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AIR TRAVEL
AIR TRAVEL TOPICS
Travel To The Airport & Parking
Transporting A Pet By Commercial Air
Compared to the old days, saving on air travel is now more possible than ever. Unfortunately,
it is also more complicated than ever. Gone are the days when you called up the
one or two airlines that flew to your destination, or your local travel agent, and
asked for the best fare available. And while it was sometimes less expensive if
you booked well in advance, fares did not usually change much day-
1. Start with obtaining fares for your “ideal” travel plans, including travel times and dates, airport departure and destination, direct flights and preferred carriers. By far the best and easiest way to do this is using the Internet. If you do not have Internet access, or you are uncomfortable using the Internet, ask a friend or neighbor if they could assist you, or try your local library for Internet access and assistance. However, if using the Internet is not possible, call a travel agent or the airlines directly to learn about flight availability and cost. Although, in today’s world, only calling travel agents and airlines directly will often severely limit your ability to locate the least expensive flights.
a. Most of the major carriers will have their flights listed with Internet travel sites such as Travelocity.com, Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, etc. Just plug in your destination, dates, preferred timing and number traveling, and you will see the flights available and the fares. If you prefer, you can arrange the flights available from lowest cost to highest cost and direct versus connecting. Make sure you check more than one of these travel sites because availability and fares can vary between sites.
b. Once you see what is available on the travel sites, go to the individual web sites for the carriers that fly to your destination. For instance, if American Airlines and Delta both fly to your destination, go to their web sites and look up flight availability and fares. But in any case, the fares and availability on individual airline sites will be different from those on the travel web sites. And it is not unusual for the cost of an airplane ticket to be 5% less if purchased directly from the carrier’s web site, as compared to a travel web site. This is often the case even before travel sites or travel agents may add a significant surcharge to your ticket price for their services. Once you have visited the travel web sites and individual airline web sites, you will have a pretty clear picture of the flights that are available, and the fares and other costs, at that point in time.
c. But there are other major airlines, and many other carriers, that may offer flights to your destination, which you have not yet checked. Some major airlines like Southwest, and many of the smaller carriers, do not list their flights on travel web sites. They only list their flights on their own web sites. So, if you so far have relied on finding what flights are available by only checking the travel web sites, you probably have missed one or more great flight opportunities. To find out what airlines fly to your destination, look up the web site for the airport you want to depart from and they will probably provide a list of airlines that fly from that airport. Go to those airlines’ web sites to see what flights are available and the fares. You might also try the Internet site DoHop.com which lists which airlines serve an area.
d. Now that you know what airlines fly to your destination and have an idea of the fares, you can start changing variables like flight dates and times to see if you can achieve an appreciably lower fare, with only modest changes to your travel plans. Sometimes, just flying during a different part of the day or night, or on a different day, can reduce your cost considerably. Some sites for individual airlines will even show you a calendar that will depict which days of the month offer their lowest fares to a particular destination. Try a bunch of timing alternatives to see how much you might be able to save.
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