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Airfare Wars - Internet vs Travel Agencies
Where is the best place to find the best fares?
The concept of 'the lowest fare' is an unprovable myth, and the
process to track down such a fare would take more hours of your time
than the ultimate savings would justify.
I bought
my ticket cheaper on the internet' has become a common catch-cry
amongst travelers.
But, how
does a person ever know, for sure, that they truly did pay the lowest
price for the itinerary that they wanted? They don't!
How do you know you've
found the lowest fare?
People
booking their own travel must surely be always troubled by the thought
that if they had checked another website, or tried a different routing,
or different airline, then perhaps they would
have found a lower fare.
To
truly find the very best possible fare, it is necessary to do the same
things that a travel agent would do. Here are fourteen different
things to consider when finding the 'lowest fare'. A travel agent can,
should, and, depending on the preferences of their client, usually
does evaluate all of these things in only a few short minutes. If you
want to be your own travel agent, then here are some of the things you
need to understand and appreciate in order to feel comfortable that
the fares you are buying are likely to be good (if not best) value and
most suitable for you.
1.
Different airline for entire itinerary
It
goes without saying that some airlines (eg United, American) are
generally more expensive than other airlines (eg Southwest, Jet Blue).
But unexpected variations in price can occur even between the major
'full fare' airlines. If you're not trapped into only one frequent
flier program, you need to check all airlines that fly to where you
want to go (and how do you even know what all the airlines are that
fly that route - the airline you've never heard of before probably has
the lowest fare!).
2.
Different airlines for different parts of the itinerary
Usually airlines sell roundtrip tickets for much less money than two
oneway tickets, but this is not always the case. And, if you are on an
itinerary with more than two flights, you then may find yourself
better off to combine some flights with one airline with other flights
from another airline. How many thousands of different combinations of
different airlines are you going to research through different
websites to be sure you've got the best combination of fares for each
flight segment?
3.
Different time of day
Many
airfares depend on the time of day of the flight you take. Maybe it is
cheaper to take a flight at 6.59am than at 7.01am (or vice versa!).
You need to look at the rules of the published fares to see what types
of time of day application may exist, and then try building
itineraries around the cheapest times of day (assuming that
availability exists at these times and on the airlines you select).
These time of day fares can also vary from airline to airline, and
destination to destination!
4.
Different day of week outbound and/or inbound
Did
you know that some days of the week are cheaper days to travel on than
other days? But the days which are cheap and expensive also vary
depending on the destination (and sometimes the airline) - there could
be as much as $60 or more difference in airfare depending on the days
you select.
5.
Different length of stay
Just
about everyone knows that 'stay over a Saturday night' is usually a
requirement for the cheapest fares (although not if you're going to
Las Vegas!), but did you know that there are often other length of
stay rules as well - indeed, sometimes it is cheaper to stay longer (due
to a minimum stay requirement), but sometimes also it is cheaper to
stay a shorter time (due to a maximum stay requirement)!
6.
Positioning Flights
Sometimes airlines operate only one or two flights a week between
certain cities (and perhaps in one direction only). These are often
referred to as 'positioning flights' and can sometimes be sold at very
low prices. But because they are rare flights, they probably will not
appear in your first or second fare search, and you might not even
know that the airline operates service to where you want to go. You
need some way to check for special positioning flight deals.
7.
Completely different travel dates
Maybe
if you change your travels to a week earlier or later, you will switch
to a different airfare season - on international tickets this could
save you as much as $300 or more per ticket. Most of the internet
services will not tell you 'hey, if you change your dates by a week (or
two) you can save $300'. You'll need to instead experiment with
completely different travel dates to try and see if you can detect a
change in season. Oh - one other thing. Different airlines often have
slightly different seasons - perhaps only a day or two different, but
perhaps two weeks different! So you need to do the entire 'every
different airline' exercise to check for seasonality as well!
8.
Different Airports
We all
know that, eg, there are three major (and several more not so major)
airports that serve New York; many other cities also have multiple
airports serving them. Some of the better internet sites will even
search some of these other airports as well as the one you specify.
