How To: Finding Cheap Airfare

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > How To: Finding Cheap Airfare

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

ThetaOmnikron posted:

Was playing around with fares on Hipmunk and followed the booking link to the airline's (Qatar) website� but once there, the Hipmunk-quoted price is gone. Any ideas?

Mackieman posted:

Hipmunk utilizes fare data as posted to one of the GDS (Global Distribution System) platforms out there. Airlines update the GDS of their choice (sometimes more than one) a couple of times per day. Thus it is entirely plausible that a fare with a limited number of seats sells out before the next GDS update, resulting in a tool that utilizes GDS data showing a fare that the ticketing carrier won't actually sell. Verification of fare availability is what is happening when you click on a link to go to a booking engine and they show you a splash page that says, "Hold on just a sec..." or whatever.

To bring this up again since I'm getting this same problem (find fares on ITA for the route I want for about 700 euros but can't book anything cheaper than 1100, might as well spend c. 2000+ to fly business in that case)...

It's not necessarily slow updating, it's likely to be fare classes with low prices but no availability being shown. I've had the same QR fares pop up for a few days now on ITA.

Mackieman, do you have any experience with fuel dumping or something similar? I've tried to read the thread on Flyertalk but they're too cryptic for me. I'm looking for HEL-SIN-HEL 30/12 - 5/1 with flexibility on the return. Cheapest I can get is about 1100e total with two separate bookings, HEL-CPH-HEL and CPH-SIN-CPH (not direct flights).

One thing I did in the summer was fly from CAI to SIN using QR since fares from there are really really cheap but I can't get from HEL-CAI in an easy and cheap manner e: I know that's not a fuel dump but just saying they have some cool fares from there incase anyone reading this needs to get to Asia and can fly cheaply to Cairo

Geriatric Pirate fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Nov 19, 2013

# ¿ Nov 19, 2013 18:57

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 12:50

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Mackieman posted:

I've used FDs in the past, but not for quite some time as I do most of my travel on UA and I know some of the guys that work there and know that they watch for this sort of thing. A temporary savings now is not worth getting my account closed or an add/collect notice issued (though the latter seems more unlikely than the former). Something like that old adage about not making GBS threads where you sleep.

That said, I haven't done one in ages because they're simply not that easy to do anymore. The guys posting in those threads at FT and MP are pretty hardcore about it, thus the cryptic language. There is a subset of the population that is in the game to get as much as they possibly can for as little expenditure as possible and they're willing to do almost anything to achieve that goal. I'm decidedly not a part of that mindset and while I hate YQ as much as the next guy, doing a bunch of ethically questionable stuff to get around it, especially given the potential downsides, I choose not to engage in the activity. Thus, I don't know any of the current 1X or 3X dumps nor do I have the desire to decipher them.

On the topic, there is a lawsuit in New York District Court where a group of travelers are suing BA over their YQ charges on award tickets, noting that they aren't, in fact, tied to the price of fuel as BA's CoC says they are. The outcome of that will be interesting to watch as it may cause airlines to remove YQ as we know it and either build it into the base fare or simply call it some other kind of service fee that doesn't have anything to do with fuel. More info on that topic can be found here.

Edit: Just realized you were asking for fare help too, heh.

30/12 - 5/1 HEL-CDG-SIN//SIN-AMS-HEL, AF on the outbound, KL on the return. 780EUR.

Yeah, I know fuel dumping is risky and requires a bit too much flexibility for my liking (and it was funny to read about those travellers who got stranded in RGN after taking advantage of super cheap ex-RGN flights).

Thanks for the help though, I get a similar fare on ITA as well (same for QR CPH-SIN-CPH) but am not able to recreate it on any booking engine except Hipmunk but from there I can't book it. Any tips? edit: refers to your second edit

# ¿ Nov 19, 2013 19:39

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Mackieman posted:

Yeah, looks like QR is publishing poo poo data, not sure. If you know of a good travel agent you might call them and feed them the info from ITA and see if they can ticket it, but I bet they can't. QR's site doesn't even show service on January 5.

Edit: OneTravel seems to want to book it. May give it a shot.

Can't seem to find it on OneTravel.

Frustration mounting: I also found a great �1750 Z/J fare on AF/KL on my desired travel dates but can't find it anywhere online either. About �1700 return in J if I extend my stay in Singapore until the 8th, decisions, decisions...

