Cheap airfare by buying direct?
Is direct the best approach?
It’s not always the case that booking directly with an airline nabs the cheapest airfare. There are lots of ways to book an airline ticket. Conventional wisdom says that contacting and airline directly, by phone or through the internet, will result in the lowest fare, but that isn’t necessarily true. Competition is fierce and aspects such as block airline ticket purchases by a third party can heavily affect pricing. Eliminating the middleman might seem to make sense, until you perform a comparative analysis.
The main ways of booking airline tickets are:
• booking directly with the airline
• using a traditional travel agency
• through an online agency such as Expedia, Travelocity or Orbitz
Being flexible about which airline you fly with helps. And if you book directly, you lose that flexibility (although if you have a points and rewards system in place with one particular airline and/or associated credit card program, that could be a moot point). Travel agents still know (despite what you can learn on the internet on your own) a lot more about travel than the average person, and are often privy to deals that the layperson has no access to, so perhaps their modest fee is worth it. Online agencies sometimes have the best deals and constantly update, but not always.
Flight ticket prices vary frequently due to a litany of factors, so your timing counts, as do their changes, some of which may be last minute. It’s almost like playing the stock market. If you monitor, you can see changes as they happen and jump on the best deal.
The airlines’ objective is to sell every seat on an aircraft as far in advance of take-off as possible; this is simply how they can see their way to making a profit. Because of this, if there are perhaps 20 seats remaining unsold the day before the flight is scheduled to go, those seat prices may be cut, even drastically. The airlines would rather have some revenue per seat than none, but they won’t risk cutting the price until the last minute in case they can get full price.
Booking directly may afford you the cheapest airfare, but maybe not. Take the time to do the research and compare, compare, compare. You might be surprised at what you find.
Photo courtesy of hirotomo/Flickr
Categories: Affordable Airline Tickets Tags:
No-Frills Airlines Equals Discount Flights
For those who care about the cost not the accouterments
Thanks to the economic times, many airlines have cut back on extras, like complimentary meals and drinks, but there are still bare-bones basic airlines that never did offer luxury, just low price airfares without the bells and whistles. Known in the industry as “low-cost carriers”, no-frills airlines use a mixture of criteria that enable them to charge less for a flight ticket. Occasionally, because these airlines work so close to the financial bottom line, they don’t survive, and you want to ensure they are well established so that your return flight doesn’t get canceled as the result of a bankruptcy.
The tendency is to regard no-frills flights as ones that lack the niceties, but the fact is they can be much more stringent, effectively eliminating all but essential services, or charging fees for everything you can think of. Most no-frills airlines have fleets in the Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 classes of aircraft, with no section for business class and not a lot of legroom; these types of aircraft are often inconvenient or unsuitable for special-needs travelers.
Some of the “frills” removed by no-frills airlines include:
- seat recliners, window blinds, headrest covers
- food and drink
- on-board entertainment such as music and movies
- refunds or the ability to transfer to a later flight if you missed the one you were booked on
- priority boarding and pre-boarding seat selection
- free baggage check-in
A number of no-frills airlines, where it is legal, operate with a non-union staff. How does this affect you, the traveler? It shouldn’t because laws in the nations of the world dictate training standards for employees who operate and maintain aircraft.
Most no-frills flights are direct (stop-overs cost more money in airport landing fees for the airline), land at smaller, less congested airports, and some use mobile stair units instead of jetways for boarding and disembarking because airports charge less for those. Many fly so that they take off and land at non-peak times, such as very early morning or late evening, to avoid higher airport landing fees. A few, such as Australia’s Jetstar (a subsidiary of Qantas), have limited routes; in their case, they only fly to places within 10 hours of Australia.
America’s Southwest Airlines remains the largest no-frills carrier in the world, but it has lots of smaller competition from the likes of Ireland’s RyanAir, and other American no-frills airlines such as Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Frontier Airlines, some of which service select segments of the United States and do not fly internationally.
Ultimately, if you book a no-frills flight, pack light, pack a lunch or snack, take a book to read, and if there is something about your flight that doesn’t live up to your standards of travel, count the money you saved!
Categories: Frontier Airlines, Jetstar, Ryan Air, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines Tags:
Stand by Flights
If you can wait, you may get a great price
Gone are the days when poverty-stricken students could rush an airport ticket counter, grab a flight for a song and make it home for the holidays. Stand-by ticket policies have changed and continue to evolve as airlines shift and adjust to the economic times.
A stand-by airline passenger must have a ticket, but it does not necessarily have to be for a specific flight (this varies airline to airline and country to country, depending upon local laws), and they need to be flexible as to which flight they take, be that earlier or later, sometimes as late as the next day. Stand-by travel depends entirely upon seat availability.
Generally, stand-up airfares are lower than regular ones, but some airlines charge a fee of about $50 USD in addition to the ticket price, so be aware of this and ask if such a flat fee will be attached to your stand-by ticket at the time you purchase it. And remember that stand-by tickets, unlike days gone by, are not always available at the last minute; if a flight is full, it’s full.
When you pay the lower fare associated with a stand-by flight ticket, you also get lower priority in your treatment by the airline. Upon arrival at the airport, speak with the ticketing agent or (if you have your ticket beforehand) the gate agent and be sure your presence is known. That way you’re less likely to be overlooked when that last possible seat opens up on the flight of your first choice.
Stand-by tickets work best for individuals or friends who don’t care if they sit together on a flight. Odds are higher that single travelers will get a seat than a group of seats for a family. On busy or sold-out flights, sometimes a single seat comes up as unoccupied just before take-off and one person will get it, where others will be left behind; this doesn’t work for a family hoping to travel as a unit.
If you are planning to travel stand-by, travel smart and take only carry-on luggage. Because of the nature of stand-by tickets, it’s possible, if not likely, that a checked-in suitcase will not be on the same flight as the passenger it belongs to. If you must take check-in baggage, be sure to pack an overnight bag of essentials in your carry-on so that if you have to wait for your main luggage, you can get by for 24 hours.
Knowing the ins and outs of stand-by means learning the individual stand-by policies of the various airlines you might be considering, so be sure you do your research. If you’re flexible about travel times and ready for a little adventure, a stand-by flight may be a great way to save on airline tickets for you.
Categories: Airline Tickets, Carry-on Baggage, Standy Flights Tags: