Airfare-Any Good Tips?

[FOV]

Is anybody out there a wiz at getting great airfare? I have been watching for a while and I can't get any better than $200 r-t from Boston (or surrounding airports.) Besides signing up for everyone's email specials (airlines and discount companies like travelocity etc..) are there any other strategies? I am planning to go to Orlando at the end of June.

This is worse than Vegas!

Thanks!

 

[fkj2]

Great airfare? No, but I was shopping the net today, going back and forth between orbitz, expedia, usair and delta sites. One thing I did learn is that these airlines that are sharing flights offer different prices. The return UsAir flight I looked at from MCO to PIT was going to cost $40 more on the expedia site than the United flight (that was being shared with USAir). In other words, the flights were really one and the same, different numbered flights reflecting the different airlines, but the same flight.

So, it pays to shop and compare.

 

[lilsonicfan]

the best advice i can offer is to check all your websites every day, as much as you can (without becoming completely obsessed.) for our trip, i needed round trip from seattle and was looking every day for months. finally i found on expedia tickets for $250 US each, everything included - this was about $70-100 less than the lowest price the day before. But the catch was that i only saw this price once. after i bought it, i never saw it that low again...

 

[ceecee]

We're looking too. My BIL just got round trip from London to Orlando for $200.00....it looks like we will be paying more to get there from OH.

 

[626]

I've found the best way to get a good deal is to be flexible about the dates you want to go. Once a good airfare is posted around the time you want to go that's when you book. While you may not be able to stay as long as you may have wanted to (Or you may have to stay a day or two longer than you wanted to) by being totally flexible with the dates you can usually snag a good airfare

Also, every time I have ever compared prices online, I have found Travelocity to have the best deals. I've used them at least 10 times and never had a problem. Highly recommended

 

[familyoffiveAZ]

I've always found that Tuesday flights have the lowest prices (at least, for the airlines I use and the destinations I fly to). If you can be flexible on the dates and times, better deals can often be had.

 

[stressedmom]

Check hotwire often - if an airline is running a special in most cases hotwire will have access to those low fares. If you don't want to take a chance on goofy flight times and layovers you can go to travelocity and see which airline it is by plugging in city pairs and choosing the "search all dates" option. MOST of the time this will work.

 

[Tetonman]

I usually book all my flights using the internet, comparing Orbitz with the airlines' individual sites (ATA, United, SW, etc.).

BUT... here's a trick I just learned. I am going to Germany on business in May. Using the internet, the best fare I could find for a midweek departure and return (no Saturday stay) was $1650+. I called a large travel agent to see if I could do better. My agent checked the ticket consolidators and found an airfare for $800 for the same days and flights I was looking at.

So, I asked if this would work on vacation travel with Saturday night stays as well. My agent said it sure would and that generally she could save me at least a couple of bucks per ticket.

That said, $200 rt from Boston to Orlando seems pretty cheap. I've got $176 rt from Chicago Midway on ATA for our trip next week...

Try a larger agency in your area, you may be surprised what they can do for you.

 

[familyoffiveAZ]

Another thought: when I was researching flights from Phoenix to Florida, I found that I could get a significantly lower rate by flying into Tampa rather than Orlando (Southwest Airlines). Since we'd be renting a car there anyway, and since the whole day is shot with travel, an extra hour or two drive time to Orlando wouldn't be a big deal for us. The savings was well worth it.

 

[3yL]

I've drove myself nuts spending hours and hours over the last couple weeks trying to get a good price (because if I couldn't get a good enough price we'd be driving - and our trip is in 19 days!!) I used this page at Deb Will's site the most (because it lists all the airline websites, which ones you can't get throiugh Expedia, Travelocity, etc.) I finally got our tickets around 3am this morning, lol, for $1500 (6 tickets, including one for our under 2yo, so he can sit in his carseat.) That's flying out of our local airport (Kalamazoo, MI) into Chicago, then Orlando. If we'd wanted to drive to Detroit or Chicago (same distance basically) I could get it down to around $1050, but we'd have to drive 2.5 hours there and back, it would mean an overnight stay (Chicago is an hour behind us, and our flight to Orlando is around 7am, to get to the airport early enough we'd have to leave around 2am and that's just not worth it. lol) We'd also have to park the van for 10 days (which isn't cheap and DH wasn't real comfortable leaving the van in another city, and leaving the house looking like we weren't there.) So the extra $500 to fly from home was worth it to him (big deal, he's the cheap one, lol.) The kids are thrilled because this will be their first trip on a plane and their first trip to Disney (and their first trip to the ocean, we're trying to cover all our bases here. lol)

Quite a few of the cheaper tickets I found I saw were out of Boston. There were a couple airlines that only flew out of the east coast and were quite cheap (something Blue?) You may very well be able to do better than $200.

After going back and forth between Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia, Hotfare (?), Priceline (last resort because of not knowing the times with 4 small kids), and each airline's own website, I was pretty shocked to find the lowest price at Travelocity. The best I could do on the airline websites was around $2000. I was surprised because most of what I'd read said the airline's own websites are usually the best deal. I'm glad I kept checking!

 

[NotUrsula]

That site is not a booking engine; you can use it to find prices, but you'll have to switch to another site to actually buy the tickets. However, all of the domestic airlines are on it, so far as I know, so it's great for checking fares. You'll need to register, but
they don't spam, so I don't find it to be an issue. If you find a set of flights you like, just jot down the times and target them on another engine.

The great thing about that site is that it lets you plug in several airports and dates at one time, so as to troll for the best deal.
Generally speaking, avoiding Friday, Sunday, and Monday will net the best deals. Usually, flying from a larger airport will save money on any airline but SWA, but every once in a while, there will be specials running out of smaller markets.

Also, if you are able to use it, you could download SideStep. Once given a set of parameters, it will keep trolling for you in background and notify you if it finds anything.

 

[lreichstein]

My husband had the idea to fly into JAX instead of MCO and then rent a car from JAX. We were able to obtain 4 tickets for $600 instead of $1300 for 4 to MCO Easter Week. We leave next Sat!

 

[Snow Brite]

Expedia: Under the flights section you can got to Airline Fare List and it lists all the rates currently available from X to Y. This is an easier way to find a low fare than typing in all the possible departure dates and arrival dates to get a lower fare. The restrictions are listed right there.

Orbitz: Is OWNED by the biggie airlines, so it is supposed to have the lowest rates available as they are not paying a commission. Not always true, but I check there first.

Travelocity: Lets you search by ANY date to find the lowest fare.


Most of all, be flexible on your dates. Try to travel on a Tuesday or Wednesday. If not then a Saturday.