Booking a flight.. some advice?

[motivez]

I'm going to be taking a trip in July to see family, and I've always booked my flights just straight through the people at the airlines when I've flown, but it's been 10 years since I've flown anywhere.. before the emergence of places like priceline, orbitz, etc..

The airlines want about $600+ for a roundtrip ticket, which is more than I can really afford to pay..Priceline has the price round trip listed at about half that once I used their "Name Your Own Price" service..

Has anyone used one of those services? Are they pretty reliable, or do I get stuck on some rickety old plane missing parts?

[7960]

they buy seats on regular service planes so you're not going to get shafted. actually, there's a chance you could get a priceline ticket and end up on the same plane you would have if you bought directly through the airline.

I use orbitz, priceline, and kayak often and have never had a problem. in fact, I had to cancel one trip and priceline's cancel policy was better than if I had bought the ticket directly through united.

[motivez]

Do those other services have a "name your own price" or whatever? Because their price was the same as the airlines.. 600+

I dont know how priceline can bring it down to 300ish

[motivez]

Oh, hm.. apparently they haven't actually found me a flight, the page says "if" they find one they'll bill me immediately (I guess to secure the price)

How realistic is it to cut a trip from like $600 down to $300 through them?

[Ardentfrost]

Where are you flying (from and to)?

There are lots of guidelines that people should follow when planning a trip to get cheap air fare. If you have to go and return at a specific time, you can expect to pay a lot, but if you have a few days flexible time you can cut your fares by a decent amount. Leaving mid-week is when you can get the best base prices generally.

Air fares fluctuate constantly. As a matter of fact, on an airplane full of passengers, it's unlikely any few people paid the exact same price. Airlines change their price based on foreseeable demand. If a few seats are bought all at once, then the price for that flight will go up. If it's been a few days and they haven't sold any, the price will go down. The reason for this is the airline WANTS to sell every seat on the plane at "full fare" (the price they believe the seat to be worth). However, any seats not sold before take off is wasted money. Even if they fill 10 seats for 1/10th the price at the last second, that is 1 full fare more than they would have otherwise had. This is also why flying standby can get you very decent prices.

And I ask where you're flying from and to because if you can go AirTran, they sell all their seats at reasonable prices. But they only go to a limited number of locations (by offering inexpensive service on high-volume lanes, they end up filling the plane easier).

[motivez]

Greensboro (GSO) or Charlotte (CLT) or even Raleigh-Durham (RDU) to Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP).. I'd prefer GSO obviously since it's closer, but the others aren't out of the question if the price is better.

My schedule is relatively flexible, sometime around July 14th (give or take a few days), coming back approximately 2 weeks later.

Hm, actually after searching from Raleigh the price is significantly lower.. I guess since Greensboro is a smaller airport. They do have AirTran from $208, which is far more affordable.. I've never heard of them though..

[7960]

Originally Posted by motivez

Do those other services have a "name your own price" or whatever? Because their price was the same as the airlines.. 600+

No. They'll just find the best price available.

Originally Posted by motivez

Oh, hm.. apparently they haven't actually found me a flight, the page says "if" they find one they'll bill me immediately (I guess to secure the price)

How realistic is it to cut a trip from like $600 down to $300 through them?

Half price might not be realistic.

[7960]

Originally Posted by motivez

Greensboro (GSO) or Charlotte (CLT) or even Raleigh-Durham (RDU) to Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP).. I'd prefer GSO obviously since it's closer, but the others aren't out of the question if the price is better.

My schedule is relatively flexible, sometime around July 14th (give or take a few days), coming back approximately 2 weeks later.

Hm, actually after searching from Raleigh the price is significantly lower.. I guess since Greensboro is a smaller airport. They do have AirTran from $208, which is far more affordable.. I've never heard of them though..

I've flown airtran and would again.

[Ardentfrost]

I've flown AirTran a lot having access to one of their major hubs here in Atlanta. You can even get a lower price than $208 I'd bet. I've seen roundtrip tickets across the nation (like, San Fran or LA) for $150. They run specials to places like NYC for $60 sometimes. Just a few weeks ago I saw a special to Orlando for $26 one way.

AirTran is a discount airline, so you're not going to get some of those amenities you might be used to on other airlines. And their entire fleet is comprised out of one type of plane, the 737 I think, which is 6 seats per row split by an aisle, about 100 rows... kinda cramped quarters but people put up with it for the price. There's also business class which is a little more roomy. You can upgrade if there are any available for something like $30 (I suggest it if the flight is more than a couple hours).

