discount airline tickets

Marina asked:


Many travelers searching for cheap airline tickets online have a choice to deal either with an online search engine or a live professional Travel Agent. What’s the difference between those and how to make the right choice?

Basically, the major difference is that every time you work with a Live Travel Agent you get a dedicated personal travel assistant - someone who will do all the footwork for you and try to accommodate all your travel needs. Travel Agents can research different airlines inventories and check possible lowest fares on the market to the destination you are flying to, meanwhile not only checking the prices of the airlines tickets for your travel dates, but also around those, advising when cheaper tickets are available. Thus, you can be sure that a professional Travel Agent will check all the airline itineraries and airfares, which you may omit making research yourself, and advise you of the lowest prices and best itineraries, as well as cheapest travel time and, finally, make the booking – all what you would need to do yourself if you chose to deal with numerous automatic search engines. Besides, if you are not computer-literate, it can be hard for you to make sure the online booking was done properly. Choosing to work with a Live Agent you ensure yourself with a bigger choice of flight itineraries with all the details and nuances explained, Live Service via phone, chat and e-mail available at your convenience, professional assistance with any other travel arrangements and advise on any travel products, as well as the necessary follow up on your tickets.

Working with a Travel Agent you can be sure that you get answers to any questions which may arise whether related or non-related to your travel, and you will always have someone to talk to and get the necessary help in case of travel problems.

If you plan to travel oversees, try out ASAPtickets, which is a well-known in the U.S. web-based travel agency, employing professionally trained Travel Agents who can create any type of customized and affordable international flight itineraries. Unlike other websites that offer you endless minor travel products, ASAPtickets concentrates on finding the cheapest international airfares. You can check airline ticket prices online at www.ASAPtickets.com, call or chat with your personal Travel Agent to create a travel plan, and then book flights over the phone at a discounted price, which is all very convenient. All calls are answered LIVE and each customer gets a dedicated travel professional to work with. Agents are specially trained to find the lowest airfares available where other agents or search engines fail. By manually searching the airlines inventories and using special booking practices, Travel Agents are also able to find published fares that they can subsequently offer for a competitive market rate.

Above all, professional Travel Agents work with specially negotiated wholesale airfares which are not available to online booking engines and are cheaper than most market airfares, and are able to offer those accommodating passengers even with last minute flights. Whereas, using unique booking techniques, Travel Agents unlike online search engines can manually combine flights and itineraries of any route and complexity which will suit your needs best.



DANNY

Me asked:


I was scheduled to make a flight with US Airways leaving at 5:45 AM, making a 40-minute layover, and arriving at my destination at 1:19 PM. I’ve had these reservations since 2/20. I was just called yesterday by the travel agency letting me know that US Air changed their schedule, making it impossible for me to make my connecting flight. They told me I could either cancel for a refund or change to a flight that left at 12:25 AM and still got there at the same time, with a 4-hour layover somewhere else. Those are TERRIBLE times for us, especially since we live 3-1/2 hours from the airport and I don’t do well without sleep. When I looked into getting a refund and re-booking with another airline, the tickets have now DOUBLED. We can’t change or cancel our reservations as we are staying at a resort.

Do I have any options here? If I contact US Airways, is there any chance they’d give me an upgrade or discount on a future flight or anything else I can do?
Also, the flight isn’t leaving until June so there’s no way it was canceled due to weather and the cost was $940 (2 tickets); now the going rate for 2 tickets is over $1800.

DAMIEN

Terrie Bryan asked:


Do you love to travel? I do too, and I am always looking for new ways to find inexpensive airline tickets. I prefer to spend my money on other things rather than spending a bundle on airfare just to get to my destination. I bet you would too. So I have gathered together a few tips to help all of us “thrifty” travelers.

1. Check neighboring cities. For example, if you are planning on flying into Washington DC, be sure to check out prices for flights to Baltimore instead, as these flights are almost always less expensive.

2. If you are not traveling internationally, consider flying on one of the subsidiary airlines for the major carriers (such as Delta Express), as you will usually save money this way.

3. Be sure to use the Internet to check out last-minute discounted fares on the airline’s website. Start looking Wednesday for the upcoming weekend.

4. Be patient and wait for a good price to come up. However, when you do see a great price go ahead and grab it.

5. Try to be flexible with your leaving and return dates. Sometimes if you just adjust your dates by one day you can get a better price. For example, leave Thursday and return Monday instead of leaving Friday and returning Sunday.

6. If possible, book your tickets directly at the airline’s website. If you use a travel agency, even one online, they will charge you an additional fee. It will also be easier to correct any problems if you are dealing directly with the airline itself instead of a travel agency.

7. Mornings are sometimes the best time to check for tickets, and Saturday and Wednesday mornings are good days to take a look for some great prices.

8. Don’t forget to sign up for frequent flyer miles; it is surprising how often people don’t take advantage of this perk.

9. Traveling one way? Even though you will find this doesn’t work all the time, be sure to check for round-trip prices as well since there are occasions where it is cheaper than flying one-way. Crazy? Sure, but hey, we are trying to save money here so do what you have to.

10. If you plan to travel on a holiday, be sure to book your tickets well in advance. For one thing, you will have a hard time getting the seats and dates you want if you wait until the last minute, but you also will save on airfare by buying early. However, be sure of your itinerary because you will cancel out all savings you made if you have to change your travel dates.

11. Make sure you always book your flights at least 21 days in advance. This will get you the best fares. The earlier the better in this case. Never buy tickets within 7 days of your planned departure if you can help it, as you will pay a significantly higher fare.

12. Consider traveling on the “red eye” flights. Check with your travel agent to see if you can save with these late-night fares. You can often save as much as 25% this way.



STAN