23 Secrets The Airlines Won't Tell You About Finding Cheap Flights

[CtheW0rld]

the 'million-milers' who regularly post here won't find this story useful (please post more of your own), but for the rest of us it might be useful:

 

http://www.investinganswers.com/personal-finance/smart-consumer/23-secrets-airlines-wont-tell-you-about-finding-cheap-flights-4528?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ia-ob-0911

[Zach1213]

5. Book On Tuesday At 3 p.m. Eastern

 

Nope, can't agree with Farecompare on that. I've never, ever seen overwhelming evidence of this.

 

7. Fly Two Different Airlines

 

And then complain when you can't get enough status on one airline to get free bags ;)

 

8. Become A Frequent Flier

 

Sort of clashes with #7, no?

 

12. Search For Deals In The Morning

 

Wait, I thought I was checking on Tuesday at 3 in the afternoon?

 

16. Book Six Weeks In Advance

 

Agreed...much better than booking 330 days out like most people on CC seem to prefer

 

19. Don't Overlook Small Carriers

 

I'm not sure if there are many "small carriers" around the US/Canada any more with consolidation and the current aviation business environment

 

21. Book Connecting Flights

 

It can actually save more than $100 in my experience, but it can also cost more. For example, I booked MCI-LAS nonstop when I would rather fly MCI-DEN-LAS to pick up my friend in Denver, but they were charging $150 more each way to stop in Denver.

[FlyerTalker]

And don't forget:

 

3. Chase The Fare, Not The Destination

 

You'll really love that romantic getaway to Fargo. And when the Red River floods, you can even imagine that it's Venice.

 

And I could rebut many others, including the advice on red-eyes which may have been true years ago but surely isn't today.

 

In other words, much of what they wrote is either complete bunk or has limited validity.

[Zach1213]

And don't forget:

 

3. Chase The Fare, Not The Destination

 

You'll really love that romantic getaway to Fargo. And when the Red River floods, you can even imagine that it's Venice.

 

And I could rebut many others, including the advice on red-eyes which may have been true years ago but surely isn't today.

 

In other words, much of what they wrote is either complete bunk or has limited validity.

 

Having spent a good chunk of a summer in North Dakota several years ago doing flight training, I recommend Grand Forks or Bismarck over Fargo ;)

[frugaltravel]

the 'million-milers' who regularly post here won't find this story useful

 

Well, you were right on about that, but it doesn't stop them from commenting :D

 

As with any generic article, some things are good and some not-so-good.

 

I take exception to the book 6 weeks ahead rule though. I start looking as soon as I know I am taking a trip. Then I jump when the fare is good. That has gotten me very cheap fares to many destinations. Sometimes I book 11 months in advance, sometimes 6 months in advance, sometimes 2-3 months in advance, but rarely 6 weeks in advance. Usually a very short-term fare sale comes out and I jump on it way earlier than 6 weeks in advance.

[CtheW0rld]

Well, you were right on about that, but it doesn't stop them from commenting :D

 

As with any generic article, some things are good and some not-so-good.

 

I take exception to the book 6 weeks ahead rule though. I start looking as soon as I know I am taking a trip. Then I jump when the fare is good. That has gotten me very cheap fares to many destinations. Sometimes I book 11 months in advance, sometimes 6 months in advance, sometimes 2-3 months in advance, but rarely 6 weeks in advance. Usually a very short-term fare sale comes out and I jump on it way earlier than 6 weeks in advance.

 

i would hope not. i get better advice here about air travel than anywhere else. i refer people to this forum regularly with questions.

[grandma*knows*best]

A lot of those tips are ridiculous or outdated.

 

Another useless article cobbled together from the author's Google searches, not practical experience.

[ducklite]

19. Don't Overlook Small Carriers

 

I'm not sure if there are many "small carriers" around the US/Canada any more with consolidation and the current aviation business environment

 

There are a few that operate regionally. Cape Air runs flights in very eastern New England and Bearskin Air in northern Canada are two I can think of right off the top of my head.

[Ms Understood]

i would hope not. i get better advice here about air travel than anywhere else. i refer people to this forum regularly with questions.

 

Amen to that! I believe some of the folks who post here are far more informed than even the airline reps. I am continually amazed at their depth of knowledge. Thank you all!

-----------------------

Helen

[scottbee]

There are a few that operate regionally. Cape Air runs flights in very eastern New England and Bearskin Air in northern Canada are two I can think of right off the top of my head.

 

Allegiant air would probably come into the category of small carriers; there are a number ofplaces they fly to as infrequently as 2x/week

 

Also dont overlook foreign carriers on 5th freedom routes such as Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong) flying JFK-YVR. Philippines fly YVR-LAS and Air New Zealand from LAX-LHR

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Great tips thanks ..

