How To: Finding Cheap Airfare

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > How To: Finding Cheap Airfare

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Has anyone dealt with a situation where a return flight A<->B was much more expensive (like almost 2x) than B<->A?

My aunt wanted to come over for the holidays from a 3rd world shithole but couldn't afford the tickets, so I offered to check it out for her, and it turned out that anything going FROM there is almost twice as much as I paid to go THERE like in March, and still more expensive than going in this direction right now. Any ideas how to get around this?

mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 12:21 on Nov 23, 2015

# ¿ Nov 23, 2015 11:09

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 02:54

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Mackieman posted:

Regularly. Some tickets don't have a round trip pricing component so the ticket prices as two one-ways. Because of market-based pricing, one segment can be vastly more expensive than the other. Not much you can do about it unless you find a nice hidden city ticket or change origin/destination. Nearby airports are usually the best way to overcome this sort of issue. If you'll provide the to/from and some dates, we'll take a look.

I found one city near the origin that was quite a bit cheaper, though it'd be a pain in the rear end for her to get there. The flight I'm looking for is TAS to somewhere in Central Europe, in order of preference: PRG, VIE, TXL. Time-wise, early-mid December and back... like a month later? Thanks!

peanut posted:

Different countries have different peak travel seasons and airport taxes etc. Try alternative dates and/or round about routes.

Yeah, I tried various dates (including departure in January), makes no difference. The only thing that makes a significant impact is reversing the flight direction

# ¿ Nov 23, 2015 21:35

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Thanks for looking into this; that's roughly what I've seen too so far. The layovers are pretty lovely and while $600-700 isn't extraordinary expensive, it's quite a lot when that's several months worth of income :v:

. It's mainly the discrepancy that's frustrating ,there's a (return) Turkish flight with the opposite direction for $300.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2015 11:25

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

A bit of a brag on a deal I scored:

There's a 17 hour stopover at Addis Ababa for a quick city tour, and the local flights aren't included:

I do have a question though, what's generally the cheapest way to go SIN->HKG->BKK? I always wanted to go to HK and this would take care of my Singapore transit visa. But so far everything seemed much more expensive than a return flight with AirAsia from KUL, and I tried the Matrix but it doesn't seem to include any low-cost airlines so everything is at least $500. No exact dates yet but end of May for around 3 days.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2016 13:51

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

peanut posted:

For Singapore, check Scoot, Tiger, and JetStar.

This popped up in my search too, what do you airfare nerds think?

https://en.hellowings.com/
"Find your ideal price first, then choose the date. HelloWings mix and match budget airlines (LCC) to customize your ..."

Thanks, JetStar seems to be the cheapest out of Singapore, but only on one day of the month

Still this would probably make way more sense than flying a return trip from KUL and having to somehow get back to Bangkok for my flight home.

Saladman posted:

How did you figure out that itinerary? It doesn't strike me as something you would just stumble across while searching normally.

Some guy on a local forum came across a combination of trips that resulted in this low cost and I dicked around with it until I got something I was interested in without blowing up the cost. Not sure how he found it initially, maybe it was some sort of sale that I didn't see or an error on their part.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2016 10:49

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

I'll need to travel to Frankfurt on rather short notice and luckily found this flight:

Unfortunately I can't find where to buy it. Czech Airlines have a corresponding flight but it's available in business only and seems to cost twice as much anyway ( this is under $100). Any ideas who might sell it to me?

# ¿ Apr 28, 2016 13:13

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Geriatric Pirate posted:

Great find! I'd keep checking that booking (do not call, check online) to make sure it doesn't get cancelled. Looks like a mistake fare / you unwittingly booked a fuel dump or something.

Yeah, probably. It's pretty ridiculous otherwise, each individual destination is normally about twice as much, let alone both together. Just checked for fun, it's like >�3k :lol:

I had the Dubai->Phuket flight changed to an earlier one by Emirates so there's now no chance to get out to the city, but everything seems to be solidly confirmed for now, leaving next week. On the upside, my colleague has a friend who's a flight attendant with them and does this flight frequently :quagmire:

Jeoh posted:

ITA's data might be outdated. Most websites have it for 3500 crowns, in Economy, with Czech Airlines.

