Informative Article on Buying your Plane Tickets

[Gambit McCrae]

I am posting this as hiking via Airliner is a constant learning process for me, and is now kind of becoming an objective for myself to be a airlines expert be time I finish my section hike. The way it looks on paper is I have a bout 10 trips via airplane before I can complete the trail, possibly a few less if I can double stack my weeks of Vaca to hike 2 weeks solid instead of one, I digress.

Best Day to Buy Airline Tickets (http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/best-day-buy-airline-tickets-secrets-finding-cheap/story?id=10737207) was a very helpful article

as well I JUST found out that you can sign up for alerts for best deals on where you want to fly into...who wouldathunk??

[la.lindsey]

I'll give you a word of caution with kayak price alert- I was watching airfare from BHM to Manchester, NH for a hike I have coming up. I was also comparing across other airports that I *could* drive to (but I'd prefer to fly out of BHM). The little kayak graph would go up and down and give me all of this decision anxiety and I held off on buying my tickets for weeks, even though I knew my dates and had gotten approval from my boss to end my work rotation early.

Finally I happened to mention to my dad that I was flying in to MHT, and he said that he flies there all the time for work (out of BHM). Prices start out cheap and just go up as seats get bought; no sales. Once he paid $1000 for a ticket. I bought tickets that day.

Now, you won't always have the benefit of a SME like I had in this case, but don't get too obsessed with finding the lowest price ever.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MuddyWaters]

Generally tuesday, 7 weeks from departure is lowest.

[Odd Man Out]

Another trick not mentioned in the article is to buy two one way tickets instead of a round trip. Sometimes (but not always) a one way ticket is half the cost of round trip so there is no cost penalty in buying two tickets. But sometimes a different airline will have a better price for the return which you can't take advantage of if you get round trip tickets. This is especially true if returning from a different airport (open jaws).

[egilbe]

Another trick not mentioned in the article is to buy two one way tickets instead of a round trip. Sometimes (but not always) a one way ticket is half the cost of round trip so there is no cost penalty in buying two tickets. But sometimes a different airline will have a better price for the return which you can't take advantage of if you get round trip tickets. This is especially true if returning from a different airport (open jaws).

Be careful with this. My father thinks thats how he got on the no-fly watch list.

[colorado_rob]

Be careful with this. My father thinks thats how he got on the no-fly watch list.????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????

[Ewker]

Have you checked into taking a Greyhound. It may take longer but it is a lot cheaper

[la.lindsey]

Have you checked into taking a Greyhound. It may take longer but it is a lot cheaper

Time is money- when you have limited vacation time, a greyhound usually ISN'T cheaper.

Trains aren't that cheap, either, considering how freaking slow they are.

You can also look at flying out of different airports, but when you factor in driving time and gas and how ridiculously tired you'll be and how much longer the security line is at ATL, you might as well pay more to fly out of a smaller airport.

Sometimes you're saving money and giving yourself a huge headache and a hole in your wallet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk