5/12/2008 at 4:03 PM
Tags: HOWTO, Airfares, Airfare Deals, Rick Seaney, Airlines (all tags)
Have you tried to book an airline ticket lately? They're getting expensive! But without a miraculous drop in the price of oil, fares are only gonna go up this summer.
Luckily, airfare obsessive Rick Seaney has a terrific tip for keeping your costs down as prices go up: Hedge. Usually it's detrimental to buy plane tickets more than about six weeks before your departure. But Rick says this summer, you're better off locking in a price now before fuel surcharges--and prices--go up yet again.
We love this tip because it's so insider-y. Airlines do the same thing when buying fuel; it's been helping the bottom lines at Southwest and JetBlue for years. If you're gonna stay within your summer travel budget, better get booking now.
Of course, we should mention that there's always the chance that fares will end up dropping on your particular route, but that's the risk you take when you're playing the oil futures market. Hey, now you know how the airlines feel!
Related Stories:
· Attention Summer Travelers: Hedge [Rick Seaney]
· Airlines Finally Passing Higher Costs on to Passengers [Jaunted]
· Airfares coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Fetchy]
by pbb
4/30/2008 at 2:30 PM
Tags: Airlines, Airfares, American Airlines (all tags)
If you've been shopping for plane tickets lately, you probably don't need us to tell you they're getting more expensive. The average airfare in the US is 10 percent more expensive this year than last. And that's before you get nickel-and-dimed by excess baggage fees, exit-row seating fees and fee fees.
Not that we are blaming the airlines. As American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey rightly says:
There is no business that can go on forever selling its product for less than the cost to produce it.
That's the plain-and-simple reason fares are inching up across the board. And on high-demand routes, the increases over last year's prices are even bigger than that average of 10 percent.
Mergers would allow airlines to trim routes and, by reducing capacity, further raise prices, though carriers say that's not the plan. (Riiiiight.) This is all good news to one company, though. Virgin America is keeping fares low by burning through investor cash, and the airline hopes that after one flight it'll have its new customers hooked.
Related Stories:
· Strapped Airlines Seen Pushing Fares Higher [WSJ]
· American Airlines Loses $3.3 Million a Day [Fortune, via CNN Money]
· Airlines coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Fetchy]
by pbb
4/14/2008 at 10:06 AM
Tags: Airfares, Airfare Deals, Deals, American Airlines, Caribbean Travel (all tags)
Cancellations? What Cancellations? American Airlines wants you to forget all those troubles and get down to Latin America and the Caribbean on the cheap.
The current promo is for tickets out of Miami or Fort Lauderdale, but those cities are easy enough to reach on either AA or the low cost carrier of your choice. Once at MIA, we're talking round trip to Managua, Nicaragua for $289 all-in or flights from FLL to San Jose, Costa Rica for $260 all-in. Caribbean destinations include Santo Domingo, DR and Grand Cayman.
The bad news is that you'll have to buy your tix today; the sale ends at midnight. Of course the good news is that fares are dirt cheap.
Related Stories:
· Low Fares from South Florida on AA [Official Site]
· American Airlines coverage [Jaunted]
by pbb
4/07/2008 at 9:40 AM
Tags: Virgin Atlantic, Airfares, London Travel, Travel Deals, Deals, Airfare Deals (all tags)
Thinking about a trip to London? Don't want to fly British Airways and deal with the Terminal 5 baggage nightmare or Naomi Campbell going batshit for no good reason?
Virgin Atlantic has some spring deals on their Premium Economy class from a bunch of American cities to London.
For instance: Los Angeles to London is $464 one-way from Apr 24-May 25. Over the summer (until Sept. 3), the price jumps to $634 one-way. From Newark, the deal is much cheaper at $314 one-way from April 24-May 25. ($464 one-way over the summer.)
MORE...
by juliana
3/03/2008 at 12:22 PM
Tags: Websites, Travel Websites, Airfares (all tags)
Can't get enough of an information overload by using Kayak? Click over to InsideTrip, then, where the data dump is of truly biblical proportions.
The meta-searcher brings up what it considers the best fares for a given city pair, of course, then goes further:
For each search, InsideTrip provides not just fares but also evaluations of what [founder Dave Pelter] calls 12 "pain points." These include the amount of legroom in a cabin, how often the flight is on time, the aircraft type (larger jets get higher ratings), how crowded a specific flight typically is and if you can walk to your connection. It even considers how long it usually takes to get through the security checkpoint nearest the gate.
We punched in an imagined trip from New York to Miami for the Winter Music Conference. Kayak came up with some JetBlue flights, which were $300 cheaper than the best fare InsideTrip found. The newcomer may have info on seat pitch and on-time ratings, but leaving out great fares means InsideTrip won't be our first stop for online airfare searches just yet.
Related Stories:
· A Web Site Tries to Redefine Value [NYT]
· InsideTrip [Official Site]
· Kayak [Official Site]
· Travel Websites coverage [Jaunted]
by pbb
4/09/2007 at 9:27 AM
Tags: New York Times, Travel Media, Websites, Airfares (all tags)
Looks like this whole Internet thing is really catching on--the New York Times rounded up some of the interwebs' best airfare shopping sites this weekend. There's not too much there that we haven't already told you about, but let's take a closer look, shall we?
· Farecast works like an airfare Magic 8 Ball, predicting whether prices are headed up or down in the future.
· Flightstats aggregates data on routes and sums up which are likely to be on time and which are likely to be late. It can't promise your particular flight won't spend 10 hours at the gate, but it can tell you whether there's a 96% or 44% chance of it being on time, says the Times.
· MileMaven breaks down frequently incomprehensible mileage deals. It helps maximize your reward, and sister site PointsMaven.com does the same for hotels.
· And then there's Google. The search site has some new features, which we've mentioned before. Text your flight number to GOOGL to get a status update. The Times also suggests digging up the phone numbers for airline reservations this way, which can be useful if your flight is canceled.
Related Stories:
· Sifting Data to Uncover Travel Deals [NYT]
· Google SMS Flight Check [Jaunted]
by pbb
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