Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with flight

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]

Paid-for air travel—help me save the money for later

coolnik — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:50:41 -0800

Lots of air travel in near future. Help me survive and save money. Early next year, I will be traveling a lot for business—conferences, seminars, etc. While almost all of this travel is paid for, I will be reimbursed only after the said event is done. Which means I will have to buy my own flight tickets.

Help me identify how I can use this opportunity to save money for my personal travel later in the year? What are the best options to to accumulate the air miles? If it helps, I am based in Rhode Island, and all of my upcoming business travel is going to be within the US.

Home (not broke) for Xmas.

nicoleincanada — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:20:45 -0800

Please help me get from Europe to Canada for the Xmas holidays without having to live out of a cardboard box. This is my first time living abroad, and I've rather naively discovered that holy crap, airfare to North America is super expensive from mid-December to early January. I've managed to get a bit of wiggle room on my travel dates from my employers (I work at a school and the holidays are pre-scheduled), but the reasonable/cheap airfare is still a day or two out of reach and I don't want to push my luck much further.

This isn't a make or break thing - I've promised the family I'll go home either way - but if there's a way to get from Paris to Winnipeg without spending $1800 Cdn after tax, I'd be appreciative. Especially considering $1800 is the price I managed by wiggling the dates.

Is finding reasonable airfare at peak travel time in December a total pipe dream? Am I just booking too late, or too early? Are there any genuinely useful sites for this sort of thing? I've tried both Expedia and Travelocity and find them pretty useless when the destination isn't a major hub - they seem to miss a lot of cheap fares I can find by checking airlines myself.

My holidays are from Dec. 19 to Jan. 3 (like the rest of the Xmas-celebrating world). Employers are willing to let me leave the Wednesday before and return the Wednesday after, which is how I managed the price above. I'd like to be home for Xmas day but I'd be willing to leave pre-NY if that generally makes a difference. I'm also willing to fly to other European centres or take the train to get a better price.

FYI, I've checked other threads on this site and, oddly, can't find a similar question, but my AskMF skills might be lacking. So if you find the same question previously, by all means share.

Thanks much in advance.

Follow the yellow brick road!

Talia Devane — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:54:50 -0800

I need to find the most affordable flight from south Georgia to California. I seem to have too many variables though. How do I find the best flight from multiple possible departure airports to multiple possible arrival airports? Throw flexible dates in there as well just for fun. I live near the GA/FL border and can fly from Atlanta, Jacksonville, Tallahassee or the local commuter airport. I have family near San Diego and San Francisco. I'm going to have to rent a car in any case on the west coast so arrival can be to any airport within 2 hours or so driving. As this is still all planning phase I have no set dates. I just need the cheapest way to get there with two kids. Am I asking something impossible here?

Dear Mystery Site: Where can I fly for $300?

tinamonster — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:41:39 -0800

I am looking for a Website I once used that allowed you to enter in a departure city and a date and then gave you all possible worldwide flight destinations sorted by cost. What was that site?

Researching flight without sepcific destination?

2legit2quit — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:01:38 -0800

I would like to take a flight to Europe in January. I don't care where in Europe I go, and can fly out of pretty much anywhere in the south (I would prefer Atlanta, though). Is there a site out there that doesn't require me to pick a specific starting and ending destination?

Please help a n00b!

The Light Fantastic — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:16:41 -0800

I will be flying to Poland on Friday from San Francisco (SFO) on United with a transfer to LOT at JFK. Do I check in at the domestic or international terminal? Does this first leg of the flight count as domestic or international? I'm very confused.

how much booze can i bring with me through LAX?

cheemee — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:34:39 -0800

How much alcohol can I have in my checked in bags if I am connecting through LAX? I am currently in Peru, and will be flying from Lima to LAX. Then from LAX to Vancouver, Canada. How much alcohol can I put in my checked in bags?
Don´t know why I can´t seem to find this info from google...
Thanks!!

