that is a subsidiary of AA, Alaskan Airlines, I think (AS), because I couldnt find any record of it with AA.

What the heck is up with that? Hopefully it just has something to do with Thanksgiving, but it would be horrible for me because I would have to leave nearly an hour after the game starts (2:15CT, 3:15ET) in order to check in and what not. I really dont want to blow $300, nearly $75 extra for a one night hotel.

Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions on how I might be able to get a redeye or board a connetion flight? I'd really prefer 9:00PM, but I think 8:00 is manageable.


Thanks sooooooo much!

{TS}

The 6PM DFW-MIA-TPA flight arrives at 11:40PM, so that's why that's the last flight. Most airports have curfews at midnight or 1AM, so no flights can land after that. And how on earth do you get a red-eye for a 2-hour flight (3 hours counting time zone change)? Assuming most airports are closed from 1-6AM, you'd need at least a 5-hour time difference between departure and arrival.

Ah, I had no idea about that.

So basically, unless I find an airline that flies direct to TPA I probably wont find anything past 6?

Edit: Ran into this, but no luck with the search :-/

http://www.orbitz.com/flight-info/AA/AA-DFW-TPA.html

"8:45"

Most airports do have curfews, but TPA isn't one of them:
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/noise/tampa.html
AIRPORT CURFEWS - NONE
Having said that, I can't find a flight that fits your needs either, it seems like there are only day flights between the two airports.

As I'm blue states, you really have a problem since nobody flies nonstop. Redeyes are not pratical either. i checked different airports ( w/i 100miles)and the only redeye that makes even a little sense is leaving DFW at 8pm and arriving at MCO the next morning and not TPA. the cost of the ticket is much higher