U.S. Airlines hoping for a successful summer

by Scott Carmichael on

Let’s file this one under “boo hoo”.

U.S. Airlines are hoping that summer air travel will help dig them out of the slump they have been in for the past year(s). As business travel has plummeted, consumers trying to escape all the doom and gloom for a couple of weeks of R&R is pretty much all they have left to hope for.

So, if summer travel is this important for them, you’d assume they would take the time to load some juicy low airfare for us, wouldn’t you?

Sadly, they want to have their cake, and eat it, as airfare prices for the summer months are absolutely atrocious.

Some examples of the fares loaded at the moment:

United Airlines – Chicago to Las Vegas in June – $521
United Airlines – Chicago to Paris in July – $1054
American Airlines – New York to Paris in August – $939
American Airlines – Los Angeles to Hong Kong in August- $2054
Delta Airlines – Atlanta to Paris in September – $1023
Continental Airlines – Newark to Amsterdam in August – $948

None of those fares are exceptionally cheap, and in a time where the airlines claim to be hurting so badly, it isn’t exactly like they put effort into lowering prices to help passengers.

In fact, I’m guessing that the airlines just assume (and hope) that you and I will be so eager to travel, that we’ll pay anything.

These high prices will have a bad effect on summer travel – it will force passengers to sit and wait for fares to drop, making their vacation plans even more complicated. You’d think the smart airlines would want to offer something good now and lock passengers in as early as possible.

Of course, only finding bad fares may force people to completely abandon their plans and stick to a more budget friendly trip.

For tips on how to squeeze the most out of your trip, check out this handy guide by Tom, or go through the budget destination posts we’ve written for you.

Budget Travel: 7 Quick tips for cheap airplane tix

by Grant Martin on

Spending some time on the road this year? Chances are, you’re going to have to battle the internets for a good deal on your flight. But what to do when the prices are sky high and your wallet is recession skinny?

Most respectable travel websites out there have giant lists, strategies and flow charts about the best way to get the absolute best price. It works, but it can be complicated, and in a busy world like this, few of us have time to look through an ITA Matrix and calculate the most optimum routing.

Don’t know what an ITA Matrix is? Then keep reading for our quick tips to getting the best price on airplane tickets.

  • Flexible Flexible Flexible: There’s a reason that Kayak has a “flexible dates” option in their search engine. Traveling on Fridays and Sundays are most expensive (highest demand,) so if you can, try Thursday or Monday. Monday AM flights are often drastically less expensive and you can still often get into work by 10.
  • Book early: Probably more than a month out. Definitely more than two weeks. If it’s inside of a week, drive or take a hot air balloon.
  • Use a metacrawler: Given that we just mentioned Kayak, we should point out this important tip: Always use a metacrawler. Both Kayak and Mobissimo search engines search all of the traditional search engines on the market AND airline websites, so you can guarantee that you’re not shelling out extra cash on a third party website.
  • Check the Low Cost Carrier: Southwest doesn’t publish its fares on the regular search engines, so make sure you do a cross check at southwest.com before you book your ticket.
  • Search nearby airports: Flying out of Los Angeles? Make sure you check Long Beach (LGB,) Santa Ana (SNA) and Ontario (ONT) as well. Airports with a large LCC presence often have more competitive fares.
  • Look for coupons: As our friends at Airfarewatchdog (AFWD) recently pointed out, promo codes are the way that airlines are going this year. American, Virgin America and JetBlue are among the carriers that frequently used coupons last year and you can expect moreto come. Not sure where to find codes? Check with AFWD or your respective carrier over at flyertalk.com.
  • Consider a consolidator: For international travel, consolidators often buy tickets in a discounted block and pass the savings onto passengers. Hotwire.com and airlineconsolidator.com are both fairly simple sites that you can use, or you can always use a local (physical) source.

Finally, the best piece of advice we can give is to be patient. If you’ve got a few months before your dates of travel, set up a fare alert at Kayak. You have to create an account, but once you do, you can have the software automatically search for your fare every day and report to you when the price drops.