Thanks though!

edit: in the depths of my desperation, I figure it out (anyone else who can't find a fare they found on ITA matrix on any booking engine should check this out too)

http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/ita-displays-a-fare-i-cannot-find-it-on-the-airline-website-where-to-go.11421/

That thread is great, but the key point for me was to use Orbitz Multicity but instead of typing out something like "Copenhagen - Singapore - Copenhagen", I look up the cheapest fare on ITA which in this case was CPH - DOH - SIN - DOH - CPH, and type that entire thing into multi-city (so looking for flights from Copenhagen to Doha, from Doha to Singapore, Singapore to Doha, Doha to Copenhagen). And that gets me a �700 flight with a B787 segment instead of �1300 flight with a 13 hour layover in Guangzhou and makes me very happy. Though I'm still a bit annoyed that there was a TK promotion on the route for �550 according to a local website that's similar to Flyertalk's "Mileage run deals" forum.

edit2: actually that doesn't work

orbitz shows me the flights but when I try to book, it tells me they are no longer available. And then shows them to me again when I search again.

Geriatric Pirate fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Nov 19, 2013

# ¿ Nov 19, 2013 20:33

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Blut posted:

Just a tip Geriatric Pirate but I had a similar experience with finding some flights on ITA that wouldn't return on an airlines website earlier this year (Emirates in this case). I tried every booking agent I could think of to find them but was having no luck. Eventually got the flights booked on Orbitz, after a couple of failed attempts and was over the moon.

A few days later got an email from Orbitz saying the flights were cancelled, took another 5 business days after that before I got the money refunded back into my account. So I ended up having to book flights 10 days later than I'd planned at a greater cost than if I'd just gotten the original ones available on the Emirates site.

Taught me a lesson anyway....

Yep, heard of this as well but have also heard they mostly cancel only fares that are obviously mistakes (also US DOT and other bodies like that often prevent it), the fare I was looking at was still reasonable for the route, just much cheaper than anything else at the time.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2013 22:18

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Cometa Rossa posted:

I'm looking for Vancouver to Lyon (Seattle or Paris can substitute if need be) for February 6 - 16. The lowest I can find is around $950 and it's not getting any cheaper, I would've thought this would be an inexpensive time to go to Europe.

Cheapest thing I could find on Matrix was $880 for YVR - LYS and then CDG - YVR (it will probably be about $70 from LYS to CDG by train or LCC so not much saving)... and I looked at all sorts of weird city combinations. I don't think you're going to get much cheaper than $950.

Itinerary

Vancouver (YVR) to Lyon (LYS) - Thu, Feb 6
WestJet Vancouver (YVR) to Toronto (YYZ) - Thu, Feb 6
WestJet 706 Dep: 10:15AM Arr: 5:41PM 4h 26m Boeing 737 Economy (D)
Layover in YYZ 0h 59m

Air France Toronto (YYZ) to Paris (CDG) - Thu, Feb 6
Air France 351 Dep: 6:40PM Arr: 8:05AM 7h 25m Boeing 777 Economy (V)
Layover in CDG Fri, Feb 7 2h 20m

Air France Paris (CDG) to Lyon (LYS) - Fri, Feb 7
Air France 7652 Dep: 10:25AM Arr: 11:35AM 1h 10m Airbus A321 Economy (L)

Paris (CDG) to Vancouver (YVR) - Sun, Feb 16
Air France Paris (CDG) to Amsterdam (AMS) - Sun, Feb 16
Air France 1240 Dep: 7:15AM Arr: 8:35AM 1h 20m Airbus A321 Economy (L)
Layover in AMS 4h 45m

Air France Amsterdam (AMS) to Vancouver (YVR) - Sun, Feb 16
Air France 8378 Dep: 1:20PM Arr: 2:20PM 10h 0m Airbus A330 Economy (V)
OPERATED BY KLM ROYAL DUTCH AIRLINES
Cost per passenger (including taxes & fees) $879.20
Total cost for 1 passenger $879.20

edit:

or $860 if you want to arrive in Paris and leave from Lyons
Vancouver (YVR) to Paris (CDG) - Thu, Feb 6
WestJet Vancouver (YVR) to Toronto (YYZ) - Thu, Feb 6
WestJet 700 Dep: 7:00AM Arr: 2:29PM 4h 29m Boeing 737 Economy (D)
Layover in YYZ 4h 11m

Air France Toronto (YYZ) to Paris (CDG) - Thu, Feb 6
Air France 351 Dep: 6:40PM Arr: 8:05AM 7h 25m Boeing 777 Economy (V)
Fri, Feb 7

Lyon (LYS) to Vancouver (YVR) - Sun, Feb 16
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Lyon (LYS) to Amsterdam (AMS) - Sun, Feb 16
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 1412 Dep: 7:00AM Arr: 8:50AM 1h 50m Embraer RJ-170/190 Economy (L)
OPERATED BY KLM CITYHOPPER Layover in AMS 4h 30m

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Amsterdam (AMS) to Vancouver (YVR) - Sun, Feb 16
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 681 Dep: 1:20PM Arr: 2:20PM 10h 0m Airbus A330 Economy (V)

Cost per passenger (including taxes & fees) $859.20
Total cost for 1 passenger $859.20

Geriatric Pirate fucked around with this message at 12:44 on Jan 11, 2014

# ¿ Jan 11, 2014 12:40

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Mackieman posted:

The question is whether or not the fares that are available are fares you're willing to pay, and whether or not you're willing to gamble on them not going up. The cheapest I see is nigh on $1200 for Egypt Air and Atalia flights, and friends don't let friends fly lovely airlines. Air Frog is running about the same, so that's an option.

JFK is abound $900 or so on TK, so you might consider checking to see if you can get to JFK for cheaper than
$300 and let that value judgement be your guide.

EgyptAir and Alitalia are both ok. Plenty of trip reports on them up on Airliners.net and flyertalk.com if anyone wants to check. Safety records aren't bad for either one.

# ¿ Jan 28, 2014 16:26

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Irukandji Syndrome posted:

Is there any way to travel from northern California to northern Florida and back without it costing $400? Time and date is extremely flexible here, though I was thinking of going in summer (may-June). I've checked around, but that seems to be the bare minimum and I was hoping for something a little cheaper.

How long are you going for? Go to ITA Matrix, do 2 one way searches, use both the "nearby airports" and "See calendar of lowest fares" options. With that I can find flights a flight from SFO to Tampa for $120 and a flight from Orlando to SFO for $170. Not sure if those classify as "North Florida" though. edit: just looked at a map and they don't, sorry

Geriatric Pirate fucked around with this message at 12:52 on Feb 5, 2014

# ¿ Feb 5, 2014 12:49

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

pomegranates posted:

Uh, so I just did a search on Kayak and found a flight from Honolulu to Jakarta (via Manila) for $525 with Philippine Air, departing July 19th. It's considerably cheaper than the other fares I've been seeing and almost half of the price quoted on the airline's website for the same flight. I'd buy it in a heartbeat but it almost sounds too good to be true; is this some kind of horrible trick? The fact that nothing even approaching that price comes up on Philippine Air's website is what concerns me the most. I usually avoid buying from third-parties if I can, but this is awfully tempting.

EDIT: Haha nevermind, I decided to click the link to see what would happen and it just took me straight through to the Philippine Air website anyway, quoting me $975. How did Kayak manage to be so off? Even without tax the fare is still $775.

EDIT 2: This was a lot less expensive a month ago. Why didn't I buy tickets earlier?

I had the same problem earlier in this thread, found a great fare on ITA but wasn't able to book it and didn't know any travel agents I could easily ask

By the way, for your flight, consider this option: Book a flight with Delta from HNL to SIN for $436 (via NRT), book a flight with any low cost carrier from Singapore to Jakarta for $60. Assuming you are trying to get a one way flight instead of a return, if your price is for a return then you have a really good deal. Transiting through Singapore is not only painless but it's actually fun, best airport in the world.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2014 13:04

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

pomegranates posted:

Thanks for the tip! I just checked and going via Singapore comes out, weirdly, to $525. I even get to make a brief stop at Narita (also weird, if I wanted to get off there it would cost $200 more, I don't think I'll ever understand how airfares work). The layover in Singapore will be a lengthy seven hours in the middle of the night but it doesn't sound like the worst place in the world to be stuck for a while. I mean, I once had a layover in a literal field and I survived.

