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Ramrod Hotshot posted:I've found that search for long, international flights to obscure destinations can yield super crazy fares that might be less if you look for each leg seperately. My parents are trying to book a flight from Florida (Jacksonville or Orlando, if necessary) to Punta Arenas, Chile, which is at the very southern end of South America. For this kind of itinerary, are there still travel agents that can do some kind of wizardry to give you a cheaper flight, or is what you see on kayak/google flights really about as good as anyone can do? And sometimes you just have to book seperate legs if that somehow gets you a cheaper fare? I've been to Punta Arenas and can recommend it only as an opportunity to immediately leave and drive up to Puerto Natales. That aside, yeah, contiguous fares from the US are going to be dumb to get down there in most cases. They'll be far better off getting tickets from JAX-SCL and then using one of the low cost carriers (I lean toward Sky but JetSmart is reported to be ok as well) to travel onward. You'll save a ton and have all the services of Santiago available if something goes awry (like delays that cause a missed connection). I regularly book separate tickets, especially for intra-Chile flights.
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Aug 8, 2023 23:56
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Beef Of Ages posted:I've been to Punta Arenas and can recommend it only as an opportunity to immediately leave and drive up to Puerto Natales. Thanks. God willing it's possible to do this without leaving the airport in Santiago. Good to know that Punta Arenas is for poo poo. They're going for the beauty of Patagonia, of course. Light hiking and scenery. Not asking you to be our travel agent or anything, but do any specific recommendations of places come to mind (or dis-recommendations)?
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Aug 9, 2023 21:24
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:Thanks. God willing it's possible to do this without leaving the airport in Santiago. Yeah, no need to leave the airport but they built a new (and rather nice) international terminal so the old airport that was a mix of international and domestic is now all domestic and there is a walk of around 1000ft between the two but there are moving walkways that help. Torres del Paine is one of the most beautiful areas I've ever been to, and Puerto Natales is a good jumping off point if they don't want to stay at one of the lodges in the park. If they do want to be in the park, Hosteria Pehoe is a great location and is surrounded by staggering views. Everything in this part of Chile is remote and difficult to get to with dirt roads so plan accordingly. If they're not set on flying into Punta Arenas or are interested in other locations, the bottom part of the Lake District in Chile is amazing. Puerto Montt is the city with the airport and nearby Puerto Varas is probably my favorite location in Chile; get a place with a view of the volcanoes on Lago Llanquihue. In the middle of those two are places like Villa Cerro Castillo where you fly into Balmaceda and the nearest decent sized town is Coyhaique. We stayed at this stupid place which requires a 4x4 truck to get to and has solar powered batteries for electricity and a wood stove for cooking and heating water but comes with one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen in real life. Again, nothing in this part of Chile is easy to get to so your parents should plan ahead. English is also not widely spoken in these areas so functional Spanish will be required. There are lots of other options and places (penguins in Ancud, geothermal hot springs outside of Pucon, etc.) so happy to share some of our past experiences as needed.
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Aug 10, 2023 00:25
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Beef Of Ages posted:Yeah, no need to leave the airport but they built a new (and rather nice) international terminal so the old airport that was a mix of international and domestic is now all domestic and there is a walk of around 1000ft between the two but there are moving walkways that help. Huge thanks! This is all really helpful. Yeah realistically myself and my sister (who speaks fluent Spanish) would be going along if this happens, but it sounds awesome so we’re down. A few other quick things -should we plan on renting a 4 wheel drive to get anywhere, such as around Torres del Paine? Also, from the puerto natales area, are there boat tours that get out to the ocean, or is it too far?
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Aug 10, 2023 05:31
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Felt like posting this somewhere, but maybe doesn't warrent it's own thread and it's more making a vacation appreciably cheaper rather than just flights, but if you have free cancellation bookings on your hotels make sure to check for better prices closer to your leaving. I've saved maybe £150 rebooking for a slightly better location and access to a fridge in Chicago, and for effectively the same room in Philadelphia
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Aug 10, 2023 09:07
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:Huge thanks! This is all really helpful. Yeah realistically myself and my sister (who speaks fluent Spanish) would be going along if this happens, but it sounds awesome so we’re down. Yes, you want a 4x4 as pavement ends north of Puerto Natales and everything else will be dirt roads (with somewhere between 8 and 9 billion potholes, get the full insurance). The open ocean is....not nearby Puerto Natales. I'm not aware of any boat tours in the area other than the 3 day ferry to Puerto Montt, but I also haven't been to Puerto Natales in a couple years (pre-covid) so it could be different now. The big draw down there is Torres del Paine and the glaciers so I don't know that much is focused on water tourism in the area. The notable exception to that is inside the park at one of the fancy ecolodges where they have a boat tour out to the Grey Glacier; details can be found here: https://www.lagogrey.com/en/navigation/
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Aug 10, 2023 14:26
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BizarroAzrael posted:Felt like posting this somewhere, but maybe doesn't warrent it's own thread and it's more making a vacation appreciably cheaper rather than just flights, but if you have free cancellation bookings on your hotels make sure to check for better prices closer to your leaving. I've saved maybe £150 rebooking for a slightly better location and access to a fridge in Chicago, and for effectively the same room in Philadelphia Tis true, I do it for flights regularly.
