Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with travel and 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.

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?

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!

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?

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?

How fussy are Easyjet about hand luggage?

monster max — Sat, 16 May 2009 14:40:50 -0800

Easyjet flight UK to Spain hand luggage: can I use a M&S Xenon medium rollercase? It's 22.5cm wide but limit says 20cm - too risky? I'm traveling by Easyjet in a week's time and wanting to use a Marks & Spencer medium Xenon rollercase. Its given dimensions on the website are H52 x W39 x D22.5cm but the limit on the Easyjet website is 55 x 40 x 20. So it's technically 2.5cm too deep - are they that fussy? Or is it not worth the risk and should I take a different bag?

Trip insurance without medical coverage? General advice on trip insurance?

springo — Sat, 09 May 2009 16:35:12 -0800

Asking for the fiancée: is it possible to purchase trip insurance without medical coverage? Also: general advice about trip insurance for this situation is welcome (traveling several weeks in France & England, with expensive train connections). She says (she has a metafilter account but is using mine in case she gets desperate for other travel advice):

summary: leaves May 18, returns June 17, traveling in England and (mainly) France. Policy must allow cancellation "for any reason," which of course costs extra. Doesn't need health coverage. Wondering if she can get trip coverage for less than $91, if she could only find a policy that doesn't include medical.

details

I'm flying in to London/Heathrow, then plan to take a train to St. Pancras Station, then catch the Eurostar to Paris. The Eurostar is expensive. Pricing makes the non-flexible Eurostar tickets quite attractive -- but if my plane is late I'd be in trouble.

For what-if-I-miss-my-train reasons, as well as what-if-someone-gets-sick-and-I-have-to-stay-home reasons, trip insurance seems prudent. I estimate I'd need $1,500 covered for plane + train tickets. I also want to be able to cancel "for any reason".

Every single trip insurance plan I've looked at includes medical emergency coverage, but I have that through employer-based insurance. The quote I'm currently looking at is $91 (for $1,500 worth of coverage).

Apropos of this question, we looked at our bank and our car insurance companies (State Farm and also Amica), but they don't offer travel insurance.

General advice on trip insurance, or insurance company suggestions, are welcome, too. She's currently looking at this TravelSafe policy.

How do I get from Atlanta to Indianapolis today?

davidstandaford — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:48:29 -0800

I just learned that my 12:45 Delta flight from Atlanta to Indianapolis was canceled and I was rebooked for a flight on Tuesday. This is a giant problem for me and I'm trying to figure out if there is any way to get to Indianapolis today. As of now, the websites for the Atlanta and Indianapolis airports are both showing no delays from weather, but I can't tell if they are projecting stopping flights in the next couple of hours. I'm about to call Delta and try to find out what is going on, but I was curious if anyone has any advice for the best way to talk to them, and if it might be worth it to go to the airport and try to get on another flight from the airport as opposed to over the phone.

If anyone has any advice about getting my travels plans taken care of today as opposed to on Tuesday I really appreciate the help.

Help me preemie baby zip though the airport line at JFK!

Izzmeister — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 16:24:47 -0800

How to get through JFK with a preemie newborn without waiting on line for possibly hours? I'm arriving to JFK Airport later this week on an international flight.

I am arriving with my newborn baby (preemie to boot!) and noticed in the past when arriving at JFK that sometimes mothers with newborns seem to be whisked ahead of the line so they don't have to wait in the looong snake line for passport control.

how could I get around this line with my newborn? i don't want her around the airport for more then absolutely necessary....

can I pay (not too much!) for VIP service or something at JFK so I avoid the line?

(triple bonus points if someone here actually works in JFK and can help me!) :)

I'm always serious. And don't call me Shirley

Jon_Evil — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:29:05 -0800

Can I book a round-trip flight with different passengers on the initial and return flights? Five of us are going to Ohio, but live in New York. One wants to fly out with us, but stay longer and drive back to New York later. Another will already be in Ohio, but needs to fly back to New York with us. Am I allowed to only buy four tickets and have the two people share a round trip flight? If I'm not allowed, is there a way to do it anyway?

New road warrior looking for the tricks of the trade.

wile e — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:24:53 -0800

New road warrior here! Looking for sites, blogs, toys etc that all you other road warriors use to help ease myself into this lifestyle. With my new position, I will be traveling around two weeks per month flying mostly. All international flights, so not many short runs. I know the usual jazz, drinks lots of water, get up and exercise every hour or two, etc etc. What I'm looking for are the tricks, the websites, the toys that make it easier.

Thanks to all who can offer any help!

What is the Best Way to Fly from Tel Aviv to Atlanta?

davidstandaford — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:11:34 -0800

Some quick questions about booking an international flight. I need to get from Tel Aviv to Atlanta, with one catch. The domestic portion of my travel is being paid for. How do I figure out what would be the cheapest city in America to fly to from Israel?