Have to fly in July, but we'll adapt to anything else!

amicamentis — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:53:46 -0800

How to find the best NYC --> Europe flight deals when both day of week and destination are flexible. Caveat: flying out July 2010. My roommate and I are planning an extended European vacation beginning around the middle of July next year. I know that this is the absolute worst time to fly out, so we need some tips about how to cut down the price.

We are flying from NYC but would be willing to travel to Newark or even Philadelphia if there were significant savings. I have used RyanAir in the past and am familiar with inter-European travel, which is why we don't care much about the city that we first land in. So far, it looks like flying into Dublin is the least expensive. We would also be fine with Paris, London, Glasgow, Amsterdam, or Geneva.

What now? I've heard that if you're flying during peak season then you should just buy tickets as early as possible because they will never lower. However, with our flexibility it seems that there may be some deal, somewhere a bit closer to our flight date. Is this wishful thinking?

We would appreciate any website recommendations that would give fares on neighboring cities as well, or flexibility about the day of the week. I've tried Kayak and liked it - are there others?

In addition, our vacation will probably continue for several months. Will the customs agents give us any problems for having a return ticket for more than three months from the day we enter the country?

Thanks!

Tricked by Travelocity! Help!

luckyme793 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:48:09 -0800

Cheapest/easiest way to get from one DC airport to another? My connecting flights in DC are at two different airports! What is the cheapest/easiest way to get from DCA (Ronald Reagan National Airport) to IAD (Dulles International Airport)?

Flight logistics:

I land at DCA at 2:06 PM

I fly out of IAD at 5:15 PM

This leaves me with 3 hours and 9 minutes to transfer airports (cutting it close, eeek!), what do you all recommend?

How to get from Toronto to Brussels (and what to do with a 4-year-old once there)?

fsmontenegro — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:22:58 -0800

Hi. Two questions related to an upcoming family trip - from Toronto to Brussels: - cost-effective (but not too tiring) ways to get from Toronto to Brussels? Non-stop flight? Connect elsewhere (London, Paris, Frankfurt, ...)? Fly into large hub (Paris, Frankfurt, ...) and book secondary flight or train? - things to do in Brussels with a 4-year-old?

Planning for Las Vagas

dragontail — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:22:32 -0800

Planning a trip to Las Vagas with a couple of friends. We're students from the UK, so any help for making the trip awesome is welcome! Particularly getting the cheapest plane tickets, accommodation and things to see. We're planning the trip for summer, from July to September. Hopefully staying in Vagas for about a week. There will be 2-4 of us, all over 21.

1. Firstly, (and most importantly), which method will be best for buying the cheapest plane tickets? We don't care if we have to sit in the luggage hold :)

2. For hotel rooms, somewhere in the middle of the strip would be awesome, but keeping the price cheapish. Sub $40 a day/person would be great. Sharing a room is the way to go. Any recommendations?

3. We plan on playing a little low stakes poker and blackjack. Any recommendations for decent casinos? Is there anything else that is a must see? Free is best, but if it's worth going to, then our wallets will oblige I'm sure :)

Flight related eyebrow pain?

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:58:23 -0800

Flight related eyebrow pain? I flew on holiday recently and near the end of the flight I got a piercing pain in my left eyebrow. I found that if I tried to relax the pain went away slightly. After we landed the pain was gone but replaced with a dull pain. I felt during this that my neck was hard to move.

As a test, when I arrived I swam to the bottom of the pool. The pain came back again in the left eyebrow, slightly.

I've experienced this several times before, and tried aspirin, and even Vicks to see if it helps. But because the problem only happens occasionally it's difficult to work out what the cause is.

What could be causing this? Any ideas?

