discount airline tickets

Millard Hiner asked:


of airline tickets can sometimes be the bulk of your traveling expense. However if you are a flexible traveler, you may find it useful and cost effective to go online and look for a last minute airline ticket. There are a number of websites who offer such a service and most of the major airlines do as well. Purchasing a last minute airline ticket is the airline industry’s way of ensuring that they are flying as near to full flights as possible. They would much rather fill up the plane, even if it means selling the last few tickets for a discounted price. Flying the plane with empty seats is great for the passenger who gets the coveted 2 seats, but a source of lost income for the airline. There are a few things that you must be willing to do if you are interested in a last minute airline ticket. First you have to be diligent in your search efforts. Obviously the airlines don’t want this to become the mainstream way of purchasing tickets, so you will need to poke around to various sites. Also, you have to be willing to travel at crazy times throughout the day and on any given day.

This method of purchasing tickets works much better when you are traveling to visit friends, for example versus traveling for a vacation. When you are booking a vacation and a hotel, you need for your flight to coincide with the reset of your travel arrangements, such as the days and nights you have booked your hotel. But if you are flying home to visit mom and dad, it doesn’t matter if you come in on Monday or Tuesday, or 12 noon or midnight.

Travelers who buy a last minute airline ticket are usually lone travelers as well, or an extremely flexible couple. You are most likely to find 1 ticket per flight available at the discount. If you are lucky enough to find two, you and your travel companion will most likely not be sitting together. This is a small price to pay though in exchange for cutting down on the expense of flying.

Overall, purchasing discounted tickets at the last minute from an airline is a fabulous way to save money on your travel expenses. If your travel plans don’t dictate a specific day and time that you arrive in your destination, I highly recommend this option. A little planning and a lot of flexibility will save you money better spent on the actual vacation!



KELVIN

Andrew Bicknell asked:


For anyone who has ever traveled by air the thought of paying exorbitant prices on airline fares is enough to make them cringe. If you are one of them you understand that saving money on travel costs is very important and you are not alone. Everyday hundreds of thousands of people go online and using search engines and travel sites type in the following phrase, “I am looking for discount airline tickets”.

Fortunately for you and them there are ways to find and purchase cheap airfares if you know where to look and what to do. Competition is fierce within the airline industry and for the travel savvy flier discounts abound.

Here are 6 strategies you can follow in your quest to find discount airline tickets:

1. Flexibility – If you want to save money you need to fly at off peak times. This works several ways. When making vacation plans to a specific destination try and plan it around the off-season for that particular destination. You can find good discounts on airfare but also on tour packages. You also need to look at flying during off peak times of the weeks and day. For most airlines this is the middle of the week and late evening or early morning hours.

2. Use Airfare Ticketing Search Engines – The internet has given the traveling consumer great flexibility when planning vacations and business trips. The problem for those making travel plans is the sheer amount of information and travel sites to get through. This is where the ticketing search engines can help. They search all the airline and travel sites for you, finding the cheapest tickets for your travel itinerary.

3. Pick up the Phone – If you call the airlines direct and ask them what discounted tickets they have available for you itinerary you may be surprised. Airlines normally offer special deals everyday but they are not usually advertised. By taking advantage of their daily ticketing system updates you can save even more money as well. Call between midnight and 5 or 6 in the morning because there are usually cheap tickets available.

4. Plan Ahead – The sooner you can make your travel plans the better. Inexpensive tickets can be had at least 4 months before your scheduled departure date. Once you get inside of 18 to 24 days before your flight your chances of finding good savings are greatly diminished because the airlines can charge premium prices for last minute reservations.

5. Discount Airlines – There are many no frills discount airlines that offer cheap airfare with great service. Jet Blue, Spirit Air, and Southwest are a few examples.

6. Free Tickets – There is a way to get free tickets but you have to be very flexible once you get to the airport. The airlines have a bad habit of overbooking flights which is why you here that announcement at the gate asking for people to give up their seats. If you won’t be greatly inconvenienced by traveling on the next flight to your destination you should consider this because most airlines will give vouchers for free tickets to anywhere they fly.

Understanding the airline ticketing system is the first step to savings success for those people looking for discount airline tickets. And just think how nice it will feel having that extra money in your pocket once you get to your destination.



SONNY

John Lopinto asked:


Availability of a vast array of airline ticket prices is one that is perplexing to most airline travelers.  Only a handful of people who control the complex formulas that go into the science and art of Revenue Management inside the caverns of today’s airlines understand it.  To both the seasoned and occasional traveler alike, getting the best value in an airfare is the elusive dream that is difficult to consistently achieve.

However, there are some time proven axioms that one can follow to put the odds on your side in helping you to reduce the cost of your air travel:

#1 Change the Time You Travel

Don’t be rigid on the time of day you want to travel.  Going between New York and Los Angeles, for example, may have one airline offering as many as seven or eight flights on a particular day.  If you want to leave in the morning, investigate the three or four departures offered during that time period.  Moving your departure time by just one hour, on your departure or return, may save you a significant portion of the ticket price.

#2 Change the Day You Travel

Even if you require traveling on a particular airline or time of day, look at moving your desired departure or return day by one or two days.  It is often the case that a particular flight may be cheaper on a Tuesday than a Wednesday, or a Saturday instead of a Sunday.  The side benefit of this might be a free one-day “vacation” as the savings in airfare can more than offset the additional cost of a hotel room and meals. 

#3 Change the Route You Travel

Yes, we all like to travel directly from where we are to our destination as quickly as possible and without changing planes.  But how much is this worth to you?  Airlines often make connecting flights from your origin to destination less expensive than their non-stop flights.  It may add a couple of hours to travel time but it may be worth the hundreds of dollars you might be saving.  Airline websites, unfortunately, are designed to show you the most direct and shortest time between the cities you request.  If they have an option to “search by fare” use that option with maximum number of results possible and drill down deep in the results to make sure you see all the fares available. 

#4 Change the Airline You Use to Travel

Competition is a wonderful thing!  Many routes are highly competitive and it can force an airline with traditional dominance in a market to drop its airfares, sometimes dramatically, in response to a new competitor or fare sale from other competing airlines.  Often times these “sales” will happen on a moment’s notice and may only last for a few days.  If you have a favorite airline you wish to use, subscribe to their email alerts for your favorite cities so you can be kept up to date on any fare changes.  But, don’t limit yourself to just one airline.  Do it for all the airlines in your market.

#5 First Class Cheaper Than Coach?

No discussion of airfares would be complete without talking about the new currency for airfares: the frequent flyer mile.  More and more of us are accumulating these frequent flyer miles that pay for airline tickets.  Our first inclination when trying to redeem these miles is to seek out a coach seat using the lowest amount of miles, typically around 25,000 miles.  However, it is usually the case that the airline does not have any seats at the lowest mileage redemption level when you would like to travel but may have them if you use twice the miles.  Before giving in to this requirement, ask about business or first class awards.  You may be surprised how many times discounted business or first class awards may be available to and from your destination for the same or less or slightly more miles than for double mileage coach awards.  The extra comfort and perks are the icing on the cake!

Be flexible, keep current on airfares, explore all your routing options and look at all the ways frequent flyer miles can be redeemed.

About the Author

John Lopinto is Partner and co-founder of Expert Travel Services, LLC which owns and operates ExpertFlyer.com, the leading online information service for frequent flyers.  A 100,000+ mile a year frequent flyer, Mr. Lopinto travels extensively throughout Asia, Europe and North America to bring his unique perspective to the travel industry for the frequent flyer.  As a top-tier elite member for an international airline and alliance, Mr. Lopinto has first hand knowledge of life as an air traveler at all levels of service and experiences.

Mr. Lopinto also is President of a manufacturer of fiber optic transmission systems and high-performance computer-video interface products.  Mr. Lopinto previously held various technical and managerial positions in the Broadcast, Satellite and Cable TV industries.

Mr. Lopinto holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree. His professional affiliations include the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and the International Communications Industries Association.

To learn more about how you can travel cheaper and smarter, log onto to http://www.expertflyer.com



FRED