Spirit Airlines staff fed up being called DD MILF’S by their employer

by Scott Carmichael on

The hard working cabin crew at Spirit Airlines are fed up – they are annoyed that their boss is inviting passengers to check out their DD’s, and asking people to come book a “MILF”.

For those that missed out on a “movie classic”, MILF is a reference from American Pie, and the abbreviation means “Mother I’d like to F**K”.

That’s right – Spirit is using that cheeky reference as a way to get passengers on their low cost flights. In the world of Spirit Airlines, MILF means “Many Islands Low Fares”, a reference to their $9 island flights.

Oh, and DD? It doesn’t refer to the breast size of their staff, it’s just a way of saying “deep discounts”.

Still, the cheesy innuendo has become so much of an issue that the staff have asked their union to force Spirit to pull the series of ads.

Another hot issue is ad placement – Spirit began selling ad space on tray tables, cups and napkins. The next item in line for ads was the staff apron which has become a placard for Bud light, and the crew is fed up with it.

Union reps claim that flight attendants will have a hard time telling drunk passengers that they will be cut off from booze sales, when they are walking around as walking beer commercials – and I happen to agree with that.

Of course, the airline says the initiatives help the company grow, and secure jobs, but there have to be better ways to make a few bucks, especially if it is annoying your staff this much.

(Via: Foxnews.com, image from Zazzle.com)

Fat finger deals – should your airline or hotel honor them?

by Scott Carmichael on

A fat finger deal is the name given to airline deals where someone “with fat fingers” missed a zero, or put a comma in the wrong place when entering air or hotel prices.

The deals pop up more often than you’d think in this day and age, but airlines are starting to fight back. In recent years, some of the better fat finger deals would get you from the US to most European destinations for $20, or from LA to Fiji for just $50.

The mistakes are human, and despite all the computerized air fare systems, at the end of the day there is still someone locked away in an office who is responsible for loading the thousands of various air fare combinations into a computer terminal, and I’m sure we all know that when people get involved, something will eventually go wrong.

In the past, airlines would do one of several things;

  • Ignore the problem and let people benefit from the screw-up
  • Let people know the deal would be honored, but only on a smaller scale, hotels would let people stay a few nights instead of the months they’d often book
  • Let people take the trip AND try to benefit from all the good PR they create by honoring it

Nowadays airline are in a world of hurt, and any kind of screw-up that could cost them money has to come to an end. When passengers grab one of these fat finger deals, the airline will simply cancel it, and in most cases won’t even bother to inform them.

A natural reaction to this behavior is that the airline is perfectly within its rights to do so – it was an honest mistake, and they have page after page of fine print protecting their business practices. But there is one very simply reason why I don’t think the airlines deserve to get off easy – mistakes are not a one way street.

If you book a non refundable hotel room and made a mistake entering the date, you are screwed. If you book a ticket on the airline, but make a spelling error in your name, some airlines will charge you $90 to fix it. Airlines have perfected the art of making money off your mistakes, but when they mess up, they simply make the problem go away.

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Get in on the airfare wars Down Under

by Alison Brick on

You gotta love a little healthy competition.

Airlines to Australia have been caught in a price war, and we’re reaping the rewards. It all started with V Australia whose new flights to the US begin February 27th. Their sales have ended, but Qantas’ sales are still around. But book quickly–their sale ends Monday, January 26th.

Get a Qantas ticket for $880 round-trip to Australia or New Zealand from LA or San Francisco–a fare that’s easily $200 cheaper than normal. Fly to Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane anytime from February 1-September 21. Or fly to Auckland from February 24-September 21. That’s largely their fall and winter, but you can catch good weather at the fringe in Sydney and Melbourne, and even longer up north in Brisbane. And it’s perfect timing for a last-minute trip to Sydney’s Mardi Gras, which is February 14-March 7.

And watch out for more sales from a new competitor in town: Delta. They’ll be starting up non-stop LA-Sydney flights on July 1st. No sales are posted yet, but they’ll probably pop up closer to the start date.