Airfare pricing is Crazy

[kgtest]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gone4Good Another obvious (or maybe not so obvious) suggestion is to see if changing the date helps at all. Sometimes flying on one specific day can cost hundreds of dollars more than flying out the very next day.

I would go further to say more often then not, one day later or sooner could be hundreds of dollars more so its worth it to look and detrimental not to play with the dates. Unless a couple hundred isn't a big deal to you, in that case I am looking to be adopted.

[Fedup]

Before May 15 and after Oct 15 are the dates for super saver fares for AA.


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[Gone4Good]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ivinsfan A word of warning on the "cheap" inter-Europe flights you might get hit with a seat picking fee and a carry-on baggage fee, a checked baggage fee and a heavy checked baggage fee and the fees are higher then mainline carrier fees. On a cruise someone might be using quite a bit of baggage. Check the out the door price before you buy tickets.

+1

And read all the fine print too. I think it is Ryan Air that requires you to print your boarding pass before arriving at the airport. Failure to do so can result in a fee as large as your ticket price.

Some of these guys are really shady, so buyer beware.

But if you read the fine print and follow the rules, there really are great deals to be had. We've taken international flights for as low as $35 per ticket.

[MBAustin]

DS is flying to Chile for a vacation soon. When he was booking his flights, he found a difference of more than $300 by checking several sites (I think Kayak is where he found the best price, but a few days earlier when he was searching, the best price was on Google).

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MBAustin DS is flying to Chile for a vacation soon. When he was booking his flights, he found a difference of more than $300 by checking several sites (I think Kayak is where he found the best price, but a few days earlier when he was searching, the best price was on Google).

Airline prices change every day. You can track the changes via Kayak or Yapta.

[YVRRocketSurgery]

We'll generally set up daily price notifications out of Kayak.

Flights are generally cheaper flying out of hubs so what we've done for some trips is to work an itinerary to end at hub city or wherever we can get a seat sale and fly to/back from there. We've used train travel and low cost carriers for these hops. (ie Seat sale to Venice, Train to Rome, Cruise return out of Rome, Flight on Vueling to Barcelona, Seat sale back from Barcelona)

We haven't used RyanAir but have used Vueling, Easyjet, and Flybe with fairly good success. Agree that you kind of have to be on the ball with some of their nuances. Another risk to be aware of is delays and cancellations. I'm not sure if I would schedule on the same day a connection between a transatlantic flight on one ticket with an intra-European flight on another ticket.

+1 to using the cruiseline's flight services. We've never used them ourselves but after multiple recommendations and researching them, we would consider them as an option in the future. The main challenges though are that they seem fairly inflexible with changes and many of the cheap fares require connections (though you can choose flight preferences).

One of my finance magazines (Moneysense March 2015 edition) quoted CheapAir.com whose stats indicate that on average, the cheapest time to book a flight to Europe is 276d out (not sure if this info is only valid for Canada or US too).

[sengsational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset So I was looking at a cruise from FL to Barcelona Spain, and of course it brings up the problem of how to get back home. So I look up airfare for May 2016, Cheapest one way was about $2K per person. Round trip was $972 per person (with return to Spain in Sept 2016). So is there any issue if I "miss" the return flight ? What do other folks do ?

I noticed the same thing, but I'm flying from a smaller US airport, which makes it worse. More chat about it here and here.

If you're going to throw away the return, I found that you should "stay in the US" not much longer than a month, or the price starts to go up again. So I'd try return dates in the June range.

Just now, on skyscanner, after eliminating excessively long flights (many are multiple DAYS!) I found:

Round trip: 4/18 CLT-BCN return 5/17 BCN-CLT is $689
One way: 4/18 CLT-BCN is 2,733.

I dragged the slider to 18 hours or something to eliminate the crazy long flights (the 'normal' one stop flights are 12 hours or so).

I did find other airlines that don't participate in these booking sites with reasonable one-way fares, but they didn't fly into CLT, and the schedules left me with an overnight and a relatively expensive weekend hop home. Thus, booking the round trip with the option of throwing away the return is what I did. But I booked the return near the time when another cruise was coming back this way (October). So we'll see...I might use the return ticket after all!

[sengsational]

I think the crazy pricing has to do with giving non-US people a break (if you book a R/T, you're probably "not from around here").