But can you be sure that, perhaps, White Plains was also considered as
one of the nearby airports? And, if you're looking at travel to or
from Los Angeles, remember that some airlines fly to some airports and
not to others - for example, Jet Blue flies to Long Beach airport. You
can sometimes save big money by changing airports - any or all of the
four or more airports you'll fly in and out of in a typical return
trip ticket. But you'll also have to make sure that the fare you're
looking at permits 'open jaws' or considers the different airports you
are using to be commonly located.
9.
Different routing
It is
quite common that nonstop flights will be more expensive than direct
flights, which in turn can sometimes also be more expensive than
flights with a change of service on the way (not to be confused with 'change
of gauge'!). And often you might find that service through a less
popular hub is cheaper than service through a major hub. How are you
going to check out all the different routings and route specific fare
options on the internet?
10.
Different sequence of stops if multiple stop itinerary
If
your travels are taking you to more than one destination, perhaps you
can get a cheaper fare by traveling to these destinations in a
different order. If it doesn't really matter to you whether you go to
Detroit or Chicago first, just so long as you go to both cities, then
you should check every possible variation in itineraries. (Note that
many web sites can't price multiple stop itineraries!)
11.
Split Ticketing
If you
are traveling on more than two flights, perhaps it is better to have a
fare for one theoretical 'return' ticket and a different ticket for a
second theoretical 'return' ticket (note that with a double open jaws
type tickets, a 'return' ticket doesn't need to start and finish in
the same place, or even have the same mid point in common either!).
Sometimes two tickets, each for only part of your total travel, can be
cheaper than one ticket for the entire itinerary. And, even if you are
just traveling to one destination, you still might have the
opportunity to split your ticketing as you travel through a connecting
city - for example to travel between Los Angeles and New York, there
are probably a dozen or more convenient midway cities where you could
change planes (and tickets) - perhaps for a lower fare.
12. Back
to back and hidden city ticket loopholes
The
crazy system of airfare pricing that the airlines have created for
themselves contain some loopholes that they don't want you to know
about, and which they claim constitute violations of their air fare
tariffs. But if you know about back to back and/or hidden city
ticketing, and if you know about the loopholes which the airlines will
never and can never close, then you can save huge amounts of money.
The chances are your travel agent might know about these - but does
the internet site you're visiting also tell you about these
opportunities?
13.
Unpublished fares
Consolidator fares are still only very rarely found through websites.
While primarily involved with getting you discounts on international
travel, consolidator fares also apply for travel between most major
cities in the US; potentially saving you huge amounts compared to
unrestricted coach class fares. If you are stuck with having to pay a
very high fare to an airline (eg due to no advance purchase or no
Saturday night stay) then a travel agent with good consolidator
contacts can save you more than just about any website.
14. Too
Low a Fare
Yes,
there can be such a thing as too low a fare! If there is a chance that
you might need to make changes to your ticket, maybe you are better
advised to buy a less restricted ticket that is easier to change in
the future. You need to understand the restrictions on any given fare,
and also how much more (or how little more!) it might cost to get a
more flexible fare.
There is
no such thing as the 'Lowest Fare'!
You
might think, after reviewing these fourteen issues above, that finding
the 'lowest' airfare is impossibly difficult. The truth is even worse
- it is plain impossible!
The
airlines themselves make changes to their available fares literally
every second, and, of course, tickets are being sold (and sometimes
cancelled) every second as well. Price the same itinerary twice in a
row and you might get two very different prices, because the 'truth
has changed' in the split second between the first and second fare
quote.
It has
been common for everyone to blame travel agents for 'not finding the
lowest fare' (but how does anyone know, for sure, what the lowest fare
is?); this is not fair. Interestingly, similar studies are now finding
broad differences in fare pricing in websites as well! Blame the
airlines for making it impossible to reliably know, from one minute to
the next, what the lowest fare is.
Finding the lowest fare is an impossible quest that can soak up hours
and hours of research and frustration on your part. The time cost to
you in finding a fare that may or may not be lower almost certainly
exceeds the savings that may eventuate. But if you're insistent on
finding the lowest fare, yourself, then follow the fourteen steps
above and you'll be sure to get close to the best fare possible! |