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Aug 10, 2023 14:26
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Beef Of Ages posted:Yes, you want a 4x4 as pavement ends north of Puerto Natales and everything else will be dirt roads (with somewhere between 8 and 9 billion potholes, get the full insurance). The open ocean is....not nearby Puerto Natales. I'm not aware of any boat tours in the area other than the 3 day ferry to Puerto Montt, but I also haven't been to Puerto Natales in a couple years (pre-covid) so it could be different now. The big draw down there is Torres del Paine and the glaciers so I don't know that much is focused on water tourism in the area. The notable exception to that is inside the park at one of the fancy ecolodges where they have a boat tour out to the Grey Glacier; details can be found here: https://www.lagogrey.com/en/navigation/ Again, I really appreciate it. I may come back to you with more questions later if that's cool.
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Aug 10, 2023 18:11
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:Again, I really appreciate it. I may come back to you with more questions later if that's cool. It's what we're here for. 
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Aug 10, 2023 18:21
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Has anyone taken an assignment as an international courier (on-board carry)? I've signed up with one that posts urgent assignments in a Telegram channel, but I haven't seen anything in my region yet. Most of the flights are starting or ending in Dubai, Texas, or Paris. https://www.aircharterservice.com/cargo-charter/on-board-courier/become-an-onboard-courier Another one I found requires a lot of documents in advance, I have no idea how much volume they do. https://www.airmates.eu/en/become-an-obc Any recommendations, anecdotes, or horror stories? I'm doing my first courier job next month, taking a friend's cats across the world now that she's settled in her new town. peanut fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Aug 11, 2023 |
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Aug 11, 2023 00:43
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peanut posted:taking a friend's cats across the world now that she's settled in her new town. Starting with the hardest job, you've got spunk kid.
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Aug 11, 2023 01:30
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what's the lowest you think you can get from MSP-CDG in March? This would be Delta One. Cheapest I've found is 3600. No issue with which day of the week we leave and come back.
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Aug 15, 2023 23:10
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actionjackson posted:what's the lowest you think you can get from MSP-CDG in March? This would be Delta One. Cheapest I've found is 3600. No issue with which day of the week we leave and come back. How long do you plan to be in Paris? Also are you willing to explore other airports in the region or is a non-stop the most important thing? Edit: Also does it have to be D1 or will other airlines be ok? Beef Of Ages fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Aug 16, 2023 |
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Aug 16, 2023 00:43
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Beef Of Ages posted:How long do you plan to be in Paris? Also are you willing to explore other airports in the region or is a non-stop the most important thing? we want to go around the country a bit, but we would be arriving and leaving from CDG - maybe 9-13 day range? Delta is greatly preferred, but I could check United through Chicago or wherever. nonstop would be best but if there was one connection I'd be open to it if it saved a lot we might also be open to open jaws (or whatever the phrase is) where we arrive and depart from different airports actionjackson fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Aug 16, 2023 |
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Aug 16, 2023 01:52
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peanut posted:Has anyone taken an assignment as an international courier (on-board carry)? I've signed up with one that posts urgent assignments in a Telegram channel, but I haven't seen anything in my region yet. Most of the flights are starting or ending in Dubai, Texas, or Paris. Someone posted a thread about it a couple of years ago doing some runs to London but I don't have a link.
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Aug 16, 2023 18:51
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Actually I do have a link: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3956349
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Aug 16, 2023 20:15
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Appreciated! I have a family and live in a non-hub region so I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to accept a same day flight, but ya never know.
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Aug 17, 2023 00:19
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I did find out about holiday fares from someone on flyer talk. for example leaving or coming back between 4/2-4/4 next year is cheaper as that's their Easter discount. It seems like each flight only has a small number of seats at the lowest price though.