Where did you check your Singapore -> Jakarta flights? Kayak/other booking sites are not that great for low cost airline coverage, for those you want to check out Skyscanner (which will then send you somewhere else for booking, it's just a search engine)

# ¿ Feb 13, 2014 14:50

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Skyscanner also allows you to do monthly searches as well as searches to multiple destinations (i.e. an entire country). Not as good for fares on legacies/flag carries as ITA but ITA has really bad LCC coverage in Europe/Asia whereas Skyscanner includes them. Skyscanner also has multi-ticket itineraries whereas in ITA everything is on one booking. In short, use both :P

# ¿ Feb 20, 2014 01:59

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

gaan kak posted:

Is there an easy way to find good airfare to Europe if I am very flexible with dates and entry/exit point? My brother and I are backpacking around Europe for 6 weeks this summer, and the only stipulation is that we need to be back by the last week of July. We live in different cities right now, but we'd like to meet up and fly out from one location.

I've been using Skyscanner, searching From: USA and To: Germany, France, etc., but that's a bit tedious.

Check here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/, especially the "Good Deals in Economy" thread. They talk way too much about maximizing points on the rest of the forum but there might still be good deals.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2014 10:20

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Redczar posted:

I'm doing some looking around myself but was interested to see if you guys could find any alternatives to what I'm finding for what I want to do.

Point of origin: I usually leave through ORD, but I live in central MI so it's a bit of a drive.
Destination: Santiago, Chile (SCL)
Dates possible: Beginning of June until middle of August

I want to take a trip down there for about 17 nights (though this is somewhat flexible) for as cheaply as possible.

Lowest I can come up with currently is 1108USD round trip, but would welcome any ways to push this lower. Prices are usually around 1200.

Thanks in advance!

Incase you haven't booked this yet..

$550 with Spirit ORD LIM ORD
$260 with LAN LIM SCL LIM

So there is some scope for savings there, but you have to fly Spirit (extra fees) and get off at LIM.

The $550 is a fare for June 2 and return June 18..

You have slightly higher fares, like $710 on Copa Airlines (they're decent) available all of June and July from ORD to LIM via PTY (Panama City), and the LAN fares are available as well so you could shave about $200 off the price if you're willing to pay for the inconvenience of changing planes at Panama and Lima, and having an unprotected connection at Lima (make sure you have at least 5 hours for that to cover for delays).

# ¿ Mar 21, 2014 12:51

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Curl_like_smoke posted:

Yeah, of course. I just ran these two searches to use as examples. Both are for 2 adults, for 12-16 nights, looking at departure dates of 5/17 +one month, and have FCO, NAP, FLR, and VCE as possible destinations.

Search A only uses MIA as a an origin and includes flights into FLR for as little as $897.
Search B uses MIA, JFK, ORD, DFW, and MCO, and now the cheapest option is $1232, the cheapest out of MIA is 1592, and it doesn't show any options between Miami and Florence. I saw this using the options in the FROM/TO box.

Hopefully that gives you enough information.

Yeah, I have the same problem sometimes with ITA. Never just use one search / one search engine.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2014 22:38

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

DontAskKant posted:

I'm seeing flights on Skyscanner for May 1 to May 5 from Seoul to Sapporo for $239. (or May 2 to May 6?) Does Skyscanner sometimes just show incorrect prices? Some sort of trick I need to know?

The $500 Yangon, Myanmar flights don't show up either.

Just want to get out of Seoul for a bit for cheap.

http://instagram.com/p/nIFV9Kxn1l/

What's the problem here? Same fare not on ITA? If so it's because it's by an LCC which isn't in ITA's system.

Looks legit to me, I followed the links all the way to the Jin Air (LCC subsidiary of Korean) air website and managed to get on a booking page with $152 tickets, though I was google translating the page from Korean so don't know the full story.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2014 17:10

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Jeoh posted:

ITA Matrix is driving me insane with fares that are no longer available. For example, I'm looking for a flight from AMS/RTM/BRU to PEK/PVG for 10 to 14 days, in August or September. Now they're showing �531 tickets through Emirates (which is pretty decent), but the prices on their website is 300 more (just a more expensive fare). Any websites where I can actually see live fares, or am I going to have to do this manually?