Weird, it's still there. I also had trouble finding the actual airline itself. Seems like it's Travel Service who operate under SmartWings, but didn't have that flight either. 3.5k would be fine but I forgot to mention that I need to be their early morning. Anyway, I managed to find an overnight train that gets there at like 4am :-(

# ¿ Apr 29, 2016 09:38

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Geriatric Pirate posted:

Great find! I'd keep checking that booking (do not call, check online) to make sure it doesn't get cancelled. Looks like a mistake fare / you unwittingly booked a fuel dump or something.

Well. While both Expedia and Emirates (who charged me) show all the flights fine and confirmed, I went to check Ethiopian to see if there are any seat options and... it's a bit wonky :v:

Not gonna call them, that's for sure. The only thing I have at stake now is a hostel reservation for the first 2 nights and massive blue balls so I'm just going to bet it'll work fine with my Emirates tickets.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2016 10:56

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Does anyone have experience with Siam Air? They seem to be the only low cost operating where I actually need (HKG->BKK) but they don't have online booking and don't seem to speak much English on the phone either.

# ¿ May 18, 2016 08:06

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Whip Slagcheek posted:

Who the gently caress thinks flying all the way to Warsaw for a layover is sane? You'd need to be saving me an incredible amount of money to take that big of a detour.

$50p is not an insignificant amount of money - easily enough for a return transatlantic flight on a good day. So if flying from Europe, it's not a big deal. Not all airports get direct flights to the US anyway.

Mackieman posted:

Does skyscanner come up with anything (other than TG)?

Nope, it's Siam, Thai Oriental, then HK express which looks like a normal airline but is already too expensive in the needed timeframe. Not really TOO expensive but starts to defeat the purpose vs just going there from home later for just a bit more.

# ¿ May 20, 2016 08:01

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Whip Slagcheek posted:

I'm guessing you finger scrubbed the extra 0. $500 probably gets me divert to Poland for a flight.

The flight described was from Chicago so that meant flying past LHR into Eastern Europe, with an assumed layover that's a solid 6-7 hours of time lost at your destination.

Edit: no it didn't, just said flight between Chicago and London. Eh.
-

Oh god I just looked up Siam Air. I remember seeing that livery at Don Mueang. Hands down winner for ugliest plane I've ever seen.

Yes, the new keyboard on my phone has slightly different key spacings which causes a ton of typos. 500$ is nowhere near what I make in a day, in fact I'm happy if I can save that much over a month. Things could be different at over 100k/year or so. And even then you can think of it as earning 500 while reading a book for a couple of hours.

Sim Air is pretty ugly, yeah. Eventually they replied to my email (4 days later) that their tickets can be booked on ctrips.com and some other Chinese sites I've never heard of. In any case, when available its not much cheaper than AirAsia and its too late for me to go there anyway.

# ¿ May 23, 2016 13:56

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Saladman posted:

Is hidden city ticketing particularly common anymore? I thought now that airlines are moving relatively away from "hub to spoke" type travel (and websites like this) that they were moving away from it. I found myself a good hidden city ticket about 11 years ago (turned a $1500 ticket over Christmas into a $1000 ticket) but never had similar luck again since.

I just checked now for a few routes and skiplagged showed a ton of possible itineraries that Google Flights did not, but they were godawful ��like turning a 16 hour transatlantic flight into a 45 hour transatlantic flight -- to save �100 out of a �1000 ticket, and that savings would be more than spent on airport food and/or an airport hotel. Maybe it depends more on where you start; I checked Zurich, Geneva, and Basel to a few random target destinations in the US and Asia and the best savings I could get was about 10% but only by making the itinerary miserable.

