Cheaptickets question

[tooalto]

I'm trying to book air for our Sep. cruise on the new Noordam. HAL air is very expensive. I've been trying http://www.cheaptickets.com and, when I find a fare and click to book the site just keeps taking me around in circles and coming up with higher fares, then the lower one then higher. Has anyone been able to actually book one of these low fares? Is there a good time of day to try? I've gievn myself a headache with nothing to show for it.

[parody]

Your experience happens because the original search that is conducted is not performed with real-time fare availability. This is a real hidden aspect of most all search engines. When one goes to buy the fare, the site you are using then does a real-time check on fares/flights and more often than you would like to see, the fare/flight is not available. And, thus it asks you to accept the higher fare. A study done by Consumer Reports last fall showed that this happened on Orbitz 21% of the time (fares went down 5% of the time).

 

But, why do you want to buy your ticket at the search site that you are using? According to their website, a handling fee of between $2.99 and $15.99 will be added to the ticket cost. It appears that the actual fee (read, markup) is nearly impossible to ascertain as it is lumped into other legitimate fees. The general admonition that has been made is "don't confuse shopping with buying". Once you do your searching/shopping, you (unless you have something special), should head on over to the website of the airline that is offering the fare that you found. You may be lucky and stumble onto a "web only" fare that most likely was not included in your original search.

[sk84fungirl]

I've been checking several sites daily as I know that great prices often have a very small window. I am flying out of ATL to SEA in June. Prices have been ridiculous. I have even been unable to get FF seats. That is until this past week.

 

AirTran announced that they will begin flying into Seattle from May through Sept. This is great news. There are now actually flights available under $400. The key is finding times that work.

 

Per some advice from a poster here, I downloaded stripstalker. It is a great tool. It' searches all airlines for you. I then can go to the airline's site or book through tripstalker. I'm hoping to find a Seattle hotel with it. Delta added a flight this week and I was able to grab it with FF miles.

 

I typically have the best luck with flight costs within 90 days of my trip. I would encourage you to stay alert and keep looking. While doing your research, and have a price in mind.

 

Good luck.

[parody]

I downloaded stripstalker. It is a great tool. It' searches all airlines for you.

 

TripStalker may work fine for your trip, but for others considering using it, it does not search "all airlines". I haven't done an exhaustive test on this, and like most sites, they are completely silent on the subject. But I do know that it doesn't search jetBlue, a rapidly rising "low-cost" carrier.

[sk84fungirl]

TripStalker may work fine for your trip, but for others considering using it, it does not search "all airlines". I haven't done an exhaustive test on this, and like most sites, they are completely silent on the subject. But I do know that it doesn't search jetBlue, a rapidly rising "low-cost" carrier.

 

OK...whatever. Then, it does not search ALL airlines.

 

 

As mentioned earlier, do your research tooalto and enjoy your trip.

[parody]

OK...whatever.

 

TripStalker currently uses Worldspan in conducting it searches and presenting alerts, and that may be extended in the future. But, with that piece of information, it means that they also don't include Southwest Airlines (in addition to jetBlue that I mentioned earlier), now the largest domestic carrier in terms of passengers. Since Southwest and jetBlue are used by many folks who are cruising, it is useful to know beyond "whatever" -- but maybe it is just me.

[sk84fungirl]

My point here was that there are many tools and resources available to find flights. Like I wrote earlier, whatever...whatever works for you.

 

My last statement in my first post was not to imply that I have used Tripstalker to find flights within 90-days, but that I in general find my best deals within 90-days of my flight. I have not booked a flight via tripstalker as I just learned about it from reading posts on this board and IMO feel as though it is another nice tool to have.

 

Done.

[tooalto]

Thanks for the info. I have since checked Bizrate and Ripoff Report and found horrible info on cheaptickets. Having been a TA for 9+ years, I know what the fares should be for shoulder season and right now, they're very high. I'll just keep playing around. I've had phenomenal luck with priceline for hotels but I'd never do air with them.

Thanks again

[jennew]

Our friends just had a horrible experience with Cheaptickets. They booked flights for their return from a cruise. They noted the tickets were on their charge card.

 

The day before they left for their cruise they called to inquire about the tickets because they suddenly realized that they did not have the confirmation email.