A new jacket

Confess, Fletch — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:29:16 -0800

I have this old flight jacket which is getting old I would like to find something similar I've had it for many years and it is starting to fall apart, it's also made of Nomex which is possibly the least waterproof cloth in the universe.
I really like its waist length and knit cuffs and waist band. I also like it's bi-swing back.
I've found this which is nice except that I don't like microfiber and the color choices are awful.
Can anybody suggest a reasonably priced lightweight water/windproof jacket that I might like.

Hot Air

Silky Slim — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:32:35 -0800

Did the Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon have a fire burning in it? I'm just watching episode 4 of John Adams, the HBO miniseries, which depicts Adams and others watching a demonstration of the Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon. It seems like a very faithful recreation and not like a special effect at all.
I found it interesting that the fire is not contained within the balloon. The balloon appears to rise from a bonfire at its base and lift upward, but I couldn't see a fire within the balloon itself.
According to the web, the Montgolfiers' first test flights reached thousands of feet of altitude and several miles' distance... Did they really achieve this just from a fire on the ground?
Or maybe it's just that the balloon in the show is a helium balloon?

Finding one-way US-to-NZ tickets for less than round-trip prices

oceanmorning — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:14:34 -0800

How can I find an inexpensive one-way ticket from the US to New Zealand? Most one-way tickets seem to cost nearly as much, if not more, than round trip! Next month, I'm moving to New Zealand (yay!). I'll be flying from LAX to AKL. Since I'm moving permanently, I just need a one-way ticket to get there; I don't need a return flight back to the US.

I want to get the best deal on my ticket. Unfortunately, I'm finding that a one-way ticket is very expensive, relative to a round-trip. In some cases, a one-way ticket actually costs more than a round-trip! This is counterintuitive to me, especially since I'm used to flying domestically on United airlines (with their one-way deals that I use my frequent flier miles for).

Where can I find a one-way ticket from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand that will be inexpensive (meaning, roughly half of the average round-trip price)? Bonus points if you also have suggestions for a way to use my United miles on it.

Cheapest flights from Hanoi to Siem Reap? Southeast Asia airline search aggregator?

pariser — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:11:03 -0800

What are the cheapest & quickest flights from Hanoi to Siem Reap; is there a southeast Asia flight aggregator (similar to Kayak in the US) that will search all the possible airlines and connections? The Vietnam Airlines direct flight is obvious, though I think I can do better than one way 260 USD per person.

[For example, HAN to SIN (Singapore) via Tiger and then SIN to REP cost $170 but these routes don't fly every day and it'd be too long of a layover in Singapore... I was so close to finding a good fare!]

I've already spent over an hour trying to manually check every airline that flies into Siem Reap and then every destination accessible cheaply from Hanoi, but I'm now at my wit's end trying to figure this out. Is there a search aggregator that does this cross checking on many airlines for me? ... something like Kayak for low cost Southeast Asia flights?

Come Fly With Me

goshling — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:45:15 -0800

Advice needed for Australian High School student who wants to be a flight attendant. Year 10 is coming to a close for my 15yo daughter & ~~tomorrow~~ today at 2pm AUS EST time we have a date at her school for choosing her Year 11 VCE subjects.

She is far more creative than academic but has struggled through and and acheived good results in her chosen subjects. It doesn't come easily, but when she puts her mind to it she acheives good results.

She droppped French after Yr 9 but is aware she needs a language to even be considered by any airlines. Because of our location, an Asian language is probably going to be most useful. She suggested Japanese, but a (Australian born Japanese speaking) friend has suggested Chinese might be an easier language to learn? She did some Chinese in primary school from years 3 - 6 so has had some basic exposure to Mandarin.

She will have to pick up the language outside of school. She attends a well regarded state high school. She won't be able to pick up a language in VCE having dropped French after Yr 9. She wasn't particulary interested in French, but I think she'll do better with any language now she has the goal of this career to strive for.
She'd like to learn Spanish, but it's not remotley on the list of desirable languages in this part of the world.

I know someone who is a professor of Asian languages at Melb Uni, so I'll be picking her brains, but if anyone has suggestions on where beginner students can go to learn Asian languages all sugegstions greatly appreciated. We're in the Camberwell/Glen Iris area.

She is having great difficulties with math and has a weekly tutor. We've been receiving conflicting advice about Math skills & being accepted in the Flight Crew course.

She is interested in doing the VET course which leads to Flight Attendant/Baggage Handler positions. I believe there are only 20 places available though (per year? I'm assuming per semester?) The same course is available as as tertiary subject, and also a VCE/VCAL subject.

We've looked at VCE vs VCAL and are pretty sure VCE is the way to go.

The subjects she has done well in, and enjoyed, and will probably be continuing with in 2010 are: Health, Psychology, Food Tech, English, & Multimedia.

Personally, I bloody hate flying (tedious, boring, uncomfortable) but she thinks it's exciting & exotic & has a strong desire to fly.

All experiences positive or negative, from flight crew also appreciated.

Oh, his aching legs!

odayoday — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:37:36 -0800

How can I arrange an overnight layover, and how much will it cost me? My very tall boyfriend and I are planning to visit my dad in Shanghai, and we're hoping to find a way to give his legs a rest between flights. I've tried to book exit row seats in the past, but was told that we would have to use airline miles to do so in advance. We can't afford business class, but I'm hoping there may be a way to arrange our flights so that we have an overnight stopover somewhere in Europe (halfway to China) so that he gets a break from the cramping. Has anyone done something like this, and how would I go about it? Also, will it cost us a lot more this way?

Planes, trains, and lots of bags; Germany, France, and the UK.

Devika — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:35:17 -0800

InsaneLast-MinuteEuropeanTravelFilter: How to get one procrastinator and three bags from Berlin to France and England. Read on, it's probably crazier than you think! I'm coming from Canada to do a semester abroad in Glasgow, and I'd like to do some traveling before the start of term. Currently I'm finishing up a summer program in Berlin. The plan is to meet a family friend in Reims, travel around France with them, visit my aunt in London (with a few days in Hampshire to see the partner), then head up to Glasgow.

A couple of problems with this pretty good plan. The first hurdle is that none of the tickets are booked yet. Strictly speaking I should be out of Berlin by the 17th, but am considering spending a night in a hostel or begging the institution to let me stay another day if the saving is significant enough.

The second complication is the three bags I brought over. I'd started out one hard suitcase and one soft bag, but added another suitcase to keep under the weight limit. The two hard suitcases weigh 30 and 50 pounds (about 14 and 23 kilos) respectively, and the soft bag weighs 50 pounds (23 kilos). Lugging three bags around Europe seems like it would be a nightmare, and very costly if I fly an airline like EasyJet or Ryanair. It seems around 108 GBP to ship two suitcases from Germany to the UK according to this site, assuming the same rate applies backwards. Is shipping one or two heavy bags to London a good idea, or not cost-effective?

If I'm traveling by train, I'd think that the bags would be less of an issue. However, booking by train at the last minute seems rather costly. I've been poking around the Deutsche Bahn website for ages and can't get it to tell me how much money a ticket would be before asking me to put in a credit card number. I remember seeing a fare of around 230 euros (Berlin-Reims) on another rail site, as opposed to 88 euros (Berlin-Paris, assuming Paris-Reims will be a cheap train journey) from EasyJet on the 18th. A random thought also occurred - would it be more cost-effective to fly on a better airline, even perhaps first class, if I can take my bags with me?

My question in all its barely suppressed hysteria basically boils down to this - when making travel plans within Europe at the last minute and with considerable baggage, is it better to take the train or fly, and should I keep my bags with me the entire way or ship two of them up? I'm having trouble conceptualizing all of this, and the partner and I have been at our wits' end trying to figure it all out at the last minute. I hope the all-knowing hive mind can give me some much-needed guidance!

Cheapest way from Tokyo to Kumamoto?