You'll probably be better off just looking out for ticket sales, pre-pandemic it was pretty common to find tickets pretty much anywhere from Europe for $5-600. Like an airline would just do one month where FRA-SEA cost $500 which is how I got there, or a similarly priced Air China flight to Vietnam that got cancelled because of the Rona.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2021 21:31

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Are there no reasonable flights between Canc�n and Havana? I was looking to buy cheap tickets to CUN around February or so but it seems there's almost nothing and what is available is ridiculously expensive considering it's like an hour away.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2021 12:10

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Thanks. I'm not American but Kayak didn't want to show me anything at all. In any case it's not really relevant for now as the Cancun trip didn't pan out.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2021 17:39

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

I think it's not a discount, they don't include insurance on the assumption that you're covered by yours or credit card etc. At least that was my pre-covid experience in the US

# ¿ Dec 13, 2021 20:13

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Looks like error fare's are back, baby. Awoouu. Just got PRG-JFK-BER for like $200 in May. Haven't been to the states in a few years so hopefully it won't get canceled. Funnily, this fare also only works if you start in PRG. BER<->JFK is more than twice as much.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2022 13:29

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

I just no-showed for my flight to Kyiv with Wizzair on the 20ths and my return flight was still avaible and eventually got refunded. So YMMV but I wouldn't count on it especially with tickets that aren't $20.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2022 19:20

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Beef Of Ages posted:

I wonder if they book round trips as two one ways under the hood with separate ticket numbers? Interesting edge use case in any event.

Yeah it's probably Wizz/low-cost airline specific, they do seem to treat all flights separately.

Speaking of which, I just booked Krakow->Abu Dhabi->Mattala and back with them for like $100. On separate itineraries so there's a non-zero chance they'll change or cancel a flight and I'll get stuck somewhere but YOLO, right?

Another tip for cheap bastards is combining budget and normal airlines on separate tickets. E.g. Aer Lingus has regular cheap-ish transatlantic flights, and then Ryanair will get you anywhere in europe for basically free. I had PRG->DUB->JFK->DUB->BER (only way it worked for $200) and I just realized I can replace the last leg for like :20bux:

and save myself a bus trip from Berlin (and :20bux:

for the bus ticket lol)

mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 10:35 on Apr 22, 2022

# ¿ Apr 22, 2022 10:26

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

peanut posted:

I just saved $1000 by booking Amtrak from DC to Chicago instead of flying (only $200-250 total for me and 2 kids.) We leave DC at 4pm and arrive Chicago at 8:45am.

Is there soem trick to that? Discounts or booking a particular way? I have a trip to NY in May and would like to get around the area without renting car since those are expensive as gently caress suddenly. No specific plan but maybe down to DC and/or to Boston or even Montreal. I kind of dismissed Chicago but could be an option if there's a reasonably fast/cheap way to get there too.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2022 12:26

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

goodness posted:

New airlines called Norse Atlantic offering 1-way from 5 US cities to Oslo for under $200.

This seems like the cheapest way to get to Europe. I can't find anything else under $1000 to get to Europe until after August at least. Do they get cheaper?

To "Europe"? Yeah sometimes. I just came back from PRG-DUB-JFK, JFK-DUB-BER that cost, for the return trip, $215. It's pretty rare and you might have to take the few time/destination combinations that do pop up.

# ¿ May 19, 2022 17:58

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

mactheknife posted:

Thanks - I had kind of figured that was as good as we were going to get, but even though travel planning is kind of a hobby of mine I figured someone here might know something I didn't.

Worth asking because sometimes there's an error fare or just an absurdly good deal available, I just flew PRG-DUB-JFK and back for $250. But usually about $500 is the best you can hope for even on a popular route, so $700 direct from New Orleans sounds pretty reasonable.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2022 19:55

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Has anyone dealt with flights being affected by strikes (or knows how that works)? I was notified by the airline that the return leg of my upcoming trip trip could be affected and that I should try to re-book the flights. This is a TAP Portugal flight via Lisbon.

