Cheap airfares made easy
Apr 17 '00
It's getting easier to find a cheap fare. Just a month or so ago, I had to register for every airline site or cheap fare supersite I wanted to try, and keep track of passwords. Then it was necessary to browse around in "Outstanding Deals" or a similar section for super low fares. If I had a specific destination in mind, I would type in the city, and most often be told there was more than one airport. After that was straightened out, I would have to type in dates, times, number of passengers and age of passengers. If the fares were too high , or I wanted to check alternative dates for any other reason, I would have to start all over again, most often re-adding all of the information.
After checking a couple of dates, I often thought it would be easier to just call an airline or two, and generally did just that.
I was delighted to find that AOL has come up with a better mousetrap. Its AOL travel (http://aolsvc.travel/air) contains a wonderfully easy to use cheap fare finder that is most helpful for travelers who have some idea of where they want to go, but are flexible on dates. But even if you can fly only on a specific date, this site is well worth trying.
No registration is required to get at all the information. How delightful! Other travel sites are moving in this direction, and this is a most welcome development. The first information the site requests is your degree of flexibility. Check "Not Flexible" and you get the standard itinerary questions. Choices for an outbound flight pop up. Choose one and you are asked to choose a return flight. The itinerary and fare come up, and right underneath are a list of lower priced fares, if there are any, and other alternatives. The whole process is fast, efficient, and a guarantee that the best bargains will not be overlooked.
The "Very Flexible" choice is easier yet. Just choose a destination and you will be presented with a complete list of airlines along with the best deals they are offering to that city. I was looking for Orlando, Florida, and found out that most major airlines are offering very low fares ($138 round trip) for travel beginning in about three weeks. Right under this information, obviously the result of the latest fare sale and offering limited departure dates, were the next best fares. And under that were the next five best fares. Fares in each of the seven categories are arranged by airlines.
Each fare listing gives all restrictions, mostly dates. This is a tremendously helpful, very quick way to get the big picture about what airfare bargains are coming up. It is so easy to plug in another city if you want to get away, but would be happy with a number of destinations, or if you want to see if a nearby departure or arrival city would yield a better fare.
I have hunted low airfares on a number of sites, but none make the job easier than AOL travel.
The site offers nice extras too. It links to Flight Tracker, the very cool tool that provides a real time view of the location of any scheduled flight in the sky. I use this when my sons are flying, watching an admittedly fake-looking model plane move over the country, watching its altitude, and seeing if it is running on time. It is possible to see the plane circling for a landing, and when the thing lands safely, the site announces this fact. Other extras include the current day's airline schedules, baggage guidelines, airport maps and a "miles manager" that organizes and stores information on your frequent flyer miles.
AOL travel will also send e-mail fare alerts and updates on ticket delivery.
I found my fare on AOL, and now I'm going to see if I can find more. There are places I would like to see, and this is such an easy way to find out whether I can afford to get to them.
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