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Aug 17, 2023 01:02
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edit: I think I'm good for now, and this was off topic anyway
Ramrod Hotshot fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Aug 21, 2023 |
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Aug 21, 2023 17:59
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I've just discovered Google Flights and you can tell it you want a 1 or 2 week holiday and it just throws a bunch of really cheap air fares at you. So now I'm just planning an entire holiday around the cheap air fare.
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Aug 22, 2023 20:32
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That's how I planned my vacation in a few months. One weird trick that Beef of Ages hates.
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Aug 23, 2023 02:24
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WaryWarren posted:That's how I planned my vacation in a few months. One weird trick that Beef of Ages hates. Haha, I've become a meme. In any event, finding those fares using a search engine is great. The key is how you book them to ensure you're not opening up undue potential for larger issues during travel if something goes tits up.
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Aug 23, 2023 19:58
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Another one weird trick airlines hate: on low-cost flights, wait until the last possible moment to check-in. Since they want to sell the premium exit-row seats, they're not giving them randomly at check in, so there's a decent chance you'll get them if you're the last one to do it. It's a bit tiny since I wanted to fit everything on screen, but 1 D,E,F are the only 3 available seats, which is what I got checking in at like 11pm for an early morning flight.
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Aug 24, 2023 21:34
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mobby_6kl posted:Another one weird trick airlines hate: on low-cost flights, wait until the last possible moment to check-in. Since they want to sell the premium exit-row seats, they're not giving them randomly at check in, so there's a decent chance you'll get them if you're the last one to do it. This is a good trick with any airline that lets you pick your own seats for free when checking in. I do this with Swiss, and often I can get an empty seat next to me when I check in only 2 hours and 1 minute before takeoff. Doesn’t always work, maybe 30% success rate which is definitely worth it for long haul. If you check in 90 min before it’s probably even better odds but I’d rather already be through security, even though ZH airport is amazing.
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Aug 25, 2023 13:40
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It is certainly a strategy that can pay off, but for those in the domestic US market (which is not mobby_6kl or Saladman) where load factors tend to be a lot higher, you can also get a middle seat by the toilets really easily.
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Aug 25, 2023 13:54
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Am I missing something about Kayak? Is there a way to sort flights according to their cost with trolley \ carry-on? Kiwi has that as an option, but Kayak just gives you all the luggage-free 50$ flights you want, only to hit you with a 200-400$ added fee when you review the flight info.
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Sep 7, 2023 11:45
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Xander77 posted:Am I missing something about Kayak? Is there a way to sort flights according to their cost with trolley \ carry-on? Kiwi has that as an option, but Kayak just gives you all the luggage-free 50$ flights you want, only to hit you with a 200-400$ added fee when you review the flight info. It's less of a Kayak issue and more of an issue of whether or not the carrier in question publishes those fares with the add-ons included. Some do, some don't. It's also possible that Kwik is doing their own research and adding that to the results of carriers that don't publish the information themselves. Ultimately, the rule of thumb is to find the fare you want on the search engine and then book directly with the carrier. Either way, you're going to have to re-verify pricing with all of the things you need on a ticket by ticket basis.
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Sep 7, 2023 14:24
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peanut posted:I'm doing my first courier job next month, taking a friend's cats across the world now that she's settled in her new town. Update: the cats have been successfully relocated from Japan to Los Angeles! The final test, a road trip across the desert, is not my journey to take.
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Sep 10, 2023 13:28
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Is anyone aware of a consistently cheap route from North America to Athens? I'm trying to go to Greece for ~3 weeks in May, starting from Edmonton (  ) with flexible dates. My wife isn't a great flier, so I'm trying to avoid the 15+ hour travel day. My thinking is to find a flight from Edmonton to Montreal or New York at a good price, maybe spend a couple of days, and head out from there. I've seen a couple decent prices on flights from those cities through Lisbon or Paris (cities I am also down to spend some time in) to Athens, but direct would be preferable. I was just wondering if anyone happens to know of a regular route along those lines that tends to be cheap. Thanks!
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Sep 18, 2023 16:05
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What are the cheapest routes between Korea and Japan? I want to visit both on one trip and thought there'd be something on a short flight like between like Busan and let's say Hiroshima but I'm not seeing anything. Are there some secret lowcost airlines that aren't available to the dirty foreigners or something?
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Sep 18, 2023 21:25
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Larry Cum Free posted:Is anyone aware of a consistently cheap route from North America to Athens?