There are only two flights a week though, so it would affect the trip quite a bit. What would happen if I don't do anything? Would I still get compensation if the flights do get canceled even though they notified me in advance? I really want to get 600EUR from them

# ¿ Nov 23, 2022 11:30

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Ah, so that sounds like I probably won't get poo poo :v:

Wizzair did send send me some money for some reason though, I think maybe for a flight I wasn't going to take anyway?

E: Just got notification that my return flights will be canceled lol. Let's see what happens, I really wanted to be paid to be "stuck" on the beach but they'll probably just give some options a few days later/earlier.

mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Nov 23, 2022

# ¿ Nov 23, 2022 18:26

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Duckman2008 posted:

Hey man, any advice is appreciated. This isn�t until August , so while I�ll obviously want to book in advance , I have time to figure it out.

How much do you have to go there, at that specific time? I see flights for much less than that from Europe pretty frequently (like 3 options for under $600 during this year) so you can try to wait if something shows up. Of course it's a complete gamble though.

E: case in point, Lufthansa from Budapest for $700:

290k HUF ~= $700

mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 11:07 on Dec 8, 2022

# ¿ Dec 8, 2022 09:35

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Duckman2008 posted:

We don�t know like, what exact dates yet. Our friend�s event is Aug 1st, so we need to be there before then. We do not have solid plans yet at all outside of that, so pretty flexible at the moment.

The plan I think is I�m def not booking airfare until at least January or February. See what happens with pricings, look for a deal, etc.

I think I saw someone posting on this page, I assume I should be booking direct via the majors: American, United, Alaska , etc ? That�s what I do anyway, just confirming.

Like, my gut says leave July 27 or 28 (thurs or Friday), and then return whenever after Aug 1st.

If you can wait until February before booking it, then I think you could just keep an eye out if something goes on sale until then.

Beef Of Ages might be able to help you more, I don't know the US domestic market specifics too well.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2022 16:13

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

dpkg chopra posted:

My best friend is getting married in Turkey, the first week of September.

I live in NYC.

Google Flights tells me that the cheapest flight is around $1200 from Turkish Airlines (once in the website it ends up being around $1300), for the most basic Economy, non refundable ticket.

Is booking this far ahead te best idea or should I wait a bit? Any suggestions on alternate routes or connections that might yield a cheaper flight?

That's way to far out IMO, considering

so yeah I'd wait and keep an eye on it

# ¿ Jan 26, 2023 16:39

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

dpkg chopra posted:

Well, February is winter and low season, so I expect that ticket prices would be lower, no?

Yeah good point, that's probably part of it, but also Turkish Airlines was a a direct flight which tend to be more expensive. Since this is a firm date I'm not sure if it would be worth gambling on something cheaper showing up :ohdear:

# ¿ Jan 26, 2023 22:54

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Xander77 posted:

Under the very very broad conditions of "I need to take a week or so off work over the next two months, so I should probably fly wherever", how do I find the cheapest possible flight to wherever?

Country of origin is Israel, and I've been told there are no more cheap flights from airports other than Ben Gurion (TLV).

Kayak has a pretty handy map which I sometimes use exactly for this time of situation. I think google had a similar tool somewhere?
https://www.kayak.com/explore/TLV-anywhere/20230501,20230630

I've flown to Tel Aviv and Eilat before with Ryanair so that's an option too, the Fare Finder works pretty well for this
https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/cheap-flights/?from=TLV&out-from-date=2023-04-23&out-to-date=2024-04-23&budget=150

Wizzair has a similar thing going here:
https://wizzair.com/en-gb/cheap-flights

# ¿ Apr 23, 2023 22:20

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

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.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2023 21:34

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

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?

# ¿ Sep 18, 2023 21:25

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

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.

It's weid, if they do fly to Korea it's not much or I just can't find poo poo. Jeju Air though seems to fly Seoul-Hiroshima however for like $50 so that'd do.

peanut posted:

Check Fukuoka airport.

There's also ferries between Fukuoka and Busan (Camelia and JR Beetle).

