<p>Our family has very little experience with flying, so I am asking my CC friends for help. I can remember (I think) reading on a thread that Tuesday is the best day to book a flight. True? I am trying to use all of the different websites (Kayak, Expedia, etc.), but so far they all seem to be the same. Have you had better experience with one over another?</p>
<p>Any other tips?</p>
<p>One thing to note is that Kayak, Expedia, etc. will not find Southwest flights. I am not sure why this is, but if Southwest operates flights to/from where you want to go, you should check the Southwest website–sometimes they have really good fares, and if the price goes down, you can request the difference in a credit.</p>
<p>Yes, USUALLY Tues or Wed. are the best days to book. In the past you needed to clear your cookies or use different sites to keep checking over and over…as I do. Maybe someone can weigh in on this idea as I am not sure if this is still an issue. </p>
<p>I consider myself an expert at making reservations as I have done it for so many years!
I actually would wait up or get up at 2 a.m. to make a reservation as we are west coast time.</p>
<p>ALSO get a credit card that helps you. 8 years ago that was Juniper as they gave great credit for air but that is no longer true. Now we have a Capital one that gives money back and works well for us. If you know an airline that you will use often then look into their credit card.</p>
<p>Sign up for every airline milage plan and keep track of it. Our D managed to use her miles and I “bought” $60 worth of miles to add and she had a round trip ticket from RI to OR for Christmas. (even I was surprised at this~!)</p>
<p>Always book directly with the airline.There is no advantage and many negatives to using Expedia or such. This was not true a few years ago but now if you run into trouble you want to deal directly with the airline and not someone inbetween. EVERY airline now has the same or less prices than Travelocity or such. Use Kayak and then go to the airline directly. Yes, Southwest is on it’s own so you need to check there on it’s own. It has become our favorite ever airline as for $10 you can get super seats and we just took 6 suitcases on for $0 from OR to RH. Gotta love them.</p>
<p>If you want to PM me I will be happy to answer any kind of “travel” questions–I am many years into this process and if you want to save $$ it can be time consuming.</p>
<p>Friends just spend $850 for the same trip we took for $630 but we had two one way tickets that they did not think to do. A relative just paid $750 a ticket that we paid $ 550 for because they booked on Saturday and I booked early Weds. morning.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you!!</p>
<p>If you’re flexible on dates and times, sometimes you can get “standby tickets” where unless the plane’s full, you get to go, but if the plane fills up then you’re put on the airline’s next flight to your location. Standby tickets are usually somewhat of a secret, and are much cheaper than regular tickets.</p>
<p>Also, is this a one timetime trip or a regular trip for a college bound student? I use Southwest and i book ahead and keep an eye on their sales. I have even booked tickets for two days as I was not sure what date was better for D. You can cancel any flight and you will have the price credited to your account BUT to be used by the same passenger</p>
<ul>
<li>Notice the baggage fees for each airline, as you compare their offerings. Sometimes my comparison shopping leans me towards one airline for its cheapest ticket fare on that route, but if they charge more for my luggage, it wipes away the price advantage.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>Examples: Southwest lets you check 2 bags under-the-plane without charge; Jetblue says “first bag free.” Others charge for even the first bag. Before you click online to make your final purchase, be sure you’ve included ticket costs AND any checked bags in your cost comparison.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>You can save by carrying on luggage, but read their baggage policies to weigh and measure bags. Overweight bags can cost a penalty, which might be avoided by rearranging all your belongings among suitcases, just a bit. Rollaway suitcases (small- check the airline website and measure yours!) might fit on the airplane. So you can either check that underneath or keep it with you on or near the plane cabin.</p></li>
<li><p>Medical equipment carried onto a plane does NOT count as one of your allowed bags; it’s free. Example: a sleep apnea machine in its own briefcase won’t count against your allowed # of bags.</p></li>
<li><p>I use the comparison engines (such as Expedia) just to learn about flight routes, then go to the airline’s own website once I’m ready to purchase. It saves no money, but I feel the accountability and service is better if I have to deal with the airline over anything. </p></li>
