Comments on: Saving Pennies or Dollars? Airline Tickets

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:08:14 +0000

Personally I much prefer flights that include a layover of a couple of hours. It breaks a long flight up into shorter, more pleasant, flights. I usually try to make sure I have around 2 hours between flights so I can get to the other gate, grab something to eat if needed, and then relax and read a book while waiting for my flight.

By: Dale

Dale — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 15:43:58 +0000

some of the best $50 I ever spent was on a direct flight that meant I no longer had to lay over in Denver. I think this article underestimates the royal PITA that is a layover of any size.

By: Nate

Nate — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 01:59:39 +0000

@18 Jonathan & 26 Matt
Ok I realize not everyone gets that much vacation time. Especially not people who slave away in the US. Yes, I work in education and no I don’t live in the states (or Europe). I get 30+ days in summer and winter. Added to that my husband and I are DINKs, so we aren’t tied down by children. Although I get alot of vacation time, I have the option of teaching vacation courses and just recently starting my own business has certainly shortened the time I can spend travelling.

By: ChrisD

ChrisD — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:03:30 +0000

Not flying at 7 in the morning is worth quite a bit to me now. The only time I enjoy getting up at 4am is when I’d had two flights cancelled already, it was Christmas Eve and I needed to be ready for the 7am flight so that if it was also cancelled I still had other options (the 7am flight was fine).

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:01:37 +0000

@tentaculistic: If an airline like that exists, I’d like to know about it too. But if taking the train is an option for you, Amtrak is really good about letting you reschedule your trip. All but their very cheapest tickets are fully refundable, even after the scheduled time of your trip. (So you can take the ticket down to the station and say “I decided not to use this ticket yesterday, can I have a refund?”) And even for the nonrefundable tickets, you can apply the full purchase price of the ticket toward another trip within either six or twelve months (I forget which).

By: bogart

bogart — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:51:48 +0000

@tentaculistic Southwest is definitely the one to fly to avoid change fees … basically if you have a ticket you find you can’t use, they credit your account and let you buy another ticket (apply the funds toward your next purchase(s)) with no penalties. Nutty, huh? Unless they’ve changed that, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got that right — you could check the airline’s website. Of course, they don’t fly everywhere.

By: MattJ

MattJ — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:49:48 +0000

#12 Nate:

I agree with Jonathan. 19 days is a short vacation? Like him, I’ve never had one that long. Are you working in Europe, perhaps? Retired? Are you a schoolteacher or student?

How often do you get to take a ‘long’ vacation of 30+ days?

By: tentaculistic

tentaculistic — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:40:13 +0000

I just found out the hard way that the cheapest option can really cost you if you have to make any changes to you tickets. I bought two tickets for an upcoming vacation, then due to a new schedule conflict we had to adjust the dates. The change fee was $150/person (2), and then they said that the difference in flights between the dates I had and the new dates was another $250 * 2(which is funny since I checked, and the price was *exactly* the same on the website). So we paid the same amount to shift days as we already had for the tickets in the first place – basically we paid for two brand-new tickets, on top of the two old tickets. I had looked at trip insurance, but it was only in case of dire emergency, rather than just “need to reschedule” so I didn’t buy trip insurance.

I’m not enough of a frequent traveler – I really hate dealing with TSA so I avoid flying whenever possible – so I guess I’m chalking this up to a lesson learned.

Actually, I’m going to harness the power of The Comments. Does anyone fly often enough to know of an airline that doesn’t try to gouge out a pound of flesh if you have to reschedule a trip? Are there tricks to maek this less painful? Thanks in advance, folks!

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:39:23 +0000

@Nate (#12) – I’m intrigued by your idea that a short vacation is anything less than 20 days. I imagine that to most people a 20 days vacation would seem like a really long vacation. In fact, I’ve never had a vacation last that long. I have to imagine that for someone in your situation who apparently takes very long vacations the decision making process regarding flights, etc would be very different than someone taking a more “normal” vacation, such as one lasting a week.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:00:08 +0000

I’m not sure I understand the per hour calculation here. You would’ve driven 3 hours each way to Minneapolis if you could’ve saved $120 total (after gas, parking, tolls, etc)? I think I agree with the other commenters that this example doesn’t fit neatly with the theme of these posts.

To me, $120 total doesn’t seem worth the trip, especially with 3 young children. I live about 40 minutes from PHL and about an hour and a half from BWI, and I’ve never found a good enough deal to drive the extra 45 minutes to BWI (at least since Southwest, Airtran and Jetblue began flying out of Philly). Plus I’m familiar with that airport, and if I want to be dropped off by friends or family, PHL is much less of a hassle for them as well. Personally, I’d like to save hundreds per ticket with a reasonably comparable flight schedule to use an alternate airport.
(PS, Google Maps says its about 4 hours from Des Moines to Minny, you lead foot :)

By: deRuiter

deRuiter — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:57:12 +0000

If you’re a real frequent flyer mile junkie (I’m not quite this bad yet!) you look for the longest, most circuitous route, for extra miles on every flight. I’d do this only if I was on the cusp of the next elite status class and the year was almost over because the value of the higher elite status (or even silver elite status, the lowest rung) often makes a difference in your flying experience in free bag / bags, shorter lines, quicker service, the occasional blessed free upgrade, free use of the executive lounge on overseas flights with the complimentary snacks, soft drinks and if you’re into that, free alcoholic drinks, larger upholstered seats, quiet in lounge, computer access, showers, and the accumulation of more miles with the miles bonus. I agree with #3 Mike’s post completely, he’s put it the way I see it exactly.

By: Ajana

Ajana — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:25:39 +0000

This is a problem I’m dealing with now. I have set a firm budget; however, a one-stop long haul flight is cheap enough to give me an extra two days stay (7 instead of 5). The times are pretty good; I’ll have to leave earlier (stopover is two hours in early evening so I’ll still get a night’s sleep) and arrive a couple of hours later in the morning than the non-stop, which is quite good as the non-stop flight arrives very, very early. All three cities and the international airline offer very good service. The kicker is the return flight, which involves a stopover in the earlier hours. But I would be able to get home and sleep for a weekend before starting work. Having read the post, I’m thinking in my case that the pros (cheaper flight = longer holiday) outweigh the cons (longer overall flights, killer return times).
Can anyone think of what I’m missing?

By: bogart

bogart — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 02:44:11 +0000

Taking a child along has definitely shifted my preferences in favor of non-stop and, if I have to have a stop and am looking at jet-lag, getting the stop over before the jet-lag sets in (generally meaning fly to Europe via JFK and back to the US via Heathrow).

Packed baggage fees have shifted my preferences in favor of Southwest, for domestic US travel.

The climate surrounding air travel in general has shifted my preferences in favor of travelling by car whenever possible.

By: Michele

Michele — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 02:19:13 +0000

My husband and I live in a rural area with a National Guard airport about 5 minutes from our house. The local airport has 30 days of free parking, free wi-fi, and all the planes are 35 passenger. That means we show up ready to go about 45 minutes before the flight and check-in and security and boarding are FAST. Many of our friends drive either 4 hours each way to Reno to save $100 on flights, or 6 hours to Portland to save $100 on flights, or 1.5 hours to Medford to save $100 on flights. The downside is the extra time spent, the drive, the gas, the parking, the bigger airport delay and hassle and you are exhausted after arriving late and usually have to either spend an extra night there before you leave or when you return. It works out to about the extra amount we spend on the flight out of our local airport, 5 minutes away.

By: Nate

Nate — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:15:42 +0000

For me if I am taking a short vacation of less than 20 days I get the quickest flight. If I’ve got time to spare on a long vacation, 20-30+ days, I’ll go ahead and get the cheapest ticket and hang out in an airport for 5 hours or more.

By: Brianne

Brianne — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:09:02 +0000

There are just so many considerations that go into airplane travel, even without children. My husband can’t stand red eye flights so we typically end up having to lose a day to travel to the East Coast from the West Coast. Also, after spending 36 hours in O’Hare and barely making it home in time for Christmas two years ago, we will never have a layover in Chicago again. Luckily, Kayak allows you to filter by layover city.

By: Des

Des — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 21:40:58 +0000

@moom – I think you’re right that the considerations change when you’re talking about a domestic flight vs. overseas. We booked the cheapest flight we could, and it took us about 24 hours of traveling to get from Oregon to London. We tried to time it to where we could sleep on the plane (since we would be arriving at 10 am local time) but couldn’t get to sleep in the crowded economy class. DH could function on no sleep – but I was batty. I spent most of the first day sleeping, which of course worsened the jetlag. A non-stop flight would have gotten us there at the proper hour to get a good night’s rest before starting our vaca. I’m not sure how to appraise the value of that lost day (or of the hell that is 24 hours of airplanes/airports) but I will definitely try to account for it if we ever get to do a trip like that again.

By: rebecca

rebecca — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 21:39:12 +0000

I have many friends who fly frequently with children under age 10 including babies, and they all say that flying non stop, unless there is no other option is the way to go.

By: moom

moom — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 21:29:42 +0000

Going from Iowa to Seattle is a completely different prospect than going from Europe to Thailand or especially Australia to Europe. Getting to your destination and relaxing there is much better than being in some airport you don’t want to be in with another big flight ahead of you.

By: jackie

jackie — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 21:27:58 +0000

Wow, Hipmunk is awesome. Thanks Charlotte!