Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cheap and airline

Help a travel n00b.

myntu — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:26:56 -0800

Flying to San Francisco to Berlin, returning to SF from Milan in the summer. When, where, and how should I go about buying plane tickets? So I'm a poor college student going off to Europe for the first time and am totally clueless as to how to the international airline industry works. When to buy and where to look? I'm going to Berlin in mid-July and am expected to fly back from Milan to SFO in mid-August.

I've been looking at Kayak.com and the prices it's coming up with are >$1000. Are there any tricks to purchasing tickets? Would round-trip (going back to Berlin from Milan) be cheaper? I'd have to pay for ground transportation from Berlin to Milan, though.

Also not certain when I should be back in San Francisco yet. Flexibility in changing dates would be a plus. I might have to come back a little earlier than expected.

I don't care when I leave the US to go to Berlin, however.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Cheap Flights!

BigCalm — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:36:40 -0800

Help me understand airline bookings - when and why they vary the price. I travel regularly to the Netherlands from the UK to see my girlfriend, and I'd like to do it as cheaply as possible!!

However, booking flights seems to be a pain in the ass:

* The times that are best for me would involve flying out with one airline and flying back with another. However, a one-way flight costs double the amount of a return. Why do airlines price it this way? I can understand an incentive for flying the same airline there and back, but why so huge a markup for a one-way trip?
* I was looking at KLM yesterday, and it was about 220 euros for the return trip next weekend - with lots of flags saying 'last x seats available at this price'. I check tonight and it's changed to 160 for the return. What the hell is going on here - is KLM just putting 'only x seats available' to make people book now?

Help me understand when and why flight prices change - tell me the tricks that the airlines are trying to use. Yes, I already know that weekends where bank-holidays feature are going to be expensive, that's not the issue - it's the normal weekends i'm trying to save on :-)

Bait-and-Switch or ineptitude?... WTF Travelocity!?

blueberry — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:27:45 -0800

Buying a ticket to Bangkok—is there a dependable online ticket-searching service that is all about getting the truly cheapest fare? Skinflint-In-Coach.com? Argh!, I spent over an hour today working on the Travelocity site, trying to find a low-priced ticket from Portland to Bangkok. After noodling around with my Portland/Bangkok departure dates I finally found a reasonably priced ticket that I could afford. However when I clicked to order it Travelocity said Sorry, that ticket's not available, please go pick another one—all of the other tickets being at least $500 more. (And annoyingly, when I went back to look at the other tickets, that cheaper un-buyable ticket was still listed as being available)

So, I tried Kayak.com and found that while it searches across four different ticket sites, each site finds fares that differ from each other by thousands of dollars. That is, each site is saying "This is the absolute cheapest flight out there" but actually the ticket prices vary from $1900 to $4000. To my mind, there should be only one "cheapest flight"—you know, hence the "-est" suffix.

So tell me hive mind, is there one ticket-finding site that
A: doesn't advertise tickets that it doesn't have (Travelocity), and
B: searches all flights all through one interface—so you don't have to dig through several different sites and windows wasting time with their laughable ideas of what they call "the cheapest flight"?

[For reference, I'm looking to leave PDX on Dec 9th, and leave BKK on any of the days between Dec 31 and Jan 3]

Let us fly! Cheaply.

VikingSword — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:52:47 -0800

Cheapest Airline Tickets: Los Angeles - Berlin RT. Options? From - To: Los Angeles to Berlin, Germany. Round trip.

Two people (my wife and myself).

Time: Either Sept 9, return October 2 or Sept 16, return October 9.

Complication: I have to purchase the tickets, or know for 100% sure when I'm taking off at least one week before the date of flight (work notification issue).

I've tried: Kayak, and Faircast/Bing

I got about high 700's (~$790) per person. (I've seen as low as $605 on Kayak, but when I tried to book those flights, the tickets were not available anywhere - yet kept being displayed thru Kayak, which soured me on that site somewhat).

Can better be done?

I don't mind any particular airline, or hours of departure/arrival, don't mind stopping over at Newark or wherever, though I'd prefer not to have to change planes.

I read somewhere that it can make sense to use a travel agent - but it's hard for me to see how it'll be cheaper that way rather than DIY.

Should I book now, or wait until the last moment (in this case, last moment is 1 week before departure, for reasons I gave above)? Use an agent? Look at other places than Kayak and Bing search?

To buy or not to buy...That is my question.

clpage — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:50:18 -0800

How soon in advance should we purchase airline tickets to get the cheapest flights? I already perused the previously asked posts about cheap airfare and most of them were 3-4 years old. Given the change in the economy (and the downturn in the airline industry), I thought I would query the Ask MeFi community once more.

The husband and I are flying from DC to Portland, driving up to Seattle, and then flying back to DC at the beginning of August. When I started checking airfare prices about a month ago, Southwest and Frontier had the most reasonable fares.

However, over the past 4-6 weeks, the prices on those same flights have gone up by almost $200.

The husband read an article on the NY Times which suggests the best time to buy airfare in the current economy is 6-8 weeks out. In your recent experience(s), what are the chances that the prices (on these or any other airlines) will go down if we wait until the 6-8 week mark? Since our travel dates are fixed, should we just suck it up and buy now?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Flight Pricing Mistakes

alona — Tue, 22 May 2007 11:05:23 -0800

Trying to find a website that publicizes airline's online mistakes in terms of pricing, giving you very cheap flights. I thought the MeFi community may have already posted about this, but a search yielded no results. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Cheap Flights in Europe

fionab — Sun, 29 May 2005 13:05:58 -0800

I usually find great prices for flights. But I'm coming up empty on this route: Amsterdam to Zurich. I've checked a few of the usual suspects (RyanAir, EasyJet, Expedia, BMI Baby, Fly Globespan, CheapFlights, Swiss Air, KLM, Travel Jungle, Travel Cuts, Student Universe, STA Travel, probably a few more) and the route either isn't offered, or it's at least $200 US. I need the flight on July 15th, and $200 US seems extraordinarily high for such a short flight.

Any ideas? I can't do train/overland or an auction site, as I have something in Amsterdam the day before and a dinner in Zurich on the evening of the 15th, so I need to arrive earlier in the day. What are other no-frills airlines that might fly that route that I haven't yet found? Is it just because the Euro is strong? I only need one way, but it seems that the return fares are actually much cheaper. Other factors: I'm a full-time student, if that will help, but I'm 26 so many of the European 'youth' fares that end at 25 won't work.

I'm guessing that I'll have to suck it up, but it just seems odd that it would cost that much, when I've taken so many European flights for ridiculously cheap fares. Perhaps I'm paying my dues now, and subsidizing my previous deals. What are your secrets for cheaper European airlines or European student travel deals?