Where is the connecting flight (which airport)?
I’d splurge on the upgrade if you can’t sweet talk them into the better connection
One other consideration. If you live in a cold weather state and this trip is in the winter, since you have a 6am flight, they will probably de-ice the plane.
That could take an additonal 10 minutes from getting the plane to the area, de-icing (only a few minutes) and then back on the runway.
Trip is in June so won’t have to worry.
On Saturday we flew home from Prague. We got out but plane had to be de iced. Boarded on time but left 1.5 hours late.
There were plenty of people who were sweating their connections.
I was glad we had a long layover that day. Because it was a hot mess getting through what seemed like a 1000 layers of security and 1000 miles of walking at the Frankfurt airport.
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I’d be careful with that. Booking two flights where you can’t possibly make both, violate the airline’s contract of carriage, and they may cancel one or both flights on her. Whether being on both the 6 am and the 3pm would be considered “impossible” I don’t know but might be flagged.
From American’s contract under prohibited booking practices:
- Booking duplicate or impossible trips, for example multiple trips for the same passenger around the same time (trips a passenger physically could not complete)
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I haven’t used a travel agent in well over 25 years. I needed an expert to book my flight home from Barcelona next September - for several reasons, a one-way inbound from an international country is tricky, especially as I found a rock bottom price for business class going through Dublin - it’s a 3 leg trip (I don’t mind), but the hours of travel are great and the price couldn’t be beat (it may even have been a one off ticket). Try as I might to book it myself it was close to $2k more than the itinerary I had in hand. Even AAA travel couldn’t help. Alas, I posted on Nextdoor for experienced travel agent referrals and got a few. The 3rd one I contacted was happy to help, and yes I paid a fee…of $250! I’ll now be traveling back in comfort and should arrive refreshed at a reasonable hour! Flying back on Aer Lingus. Their business class is supposed to be wonderful. Thank you travel agent!
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I’ve had to use travel agents sometimes if the flight is being paid for by an organization or as part of a tour which includes air. Normally I just book on United website myself.
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My daughter’s shower/bachelorette party is the middle of March.
I was looking at flights to get there. When should I book? Prices are kinda pricey right now
@deb922 it depends where you are flying to! And from.
March is a hot destination time for college spring break travelers.
West side of Michigan to Philadelphia.
I was wondering about spring break.
The only spring break issues you could have:
-
Folks making connections in Phili. LOTS of flights connect there.
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Students flying back there when their break ends (if it’s at the same time as your trip).
I’d start looking sooner than later. Southwest flies there, and you can change if a cheaper flight becomes available…either with them, or you can bank the SW points for future use.
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Thanks for the southwest suggestion. It looks like a great plan
You can review/compare all flights here - no Southwest though, you’d need to go to their site for that…https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search
In my experience flights have rarely gone down in price -
Thanks. I was checking the ita.matrix site.
Unfortunately the prices didn’t seem to line up to what I found when I tried to book.
Southwest is $150 cheaper than what I found on the airlines on the ita.matrix site
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I don’t know if Delta is an option for you, but they no longer assess change fees, so if the fare drops they will give you either a credit on your card (if it hasn’t processed in your card yet; they say you only get a day but sometimes it can be 2 if the charge is still pending) or if longer than that they will give you an ecredit to be used any time in the next year (365 days from issuance). I highly recommend using google flights to track fares. It will notify you when fares you are tracking drop. I just booked flights and was notified of the fare change and got $140 in Delta e-credits. It also lets you know the best fares by day and by length of itinerary/travel.
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Thanks. Google flights show basic economy fares, regular economy is much more. I’d like to pick my seats and have some flexibility this far out. If I can even pick the basic economy option, it’s usually been sold out.
Found an acceptable flight on United. $50 cheaper than Delta.
Delta is an option. Again regular economy was quite a bit more than the fares listed on Google flights.
Southwest is still the cheapest option. The flight to Philly isn’t optimal but the flight home is.
You can set google flights to look at any fare class you want. Also you can pick economy and then if you want to see what the additional cost is for the next level up. just click on that option at the bottom. I use it ALL the time.
We are in a Delta hub, so will often choose Delta because the times work better and/or we can fly direct so will pay more. But if I were booking for my kid, I agree, pick affordable.
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If you see a SW flight that looks pretty good, I’d grab it. Their refund (or maybe only voucher, I’m not really sure these days) is great.
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If you click on the dollar amount another page opens which provides codes you can pass to a travel agent (domestic, use AAA for free) and they can book those. I found a steal on the matrix but needed to get an experienced agent involved to be able to book it. It was worth the extra work.
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Some Alaska and United flights are cancelled due to a false door blowing out of a 737 MAX 9 at 16,000 feet. The false door plugs a door opening in which a real door is installed if the aircraft is set up for high density seating. Apparently, the false door does not stay closed as reliably as a real door would.
Photo from the linked web page showing the false door:
S’s Alaska flight was cancelled today. Fortunately his ticket was issued by American Airlines (they have a codeshare agreement) and American reaccomodated him very quickly. The wait time to call Alaska for rebooking this morning was 3 hours!
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