Hmm, but do you specifically want to fly Emirates? Because I just did a general calendar search starting from the 3rd of August and you can get �550-�600 tickets for almost departure date starting on the 19th of August. Emirates isn't that nice anyway if you get stuck in a 10-abreast 777. Cheapest I saw was �546 with Swiss.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2014 22:17

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

TwoDogs1Cup posted:

I'm looking at a return flight from Dublin to Chicago from Sep 15th till the 30th. Is �650 a good price? I've always booked packaged deals with somewhere like Expedia

Looks pretty good based on a quick search. You could get it a bit cheaper (�590) if you have +-2 days flexibility, check ITA Matrix for that.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2014 14:23

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

blueyedevil posted:

So I'm moving to Spain from the US in a month in a half and won't be making any return flights until next July.

I'm departing from Omaha Eppley (OMA) and my destination will be Madrid-Barajas (MAD). I'd preferably like to keep it to just one stop (most flights I'm seeing stop in ORD or DFW). I'm planning on departing on Thursday July the 24th, although this is flexible by two days either way or so.

Since I don't have a return leg planned (the date is too far out), the costs are astronomical. The airline sites are listing at $2500+ with IAT Matrix and Hipmunk et al spitting out similar prices. Skyscanner has much cheaper prices ($800+) but I'm not sure if it's legit.

Would it simply be wiser to buy a round-trip ticket for the large savings and change the return leg date for a fee? Are sites like skyscanner legitimate and reliable? Should I suck it up and look for flights with two stops?

Thanks.

Skyscanner is legit. You don't book anything there yourself, it redirects you to a booking site. The searches will also list multiple places from where you can get the same ticket:

"Norwegian" = book directly with Norwegian, all those other sites are booking sites that offer the same flight

# ¿ Jun 11, 2014 18:57

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

blueyedevil posted:

So sites like Book Airfare and Senturia et al are legitimate? And should I just get the one-way flight from one of them for $800 instead of purchasing a round trip from BA or Lufthansa and then changing my return-leg date?

Well, I wouldn't know about those specific sites. Is Skyscanner not giving you something legitimate like eBookers along with them? If not, at least Senturia looks a bit dodgy...

btw, just book the return ticket, it seems cheaper than the 1 ways

Geriatric Pirate fucked around with this message at 09:32 on Jun 12, 2014

# ¿ Jun 12, 2014 09:26

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

blueyedevil posted:

Amy idea how much it will cost to change my return leg date?

Dunno how much it is in practice but according to the ticket rules for the outbound leg... it's probably this + difference in ticket price

code:

    CHANGES
      ANY TIME
        CHARGE USD 300.00 FOR REISSUE.
        CHILD/INFANT DISCOUNTS APPLY.
        WAIVED FOR DEATH OF PASSENGER.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2014 14:35

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

blueyedevil posted:

Difference in the ticket price meaning the difference between a return leg and a direct flight? That's about $1000 right there.

Yeah I don't know the details here on between what it would be, i.e. one leg of a return flight (lower fare, you can get the breakdown on ITA) or a direct flight

# ¿ Jun 12, 2014 17:14

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Mackieman posted:

DUB had a sale from the east coast and ORD recently, but that seems about right for west coast origination. You can try to find a good fare off the east coast and see if you can get from LA to the east coast for less than the price of the west coast ticket, but I doubt you'll find anything that really makes the effort worth it, what with it being separate tickets and stuff.

What I would do is just find the cheapest tickets from LAX to LON or Paris or something like that and then do the second leg on a Euro LCC instead of trying two tickets in the US. For instance Norwegian has LAX-LGW flights for as low as $310 (one way) and from LGW you can get to DUB really easily. Use ITA's calendar search if you're flexible with dates.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2014 19:22

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Mackieman posted:

It's a pretty soul crushing experience in coach, though, with 28" pitch. I'm flying on them SXF-OSL in December but paid the extra fee to pick seats in advance so I could snag the exit row for my wife and I. Best $13 ever spent.

the pitch is not 28" (within Europe, haven't tried the 787), it's like 31" or something, similar to most carriers, better than Ryanair. And the seats are soft (unlike most recaro slimlines) so your knees won't hurt from hitting the seat in front. Way better than Ryanair anyway. I'm tall and can tolerate non-exit row seats on intraEurope flights. That being said, I've never had any trouble getting the exit row on DY at the airport.. Got it today (flying in 1.5h), had it on my flight here, almost always get it even though i show up at the airport like 1h before normally (there's no web checkin on DY)

And free Wifi (though its slow as hell)

E: On the plane, was wrong, seats are hard back after all.