0bvious — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:09:56 -0800

Last minute Japan travel: after making an error with timing I need to arrange one-way travel from Tokyo to Kumamoto quite quickly. What are the cheapest options? I have looked into flights and trains (for the 17th of August) and both seem expensive (about £200-£250 a ticket). I am in the UK at the moment. Would it be worth waiting until we arrive in Japan? Perhaps trying to get last minute flights at the airport? Information on this site suggests cheap train travel, but has no links to buy: frommers.com

Air travel is looking pricey: farecompare.com or skyscanner.net

Is it possible to book overnight traisn from the UK? what re the other cheap-cheap train options?

Any help or advice you have would be much appreciated

Help me out of Seoul and back to LA

klangklangston — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 06:05:53 -0800

Still in Korea: Due to a bit of stupidity and bad luck, I missed my flight back to LA. What now? I realize that I should not have relied on my brother's sense of time, nor his gauge of distance, nor accepted his assurances that we could be later than I thought we could. So, now I'm here, Orbitz (whom I booked the flight through) seems to be fairly useless for the moment, as they want to wait until the LA offices of China Air are open in order to shift the ticket. The next available flight (according to the website) leaves Tuesday, though the China Air folks said on the phone that there were no flights out for a week. I'm kinda freaking out and want advice on what to do, how to best minimize the financial damage of this fuck-up (I'm dirt poor) and how to avoid clubbing my brother to death as I assume that deportation flights are not booked with budget in mind.

Whats the best way to buy a flight for a vacation without getting screwed?

schindyguy — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:33:42 -0800

Whats the best way to buy a flight for a vacation that you know you are going on (greater than 3 months in the future)? I am tired of getting screwed for being prepared. I know I need two tickets from Los Angeles (LAX) to Maui (OGG) departing December 12 and returning December 19.

So I thought I would give bing.com's future price utility a try with the flight. I just got a "Bing Travel Alert" that suggests its a good time to buy...http://www.bing.com/travel/flight/flightSearch?o=LAX&d1=12%2F12%2F2009&p=2&src=fct&r1=12%2F19%2F2009&cid=10713&viewMode=list&e=OGG

Since when has the market for tickets been dictated like this? I thought the earlier you book, the better rate you should get. I guess this isn't the case as I learned from my previous purchase of 2 round trip flights from cheaptickets.com. I booked the reservation to Los Cabos 4 months in advance and if I would have waited 1 week before the trip, I would have saved $125 per ticket. Is that insane? In what situation would preparedness not be beneficial? I guess with flights.

How can I guarantee I wont set myself up for another Los Cabos irritation? What can someone do to protect themselves from these market fluctuations?

JetBlueTracker JetBlueTracker JetBlueTracker

2bucksplus — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:48:08 -0800

I live in New York and my parents live in Sarasota, FL. There are two direct flights per day on JetBlue between JFK and SRQ. Is it possible to set up something up that would alert me whenever prices on these flights dropped below a certain amount? I'd like to see my family a few times a year and am in no way tied to certain dates of travel. Some travel sites offer flexible travel for major cities but not for a city this size.

I specifically asked about JetBlue because they are currently the only airline offering direct flights on this route. I am also a member of JetBlue's TrueBlue reward program.

Flying to a destination in the same country, with a connection in a different country.

ajackson — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:12:33 -0800

Flying to a destination in the same country, with a connection in a different country--is it possible on a single one-way ticket? Is there a name for it? So I was on the Air Canada website, and it doesn't allow me to fly from Los Angeles to New York. With them being an Canadian airline, they wouldn't have a direct flight and would have to fly me to Toronto first, or something. My guess is that it's illegal for airlines to do this for some reason (why?).

I'm guessing I wouldn't be able to fly from say, Vancouver to Toronto via Minneapolis via an American airline either on a single one-way flight. Is this illegal for airlines worldwide or is it legal in some countries? Which ones? Is there a specific name for this situation?