<li><p>I don’t buy flight insurance; others may suggest differently. </p></li>
<li><p>Look for Southwest “wanna getaway” deals on their website.</p></li>
<li><p>If you have several airports within an hour of home or your landing point, it might be worth looking at those airports too, just in case there are better costs or flight times, easier parking, and so on that make the extra ground transportation worth the trouble. Example: I fly out of Buffalo, but always check to see if the deal is a lot better from Rochester (50 min away). When I land in NYC, I choose from 3 airports. People in Los Angeles sometimes prefer to drive to a smaller suburban airport than deal with LAX and downtown traffic there.</p></li>
<li><p>If you have a long cross-country flight, take careful notice of whether your route requires 1, 2 or 3 planes to accomplish the same journey. Sometimes you can save by taking more layovers, but if it means you’ll eat another meal in an airport to cover the longer time, the ticket savings can disappear. Just think it all through about your total travel time.</p></li>
<li><p>If you have any personal flexibility on which date you fly, look at the airline’s all-month calendar for “cheapest fares.” Sometimes it can be cheaper to fly on a Tue or Wed, but if your dates are locked in by your schedule, then you can’t help it.</p></li>
<li><p>Think about whether you’re willing to fly at an unusual time-of-day and scan ALL the flights for that day. The different times of day can make a huge price difference. This week I enjoyed savings on a 6:20 a.m. departure (‘red eye flight’) BUT had to wake my H at 4:30 a.m. to drive me to the airport. Misery loves company, and i sure wasn’t going to pay for a cab after I’d saved by booking that early/cheap flight!</p></li>
<li><p>Within 24 hours before your flight, go back online with your booking confirmation number (from the day you bought the ticket). Check in AND print out a boarding pass from home. This saves time at the airport, as you can skip one whole long line.</p></li>
<li><p>Take very seriously the need to arrive at an airport with plenty of time to get through security lines. I always arrive at an airport a full hour before flight departure time (with boarding pass in hand). If I couldn’t print that out ahead, I arrive 1 hr. 30 min before flight departure time. The timing is just different than showing up to board a train or intercity bus. Airport security lines and crowds can throw off one’s too-tight timing. Especially as you’re learning to fly, please don’t cut it close. Allowing extra time avoids stress. You can check in, get all the way to the boarding gate and relax; have a snack, read or watch the people. A last-minute dash is no fun and a missed flight can’t be made up.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Wow. What help you all are! I am so appreciative. Oregon, thanks for the offer. You may be hearing from me. My daughter, just starting her first “grown up” job halfway across the country, thanks you, too!</p>
<p>Any additional tips are appreciated. I can’t remember the last time I was on an airplane–maybe five or six years ago? I know things have changed a lot.</p>
<p>Airlines now make a lot more effort to depart on time, or even early, than they used to, so they start boarding earlier and close the plane earlier. Also, since more people carry-on bags, it is now worth your while to get on the plane as soon as possible to make sure there is room for your stuff in the overhead bins above your seat. </p>
<p>I second paying’s recommendation to allow plenty of time. Also, try to be at the gate when boarding starts–usually 1/2 hour before the scheduled departure.</p>
<p>If you decide to take a red-eye flight that will take about 5 hours or so and hope to get some sleep, dont forget to bring noise-cancelling headphones. A screaming baby may decide to sit behind you. </p>
<p>My kids have always been flying since they were one. Sometimes the flights are 12 hours or so. They are always such angels during plane rides. But you cant guarantee kids especially sick ones to behave like that all the time.</p>
<p>One other site that is useful to compare different dates, times & airports is itasoftware.com, as a guest, compare flights. It allows you to play around & get lots of different airlines all listed at the same time. It does NOT have some of the regional airlines, so you may have to search these through another site, but does include most of the largest carriers. I love it as a starting point.</p>
<p>-farecast.com might help you determine when rates will drop, if you have many months ahead to choose when to purchase your ticket.</p>
<p>-Get bumped! If you find yourself flying somewhere without any arrival time pressure, volunteer to be the one(s) bumped off he plane if they are overbooked. They’ll find you the next available seat from their own airline, and you can decide if you’ll accept that extra wait. The airline is only interested in doing this if they overbooked a full flight. They’d rather bump a willling volunteer than upset another passenger (whom they’ll also compensate).</p>