Geriatric Pirate fucked around with this message at 12:18 on Sep 24, 2014

# ¿ Sep 24, 2014 10:59

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

On a more general note, I would add Google Flights as a tool to find flights to the OP. It's not as comprehensive as ITA (misses some things and is not able to check fares for a few airlines directly) but the interface is much much much easier to use.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2014 09:21

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Mackieman posted:

That's a thought, but my issue is that Google Flights was made so much easier that it killed a lot of the power of ITA. However, because ITA has been mostly broken for the last couple of months, Hipmunk is looking better by the hour. I'll start playing around with Google's interface a little more so I can provide accurate details about it.

Google Flights isn't a more powerful tool or as comprehensive as a matrix+skyscanner search, it's just really easy to use. It does cool things that ITA doesn't such as actually recommending alternative airports/dates if it's significantly cheaper (i.e. "fly into ANA instead of LAX and save $70"). It also makes searching for e.g. oneworld airlines a lot easier, which is cool because I never thought of myself as an MR person but now I'm thinking that I could potentially fly enough in the next 4/5 months to bump my QR Gold to Platinum while still having enjoyable vacations.

edit: yeah, that's basically what you said actually :P so then I guess my post is basically about my favorite features of Flights

Geriatric Pirate fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Oct 7, 2014

# ¿ Oct 7, 2014 17:31

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Umm I'm an EU citizen so Schengen migration rules aren't that relevant to me but this proof of onward ticket is something that I've been asked like once or twice out of 70+ countries that I've visited, I don't imagine it will be a big problem in the EU. Just tell them you're leaving overland or something or that you have enough money for a ticket in your bank account.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2014 15:13

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Mackieman posted:

This is not sound advice. Not having paperwork in order when visiting other countries is a great way to get your passport flagged or other poo poo that will inhibit your ability to travel and/or cost you a ton of money. "Oh, they won't let you in so you need a last minute one way back home? That'll be $3000."

It's simply a bad idea.

I'm just saying it's a rule that in my experience has barely ever been enforced, just like rules about having having a yellow fever vaccination or something like that. Sure it's better to do things by the book if you can but a �20 burner ticket to a country which doesn't make any sense itinerary wise is way more likely to get caught by an immigration officer than "I'll spend a month meeting friends in Germany and then go see Eastern Europe by taking a bus to Vienna, Bratislava and then Zagreb and then buy a ticket to fly home" or "Since I'm going to spend 3 months here in Germany I figured it would be cheaper for me to buy a ticket after I arrive, here's proof of funds", so then your options become a one-way ticket way out into the future (btw check out OSL-FLL or LGW-FLL or ARN-FLL for Norwegian's fares, they can easily be sub $200) or a flexi ticket.

edit: you could also get a fully refundable ticket, but #1) you'll have to go through the hassle of getting a refund and #2) immigration officials are not stupid and they'll immediately ask you why you have a fully refundable ticket

Geriatric Pirate fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Oct 13, 2014

# ¿ Oct 13, 2014 16:01

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Blinkman987 posted:

Looking for this ticket for 2 adults. Skyteam, Star Alliance preferred:

Thurs, Dec 18th out of LIM to CUZ. Thurs, Dec 25th out of CUZ back to LIM. Preferable late morning, early afternoon departures.

Every flight I'm seeing is $300 round trip and I assume this ticket can be had as low as $200-$225 should I know where to look or book at the right time.

If you're Peruvian or live in Peru you can get the trip for <$130 per person roundtrip. Check out Avianca's Peruvian website.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2014 16:48

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

sellouts posted:

If you haven't booked yet it looks like StarPeru is 235?

Nah, they're just sneaky fuckers who only quote the price with tax at the next stage of booking... about 295 total.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2014 10:01

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Bread Set Jettison posted:

Origin: Boston
Destination: Dublin
Duration of trip with dates: april 19th to April 26
Flexibility: Flexible with the times but no the dates, though I assume since its international its gonna be a red eye

We've been peeping flights for this date for 3 months now, trying to get cheap tickets for our honeymoon. For some unknown reason, prices in april to ireland are 943, but prices from now to march are 200-300$ cheaper. Its been that way for months, and we were hoping it would drop soon. Idk did we miss the sweet booking spot or something?

It seems like weekend departures are quite expensive. Even moving both dates 1 day forward saves $170+. It's also quite far until your flights so it probably makes sense to keep waiting, see if things become cheaper after Thanksgiving or Xmas, but there's an element of risk to that (as always).

