Booking flights

We just booked tickets to Hawaii for this November and found the best deal at travelocity after trying kayak and the others.

Southwest is usually the cheapest especially since they include 2 suitcases.

It's worth paying $10 for priority boarding.

I searched several. Finally found a good price for Delta. I called them directly, told them the price I saw. They beat it by another $80. Managed to get a round trip for $464.20 vs the $897 I started with. Of course another $200 for unaccompanied minor, but that was standard with all of them. I felt I did pretty good, but defiantly want to save time next flight.

Thanks for the advice Ben.

Southwest only flies into KC (4.5 hours from my home). I tried them and good rates. If they start flying to Wichita I'll look at them.

Jet Blue has a Sunday non-stop red eye from Sacramento to La Guardia and usually at a very good price; I've been tempted to try it.

But now my sister lives in Alexandria, VA. I can fly Jet Blue to the DC area but I have to go down to Oakland (they don't do that from Sacramento). Southwest goes to Dulles which is quite a ways out of the DC area.

sidestep.com used to be pretty good. Kayak bought them out so I don't know if it's the same. I haven't bought a plane ticket in a couple of years. Once you define your departure and return times and places, it searches 100's of websites. Seems to work. I just tried it and it works like sidestep.com use to. Imagine that...

Make sure that you click on all of the options under "Choose Sites to Compare vs. KAYAK" area at the bottom of the page.

Thanks I'll look at it.

> Southwest is usually the cheapest especially since they include 2 suitcases.
>
> It's worth paying $10 for priority boarding.

I always check in 24 hours in advance and wind up with A seats...and always get a window seat. 🙂

I find it's hit and miss. I will sometimes use kayak just to get an idea the cost but have always booked directly with the airline on line. The problem with some of the cheap flights is you end up spending way more time traveling than a non-stop. We just booked flights to Phoenix a couple of weeks ago for traveling next week and the best we could find was $750 for 2 round trip. But then at the same time we booked 2 round trip tickets again to Phoenix in October and only paid $400. It just takes a little planning ahead and persistence. But as you can see sometimes you just have to take it in the shorts.

Getting a direct flight from the West Coast to Kansas doesn't happen. There is always a lay over, typically Dallas, Minneapolis, or Colorado. I just look for best rates with as little lay over as possible.

They don't fly here.

As the oldtimers always say.........You can't get there from here.

> They don't fly here.

I know... That was for Karoly. 😉 I never pay the $10 "Priority" fee and still manage to get good seats.

I want the seat next behind the exit door on the right side of the plane because it has no seat in front of it.

On some airplanes there is no tray table; others have one in the armrest.

LOL that's nice if they flew here. Delta gave me great rates, and he get's window seat for 1/2 his trip. Luck of the draw on the other 1/2. I'll take that over $400 dollars more from others.

Ahhh...ok then it is worth it. 🙂

> LOL that's nice if they flew here. Delta gave me great rates, and he get's window seat for 1/2 his trip. Luck of the draw on the other 1/2. I'll take that over $400 dollars more from others.

Yeah don't blame ya in that case. Southwest use to not charge the unaccompanied minor fare so I always went with them even though I had to drive somewhat to get to the airport. By the time I had factored that price in with other airlines, it was still cheaper to fly Southwest. Not sure it they still do that for free or charge for it now.

There is a site named "fare compare" that not only finds the cheapest flight but shows the fares for every day leading up to the departure date to show the optimal time in advance to book a flight

I fly out of a small regional airport, (RDM), generally takes 2-3 legs to go anyplace. Because we have limited carriers (Alaska, Delta, United) I usually find the one that also has service at my destination and then pick that carrier for starters. I find that if you want to go to the NE, it is usually United, SE is Delta, west coast is Alaska, etc. Changing carriers isn't my idea of fun so I try to avoid that. In general carriers tend to have better fares on routes directly connected to their nubs, thus the northern states are United for instance (hub at ORD) whereas the southern states are better served by Delta (Hub at ATL). This isn't always true since there have been a lot of mergers, Delta now has a hub at MSP since merging with Northwest Airlines so some flights to NC from the NW end up going through MSP which seems out of the way!

I usually start with one of the travel sites to get a general feel and then go direct to the airline site.

Most of the carriers will allow you to display a fare table showing the rates, often changing your flight by a day can make a huge difference in cost.

I read an article a while back too on this topic, I believe tickets purchased T-W-T are generally cheaper regardless of the day the flight takes place.

I don't think there is any one magic bullet to always finding the best fare.

I can tell you that the best rates consistently on air cargo is with Alaska, about 40% less than Delta for same shipment.

I think it is also generally a popular misconception that the travel sites are going to save you money.

A little secret I have learned re: those sites and hotels for absolute certain is that the hotels hate them AND will almost always give you a better rate if you call them direct or even just walk in off the street, I have tested this theory 2-3 times in the last few years even spoke to the manager at one property that confirmed this to be true. On a trip in January of this year I made reservations at a hotel through their own web site where they had a "special" advertised, the rate at the door would of been cheaper, BUT they couldn't give it to me since I had already reserved. What I have been told is the local property would rather give you the savings, BECAUSE they have to pay some pretty heavy commissions to the travel web sites, where else do you think they make their money from?

SHG