 

Long story short, cheaptickets cancelled their flights with no explaination and no notification. They credited their credit card for the cost of the flights. By the time this came to my friend's attention they were one week out from the needed flights. After MANY calls they were forced to pay DOUBLE what they original flights cost. Cheaptickets said that they did nothing wrong since they credited the money back. There was never a reason given for cancelling the flights.

[MIcruiser99]

My SIL recommended Cheaptickets to us when we needed airfare to Hawaii. They were the cheapest but they also double charged us for the tickets. After long waits on hold, we were able to get our credit for the second charge.

 

Sounds like we were lucky compared to others.

[kenandlaura06]

Wow, it seems like a good site to stay away from!

[zqvol]

I'm trying to book air for our Sep. cruise on the new Noordam. HAL air is very expensive. I've been trying http://www.cheaptickets.com and, when I find a fare and click to book the site just keeps taking me around in circles and coming up with higher fares, then the lower one then higher. Has anyone been able to actually book one of these low fares? Is there a good time of day to try? I've gievn myself a headache with nothing to show for it.

Use the engines as a starting point and then go to the airlines directly. The engines are all going to add a handling fee, and often their prices are the same as the airlines.

 

Just be aware that the days of inexpensive air are over. Prices have not risen much in 20 years, so don't be surprised to see them double over what we are used to and stay up. If that doesn't happen all of the airlines are going to end up bankrupt and shut down.

[parody]

The engines are all going to add a handling fee

 

Adding a handling fee is the norm for all sites like Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, etc. as they are really online Travel Agencies. However, Metasearch sites like Kayak.com, SideStep.com, Mobissimo.com, etc. are airfare/travel search engines but they do not add a handling fee as they do not sell tickets. Kayak is attractive in that they not only search a variety of sites but they tell you were to go to purchase the airfare/airflight that you found. Still, unless you have some special conditions, your advice about heading over to an airline's website makes sense as there may be web-only specials that these search sites do not have in their databases.

[Enchantment 04]

We had the same problem with cheaptickets. Than we tried Orbitz and the price went down from $1200 to $800! Now I always go to orbitz to see if I can get the lower fare and it has happened a few other times also.

[vivian02]

In the past five years I have done alot of ticket purchasing for flights to Europe. I even remember booking a flight to Barcelona, Spain with a bad feeling when talking to a person from India on the other end. Since the price was inline I gave the person my credit card number and crossed my fingers. Four days later I received paper tickets in the mail (Fedx) and just to make sure I checked with the airlines to see if our names were in the system. Bingo everything was fine. As for the credit card I was charged correctly and everything went very smooth. I think one must do certain checks before doing a cruise or you can run into some serious stress. Number one...make sure you have a conformation with an E-ticket or paper tickets in hand before leaving on a cruise. Number two...Call the airlines to see if your name is in the system. Number three...check and make sure the billing went through your credit card properly. I really think if you do these things you can't go wrong. By the way, I have always be able to find tickets cheaper than that listed with "Cheaptickets". Good luck Tim

[fitters]

Thanks for the info. I have since checked Bizrate and Ripoff Report and found horrible info on cheaptickets. Having been a TA for 9+ years, I know what the fares should be for shoulder season and right now, they're very high. I'll just keep playing around. I've had phenomenal luck with priceline for hotels but I'd never do air with them.

Thanks again

 

tooalto....you mentioned you would never use priceline for air, why? I was thinking of booking our flights from Detroit to San Diego via non-stop only (which is Northwest). NWA only has a couple flights in and out of San Diego, so I thought it would be safe to book through priceline. Do you think otherwise? We plan on flying in a day or two earlier than the cruise and staying a couple days after. Any advice would surely be appreciated.

Thanks.

[1cruiselvr]

Although I have never bid on air thru priceline, it's my understanding that you can't choose the carrier or flights. So you could end up with numerous flights with layovers to get to your destination. Happy Sailing!

[parody]

it's my understanding that you can't choose the carrier or flights.

 

Your understanding was and still is true if you bid (or "name your own price") when using Priceline. However, in January 2004, Priceline made an addition to their site where it is now possible to select a specific airline and flight (i.e., flight number and departure time). So, now one has a choice, depending on their risk and flexibility (and possibly other tradeoffs) when using Priceline. See their press release at http://nocache.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=pcln&script=460&layout=-6&item_id=485349

It is useful to note, however, that in their search of potential flights, for which one specifies the typical parameters, it does not include Southwest Airlines (no surprise there) and jetBlue. I have not done an exhaustive search of this issue, so there may be other airlines as well.