Secondly, I have enough latitude in the dates of my trip that I can be departing and returning almost any day of the week. Are there specific days of the week for international travel that would potentially get me cheaper fares?

Finally, my departure date will be around February 25th. Should I be buying the ticket as soon as possible because prices will definitely be going up, or is that not necessarily the case. Thanks!

and will either give me free Guinness?!

mustcatchmooseandsquirrel — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:32:12 -0800

Should I book a flight with Aer Lingus or American Airlines? The price is the same (~$380). The flight is one way, transatlantic Dublin-Chicago. Probably no checked baggage (though a very slight possibility).

I don't have any experience with Aer Lingus and haven't flow on AA in a loooong time so I don't know which one would be better as far as comfort/food/etc.

International Flight Cancellation? Help me prepare!

aelish — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:51:26 -0800

What generally happens when an international flight is cancelled? (more inside) - other than the plane going nowhere! I am flying from Washington, DC to Newark to Belfast tomorrow and am expecting that one or both legs of my flight will be cancelled due to snow in Newark. I may make it to Newark from DC, but beyond that, I don't know what to expect.

If my 9:30 p.m. flight to from Newark to Belfast is cancelled, how do they usually handle that? Would I have to wait until 9:30 the next day for another flight (assuming the weather is not still prohibitive)...or would they try to get my original flight out earlier than that (again, weather permitting). I am trying to prepare myself mentally for a long wait - but have never had this happen despite a fair amount of international travel.

Airline Christmas Gift

Mroz — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:16:52 -0800

How do I give an airline ticket as a Christmas gift? I (in NJ) would like to give my friend (in AZ) an airline ticket to visit her best friend (in Ga) as a Christmas present. I don't want to send cash. I don't want to purchase it and get locked in because I don't know her schedule. Are gift certificates reliable? Who would I buy one from?

Is there another method that I'm not thinking of?

Denied boarding on overbooked flight - now wish to be pampered by airline. Advice?

zippy — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:48:41 -0800

I got bumped from a US Air flight (involuntarily) after the gate agent made an error and let *all* the bump volunteers board. How can I get US Air to go above and beyond their default offer? I paid big money (> $1200) for the flight (round trip cross-country US flight)

The e-ticket did not have me in an assigned seat on the second leg of my return (PHL->SFO), even though I chose seats when booking (through Orbitz).

Long story short. US Air overbooked the flight from PHL to SFO and bumped me involuntarily.

The twist? The gate agent had called for volunteers to be bumped, and then at final boarding let all of the board. She told them she didn't need them and that they would be flying!

she had some newbie assistant who I think miscounted the passengers who boarded

This was the last flight of the day, so US Air booked me on their first flight the next morning.

I want more than a $200 flight voucher and a meal coupon.

More specifically, I'd like advice on the following (the more detailed and specific, the better. I'm exhausted, my flight's early tomorrow).

- what's the best strategy to get an upgrade to first class on my flight tomorrow morning?

- they failed to use their bump volunteers. How can I get them to make good on this error? what, if anything, should I ask for?

- is there a best way to contact US Air about this? A specific number would be great. If it helps, I'm in their frequent flier program. US Air's website has contradictory info about where to call / email for a flight that *was* yesterday but is now tomorrow.

Thank you, all. I am so tired and cranky, but promise to be nice to all the US Air employees I talk to.

american airlines ate my summer vacation

thinkingwoman — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:12:20 -0800

american airlines delivered us 41 hours late to our destination. i sent an executive email carpet bomb today, but with the emergency landing in LAX today, i'm not sure anyone is going to respond to me. what else can i do? should i call? re-send the letter? how long should i wait for a response? click through for the letter... To whom it may concern:

I am writing to express my dismay and frustration over my experience with American Airlines on my recent trip to the Virgin Islands. I am an AAdvantage member, have an AAdvantage Mastercard, and have flown American almost exclusively over the past 10 years. I have always had good experiences with American. But due to weather, personnel, and technical delays, my boyfriend and I were 41 hours late to our destination and incurred nearly $500 in additional hotel, meal, and taxi expenses.

While we cannot get the time back, we feel it is only fair to ask you to address directly the additional expense and inconvenience we incurred. I know that you are not legally or contractually obliged to compensate us for what happened, but I think our complaint is justified and hope you can do what you can to rectify our good will toward American Airlines.

Below is a detailed account of what transpired. I believe you will agree that our experience falls far short of the goals you set for customer service.

On Tuesday, July 29, my boyfriend and I had tickets to travel from Nashville, TN, to St. Thomas, USVI, via Miami. We made it to Miami with no problems, but around 4 pm on Tuesday the 29th, we learned that our 5:15 pm (AA 795) flight had been canceled due to volcanic ash from Montserrat temporarily drifting over St. Thomas.

