schildi
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Post by schildi on Feb 17, 2011 19:44:53 GMT -5
Hi all! I am wondering what everybody here does to get the best prices on airline tickets? Travel agent, online, coupons, priceline, etc. Any tips, ideas to cut the cost? Our case: we want to travel to Europe in April for ~ 4 weeks. It looks like currently the best deal available is through Lufthansa, which also happens to be the only airline to offer a direct flight from here (West Coast). The direct flight is very convenient when travelling with a couple of kids, I am sure most will understand .... If we take the direct flight both ways, we are looking at $4,500 for the 4 round trip tickets. If we go with one connection on one leg (direct flight the other leg), we'd save $900 for a total of $3,600. Everything else I have checked so far is more expensive, incl. Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz, even with all connecting flights. Needless to say, I would like to bring that cost down if at all possible. Any ideas?
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lynnerself
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Post by lynnerself on Feb 17, 2011 19:57:50 GMT -5
Not a tip on saving, but just make sure that the price you are seeing from Lufthansa is including all of the airport and other taxes.
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Feb 17, 2011 20:01:58 GMT -5
Not a tip on saving, but just make sure that the price you are seeing from Lufthansa is including all of the airport and other taxes. Yeah, good point. This stuff is insane. Out of the $4,600, a little over $2,000 is "fees and taxes", so the actual ticket price is just over half of the total.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Feb 17, 2011 20:24:29 GMT -5
The first thing that I do is go onto Kayak.com. Kayak will tell you which airlines/sites are the cheapest at any period of time, so you can save time by going directly to those sites rather than going into each individually
Next thing is to be very flexible about the date. I know domestically flying Tue-Thur is usually cheape, not sure if it's the same internationally though.
Also consider changing which airport you fly out of. Would saving $500 be sufficient to drive to an airport 100 miles away? Also look at which airport you're .flying into, changing this may change the price too.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Feb 17, 2011 20:39:17 GMT -5
I always start with one of the search engines also. Then I play around with the dates. For four people, staying an extra day to save several hundred dollars can be worth it. Stay away from British Airways and their fuel surcharge.
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misspt
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Post by misspt on Feb 17, 2011 21:58:23 GMT -5
I will add my thumbs up to the Kayak recommendation and the British Airways warning. We fly to Europe every year from the Southern US, and we never pay $1K per ticket. You need to play with your dates or call Delta who partners with Lufthansa in the US (used to be Northwest but they merged with Delta) and see if they have anything better to offer, I have sometimes been able to wheedle a better price out of an agent even with the fee to book over the phone. Good luck and have fun. P.S. I am also traveling with 2 kids (3 and 9 y/o) and I like having one good (not too short and stressful) connection to allow the kids to run around and burn some energy off. That might just be me, though, and two energetic little boys.
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Feb 17, 2011 23:44:49 GMT -5
Thanks everybody! That kayak.com site is pretty cool. I'll put in a price alert. Yeah, our dates are flexible, and Lufthansa lets you search +/- 3 days for both inbound and outbound flights and provides a price table instantly with 49 different combinations and prices. For the direct flight, Lufthansa was still the cheapest. We may have to do a stop this time I guess ....
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on Feb 18, 2011 10:44:46 GMT -5
I am wondering what everybody here does to get the best prices on airline tickets?
Schildi, When I was planning our trip to China, the first thing I did was get familiar with routes and airlines. cheapflights.com, kayak.com and the others. I also talked to DH about the savings we could get if we didn't take a direct flight, but also the downsides (longer flight time, the hassle of layovers and the possibility of lost luggage)... I also went directly to the airlines sites so I knew what their cost would be. Hainan's fare for a direct flight (Seattle to Beijing) was $1200, I could route through LA, SF or Vanc, CA for about $900. I monitored the fares for about a month. One day, out of the blue, Hainan's fare for the direct flight was $902. I booked it immediately. My points is that the fares do change - sometimes inexplicably, so don't assume that the price today will be the same tomorrow.
And as a previous poster pointed out, don't forget to see if the taxes and fees are included in the quotes. Cheapflights.com looks cheap but they don't include those costs. You have to click on a link to bring them up.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Feb 18, 2011 10:49:36 GMT -5
The first thing that I do is go onto Kayak.com. Kayak will tell you which airlines/sites are the cheapest at any period of time, so you can save time by going directly to those sites rather than going into each individually Next thing is to be very flexible about the date. I know domestically flying Tue-Thur is usually cheape, not sure if it's the same internationally though. Also consider changing which airport you fly out of. Would saving $500 be sufficient to drive to an airport 100 miles away? Also look at which airport you're .flying into, changing this may change the price too. What Mich said. <<thumbs up>>
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2011 11:00:09 GMT -5
Another Kayak fan.
Are you planning on flying in and out of Frankfurt? United and Continental are also Lufty partners.
Also try flying in and out of the Netherlands; when we were pricing flights from Germany to Portland OR just before Christmas, Amsterdam was cheaper.
Ultimately, DH found that it was cheaper to take the same flights in and out of Prague...but I don't really recommend that with the kids.
As a side note, it was a rather funny experience though since it happened when all of Europe shut down due to the snowstorms. Frankfurt was closed and all the hotels were booked up. So he had to spend the night in Trier! Those were some expensive taxi rides the airline paid for...
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Feb 18, 2011 11:43:50 GMT -5
One problem we are running into is that my wife's passport expires mid May. We would be back by the end of April, but I am not sure if that would cause a problem for us ....