Alternatively, you could save like $60 by repositioning to JFK for $120 RT with B6 (flights available all day long) and then flying DL+AF to DUB for $750 RT, but it's probably not worth the trouble.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2014 17:00

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Mackieman posted:

Hedging used to be more prevalent that it is today but largely went away with the financial recession in 2008. Now that prices are low again, I wouldn't be surprised to see airlines start socking away some hedges with their spare cash, especially Delta and Southwest.

Err I think its the opposite, hedging became more prevalent after 2008, mainly because of the huge rise in oil price that came just before. Hedging with futures/swaps (most common) is also costless (well there are transaction costs, not huge though, but enough so that Parker at US said no to hedging because it just meant Wall St fees), so no cash is put down. You just lock in today's price regardless of whether prices go up or down.

As for whether it will affect airfares, it should, if not yet then in the next few years. Airlines can lock in today's price if they want...

# ¿ Jan 12, 2015 06:33

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Bread Set Jettison posted:

Origin: Boston
Destination: Dublin
Duration of trip with dates: april 19th to April 26
Flexibility: Flexible with the times but no the dates, though I assume since its international its gonna be a red eye

We've been peeping flights for this date for 3 months now, trying to get cheap tickets for our honeymoon. For some unknown reason, prices in april to ireland are 943, but prices from now to march are 200-300$ cheaper. Its been that way for months, and we were hoping it would drop soon. Idk did we miss the sweet booking spot or something?

Bread Set Jettison posted:

So it's almost January and flights are now 942. Keep waiting or are these just gonna be the prices?

E: Welp gently caress prices are going up, Im gonna book now.

E2: I checked again this morning and the flights are back to 943

E3: Welp back up again. Yeah I guess I should just book now.

The price of impatience/risk aversion:

Indirect flights now available at $788 with 1 hr connection in FRA, direct flights $844..

# ¿ Jan 19, 2015 16:45

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

sellouts posted:

Interesting question to me -- what gets you from South Pacific to South America or Central America without North America?

That lan flight from akl to scl?

QF to SCL from SYD, various Asian connections

# ¿ Jan 21, 2015 21:59

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Grimes posted:

I have a question about the Matrix search. The flights I find on it are about $200 cheaper, but of course I can't actually book the flights through the site, and it tells me to take my itinerary to a travel agent.

-How close can I expect to get to the cost quoted on the search?
-Should I go through a travel agent?
-When you say book directly with the airline, do I do that online or over the phone? Online, I can't find prices anywhere close to what the Matrix search shows.

You should at least be able to find the exact same fares on some search engines like hipmunk that use ITA (Google flights also does and provides links to places to book) or by doing a segment by segment search on Orbitz (http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/ita-displays-a-fare-i-cannot-find-it-on-the-airline-website-where-to-go.11421/). It might still be unbookable though, in which case contact a travel agent if you have one that you can easily ask to make sure but don't expect much.

If the flight is not bookable, then the next cheapest flight is basically the next cheapest alternative.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2015 14:09

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

BobTheCow posted:

This is a bit of a nebulous question. I don't fly frequently, so I don't have any airline allegiance, miles accrued, or credit card with points for flying. This year I'm planning on a trip from D.C. to L.A., and a later trip from D.C. to Europe (London or Dublin). I don't expect to make any other flights in the next year.

Does it make sense to look for credit cards with rewards for flights and/or commit to an airline for both trips for the sake of earning miles? Or should I just book the cheapest options I can find when I'm ready and not worry about it since I don't fly often enough for those sorts of options to matter? (Which is what I assume at the moment, just wanted to double check.)

Two return flights on the same airline + fairly basic credit card strategy would be enough for a free domestic round trip (probably even a trip to South America or Europe), but is it worth the effort? Google a bit on the latest credit card offers and "manufactured spend" strategies (i.e. where you spend money without really spending it, for instance with cashback type deals - many of these are of questionable legality, but if you're going to be spending a few thousand bucks anyway it might make sense to get a credit card that will help you earn points), have a look at blogs like One Mile at a Time or View from the Wing and FlyerTalk's beginners forum.

