Cheap tickets? Forget the Net

by Jerry Guo on

Here are some tried and true tips from Rob Pelton (of National Geographic) on how to get the cheapest airline tickets. His take home message? “Low, low airfares aren’t always on the Web.” His top tips?

  • Some deals can’t be found online. That’s because many low budget airlines don’t have ticket offices accessible from the Internet, or from the Internet in the states.
  • Local ticket agents can do wonders, from taking advantage of bereavement fares to getting you discounts reserved for airline employees.
  • Fly by the seat of your pants. Go to a hub destination, like Frankfurt or Amsterdam, and then get cheap tickets from the backpacking district, where resellers often camp out.
  • Fly free! (By sitting in the cargo hold of a pilot who might be looking for some company on overnight hauls).

Midwesterners: take a post vacation vacation in Hawaii

by Grant Martin on

Continental and Northwest are currently in a bit of a fare war for each other’s Honolulu markets. So if you’re anywhere in the Midwest and could use a mini-vacation in January, check kayak for your fares; they just dropped to around the 400$ range.

Normal fares for this route are anywhere from 600 – 1500$, so this is a pretty good discount. Itineraries appear to work best traveling from Monday to Wednesday, so I would make sure to do a flex search (+/- 3 days) to make sure that you can find the best deals.

I’m getting the price out of the Detroit and Minneapolis markets but shop around, the fare could be good from elsewhere as well. Travel before the first couple of weeks in February to take advantage of the fare.

This might make a good “surprise! we’re going to Hawaii next week!” Christmas gift and is a lot less expensive than that Lexus you were about to get.

One thumb down for Kayak.com

by Jerry Guo on

This might be a controversial position, but I’m not a fan of Kayak anymore. It’s gotten rave reviews for being an all-you-can-eat airfare conglomerate that doesn’t even charge you a buck (it works to aggregate data from other for-profit aggregators like Orbitz). People have also been saying it’s great for multi-city searches and car rentals comparisons.

To all that, I say bah humbug! I just tried to book last-minute tickets to Peru using the site and the fares it gave me were completely outdated. I wasted at least an hour trying to track down a ticket that I could actually buy; each time I got excited about a fare, it would tell me the system was outdated and the ticket was no longer available.

At first it showed me some ridiculous 3-stop connections to Lima for $1,000, which is quite a steal this late in the game. But those were gone. Then it showed me some 2-stop connections for $1,200 through Spirit Airlines. But when it connected me to the airline’s site, it abruptly changed the prices to $1,500. In its defense, Kayak did get most of the erroneous data from Orbitz, which on its own suffered the same problems.

Maybe I’m just grumpy I have to pay $1,500 for the tickets.

Gadling’s guide to mileage running — Elite status and frequent flyer tiers.

by Grant Martin on

Most people know that by subscribing to a frequent flyer program, one can accumulate miles over the duration of several flights, ultimately saving up for a free ticket or upgrade. What many people don’t know, however is that there are rewards for accumulating those miles fast enough – usually over the period of one calendar year. For example, if you earn 25k, 50k or 75k miles in a particular airline program over the course of the year, you’ll be rewarded with “perks” at each tier.

These perks come in a variety of different flavors, from preferred seating to quick routes through security lines to upgrades into first class. That’s right, often if an airline has space in first class and they know you’re an elite member they’ll upgrade you to the front of the jet, where (depending on your carrier and flight) you can enjoy free meals and bottomless drinks.

In addition to the perks, it’s also sometimes worth it to earn the miles that you make on your journey. Take this example: as a top tier member of Northwest Airlines, I get a 125% bonus on miles for every flight I take. So while a flight I might run between Detroit (DTW) and AMSterdam may normally earn 4k miles, I would earn 9k miles. And if I have a TOLedo-DTW-AMS-Barcelona(BCN) round trip flight (like I made last Wednesday), I would earn somewhere around 24k miles. Considering that a domestic economy award ticket costs only 25k miles to redeem, I’ve pretty much earned a free domestic ticket with my international journey.

Thus, booking inexpensive long haul flights can often pay off other perks pretty quickly – as long as the fare is cheap enough. You just need to calculate the price per mile (PPM) ratio. Usually if that’s in the 0.01 – 0.02$ or below range, you’re on the line of effective vs. ineffective. A great tool to do this is Farecompare, where you can sort destinations from your departure city by the PPM earned.

Continue reading to Elite status and frequent flyer tiers, page 2

Gadling’s guide to mileage running — Elite status and frequent flyer tiers page 2

by Grant Martin on

You can also earn elite status by flying a certain number of segments. In another example, if you have frequent business between Minneapolis, MN and Saint Louis, MO, each flight on United Airlines earns you two segments: MSP-ORD and ORD-STL. After taking that flight a few weeks in a row, you’ll start to accumulate some serious segments. Usually these tiers are at multiples of 25 segments, but you’ll have to check with your favorite carrier for specifics.

As a result, if you look at your miles or segments balance near the end of the year and you’ve earned almost enough miles or so along the way, it may be worth it for you to schlep around and earn another 5k to bump you up to the next tier. Usually, your status lasts through at least the next calendar year; the platinum status that I’ve earned on NWA lasts until February of 2009.

Why not just take the money I spent on a mileage run to book the ticket that I would use miles to book later? Well, for a couple of reasons. To begin with, one of the few areas in which miles are advantageous to use is in the short term. Ticket prices usually drastically rise in the last two weeks prior to booking. Award tickets, however, usually don’t. So one can book a last second ticket out for the weekend on Thursday and still pay the 25k award fee.

Another reason is because the benefits go beyond simply miles. Elite status, first class upgrades, bump vouchers and airline debauch await anyone willing to go on a mileage run. Part of the whole beauty of mileage running is the logistical bonanza that comes with any booking. It’s part of the fun.

Continue reading to Should I book a mileage run?>>