<p>In return for bumping off a flight ticketed for $200, I received a $250 credit with the same airline, to fly anywhere in Continental USA within the following year. Since the wait time now spanned another meal, I got a restaurant credit, too. You might hear a request for volunteers if you’re sitting in the boarding area, waiting…or just go ask the attendant if they might need volunteers. For my way of thinking, it’s a very rare but welcome chance to get a free flight, which I’ve managed to receive twice in five years.</p>
<p>On my last six flights, rather than check my bag, I’ve taken it to the gate, and they’ve offered to check it for free.</p>
<p>We have had offers to be bumped a few times. I took it once when I was flying alone and they offered a check that I could spend as I chose and guaranteed me a seat on the next flight. No one was waiting for me at my destination. (This was 30+ year back.)</p>
<p>Another time, they asked but no one would get off the plane–they wanted only 3 and would only guarantee seats for 3 on the next flight. We were a party of 4.</p>
<p>Another time, we all agreed to & got bumped & got 4 $300 ticket vouchers, which we did use for later travel. We also got a meal coupon. The flight we were bumped off actually arrived later than the one we were put on–the original flight sat on the tarmac all that time. That was probably about 10 years ago.</p>
<p>S has been bumped several times in the past 12 months, because he is willing & flies alone with only hand-carried luggage. If you are only with hand carry luggage, you have a MUCH better chance of getting bumped than if you had any checked pieces. S generally refuses to check any luggage and is able to fit everything he needs for work and leisure in his hand carry.</p>
<p>Saturdays are usually an inexpensive day to travel.</p>
<p>Sometimes studentuniverse.com offers a slightly lower price or more options for times at the same price.</p>
<p>If you are travelling between smaller regional cities, Allegiant Air often goes weird places for low prices. You do have to pay extra for luggage, on-line booking, reserved seats etc. so be prepared to travel light and say “no” to lots of up-charges when making reservations.</p>
<p>“On my last six flights, rather than check my bag, I’ve taken it to the gate, and they’ve offered to check it for free.”</p>
<p>Be careful with this - Lots of airlines that charge for baggage now charge you huge money per bag for gate checks.</p>
<p>Check out Google Flights: it’s a search engine just for flights. When I was booking our spring break college road trip flights, it was $300 each to fly Continental from Nashville to Newark, but Google Flights showed me an option to fly Continental from Nashville to Newark then take a train from Newark to Philly and the total cost was $98. For the same exact flight plus a train ride. Go figure!</p>
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<p>On a college forum, any astute standardized test take KNOWS that the answer marked ALWAYS is … always one of the wrong ones! And this case is no different. While there are no secrets about sites such as Kayak, Cheapo, Travelocity, or Expedia, it would be a mistake to assume that the best fares are available by booking directly. Actually, on three recent trips, I saved quite a bit by checking many sites, and ended up with the lowest fares on Expedia. The savings were several hundred dollars over the best fare “guaranteed” by the airlines for the trasantlantic flight. I then saved by booking packages with hotel for the European sections. In one example, I paid less for two nights in a luxury hotel and the flight than the airline advertised. It does appear that the European airlines are pricing fares lower in the US than they do locally. Perhaps to help us absorb the once sky-high Euro.</p>
<p>While I am sure that there are plenty of cases where the reverse is true, it remains that one should check ALL the options and not dismiss a site such as Expedia … arbitrarily.</p>
<p>And, on a last note, for one with the stomach for it, it is hard to beat flying on airline points, even if one has … to purchase them from people who want cash for their frequent miles.</p>
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<p>Arm yourself with the patience of a monk. I hear that there used to be a time when flying was pleasurable. At least that is what my dad with several million frequent miles likes to tell me. Today, at its best it is mostly a miserable experience. Pushed like cattle and squeezed like sardines seems to be the rule versus the exception. And if there were only passengers and flight attendants to deal with … but you have those morons of the TSA who seem to spend every minute of the day inventing rules to annoy passengers. </p>
<p>Yep, the patience of a monk is needed.</p>