Bonnap, yes, we are flying in and out of Frankfurt, our final destinations are Mannheim & Dresden. With the kids in tow, I think we want to avoid having to go through Amsterdam or even Prague.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Feb 18, 2011 11:48:18 GMT -5
One problem we are running into is that my wife's passport expires mid May. We would be back by the end of April, but I am not sure if that would cause a problem for us ....
IMO, you should get this renewed now. While the passport is still valid, it wouldn't take much of a problem to get stranded in Europe and have it expire. That's only 2 weeks and I think that some travellers were stranded in Europe at least that long after that volcano erupted.
Some airlines may not accept a passport that close to expiration.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2011 11:52:45 GMT -5
"One problem we are running into is that my wife's passport expires mid May. We would be back by the end of April, but I am not sure if that would cause a problem for us ...."
I agree with Mich; I think it will be a problem. Is your wife American or German? I got my passport stuff taken care of within 3 weeks when I visited "home" last summer. You'll have to pay for the expedited service and Fed ex but worth it!
ETA driving from Amsterdam to Dresden would be loooooong. Prague's probably closer, LOL!
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calgal
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Post by calgal on Feb 18, 2011 13:08:03 GMT -5
One problem we are running into is that my wife's passport expires mid May. We would be back by the end of April, but I am not sure if that would cause a problem for us .... You need to check on this! Some countries will not allow you in without at least three months or six months left on your passport before it expires. The airlines that fly there will not let you board because they are held responsible. I know of people who have had this happen. I regularly fly to Honduras and they require that your passport is valid for at least six months beyond the date of your entry into the country (even if your return ticket is the next day). I'm not sure what European countries require but I'd suggest you renew it now.
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Feb 18, 2011 13:52:25 GMT -5
Yeah, that dumb passport thing. Well, she is German, with a German passport, so at least the "being stranded in Germany" would not be much of an issue. (She'd be happy to be "stranded" in Germany while waiting for the new passport, I am sure, with me being in the plane back to the U.S. with the kids, LOL ) We applied for her passport in mid January, at that time planning the trip for July. We had plenty of time for the passport to arrive (the Consulate says it takes 8-10 weeks). Now something at work has changed that requires me to be there in July - and our only other option is to travel in April. So now, the 10 weeks for the passport will be over 5 days before we plan on leaving. Yeah, now it's kinda short. But we should be ok, as they should let her into Germany with a German passport that's still valid. And on the way back into the U.S., all she needs is her valid green card according to the Border Patrols website: "Lawful Permanent Residents of the United States are required to present their permanent resident card (Form I-551) or other valid evidence of permanent residence status. A passport is not required for entry into the United States." www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/id_visa/legally_admitted_to_the_u_s.xmlThe only real problem I see is if an overly ambitious airline rep does not know the rules and will not let her board the plane. That would suck ....
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sesfw
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Post by sesfw on Feb 18, 2011 17:26:03 GMT -5
'Stay away from British Airways and their fuel surcharge.'
We already have our tickets through British Airways to London, travelling by train for 4 weeks and flying back from Vienna. Public transportation is fairly easy and the kids will love a train. Go to any travel site and find a flight that suits your needs, then go directly to the airline site. Also check different days of the week and when you find a price and time you can live with, buy it.
Hope the passport comes before your trip. Will make things easier for you.
Have fun.
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oreo
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Post by oreo on Feb 18, 2011 17:56:55 GMT -5
I don't know all of the details but my parents had to get new emergency passports because they didn't have 2 facing pages available and one of the countries where they were going required that. They had to call exactly 1 week before they left to make an appointment, and they drove to LA (we live in San Diego) to get it taken care of on the day of their appointment (then they waited around for like 2 hours for processing). I don't know if you'd be able to do something like that too so it is expedited.
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Feb 18, 2011 22:08:59 GMT -5
I don't know all of the details but my parents had to get new emergency passports because they didn't have 2 facing pages available and one of the countries where they were going required that. They had to call exactly 1 week before they left to make an appointment, and they drove to LA (we live in San Diego) to get it taken care of on the day of their appointment (then they waited around for like 2 hours for processing). I don't know if you'd be able to do something like that too so it is expedited. Thanks oreo! No, that's not possible, as the passport in question is a German passport, printed in Berlin. I think we'll be ok though, as I called the Embassy today in the afternoon, and they have received the passport. It will be mailed to us next week. Thanks for all the support. Kayak is a very cool site to get pricing, that site saves a lot of time. I'll use it to monitor prices every day now until I buy!
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Feb 19, 2011 12:48:40 GMT -5
Kayak is a very cool site to get pricing, that site saves a lot of time. I'll use it to monitor prices every day now until I buy!
It is pretty cool. I was using it when I was trying to get our tickets to Istanbul a couple years ago. The only problem that I was running into was that I was trying to meet up with TD in a hub in the US before flying over since we were coming from different locations.
I finally cried 'uncle' and went to AAA. None of the sites were giving me flights that would put both of us in the same hub. The flights we got from AAA were actually a bit cheaper, but we paid a surcharge for the tickets. IMO, that surcharge was well worth it.
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Post by gsbrq on Feb 19, 2011 13:02:02 GMT -5
Haven't gone overseas in a few years, but last time I was planning a trip, I set up airfare sale alerts for my destination with each of the carriers I was considering. Got a really good deal that way...but I bought about 5 months in advance.
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servant_of_dog
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Post by servant_of_dog on Feb 19, 2011 13:13:16 GMT -5
I've always checked all of the search sites, as well as the carrier website, and have ended up consistently going through Orbitz. They actually really do send you a refund if you "overpay" for your flight. I was surprised by that. I've never flown internationally, though.
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