The mother of all airline fee tables

by Grant Martin on

Air travel Masa Rick Seaney is seems to be just about everywhere these days, but I have to tell you, his website does come up with some good data every now and then. In addition to Farecompare’s ability to pluck out excellent airfare (the needle in a haystack analogy comes to mind), Seaney has more recently been commenting and writing on the industry on his personal website, RickSeaney.com

Just last week, Rick et al published a huge table of airline fees, containing all sorts of depressing information from reservation over the phone fees to checked bag fees to animal carry-on fees. He’s lined these all up against each other as a function of airline, where you can easily go down, pick your favorite (or ticketed) carrier and see how much your next trip to the airport is going to cost you.

Say you’re taking your family to Disney World this weekend and you have the choice between a 320 dollar ticket on Southwest or a 300 dollar ticket on American Airlines. Initially, you might jump on the 300 dollar ticket. But once you realize that you and your wife both have to check two bags, the kids check one each, the total price falls in favor of Southwest. And if if you have to change your ticket because Timmy got sick and you had to stay an extra day? Change ticket fees on Southwest are also free.

Make sure you take a look at Rick’s site if you’re ever on the fence between two tickets, and take a look at the booking engine while you’re out there.

Open Skies airlines gives free companion fares through summer

by Grant Martin on

By this point you’ve probably heard the buzz about Open Skies airlines, British Airways‘ new daughter airline that is flying a new business-class-only type of service between New York City and Paris. They just started operating yesterday and are slowly starting to build their reputation and customer base.

Outside of the internet and this blog though, most people are out in the ether. I’ve mentioned the airline to a few people and they didn’t know what I was talking about, let alone what the Open Skies Agreement, proper, was.

Open Skies knows this, which is why they’re starting to prod some of the frequent flyers and attention-payers out in the market. They’re now offering members of Flyertalk, the local airline and mileage forum free companion tickets on fares booked through the end of the summer — yes, that’s high season.

And yes, you can join Flyertalk too.

Tickets have to be booked in at least biz, their second tier of service, but adding up the numbers, I got round trip prices in late August for about 830$ per passenger. That’s 40$ less than an economy ticket on the competition. That’s a good price.

If you want to check out the offer and join Flyertalk, check their website here or bounce over to Open Skies for their official page and booking instructions.

See you in Paris.

Fare Alert! Get to Buenos Aires in June and July for under $650!

by Grant Martin on

With apologies, I’m a day behind on this fare alert because I didn’t have access to Blogsmith over the weekend. I was surprised to find the fare still in tact when I returned from traveling though, so thought I would pass around the good news.

United is having a crazy sale to Buenos Aires that went into effect yesterday. From destinations all over the country including the Washington DC area, Los Angeles, New York City and even Detroit, travelers can book round trip tickets into Argentina for well under 650$, with some tickets as low as 599$. Travel dates appear to be valid through the end of June, with even some availability over the Fourth of July.

Book an extra long weekend over the Fourth and take some time to visit Mendoza, Argentina’s famous wine country, Patagonia, the huge nature preserve after which the outdoor clothing company is named or Montevideo, Uruguay’s Capital city that’s only a short boat ride away. I’m already jealous.

Mind you, it is winter time in Buenos Aires, so you’ll be experiencing weather in the mid 50’s while you’re down there. But the country is beautiful, the dollar is strong and the culture is rich. You can handle it.

Use Kayak’s flexible three day search around your target dates to find availbility. As of 2230 EST on June 15th, I’m still finding plenty of availability.

Galley Gossip: The problem with “soaring” ticket prices

by Heather Poole on

Remember what airline tickets used to cost? Oh no, I’m not talking about last year, go back a little bit further, okay a lot further, like 1950 further…remember those prices? I didn’t think so.