I immediately connected with customer service and was informed that the soonest we could get to St. Thomas was via a 9:45 pm flight to JFK on Wednesday, July 30 (AA 1908), connecting to an 8 am (AA 655) flight to St. Thomas on Thursday morning. As this put us more than 36 hours behind schedule, I asked if we would be given hotel or food vouchers and was told no, because it was due to weather. I asked if we could just go back to Nashville and reschedule our trip for another time and was told no, we could go back but it would use up our ticket value and we would not be able to apply the unused portion to future travel. (We had used my AAdvantage miles for the tickets.)

So I went ahead and confirmed the MIA-JFK-STT itinerary for peace of mind, but called back frequently to try to reschedule for something more reasonable.

It was like pulling teeth to get any information about standby possibilities or connections on other airlines. At one point we had almost nailed down a route through San Juan when the customer service agent began questioning us about how we wanted to pay for the change to our ticket. By the time I was able to get her to understand we were trying to reschedule after a flight cancellation instead of making a voluntary change, those seats were gone. The agent then blamed me for not mentioning the situation sooner.

It was during this time that I learned that my American Airlines online password apparently had been reset or deleted--I never discovered what happened, only that it no longer worked.

Being unable to make better arrangements or find standby space, we took the 9:45 flight to JFK (AA 1908) on July 30th. It was delayed for 2 hours because the flight’s first officer had not arrived.

During our wait, we discovered we had been issued flight coupons for our rescheduled flights instead of boarding passes when we noticed our travel documents did not include a boarding group number. Had I not happened to ask the gate agent about it, we never would have checked in and our seats would have been given to standby passengers from an earlier canceled flight to JFK.

We arrived at JFK at 2:15 am on July 31st, approximately 4 hours before we had to return to the airport for our connecting flight. This made the hotel reservations we’d made at the JFK Best Western earlier in the day pretty worthless, but because we were not informed of the delay until after the hotel’s cancellation deadline, we could not get our money back for the hotel.

After that, our 8 am flight to St. Thomas (AA 655) was delayed for almost 90 minutes due to a technical problem connecting with the satellite system.

We incurred approximately $70 in parking fees because we had planned to meet family in St. Thomas who were returning to Nashville shortly after our arrival, and they were going to get our car out of the airport garage. Due to our excessive delays, they had left before we arrived and were unable to get the keys from us, although our trips were originally supposed to overlap by more than a day.

Finally, when I returned from St. Thomas on August 4, I was erroneously charged the $25 checked-bag fee for a box of duty-free liquor. When I mentioned this to the baggage agent, she said, “You should have said something to me before you paid. I can’t do anything about it now.”

My boyfriend was recently given a $275 travel voucher from AA for getting off an overbooked flight from Chicago to Nashville and waiting a few hours for a less crowded flight. Surely if a few hours of voluntary delay is worth $275, we deserve comparable compensation for our expenses, delays, and poor customer service.

I appreciate your patience for reading through this long and complicated story, and would be very grateful for your prompt attention to this matter.

How/where can I sell an airline/airplane/flight ticket?

harwons — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:58:20 -0800

I bought a plane ticket, I subsequently had to cancel the flight, and now I'm stuck with a Delta voucher. I want to sell it and buy a ticket on another airline, which happens to have a much better flight to my destination. But where can I sell my ticket? I tried eBay and Points.com already.

Help me not die of boredom

mateuslee — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 03:28:55 -0800

Is there a resource that shows permutations of flights to/from a set of cities? Employees in the company I work for often send employees two/from four different cities, often arranging flights in which an employee will visit offices in multiple cities within the same day.

Recently my boss asked for a list of all permutations of flights to/from those cities. Short of doing the work manually (which would take days!) is there any resource out there? Please say yes.

Thanks!

The cities in question are:
Amsterdam
Madrid
Milan
Edinburgh

Flying to Jacksonville, Florida in March 2008 from Toronto. Where is the cheapest city to fly into in Florida?

20something — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 18:02:45 -0800

Flying to Jacksonville, Florida in March 2008 from Toronto. Where is the cheapest city to fly into in Florida? Also, when do airline seat sales tend to pop up? I have been checking flights in various cities in Florida and I have noticed that the ticket price varies by a lot depending on what airport I am flying into. I don't mind flying to a city a couple hours or so from Jacksonville if it will save me money.

Is there any way I can find out the cheapest cities to fly into in Florida? For instance, I have noticed that it is about $125 cheaper to fly into Daytona than Orlando at the moment.

Also, if I am flying in March when should I book my flight?

Will a travel centre be able to help me with more info?