Finding Cheap Airfare
Jan 26 '01
The Bottom Line Ticket online, travel when others don't want to and remember that your ticket will be cheaper the more restrictions you are willing to put up with.
Here are my web site's (http://www.MyRatePlan) top 10 tips to save money when buying an airline ticket:
1. More and more airlines are ticketing online. This is convenient, but the airline benefits when you don't take the time to compare prices. Using an online agent such as our partner OneTravel.com
(http://partner.onetravel.com/go/go.cfm?GoID=157), Travelocity or Expedia will facilitate this comparison, ensuring you get the best price available for your needs.
2. Travel when others don't want to: The airlines will make more of the "cheap seats" available when demand is historically low, in order to stimulate it. The lightest travel times are usually mid-week and Saturday, with very early or very late flights also often sparsely booked. Interestingly, it is often much more comfortable to travel during these periods, as the planes are not quite as full, and the skies not as congested.
3. Buy early: Usually the low-priced tickets go first, so the sooner you can make your travel plans, the better the fare you will likely get.
4. Stay over a Saturday night: The airlines could care less if you stay over a Saturday night. However, they do know that business people will pay more for their tickets, and those people generally don't want to stay the weekend. This neat little trick allows the airlines to segment their service, and offer much lower fares for leisure travel.
5. Fly from or to airports that have low fare carriers: Note that we did not say take low fare carriers--you may not need to do that to get the best price. Due to the commodity nature of airline pricing, the "full fare" carriers will usually match the pricing of carriers such as AirTran and Southwest. Often, they will cut off the inventory of these tickets before the low-fare carriers, but 5% of Delta seats is probably more than 100% of AirTran seats---so those prices are out there.
6. Wait for sales: There are always sales, just keep an eye out for them. Some of the airlines are starting to offer lower pricing for booking online through their web site. Nothing wrong with doing that, just remember tip #1 in this list. By the way, if there is a big sale after you buy your ticket, you can try and have your price adjusted to reflect the sale. The airline may charge you a $75-100 change fee, so the difference will need to be large to be worthwhile to you.
7. Leverage the Internet: Almost all of the airlines have a program where they will send you an e-mail in the middle of the week, letting you know what specials they have for that weekend. Generally, these are great deals if you want to engage in some spontaneous travel. There are also a variety of sites that work with the airlines to sell off inventory that might otherwise go unsold. In using those, keep in mind that the larger the discount, the more restrictions there will be on your flexibility to choose the airline, routing or time you can travel.
8. Buy full vacation packages: Often buying a package with airfare, hotel and car can be significantly less expensive (and faster) than trying to arrange all these components individually.
9. Keep checking: The airline revenue management systems are dynamic. A cheap fare not available today may show up again tomorrow. A good example--let's say there's a big boxing event in Las Vegas two weeks from Saturday, but the fight gets cancelled today. Lots of expected demand will not materialize, and the airline will likely open up the "cheap seats" to try and fill the plane back up.
10. Discount Coupons and certificates: Keep an eye out for these deals in supermarkets, coupon books and other places.. Although you will probably have to fly at less than ideal times to redeem them, these can lower your airfare significantly.
Visit our site at http://www.myrateplan.com for info on finding the best price for cellular, long distance, satellite TV, and other household services.
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