The same crazy pricing happens in the RV rental business. If you book on an international drivers license, you can get a 30 footer in Orlando for 10 days the end of May for $71/night. If you book on a US license, you get a 28 footer for $157/night. Even if the US guy steps down to a 22 footer, it still is $136*.

Anybody know the details about getting an international drivers license? Oh, wait, that would be a horrific thread hijack. I'll do my own research.

*https://www.campertravelusa.com

[Sarah in SC]

Easy to get an intl drivers license, just pop down to the AAA office. If a member, I don't think it costs anything, but is otherwise $10-$15. We got them for Peru and for the rally. A must have for driving overseas in places that won't recognize a US license. Last a year.

[rodi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah in SC Easy to get an intl drivers license, just pop down to the AAA office. If a member, I don't think it costs anything, but is otherwise $10-$15. We got them for Peru and for the rally. A must have for driving overseas in places that won't recognize a US license. Last a year.

AAA charges members... You need to bring the correct size photos, as well.
We got them last summer for the 1 week we had a rental car in France.

[DJRR]

Talked to my Dad tonight and he is doing a 14 night from Tampa to Barcelona in mid April. He got a charter flight from the cruise line for just under $400 through Toronto to Newark. That was the best deal for him.

[Sarah in SC]

Wait, at my local AAA, they took the photos for us.
I think we didn't pay the first time but did the second. They are little booklets in four languages.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rodi AAA charges members... You need to bring the correct size photos, as well. We got them last summer for the 1 week we had a rental car in France.

Won't France recognize a US drivers license? I know the Netherlands does. I just assumed all EU countries did.

Quote:

Neither France nor Spain requires the international driver's permit, though as mentioned it might come in handy (I never bother). What both Spain and France DO require is for you to have a specific emergency road kit in the trunk of the car, so make sure your rental company provides that. Spain also requires you to have a spare pair of glasses if you wear prescription lenses - VERY long shot you'd be caught on that one, but just so you know...

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...us-license.cfm

Rick Steves indicates Spain may require it. https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-ti...r-requirements

[Gone4Good]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 Won't France recognize a US drivers license? I know the Netherlands does. I just assumed all EU countries did. Can one drive in Europe with U.S. license? | Europe Forum | Fodor's Travel Talk Forums

I'm pretty sure your actual government issued driver's license is what you legally need to drive in most foreign countries.

The whole "international driver's permit" seems like a small racket to me. No one has ever asked to see mine in any country where I've rented a car anywhere in the world. It's not a government document. And all it does is translate a statement about the kind of vehicle your licensed to operate into a handful of different languages. I guess that could be useful if you're trying to rent a heavy truck or a motorcycle. But a passenger car?

Interestingly, it's only valid for 1 year while my actual license is valid for 6. All the better to charge renewal fees.

[Fedup]

I agree, just regular driver's license here is enough. I never had to do anything differently.


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[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sengsational I think the crazy pricing has to do with giving non-US people a break (if you book a R/T, you're probably "not from around here"). The same crazy pricing happens in the RV rental business. If you book on an international drivers license, you can get a 30 footer in Orlando for 10 days the end of May for $71/night. If you book on a US license, you get a 28 footer for $157/night. Even if the US guy steps down to a 22 footer, it still is $136*. Anybody know the details about getting an international drivers license? Oh, wait, that would be a horrific thread hijack. I'll do my own research. *https://www.campertravelusa.com

Good to know....

But Notice Campers are reasonable about the 1-way vs return thing.
They charge an extra 1-way fee since you leave the camper in a different place, and its a small percentage (possibly a flat rate).

However, its not like I'm going to leave the plane somewhere, its going there anyhow.

[Totoro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gone4Good I've found flights from all of those airlines on Kayak and flown every single one as a result.

It seems my knowledge is outdated, you are right, budget airlines are included these days. Thanks for correcting!

[Sarah in SC]

We were definitely required to show the IDL in Peru, and they wanted the motorcycle part marked as well. But that was the cops, not any rental agency.

And we got stopped near about 30 times driving overland in Europe and Central Asia, and every one wanted to see the IDL. Though one time A younger guy was driving and hadn't been able to find his, so he just handed over DH's. They look alike, but are 20 years apart in age.

Which reminds me, DH better get one before Morocco.

I should say that these stops were thinly veiled shakedown attempts, not exactly stops for "cause".