I think this one is a pretty big no brainer, as it has to do with buying your tickets via web discount or through online ticket agencies if you will. A lot of the major online discount ticket agencies like Orbitz and Priceline are very good and usually much cheaper than dealing directly with the airline, but not always so it pays to shop around. Hence my advice to you is to check out these sites and make a note of all the days, times, flight numbers of what your itinerary would be if you had actually bought a ticket through them, and then compare the info with the initial airline's actual website. A lot of times you can get rid of some web service charges or broker fees as a result. You can also call the airlines toll free numbers and see what they have to offer, and you might even be able to haggle a bit. A lot of airlines nowadays will price match their flights in order to get your business, so make sure to ask about that as well.
Another thing to consider is Priceline's Name your own price, where you can actually submit your own price or the maximum amount you wish to pay for your flight. When Priceline.com first launched you really could suggest just about any amount and it was possible to be accepted, but now the best you can hope to save is about 40%. Another important fact to consider is that when you suggest your own price, you do not get to pick the airline, the exact times and in some cases the exact days. You could get a very cheap price, but you could possibly have up to 6 connections and a flight that normally takes 4 hours, taking upwards of 10 hours. You could also leave earlier or later than you initially wanted to as well as come back under the same conditions. So I would not recommend trying this tactic with flights that would almost always include multiple connections, like European flights or transatlantic flights to Asia, Australia or New Zealand. As you could save a ton of money, but end up spending a lot of time traveling or just waiting in airport terminals for connecting flight.
Which brings us to another very important consideration! If your flight or one of your connecting flights is delayed and you subsequently miss your connecting flight, you will have to pay for catching the next plane yourself. Which can be very, very expensive, as you will pay the last minute price. So once again Name your own price is not recommended for long flights or flights that will have multiple connections. This is a little fact that very people who buy online from discounted ticket agencies are aware of and it is a costly fact to be ignorant of.
No comments:
Post a Comment