I haven't flown since October, but I've heard junk fees are way worse now. Stuff like fuel surcharges and various other hidden fees are not uncommon. I've read that you should expect to pay about 20% more than ticket price after everything.

[WickedLou9]

Southwest doesn't have a good price? I always fly them and book right through thier website. They usually have pretty good fares.

[Ardentfrost]

Southwest flies from NC to MN? If so, that would be a good alternative to AirTran.

[7960]

southwest does not fly to MSP

http://mspairport.com/msp/Airlines/passenger.aspx

[thewise1]

you can get a great deal at priceline but I hope your plans are pretty solid, cause once you're booked, you're pretty much booked.

You can beg them to change it and sometimes they will, but not without a hefty fee that makes it more expensive than booking it at the airline in the first place.

[7960]

Originally Posted by thewise1

you can get a great deal at priceline but I hope your plans are pretty solid, cause once you're booked, you're pretty much booked.

You can beg them to change it and sometimes they will, but not without a hefty fee that makes it more expensive than booking it at the airline in the first place.

or get trip insurance.

I have no idea why my wife bought it but she spent an extra $50 for it the *only* time we ever canceled a trip. I got deathly ill and was trying to figure out how to sit on a plane for 3 hrs and my wife said "I got insurance. We can cancel and get all but the insurance fee back."

I fell in love all over again.

[thewise1]

Good idea - but read the terms. I bought it once (from expedia.com or orbitz, can't remember) and when I went to cancel the flight found out it only applies if the flight is canceled

[motivez]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

I've flown AirTran a lot having access to one of their major hubs here in Atlanta. You can even get a lower price than $208 I'd bet. I've seen roundtrip tickets across the nation (like, San Fran or LA) for $150. They run specials to places like NYC for $60 sometimes. Just a few weeks ago I saw a special to Orlando for $26 one way.

AirTran is a discount airline, so you're not going to get some of those amenities you might be used to on other airlines. And their entire fleet is comprised out of one type of plane, the 737 I think, which is 6 seats per row split by an aisle, about 100 rows... kinda cramped quarters but people put up with it for the price. There's also business class which is a little more roomy. You can upgrade if there are any available for something like $30 (I suggest it if the flight is more than a couple hours).

I haven't flown since October, but I've heard junk fees are way worse now. Stuff like fuel surcharges and various other hidden fees are not uncommon. I've read that you should expect to pay about 20% more than ticket price after everything.

Well here's a question.. lets say I sign up through Priceline and want to pay maybe $130 instead of the $200 (or whatever) .. am I guaranteed a ticket somehow? What if they don't accept the price?

Looking at the sign up thing, it says that if the airline accepts the price, they'll purchase the ticket immediately.. but how long before the date should I wait to just go ahead and pay the price?

I thought as you got closer to a certain date, the flights became more expensive to get a seat on.

Also, I'm guessing through priceline's "name your own price" you wouldn't be able to specify things like "window seat" or "business class"? Or is AirTram like Southwest, your seat is first come first serve?

[Ardentfrost]

AirTran has assigned seats. If business class seats are available, you can upgrade at first come first serve.

Air fare is a very fickle thing. If the plane is filling up at a decent rate, you'd be hard pressed to find the price you want. However, if there are seats available at the last second, you can negotiate a really good price. But you can't count on anything anymore. People have reduced the number of flights they're taking, so airlines have been reducing the number of flights they're offering. They don't WANT empty seats on a plane, obviously, so it's kind of a give and take between buyer and seller.

The more loose you can be with your plans, the cheaper price you can get. Since you can't be really loose, I'd probably just go with one of the discount airlines and see if you can get a little bit of a reduced price.

[7960]

Originally Posted by motivez

I thought as you got closer to a certain date, the flights became more expensive to get a seat on.

this may or may not be true.

it depends on the origination and destination, the time of year, historical data, current trends, blah blah blah. the price may go up or down as the flight date gets closer and there's really no way you can tell what it's going to do.

there are 20 guys in my group, 5 of us live in new england and use Manchester airport. our boss tells us when to book our flight and we all go and do our own booking through an internal tool. We've been hundreds of dollars different (higher and lower) by just booking one day earlier or later. So the guy sitting next to me on the same plane may have paid half of what I did because he booked a day (or a few hours) earlier *or* later than me.

[motivez]

I'm willing to leave (and arrive) at any point, and like I said, I'm flexible within a few days. I'm just worried if I go through this "name your own price" thing through Priceline.. what happens if none accept the price as the date gets closer?

I don't know how that whole thing works.

[Ardentfrost]

Then you end up paying full or near-full fare closer to time.