You definitely SHOULD get a frequent flier card with each of the three alliances and some independent airlines like Alaska because they cost absolutely nothing.

edit: I should add though, the flights themselves don't help you that much, but signing up for the right credit card can

Geriatric Pirate fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Feb 24, 2015

# ¿ Feb 24, 2015 22:24

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

sellouts posted:

I just booked Dubai with my wife over Thanksgiving for $750 each round trip, direct on Emirates. They are having a 2:1 deal right now on flights to Dubai from the US. The same flight over Christmas was over 2200 each.

We will be using this to book a nested ticket to the Maldives or somewhere else in the region for the majority of the time, with a day or two on each end to protect us for any misconnects and to decompress/prepare for the 16 hour flight.

Qatar Airways is having an insane global sale until tomorrow, got myself Frankfurt to Colombo and Colombo to New York in the summer (all travel must be complete before July 10 though) for �1200... in business class.

edit: the sale is on for all over the world, and for economy and business - I just took advantage of wanting to go to Sri Lanka and the extra "discount" that you get flying out of CAI or CMB on Middle Eastern carriers

Geriatric Pirate fucked around with this message at 12:30 on Mar 12, 2015

# ¿ Mar 12, 2015 12:26

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Jossos posted:

Low-cost carrier, pay extra for everything. Iceland Air do offer free stop-overs up to 7 days, so if you can fit it in on the way there/back I highly recommend doing just that. Iceland is beautiful, summer is a great time to visit as well.

Keflavik airport is pretty small and easy to get around.

I haven't flown them but based on trip reports I've read they're just a normal European carrier now, except that they charge for food in economy. Free checked bags, 32" seat pitch and AVOD IFE aren't exactly LCC characteristics.

Also to FISHMANPET you're overplanning your trip (I've seen you in the Europe thread too), it's over a year until you go, relax. You never know what's going to happen with flights that far ahead. For example, for the past year or so, Scandinavia-NYC/LAX/SFO-Scandinavia tickets have been dirt cheap because airlines are fighting Norwegian. This probably won't last, but you will have other things come up. IcelandAir being the cheapest option is also a recent development. Who knows what effect WOW Air (another Iceland carrier, this time a true LCC) will have on prices, they advertised some really attractive fares last year.

Geriatric Pirate fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Mar 22, 2015

# ¿ Mar 22, 2015 14:19

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

Do you have a booking reference (this is probably the record locator)? If so, you can try it out here https://www.checkmytrip.com or on https://booking.wowair.co.uk/manage/change-booking/
You can also check the first three digits of your e-ticket number and see what airline it is really for. Note that this is not necessarily the airline that will operate your flight, merely the one that it's ticketed on - but at least you can see if Canadian Western is a real airline...
You can also check on BMI Regional's website with your record locator (i.e. booking reference) and see what kind of flight it says you have booked - if any.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2015 18:47

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

RattiRatto posted:

Is there any websites that let you only choose the departure airport? That's because i just want to see the cheapest flights around starting from my city.

Google flights

# ¿ Apr 4, 2015 16:19

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

smackfu posted:

Sometimes it means "only 3 seats left at this price."

Almost always this (more accurately, 3 seats left in this fare class), which makes it a bit meaningless as prices for different fare classes change anyway and they can increase availability in that fare class later..

# ¿ Apr 21, 2015 14:45

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 12:50

Geriatric Pirate: Apr 25, 2008; by Nyc_Tattoo

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

My situation is a slightly unusual one:

- Origin: Savannah, so I could fly out of Atlanta (4hrs away) or Charleston SC (2hrs away) as long as I know the day before so I can make plans to travel there by bus/train/car
- Destination: Berlin, but my understanding is the 6hr train ride is only like �50 or so from Frankfurt, and I assume Frankfurt has more flights.
- Duration of trip: One-way trip. The plan is to stay with my girlfriend in Berlin for a month or two until I can land a contract job, likely in Africa or the Middle East
- Flexibility: the big one, I'm pretty tight on cash, and extremely flexible on timeline. I wouldn't want to leave any earlier than next week, but generally speaking anytime in May is fine, I have no specific obligations. Earlier being slightly better than later.

I notice that most airfare search engines only have "+/- 3 days" as an option, but is there any good way to look at an entire upcoming month to find the softest spots? I know the OP says that true super-deals are rare, but I have a pretty broad timeframe.

Matrix allows a 1 month calendar search as well as multiple airports searches (though these can sometimes be less powerful than single airport searches and miss out on stuff)

# ¿ Apr 29, 2015 13:58

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > How To: Finding Cheap Airfare

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