Seems to be mostly domestic flights there but I'll check it out closer, thanks. Ferries seem to be kind of slow and expensive all things considered but might be a good option if I end up in Fukuoka/Busan at the end of the trip.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2023 18:49

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

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:
- One carry-on bag no more than 45 linear inches or 114 linear centimeters (L+W+H) or 14 inches x 9 inches x 22 inches (22 x 35 x 56cm)
- One personal item (such as a shoulder or laptop bag)

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.

So the first leg is across the Atlantic, and the second flight is Central America, so would different rules apply or are they both part of the "across Atlantic" trip? I could try to call them in the morning but I'm not optimistic.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2023 01:11

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

WithoutTheFezOn posted:

Your screenshot says your ticket is United Economy, but the text you quoted says Basic Economy.

Chances are those are different. But yes you should call and confirm it.

I was going by the orange "Basic Economy" labels but it's actually "United Economy (K)"? I mean I can see it's there under Fare Class now (and it's in the email itinerary) but it's pretty confusing

Beef Of Ages posted:

K is a discounted economy fare on United, not Basic Economy (which is N) so you can bring a normal carry on for all segments. No need to call.

Ok that's encouraging, thanks.

Konstantin posted:

That layover sucks though, you'll have to pay for a hotel but won't have enough time to do anything in Chicago. Any reason why you didn't just go for the direct from Frankfurt with Lufthansa?

When I was booking it months ago, this way was like half the price of other :v:

Dunno if it's different now but too late to change anything anyway.

I was kind of looking forward to the layover as I've never been to Chicago before but yeah not ideal especially in the winter when it's going to be cold and dark early. Also if the immigration takes forever. Oh well.

E: They make it clear on the check-in page but basically everywhere else it says BASIC ECONOMY so better safe than sorry. Thanks all.

mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Nov 30, 2023

# ¿ Nov 30, 2023 10:31

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

I have a EU passport now so I'm just glad I can do ESTA instead of the usua visa interrogations. I'd certainly get once it's available, going through the automated EU passport control is a breeze. Like I'm in/out of the airport in 15 minutes.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2023 23:05

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Whelp there was an hour delay due to lovely weather and now apparently they discovered that the spoiler on the left wing isn't responding correctly so we're taxiing back for maintenance to check it out. At this rate I'm not going to see poo poo in Chicago lol.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2023 12:46

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Beef Of Ages posted:

Welcome to travel!

Not my first rodeo but I've never had more than 40-60 minute delay, somehow. We're almost 6 hours past the departure time and still parked in the maintenance area. Although the fix is supposedly done now so any minute...

Well they'll still have to clear a shitload of snow that accumulated in the meantime and wait for a takeoff slot. I think I changed my mind, just take me home :cry:

E: lmao the crew exceeded the maximal allowed work hours as we were taxiing to the runway after deicing. So I might get my wish after all.

mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 17:25 on Dec 1, 2023

# ¿ Dec 1, 2023 15:56

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

WaryWarren posted:

On my recent trip, I arrived and left through MUC. The passport check and security queues were non-existent, as opposed to leaving Vienna early this year which was an unorganized shitshow. There was a rail strike, so I had to spend an extra day in Bamberg. Oh, another day of rauchbier. The train from Salzburg to Munich was delayed due to police checking passports once the train entered Germany. There was an electrical issue when another train was between Bamberg and Munich, so we sat at Ingolstadt for 30 minutes before continuing. As far as DB has fallen, still not as bad as Trenitalia!

What's wront with Trenitalia :mad:

they've been nothing but relaible for me so far.

Other than the whole snow thing, MUC is pretty nice. The biometric passport check makes it very quick and security doesn't require that you take anything out of the bag so it goes pretty smoothly.

goodness posted:

Classic, I've been hosed by that 2x. You'd think they could give a heads up a lot earlier but it seems they always wait until the last second to tell you.

We had some German ground crew guy talk to us early on and he briefly mentioned this as one of the concerns but the captain never brought it up during his updates. Really should've mentioned this as a possible risk when giving the "good news, we'll be flying soon!" speech to manage expectations.

