Anyone ever do this? (Airline related)

[decker96]

Over spring break (end of March) we are planning a trip to FL. My in-laws have a condo in Ft. Myers where they spend 3-4 months in the winter and my grandparents live near Lakeland. We want to spend half the week with the IL's and the other half with my GP's. So, we're planning on flying into Ft. Myers and flying out of Orlando. I usually always book our flights on-line through Travelocity or Expedia, but I'm having problems getting a decent fare this time because I'm essentially trying to book two one-way trips. I can find decent prices from Orlando to Minneapolis, but the one-ways from Minneapolis to Ft. Myers are around $250 or more per person, just for one way and the times are not that great. That would put our tickets at over $350 and we have to buy 4 full-fares and one for our DD1 who is usually half fare.
Has anyone done this and gotten a half-way decent rate? I know flying into Ft. Myers is more expensive in general, but with 3 kids 7, 4 and 1, we really don't want to do round trip into one city and drive the 3+ hours to the other after traveling all day already. I suppose if we had to we could, but I'd rather not. Would I be better off to go with a travel agent on this one?
Thanks!

 

[janette]

Usually really hard to get good fares if you are not doing a standard round trip. If Southwest provides service to those cities they are probably the most likely offer decent one-way fares when they do their fare specials.

 

[justhat]

Are you looking at one-way tickets, or at multi-city tickets? I have done this often and usually the one-way tickets are much higher than the multi-city tickets. In Expedia (or whatever site you're using), just click on more options and then do multiple destinations. Also, double check on the half price for your 1 year old because when we booked our airfare to visit the in-laws in December, my daughter had to pay full price on Continental (she'll be 10 months then). We've flown on Continental with her before, when she was 3 months, and she was half price, but I guess they recently changed their policy cause we called up several times to check on this and each person told us full price. Not sure if it was the dates of the trip (12/18-12/23), but we didn't get a reduced rate.

 

[Amberle3]

You're not technically wanting to book one way tickets, you want an open-jaw ticket.

If you call the airline and tell them you want one-way tickets, believe me they're not going to tell you there's a cheaper option. Call them and ask for a quote on an open-jaw ticket.

 

[decker96]

Thanks everyone for your replies!

janette -- I wish they had Southwest out of Minneapolis, but they don't fly there. I know they have great rates alot. Unfortunately, our airport is pretty dominated by Northwest which makes getting better fares harder.

justhat -- I will do the multiple destination thing and see if that makes a difference. All the airlines I've been checking have all put her at 1/2 to 2/3 fare when I put the info into the computer.

Amberle3 -- What exactly is an open-jaw ticket? Can you book that on the airlines website or do you have to call them?

Any other suggestions, let me know!

 

[justhat]

Good luck with the reduced infant fare! For us it didn't matter too much as we got the in-laws to pay for it, otherwise we would not have been able to afford visiting them. It's the first thing they've ever bought for us! (Well, if you exclude food and clothing for DH prior to his 18th birthday.) We still get the reduced fare on Delta and US Airways, it seems it was only the December Continental ticket that was a problem. I hope you find cheaper rates-good luck with the multiple destinations tickets!

 

[Mary Ellen]

On Travelocity to get open-jaws you want 'Multiple Destinations' at the bottom of the pink box or click here. For Orbitz it is 'Mulit-City' or click here. Open Jaw is the travel industry term that apparently the on-line places came up with new name for when they 'went public'. The 2 destination cities that make up the 'open jaw' are close together and the cost is 1/2 the round trip to one added to 1/2 of the round trip of the other. There are regulations about how far apart the cities are allowed to be, but 2 cities in Florida shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Amberle3]

You can do it yourself, but frankly (and I might be biased here) but I'd call a travel agent and see what they can come up with for you.

An open-jaw ticket is a multi-city ticket with an open end. If you were to draw out your routing you'd have a triangle with an open end, or jaw. NWA's website will let you do it (they call it "multi city" on there).

But call the travel agent anyway, especially if you don't need a whole lot of flexibility in your plans (ie aren't likely to need to change dates etc). Travel agents have access to consolidator fares which are cheaper, NW often pops up there. Also sometimes NW has "companion" fares which are good when you have more than one person travelling, but their website doesn't necessarily automatically give them to you if they're available.

 

[kidzmom3]

I could be wrong, but I believe that using a travel agent for airline tickets usually incures a fee. Because they no longer get any benefit from the airlines. This is my understanding of the current travel agent climate.

 

[ahutton]

American Airlines also offers this as an option. My friend used to do a Milwaukee - Orlando - Phoenix trip every year to visit her family and got fares similar to an "on sale" round trip ticket.

 

[hercamore]

I have done multi city desstinations several times from Rochester.

You can do htis yourself on the NW airlines site as previous posters have mentioned.

herc.

 

[Amberle3]

Originally posted by kidzmom3
I could be wrong, but I believe that using a travel agent for airline tickets usually incures a fee. Because they no longer get any benefit from the airlines. This is my understanding of the current travel agent climate.

Not all travel agents charge a fee.

If an agent can find a good consolidator fare, the end cost to the client is less than they'd pay to the airline and the agent still earns some income.