Short notice airline tickets

[Carl & Susan 0]

Lately I've been using http://booking.farecompare.com/?tab=flights which puts a little nicer interface in kayak.

for ultimate flexibility, I use http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/prego which has a query language so that you can say things like "I only want Emirates on the first leg and either United or American on the second and we must pass the Los Angeles".

One other hint when round trip prices are high, you can often just fly 1 way business class for the same price as that round trip price (assuming you only wanted one way to being with, of course).

[reach449 2]

Kayak does a pretty good job, but I just got a ticket for $300 cheaper than Kayak by going through a travel agent. Before buying any ticket online, I would call a travel agent to see what they can do.

I agree with checking with travel agent. I thought I was doing great by shopping on-line for a ticket. I was really proud of myself. For some reason I decided to call a travel agent just to get a comparison. Low and behold she got me a ticket and two nights in Bangkok at a nice hotel for $200.00 cheaper than I was going to pay on-line just for the airline ticket! Now I will always check with an agent before buying on-line.

reach449

[iya 0]

I agree with reach449. I, too, was feeling so proud of myself for finding a flight online. Then, I, too, decided to ask local ticket agents, just to see how much better a deal I would be getting online... only to find out that the local agents could get me tickets for a hundred to two hundred dollars less. I dilly-dallied though, so the cheapest ones got booked, and i ended up with the second-best. But still! Much better than having gotten tickets online.

[Moonie 0]

This is a great thread. Me and my fiance have been looking at tickets. I will also bring up the idea to him to check with an agent to compare prices.

[jezz85 0]

Well I'm stumped.

I just took the advice of this thread and called up a local travel agent... The guy on the phone said "Have you looked at the airline websites? We can't do cheaper than that". I couldn't help but laugh. The guy sounded so disinterested in my phone call. I'm pretty sure that <insert travel agent here> would be fairly underwhelmed knowing that they have this guy working for them.

[iya 0]

Hmm it must be different, depending on what country you're at.. but really, I got mine for like 727USD, all taxes included, through an agency. Checking the airline's website, it's listed as 1,2XX USD, plus taxes. Let's just say it was worth a shot

[mmarlo 1]

Well I'm stumped.

I just took the advice of this thread and called up a local travel agent... The guy on the phone said "Have you looked at the airline websites? We can't do cheaper than that". I couldn't help but laugh. The guy sounded so disinterested in my phone call. I'm pretty sure that <insert travel agent here> would be fairly underwhelmed knowing that they have this guy working for them.

It probably depends on the agent, if they work for a consolidator, possibly what country you're flying to, etc. For more complicated flights and to destinations that aren't 'standard', it seems you should always at least check with one or more travel agents. Possibly for more common routes, the best you may be able to do is through online sites--sites that search across airlines and from the airlines' sites themselves.

[Moonie 0]

My fiance did not get a good quote on price from an agent. We plan on him coming here 6/8. I wonder does he have to enter through LAX? Can he come through San Fransico.

[Jamie76 0]

Well I'm stumped.

I just took the advice of this thread and called up a local travel agent... The guy on the phone said "Have you looked at the airline websites? We can't do cheaper than that". I couldn't help but laugh. The guy sounded so disinterested in my phone call. I'm pretty sure that <insert travel agent here> would be fairly underwhelmed knowing that they have this guy working for them.

It probably depends on the agent, if they work for a consolidator, possibly what country you're flying to, etc. For more complicated flights and to destinations that aren't 'standard', it seems you should always at least check with one or more travel agents. Possibly for more common routes, the best you may be able to do is through online sites--sites that search across airlines and from the airlines' sites themselves.

Yeah, and the problem is that most agents won't tell you if they work with consolidators. There are a number of consolidators you can find online though. I've found them to generally be a few hundred dollars less in some cases then a travel agent or the airline itself.