Thoughts on the ‘doing it yourself’ of booking travel

Posted By on June 19, 2011

A friend of mine and I discussed buying tickets for a couple of upcoming trips which included flights and rental cars this past week and neither one of us were convinced we picked up the cheapest tickets or were able to find decent rates for renting a car in July. airplaneWe bounced our shopping sites and strategies off of each other hoping that one of us has really found the secret to nabbing the best flights, fares and rental car tricks … I don’t think we’ve figured it out yet. My favorite site is still Kayak.com for finding information, but prefer buying from a carrier or rental company on their own sites … and in many cases the ‘discount companies’ are not going to be listed.

A recent article listed a few tips that you might want to try:

The No. 1 finding: Avoid booking tickets on weekends. It’s the most expensive time to buy.

There’s no way to guarantee the best fare. But before booking, travelers should heed this additional advice:

- Book on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. That’s when airlines most often offer sales.

- Buy in advance, but not too early. The best time is four to six weeks before traveling. In general, prices for any given flight are highest eight to 10 weeks and two to three weeks in advance.

- Embrace social media. Airlines are giving more benefits, like exclusive sales, to travelers who interact with them on Twitter and Facebook. Those specials are often gone within hours.

- The so-called discount airlines – JetBlue, AirTran, Southwest and Frontier – adjust their fares less frequently than other airlines, so you can feel more confident locking in a price. But their prices aren’t always the lowest. Researching multiple airlines’ fares is the only way to get a good deal.

READ

Comments

  • http://amileofrunway.blogspot.com Steve

    matrix.itasoftware.com

    That’s all you really need to know. Consider yourself lucky for me having shared my awesome secret into how to find the best airfare every time! :)

  • http://richc.myarchive.us RichC

    Anxious to check it out!  Thx.

  • http://richc.myarchive.us RichC

    Well Steve I’ll add the site to my arsenal … but not sure it really makes searching all that much easier than the Kayak.com monthly look? On the other hand, buy picking the departure date of my current flight it pulled up the price I paid to the penny.

    I suppose I’m still looking for the holy grail site that can predict prices, best direct flights and include even the discount carriers from surrounding airports as a way to shop prices. Personally I’d like one that would permit a checkbox feature to include price of a rental car in a price total for flexible travel times. (yes … I’m asking for too much)

  • http://amileofrunway.blogspot.com Steve

    The power of ITA is the custom coding. Poke around on there for a while (read the help documentation on their codes) and you’ll figure out how to do some powerful searches. They do offer a calendar view that I use religiously.

    Oh, and as far as price prediction… try farecast.com! :)

  • http://richc.myarchive.us RichC

    As always … thanks for your advice and the links. Of course adding more sites and tools (with Bing “farecasts”) doesn’t make the challenge all that much easier … it will probably end up just getting me more frustrated when “after the fact” I end up finding a better flight/fare and car rental! Thanks again.

  • http://amileofrunway.blogspot.com Steve

    Just use Priceline for the car and snag one dirt cheap! :)

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.