[greatam]

Allegiant air would probably come into the category of small carriers; there are a number ofplaces they fly to as infrequently as 2x/week

 

Also dont overlook foreign carriers on 5th freedom routes such as Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong) flying JFK-YVR. Philippines fly YVR-LAS and Air New Zealand from LAX-LHR

 

Kuwait Airlines-JFK to London and Air India from both Chicago and Newark to Frankfurt.

 

If I am not mistaken, Singapore flies 4 fifth freedom flights from the USA to Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and for a really off the wall one-Houston to Moscow.

 

Very often, Kuwait Airlines runs first class specials from about May-September from JFK to LHR for $1000 or less each way. Granted, Kuwait Air is NOT Cathay, BA or Singapore. But they have improved a lot in the last few years. If you can put up without booze for the flight, you get a better experience in first class than US carriers first class at a much cheaper price. Their new seats are really, really nice (installed since Feb-March 2012). It is astonishing how much the Middle Eastern airlines are competing with each other and offering more and more with each new generation of airline or plane retrofit.

[greatam]

 

And I could rebut many others, including the advice on red-eyes which may have been true years ago but surely isn't today.

 

In other words, much of what they wrote is either complete bunk or has limited validity.

 

The red eye advise was just complete crap. I fly two redeyes with regularity-AA 10 or 30 out of LAX to JFK. That used to be a cheapo flight with 50% occupancy. It is now packed to the max and if it wasn't for status with AA, I wouldn't get upgraded like I do. I have even had to spend miles to get the upgrade as I need to sleep and get off the plane and go to work.

 

US Air was running a nonstop red eyes from PHX to EWR or JFK. The flights were PACKED. The JFK redeye is now a connect flight in either SFO or CLT. And it is EXPENSIVE (the SFO redeye connect is double the price of the daytime nonstop PHX/JFK).

[Gloria Mundi]

I'd also discount the e-Rewards recommendation. It was OK in the beginning but many of the surveyors caught onto the trick of gathering a lot of information up front and then saying, "sorry, you don't qualify. Here's 5 cents for playing". While I expect them to ask some screening-type demographic questions and maybe some specific ones about whether I plan to buy a car in the next year, for example, they'd get into questions on my attitudes towards or recognition of certain brands, then dump me.

 

After 3 surveys in a row that pulled that trick I closed my account.

[Texas Tillie]

I'd also discount the e-Rewards recommendation. It was OK in the beginning but many of the surveyors caught onto the trick of gathering a lot of information up front and then saying, "sorry, you don't qualify. Here's 5 cents for playing". While I expect them to ask some screening-type demographic questions and maybe some specific ones about whether I plan to buy a car in the next year, for example, they'd get into questions on my attitudes towards or recognition of certain brands, then dump me.

 

After 3 surveys in a row that pulled that trick I closed my account.

 

I've earned 10,000 miles from e-Rewards. So some people do qualify for the surveys.

[kenish]

My eRewards earns "dollars", which can be used to redeem various rewards such as gift cards and airline and hotel points. It works well for me because I can use it to reset the expiration on several mileage programs.

[Grumpy100]

It also helps if you apply for credit cards that give you miles for using so much charging the first month or so. That is what we did with American express.

[Zach1213]

It also helps if you apply for credit cards that give you miles for using so much charging the first month or so. That is what we did with American express.

 

I personally recommend against opening up credit cardS (plural) just for some free travel...but hey that's just me.

[Grumpy100]

We only have the two and one is the delta ax and the other is boa and we use them alternately and pay each off every month. It is a good thing for us. We used to have an NCL card and have gotten several free cruises also.

[calliopecruiser]

I'm not a million-miler, but I still know many/most of those so called "tips" are pretty useless (though some were no doubt helpful in the past).

[emmtee]

The red eye advise was just complete crap. I fly two redeyes with regularity-AA 10 or 30 out of LAX to JFK. That used to be a cheapo flight with 50% occupancy. It is now packed to the max and if it wasn't for status with AA, I wouldn't get upgraded like I do. I have even had to spend miles to get the upgrade as I need to sleep and get off the plane and go to work.

 

US Air was running a nonstop red eyes from PHX to EWR or JFK. The flights were PACKED. The JFK redeye is now a connect flight in either SFO or CLT. And it is EXPENSIVE (the SFO redeye connect is double the price of the daytime nonstop PHX/JFK).

 

 

Agreed about the redeyes - definitely not the cheapest flights I found. I booked airfare for 4 from Phoenix to San Juan. There are no direct flights, so it takes a whole day to get there - 9 hours minimum. If we had booked any day flight, we would arrive around 11:00 PM. We want to arrive earlier, but can't leave before 10:30 PM the night before; the cheapest redeye in that timeframe was $50pp more and has 2 stops and a 6-hour layover, but it would get us there in the afternoon, which seemed worth it. After booking, I kept an eye on fares. A lot of the daytime fares were going down, but fares for our flights kept going up. (Recently, they changed one of our flight times, reducing a layover from 34 minutes to 29 minutes, making it invalid, so we had to change to a different redeye. The new one has one connection, and according to my notes, had originally been $132 more than the one we booked.)