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Sep 18, 2023 21:36
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Larry Cum Free posted:Is anyone aware of a consistently cheap route from North America to Athens? There is no such thing as "tends to be cheap" when it comes to airfare anymore; airlines are constantly repricing fares to maximize their yields using data. The most you can really do is adapt to market forces like looking at major cities for a departure point because places with more flights are more likely to have lower prices due to competition than otherwise. The Edmonton to Athens market is unlikely to be something that has a lot of travelers so there aren't a lot of options which makes for higher prices. As WithoutTheFezOn notes, Toronto and New York are likely to be your best bet; play around with departure days and trip length and see what you can find.
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Sep 18, 2023 22:48
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mobby_6kl posted:What are the cheapest routes between Korea and Japan? I want to visit both on one trip and thought there'd be something on a short flight like between like Busan and let's say Hiroshima but I'm not seeing anything. Are there some secret lowcost airlines that aren't available to the dirty foreigners or something? Of the five LCCs in Japan, the only ones with service to Korea that I know of are JetStar Japan and Zipair. Not sure if they publish to normal GDS engines or if you have to search them directly.
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Sep 18, 2023 22:52
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Check Fukuoka airport. There's also ferries between Fukuoka and Busan (Camelia and JR Beetle).
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Sep 18, 2023 22:58
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Larry Cum Free posted:Is anyone aware of a consistently cheap route from North America to Athens? In addition to what Beef of Ages said, sometimes direct flight are actually more expensive than a flight from a second city. For instance I just bought flights for this winter to Tunisia, and it was €170pp from Luxembourg-Frankfurt-Tunis-Frankfurt-Luxembourg versus €270pp for Frankfurt-Tunis-Frankfurt, taking the *exact same Lufthansa flight*. I'm not sure if hidden city ticketing is as common in North America, but it's very frequent in Europe that a hub city has more expensive flights than a spoke city. I've done quite a few flights like that, and it requires dicking around a lot with airports and possible itineraries, but I often check it through cities I want to go to anyway and/or places where I know people, especially if I can get an open-jaw. My wife is also a terrible flyer, and we did the same thing as you for Christmas to Mexico City -- stopping in Lisbon and Miami along the way for a couple days each, which mitigated jetlag and was like €500 cheaper per ticket, which more than paid for the time spent in Lisbon and Miami, especially since we stayed with a friend in Miami.
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Sep 18, 2023 23:42
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Istanbul airport is a massive regional hub with direct flights to every continent.
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Sep 19, 2023 00:43
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Thanks for the responses, everyone!Beef Of Ages posted:There is no such thing as "tends to be cheap" when it comes to airfare anymore; airlines are constantly repricing fares to maximize their yields using data. The most you can really do is adapt to market forces like looking at major cities for a departure point because places with more flights are more likely to have lower prices due to competition than otherwise. The Edmonton to Athens market is unlikely to be something that has a lot of travelers so there aren't a lot of options which makes for higher prices. As WithoutTheFezOn notes, Toronto and New York are likely to be your best bet; play around with departure days and trip length and see what you can find. Good to know, and I'll add Toronto to the list of flights I'm watching.
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Sep 19, 2023 17:15
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Beef Of Ages posted:Of the five LCCs in Japan, the only ones with service to Korea that I know of are JetStar Japan and Zipair. Not sure if they publish to normal GDS engines or if you have to search them directly. peanut posted:Check Fukuoka airport.
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Sep 19, 2023 18:49
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Larry Cum Free posted:Is anyone aware of a consistently cheap route from North America to Athens? I fly my family of five to Greece every summer for three weeks. We live in the Detroit area and save about $600-700/ticket by driving to Toronto and flying direct from there via Air Canada or Air Transat. Everywhere else in the US that I can drive five hours to is ridiculously expensive and even flying a connecting through NY is still expensive. It sucks but still worth it. Hoping the new DTW to Istanbul on Turkish air creates some competitive fares to Athens. E: don't be shy about what you're planning to do while you're there. Happy to provide any recommendations based on what you want to do and region you will be in. TraderStav fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Nov 21, 2023 |
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Nov 21, 2023 05:33
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Hey, I have this flight coming up and I was checking the cabin luggage situation. Below on this page it says this: quote:United accepts the following items, per customer to be carried on the aircraft at no charge: But if I click on the policy, it says this: quote:For most trips you can only bring one personal item when you’re flying in Basic Economy. You can’t bring a carry-on bag unless you’re flying to South America, across the Atlantic or across the Pacific. All other bags have to be checked. Note, if you check a carry-on at your gate, you’ll be charged the standard bag fee plus an additional $25.
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Nov 30, 2023 01:11
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