Saladman posted:

The German strategy of making planes and driving even worse than DB, rather than making DB great again, seems to be paying off.

Did you ever end up in Costa Rica, or are you still on the tarmac in Munich, waiting for Godot?

Yeah DB wasn't working either, so about equal now. The alternative is you walk 40 minutes to the u-bahn:

So I'm back home now :v:

here's what happened:

They automatically rebooked me on a different flight on Saturday, which would've arrived after my connection to CJO departed. Also all flights on Saturday were canceled anyway.
Chatted with an agent and she rebooked it to a flight today (Sunday).
Saturday I saw the airport was expecting to resume flights on Sunday bit late and thought for sure it'll be a mess. Seems like I was right - the flight is departing about 2h later, which means I would've probably missed my connection
I talked to another agent and posponed the whole trip by 1 week, the new flights also avoid lovely overnight layovers.

Very annoying but better than spending another night in Munich and then probably another one wherever I would've certainly missed my connection. All the :homebrew:

should make up for it at least. Also I got a toothache on the way back so I'm going to get that checked out now which is better than if it happened there.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2023 11:54

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

United got back to me regarding EU261 after about a week which is pretty good all things considered.

They're offering $1000 in a United certificate, 50,000 miles United MileagePlus miles or 600EUR in cold hard cash.

Now 600EUR is only about $650 so $1000 is great and could get me a flight to LAX or even economy to Hawaii, it seems at least on some dates. But otherwise United isn't something I could use much from Europe.

I've never flown enough with a single airline to collect enough miles to be worthwhile so doing some research it seems... crap?

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/complete-guide-redeeming-united-mileageplus-miles

If that chart is roughly accurate (United isn't showing the mile options for me) it seems like I'd use it up on the shortest transatlantic flight and have to pay cash on top of that. Supposedly it's better ROI on business but I'm not paying $6k for a flight.

Saladman posted:

Wow, that is... a lot of snow.

Also in my pretty extensive experience of trains in Italy, Trenitalia is fantastic and almost always on time for major intercity lines (except during strike periods). Trenitalia is absolute dumpster fire bad for anything that is not on the two lines in the country that get more than 1 day/decade in maintenance (i.e. Palermo -> Milan or Torino -> Venice are good, everything else is horrific).

E: Actually I don't know how trains are on the Adratic coast, except around Lecce where they are awful. Even trains in the north -- which is where I have the most experience -- that are not on the main line from Torino to Venice are awful. Trains in Sicily except between Palermo and Catania are also terrible. Palermo to Trapani is like a 5 hour train ride, or a 1 hour drive.

WaryWarren posted:

Sorry, my Trenitalia experience is from living there and having Regionale or Regionale Veloce trains cancelled or being 20-30 minutes late. Usually, this happened on the weekend, so only my personal life was affected not my work life.

Ooops fair enough

I'm only a tourist and never had a train be noticeably late in Sicily, Veneto, Puglia, Lombardia or Piemonte, but that was probably on the major routes so my sample pretty limited.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 15:30

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

United posted:

Since our last communication, our auditors had re-examined the circumstances surrounding United Airlines Flight #952 on December 1, 2023 and have determined the flight does not meet the applicable criteria for the EU261 regulation as the original cause of the flight disruption was inclement weather conditions which were beyond United's control. However, as a one time exception we will honor the options that were offered and will fulfill your selection of EUR600.

Lol, lmao.

I mean at least they're going to give me my money so whatever, but there's no way the cause was weather - we sat for like 5 hours trying while they tried to fix the spoiler or whatever and then the crew exceeded the flight duty hours while we were taxiing. Unless they want to claim that everything was caused entirely by the 20 minuts it took to do the deicing 🤡

# ¿ Dec 29, 2023 17:03

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 02:54

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

I don't know the real answer but while we were stuck there after a few hours they said that you can request to be let off the plane. But it'd be sooo complicated, involve removing your luggage, etc, so you should realllly think hard about it, because of the implication.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2023 20:19

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > How To: Finding Cheap Airfare

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