Immigrant airfare discount

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

Absolutely there is a first-time immigrant fare. Not the easiest to come by, it all depends on when you are flying. Had I been able to accept a date about 10 days after I needed her flight, I could have saved an additional $100 on the flight.

As for "why skimp now"... why NOT? Every $100 saved is more money to spend on things besides jet fuel, which is much more beneficial to a couple.

[tmma 467]

----As for "why skimp now"... why NOT? Every $100 saved is more money to spend on things besides jet fuel, which is much more beneficial to a couple.

I agree with you, and no one saw the irony of my post and my member title.

A penny saved is a penny earned-BUT- I do stand by my comment about one or two or more of our members here on VJ who do fritter the money away like it's nothing before their loved one gets here- then go all cheapo once they are here ( Darren is an awesome example, but there are many others elsewhere in these forums).

[pepper 34]

PAL offers a first time immigrant discount. Note the word "immigrant". K1s are not given this discount because technically K1 is a non-immigrant visa.

[thekfc 26]

Yes there is a 1st time immigrant fare - my wife used it this past February (she flew on Cathay Pacific - Manila to NYC). They are a few airlines who provide the discount and you have to show your visa at the time of purchase to get the discount.

You can get the discount through either the TA or directly with the airline - my wife went directly to the airline.

An mentioned before, the discount is only given to travelers holding an immigrant visa. Non-immigrant visa holders do not get the discount.

Edited October 7, 2011 by thekfc

[JohnNJean 2]

Ok it is time to book my fiance' flight from Manila to the US (Seattle). The good news is she is on her way to pick up her visa right now from 2Go. Very Very Excited!!! A sweatheart (who will remain nameless ;) ) doesn't believe me when I tell her about immigrant discounts from airlines. Can someone please respond to the following?:

Is there a first time immigrant discount from airlines?

Which airlines have this discount?

Do you have to go through a travel agent or through the airline?

Can I pay for it or does my fiance' have to pay for it (I will be sending her the money)?

Also just a side question, what airline(s) do you prefer to and from Manila? I have flown there on Delta and Korean Air. I prefered Korean Air but thier flight are so expensive right now. Delta seemed to have an outdated plane.

Thanks all, VJ has been great and I can't wait for my love and her son to get here!!!!!

I'd agree with B_J on

There actually are first time immigrant discounts. I think they are through travel agents.

Here's another link you can check. St. Raphael http://santraphael.com/home.php

[VanessaTony 3,567]

I had to go back home for a family emergency and looked at Kayak etc to find cheap fares. I wasn't happy with the prices so I picked the cheapest airline I know (tends to be United for me) and found they would show you a month at a time (if you picked flexible dates) so I could pick the cheapest day to fly. Looking this way instead of via Kayak saved me several hundred dollars. I paid $1800 for a return flight that left the same day I booked it. Kayak was showing $2400+ for flights. Needless to say I will always do it this way from now on.

[Juliet and Steve 93]

Ok it is time to book my fiance' flight from Manila to the US (Seattle). The good news is she is on her way to pick up her visa right now from 2Go. Very Very Excited!!! A sweatheart (who will remain nameless ;) ) doesn't believe me when I tell her about immigrant discounts from airlines. Can someone please respond to the following?:

Is there a first time immigrant discount from airlines?

Which airlines have this discount?

Do you have to go through a travel agent or through the airline?

Can I pay for it or does my fiance' have to pay for it (I will be sending her the money)?

Also just a side question, what airline(s) do you prefer to and from Manila? I have flown there on Delta and Korean Air. I prefered Korean Air but thier flight are so expensive right now. Delta seemed to have an outdated plane.

Thanks all, VJ has been great and I can't wait for my love and her son to get here!!!!!

I'm surprised to see that there is a firs-time immigrant discount, but I wonder when all is said and done--Is the ticket really the cheapest and best itenerary that can be had?

Long lead times is the norm! Booking more than one month out is often essential, even two or three months can help quite a lot PHP/$-wise.

An extremely useful website that I have found is itasoftware.com

It's pretty intuitive. Stick in the airport you want to leave from, make it one way or two way or multi-city (choose the correct tab). Choose a date or better yet, for most people click on "calendar of lowests fares" which covers a period of one month from the date you choose. Click on search.

What you get is pretty much every possible flight combination available on earth excepting "consolidator flights"! You'll see that certain days are cheaper than other days. Pick a day and you'll get all the flight combinations for that day.

From the results you get to see flight time, layovers and to the right are symbols that can be important so be careful. For me "airport switch" is a real no-no, because if I land at La Guardia, NY I might have to hire a cab to take me to a 2nd nearby airport which is both difficult, tiresome and expensive.

However, you CANNOT buy a ticket here. But when you find a flight you like, click on the price and the itenerary opens. Print out all the information (especially at the bottom where it says: useful info for ticketing agents) and take this to a travel agent.

If your travel agent looks at it stupidly and says: Oh that's not real, the tickets are much more expensive--Go to another travel agent! It took me three trys until I found a travel agent who could take the data I had and who got me the exact fare and itinerary that the other two agents said did not exist. In doing so I saved $800US (25,000PHP) on a round trip ticket from my airport to Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2010--and better yet I found a flight that did not force me to wait many hours in the dreaded Bangkok airport.

Google just purchased ITA so things may change at some time and clearly they are planning to use it to sell tickets so the change may be good or not.

For instance I looked for a one-way flight from Cebu(Mactan) for one in March. Prices ranged from 28,600PHP to over 50,000PHP depending upon the departure date. In my book that is a lot of money saved. I consider this site invaluable but you'll have to do some legwork to find a travel agent who's willing to work with your data, and many are not--but once you have found one, you can use them over and over.

And yes, the travel agents in RP use the same ticketing computers as every other country does. Good luck.

Posted by Steve, not Juliet.

Admin: This is essentially a duplicat of a prior post--so feel free to remove it and link one or the other if that is necessary.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Juliet and Steve