A couple years ago I went just a wee bit crazy, spending too much time (and money) on eBay bidding on airline ads from the 1960’s and 1970’s. They were big and bright and colorful and they said things like: “fly me,” “just a working girl working,” “think of her as your mother.” They were sexy and sexist, totally wrong, and yet so right — at the time. I loved them. Still do. Had them framed. Hung them on the wall. And then, last year, tucked them away in a drawer for safe keeping (and a clutter free office). I think of one of those ads often whenever I hear people complaining about the price of airline tickets, or whenever I read articles like the one by Dan Reed in USA TODAY entitled “Airline Tickets Soar This Summer” that was featured on AOL with the caption, “Passengers Can’t Bear to Look.”

Well I’ve got something for those passengers to look at, something that may force them to rethink the definition of soaring ticket prices. I mean, soaring? Don’t you think we’re being a bit dramatic here? Especially when people are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on fast food, botox, designer clothes, and even video games for the kids. Give me a break. Because the ad, the one I mentioned above from 1950, lists the price of a ticket from New York to Paris for $326. Please, can anyone tell me, what else out there costs the exact same price as it did over fifty years ago?

Precisely.

Yeah, I know, service in the air has gone down hill big time. You don’t have to tell me. I live it every time I put on my uniform. In fact, I spend most of my time at work apologizing because we don’t have this and we don’t have that to a flight full of miserably cramped passengers. I feel for those passengers. I really do. It’s gotten bad out there. Worse than bad. Flying, today, is just not what it used to be, for everyone involved – passengers and crew alike.

But what gets me is that thirteen years ago I worked at a no frills airline called Sunjet International Airlines. The ticket price back then was $99 to fly one way from Dallas to Fort Lauderdale, Newark, or Long Beach. That was thirteen years ago. Fuel prices were 1/3 of what they are today. Keep in mind that price was on an airline that offered pretty much nothing but a seat (a broken seat covered in duct tape), a lot of delays (I’m not talking a few hours delayed, I’m talking two-day delays), lost luggage (or no luggage at all. What do you mean you checked bags?), and a burnt chocolate chip cookie, depending on who happened to be in the galley that day. Then, in 1995, I found myself working for a major US carrier, on probation for six months without flight privileges, in the month of December. The price of a ticket from New York to Dallas was oh just $800. In Coach. Needless to say, I didn’t get make it home for Christmas that year.

Now flash forward thirteen years and you can fly nonstop on a major carrier from New York to Los Angeles for as little as $235 round trip. I’m sorry, but that’s not bad. In fact, it’s so not bad that I just bought myself a seat on that same flight (even though I’m able to fly standby for free) I challenge anyone to drive that same distance for less money. Yes, airline ticket prices are up 200% from last year, but when you realize they were down 700%, that’s still a good ticket price! So when someone writes a piece about the “soaring” ticket prices of today, I have to shake my head and think, how soon we all forget.

Fare Alert! Fall travel from NYC and LA to Honolulu for cheap!

by Grant Martin on

United and Continental published a round of super cheap fares mostly originating from Newark and into Honolulu last night for travel starting this fall into early next year.

I’m pulling up prices under 300$ total for multiple itineraries on Travelocity. Most weekends and holidays are blocked out, but if you’re going to Hawaii you’re going to want to take a couple of extra days off anyway, aren’t you?

To find the fare, go to Travelocity.com and plug in EWR or LAX and HNL or LIH for your departure and arrival airports. Then select “flexible dates” and select May – December.

The search engine will return a variety of prices and availabilities therein; you can try the lowest fare to find dates that might work, or if availability is too tight try something more expensive.

It helps to consider the flex search as more of a general than a precise tool. If you find ballpark dates that might work for you, scoot over to Kayak or Mobissimo to do another search and do your booking — that way you don’t have to deal with going back and forth between cheapest fares and dates, making yourself all frustrated and cursing my name.

Availability for the cheapest fares from Los Angeles are harder to come by, but are there. Try tinkering around with the lowest few fares in the Travelocity search to find dates that work for you or if necessary, turn off the flex search option and just do +/- 3 day searches to work around your schedule; the first few searches I tried failed, but I ended up eventually finding midweek travel in September for 344$ total.

No telling how long this secret sale will work, so book soon and ask questions later.

Aloha!