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... Here & There .Have you been planning a vacation with the kids? Or maybe a romantic getaway for just the two of you? Or maybe you're looking to ship the kids off to visit their grandparents during the school vacation? ... Whatever your motivation, how'd you like to save some big bucks in the process? ... We thought so. That's why, this month, Travel Here & There is going to take you on a little excursion to the world of finding and purchasing your tickets on-line. ... Finding the
Cheapest Seats for Your Flight
Some of you will probably remember when you could fly out of Burlington to Newark, or vice versa, for less than $30 one-way. That was with People's Express, the now-defunct airline that, back then, promised to make the world of airline deregulation a welcome change for those on limited budgets. That was then. ... Last year, on a trip to NJ for a wedding, I had to stay on for some work. So everyone else drove back in the mini-van and I figured I'd catch a flight back in the next day or two. Much to my chagrin, the one-way fare from Newark to Burlington was over $300. Not only that, but my 7 p.m. flight never got out of Newark until nearly 11. ... I won't bore you with the details. But the short of it is this: I could've rented a car and been back, not only sooner, but a lot cheaper, too. Fast forward to a week or so ago. We got a call from the kids' grandparents. They had been checking out flights for the kids from Burlington to Palm Beach for a visit in April, during the school vacation. They expected, and it seemed reasonable, to find a pair of round-trip tickets for about $500, $250 each. Needless to say, they were shocked when they started to ask around and the price came in at about twice that amount. When I heard about the results of their endeavors, I called the new kid on the block -- Jet Blue. I'd heard their one-way fare to JFK was about $49, so I thought there'd have to be some savings to be had. But sure enough, even with them, the cost was going to be that high. I did discover that if we booked the flight within 14 days of departure as a pair, we could get the price down to about $383 each. But that was still going to be more than half-again as much as were hoping to pay. ... Not only that, but we were hoping to get down to Florida for a visit ourselves, next month. That would've meant more than $1500 in tickets, not counting the taxes, fees, and all the rest. "Damn," we thought. "For that kind of money, we could all meet in Italy." That's when I decided to give the world of on-line searches and bookings a whirl. And since we wanted to go down before the kids, that's where I started ... The
Results of the On-Line Ticket Purchase ...
How Did It
Happen? ...
I looked around the site, and tried to get familiar with the drill. I was in something of a hurry, but I read the FAQ, looked for the fine print, and did all the things a wary consumer ought to do. That took me about 15 minutes. ... I then plugged in departure and destination locations, the dates, and clicked. The next screen listed departure and arrival airports, from which you can select one or more. But I was determined to limit it to Burlington {BTV} and West Palm Beach {PBI}. I then plugged in an offer of $200 each for a pair of tickets, clicked on the small-print text that read "Help me choose my price," and a helpful message told me ...
Roughly 1-in-10 didn't sound bad. ... A little graph also indicated that if I bumped the price by $75 per ticket, my chances would be about 1-in-3. But I decided instead to plug $250/ticket in, to see how the odds would play out. I did and found that my "offer price of $250 per ticket has less than a 24% chance ..." That's about 1-in-4. ... I liked it, so I continued on with the form, which took about another minute or two. Then ... click!
Supposedly, I increased the odds by my willingness to accept flights at off-peak flight times, "including off-peak hour flights, which may arrive the next day." That sounded a little risky, but there were other concessions I wasn't willing to make. The list below presents the options, which Priceline lists with check boxes to indicate which ones you're willing to accept. I said 'No' to all of them except the off-peak hours.
What Did
We Get? ... A Bonus: I also decided to follow-up on an e-mail offer we received from Priceline about bargains on rental cars. ... The short of it? ... Plugging in the dates, pick-up & drop-off at the West Palm Beach airport, unlimited mileage, and choosing a compact {vs. the smaller economy car, since I'm 6'2"}, I looked at prices at 4 or 5 of the major rental outfits. The range was about $25-$30/day, with slightly over $25 as the best price, excluding taxes, fees, etc. So I went back to Priceline, tried $16/day, and found {again} that the odds were about 1-in-10. So I bumped it to $19/day, clicked ... and in less than 1 minute I received a confirmation for a rental with Budget. ... That's another $42+ saved. ... Continuing the Experiment ... Ok. Now we had our tickets. But what about the kids? ... I went back on-line the next day and decided to do more snooping before I went pack to Priceline. That's when I stumbled on Lowestfare.com. ... Instead of Priceline's boast of up to 40%, Lowestfare seemed a little more humble at 25%. ... Out of curiosity, I plugged in the same info I had used to book our flight and was shocked to find out that Lowestfare was listing ...
Lowestfare showed two tickets for a total of $530 -- or $265 each. That was only $15 more per ticket than I paid at Priceline. ... We also got the same results at MSN's Expedia site.
I next plugged in the dates for the kids' flight at Lowestfare, just to see. But the results were dramatically different. Instead of the $530 for the pair, Lowestfare showed a low price of $760 for the two {$380 each}, with American & Delta. Not only that, but the flight both ways was circuitous, requiring two layovers -- in Boston & Cinncinatti. The U.S. Airways flight was also listed. But that one was showing up as the next cheapest for {ready?} $1130 {$565 each}, or more for one ticket than it would cost for both for the earlier dates for our flight!?! From there, I went back to Priceline, thinking that the odds of grabbing tickets that far in advance for the $250/ticket we paid were going to slim. But when I plugged the $250 each in at Priceline for the later dates, I was surprised to see that the odds were actually better than the ones I'd originally bid on. They'd jumped from 24% to 29%. Despite the better odds, however. I decided to wait before going for the kids' tickets. ... Why? ... Well, I figured that, if Lowestfare was showing a price close to the one we got for our tickets, but unbelievably higher for the later dates, waiting another month before making an offer at Priceline might actually increase the odds ... or possibly even lower the cost. ... After all, Priceline was telling me the odds "for the same cities and dates." But they weren't necessarily telling me whether the odds go up or down the closer you get to your departure date. In that light, and in light of the much lower prices at Lowestfare for our closer departure date, it just seemed worth the wait. ... A Few More Important Things to
Know ... First comes the difference between Priceline.com, on the one hand, and Lowestfare.com and MSN's Expedia, on the other: At Lowestfare or Expedia, you simply find the cheapest seats and buy them. At Priceline, however, when you designate the amount you're willing to pay, you're not buying ... you're making an offer. Priceline then tries to match your offer with what they've worked out with the airlines. The second important thing to know is that you're only permitted "one request per itinerary" with Priceline.
In other words, unless you change airports, dates, or include non-jet craft, if your original bid doesn't land you tickets, you're out of luck ... at least at Priceline. This
Month's Links to Auto & Travel On-Line ... If you're looking for the lowest prices and ease of use, you really only need to keep three sites in mind: Priceline.com, Lowestfare.com, and Microsoft Network's Expedia. This month, then, as a companion to this piece, our Links to Auto & Travel On-Line are aimed at these three sites ... all of which turned in the best fares and the best on-line performance. Check out the Links, then, for our full reviews, as well as helpful tips. ... Meanwhile, good luck ... and bon voyage! . ******* ******* If you would like to submit something for our Travel Here & There feature, or if you simply would like to suggest something you think we ought to cover, e-mail us at ... autotravel@downstreetmagazine.com. ******* ******* If you would like to advertise in this section, or throughout the magazine, please visit our Advertising Info Pages ... or call, write, or e-mail ads@downstreetmagazine.com. ******* *******
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