Airline Tickets

[guiness56]

Anyone got any inside information on how to get a decent fare on a flight? I have tried every site possible. Bereavement fares are outrageously high. Military discount is like $200 less but does not give the option of changing flights/airports.

I need to leave by this Sunday.

[haulingthescoreup]

Which cards do you have with member services? (AmEx, etc.) If you have any of these, it worth be worth trying them. So sorry to hear of all you're going through, and then trying to find affordable airfares on top of it all...

And where are you flying from? Any discount airlines in your area? JetBlue, Southwest, etc.

[Junejer]

Did you try orbitz?

[Anonymous]

If you qualify for the military discount, then that is the route I would go.

I had to get tickets really fast back in March and 'Holy Moley!'  That military discount ended up cutting the cost in HALF!!!! 

It was for a funeral, and when I asked about the bereavement fares, the customer service rep. practically hung up on me!  I quickly asked about the mil. discount and she connected me to another rep.

We had a lay over with our military discount too.  I called Delta directly for the tickets.

Hope that helps.

[guiness56]

If I was buying it myself I would not care. One of my sister's MIL has graciously offered to buy it for me. I don't want to break her. She bought my sister's and it was over $600.

I have been waiting for my stimulus check to help out but, I can not wait any longer. I get paid Friday so that will help.

I am trying to go from Seattle to Ft. Smith, Arkansas.

Every day I wait the prices go up. One airline wanted $2555 round trip. That's more than I bring home in a month.

I have tried Oribitz, cheaptickets, Expedia, Travelocity, etc.

[Scamp]

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guiness56 wrote:
If I was buying it myself I would not care. One of my sister's MIL has graciously offered to buy it for me. I don't want to break her. She bought my sister's and it was over $600.

I have been waiting for my stimulus check to help out but, I can not wait any longer. I get paid Friday so that will help.

I am trying to go from Seattle to Ft. Smith, Arkansas.

Every day I wait the prices go up. One airline wanted $2555 round trip. That's more than I bring home in a month.

I have tried Oribitz, cheaptickets, Expedia, Travelocity, etc.

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Guinness, try Northwest Airlines website direct and check Northwest flights - I just ran dates on Sidestep for 6/15-6/22, 1 person, and came up with NWA tickets starting at $645.00 - I think Sidestep charges a booking fee, so NWA's website is probably even cheaper.

Hope this helps!

Message Edited by scapegrace13 on 06-11-2008 07:49 PM

Message Edited by scapegrace13 on 06-11-2008 07:55 PM

[guiness56]

I found that Fayetteville is only 45 minutes away and I can get a ticket for $350. It amazes me that it is so much less expensive.

My cousin or sister who flew in today will come get me.

Thank you all.

[Lel]

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@guiness56 wrote:
Anyone got any inside information on how to get a decent fare on a flight? I have tried every site possible. Bereavement fares are outrageously high. Military discount is like $200 less but does not give the option of changing flights/airports.

I need to leave by this Sunday.

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Bereavement fares are almost never good deals. They're usually half the price of full-fare coach, which is very expensive to begin with.

You could try Priceline, though it's been a long time since I used them. I was only able to provide information about travel dates, a few preferences, and maximum price. I didn't get to choose the airline.

A couple other useful websites are Yapta.com and Farecast.com. On Yapta, you have to choose specific flights and travel dates, and it will track the fare for you and automatically send you updates when the price changes. Once you have purchased a ticket, it will continue to track the fare and if it drops by a certain amount, you can apply for a refund from the airline.

Farecast.com will show you a graph that describes the trend in ticket prices between destinations. It will recommend whether to purchase now or wait, but obviously its predictions may not be correct.

[MattH]

You might want to check www.southwest.com and see if they fly anywhere near where you need to go, in my experience Southwest sometimes offers better fares on short notice than the others. Also for only a little more than their absolute cheapest tickets you can get fully-refundable tickets on Southwest. Sometimes if I'm not entirely happy with the fare or schedule available from Southwest I will get a refundable ticket to at least lock in that option, then if I find a better deal elsewhere I'll cancel the SW booking.

[guiness56]

Thanks for all the advice. I ended up booking with NW with a military discount for $398. A bereavement flight was $557.

I could have gotten one for $50 dollars less but, they assured me I could change times, dates, etc with the military fare. After I bought the ticket they told me I could not. Now I do not have the options of extending my leave without paying extra for it.

Leaving Sun morning at 6:20am.