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Chaitai posted:Are there any flights back to ATL (or anywhere near our final destination of Alabama) from MPM (Maputo, Mozambique) around Christmas time that are less than around 2-2.5k? My wife and I are trying to go home for the holidays but it is going to break us if we have to pay 5k to get home for about 10 days or so. We are pretty flexible on our times, and don't necessarily have to be there on Christmas day or anything if that saves some money. We'd prefer to stay on StarAlliance air lines since she is a gold member there and gets all those sweet perks. Sorry for the late reply, I've been traveling a lot. Can you get to Jo'burg without too much trouble? There are many options around Alabama (ATL, BNA, TYS, etc) that you can use for about $1750 per person or so. Range of dates before and after Christmas available as well. Flying out of MPM is what jacks up prices.
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Oct 25, 2013 20:26
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Chaitai posted:Yeah, that looks pretty do-able for us. Doing your suggestion, there is a $1670 flight from Jo'burg to Atlanta that is a direct flight, which is certainly very attractive. It is about a 6 hour drive to Jo'burg, but to save 2k total on the trip, that seems very worth it. Winner, glad you found something that works.
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Oct 28, 2013 16:44
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Enigma89 posted:Is there any way to find cheap international flights anymore? I am really considering flying stand by. Um, well, if you wanted to go this week, you waited entirely too long to purchase tickets if you were hoping for cheap fares. Generally speaking, fares go up the closer to departure you get. If you want to wait until mid-November you can do LAX-MAD for $941, but if you want to leave in the next couple of days, be prepared to fork over the cash.
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Oct 29, 2013 18:07
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MeaningOfLife posted:My friends are going to NYC in December and at first, I didn't want to go, but I want to. $261 on WN, HOU-LGA. Plane change in STL on the way out, non-stop on the way back. If you're closer to IAH, you can do UA IAH-LGA for $265. That's surprisingly cheap for that market.
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Oct 29, 2013 19:53
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Any advice/pointers for getting a cheap round-trip ticket from Cincinnati to Seattle and back for a visit sometime in March or April? I'm in China at the moment and about to head to breakfast so I will check on this for you later today (tonight in the US).
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Nov 7, 2013 00:15
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Any advice/pointers for getting a cheap round-trip ticket from Cincinnati to Seattle and back for a visit sometime in March or April? As far as advice, I'd say the first thing is to start watching fares. You know where you want to go, and have a window of when, so start checking once a day and see where fares are. They may not change for a long time, but then again, they might change wildly from one day to the next. Secondly, check nearby cities. DAY, CMH, IND, LEX, and SDF can be alternates if the savings is worth the time for you to get there from CVG.
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Nov 8, 2013 09:42
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Evelyn Nesbit posted:Alright, my friend is getting married in January, and apparently if I do not go there will be hell to pay, so I need to figure out a way to get from El Paso Tx to Minnesota (specifically Mankato, but MSP is apparently the closest airport) for less than $400 (which, so far, is the best I can find). I'd like to fly in on Jan 3 and leave on the 5th (ideally not before noon, at LEAST). Help! Sorry boss, poo poo's expensive. I'd continue to watch, and also check prices out of ABQ. I looked at ABQ, ROW, HOB, and MAF and had no dice.
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Nov 8, 2013 09:47
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semicolonsrock posted:So, I'd like to find a flight from either JAI (Jaipur India) or BKK (Bangkok) to either Chicago (ORD, etc) or Boston (BOS). The date of the flight would be sometime around January 10th, flexible to within a few days. Bonus points if it is on United or one of the airlines (notably US airways etc) which shares their frequent flier program. I know it's one way, but unfortunately Visa issues don't give me any other choice. Help please! You can do it for roughly $812USD on Finnair, but you'll get no miles that way. If you want to fly UA or US, you're closer to $1300.
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Nov 8, 2013 09:52
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ShaggiusPrime posted:I'm currently looking at flights currently from Quito to Bogota, either flying out 11/20 or the 21st and returning 12/16. The last possible day I could leave is the 22nd as my tourist visa expires on the 24th and I have to return to Quito for my flight back on the 17th of December. Flights for some reason often have ridiculous layovers and a 1 hour 40 minute flight can stretch to a 20 hour ordeal due to a 18 hour layover. I'm looking to try and find something for under $300 preferably direct or with a 3 - 5 hour layover. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. UIO-BOG on the 20th is running about $300 with a plane change in MDE. Total trip time is about four hours, not really a big deal. This is on a mix of LAN Peru and LAN Columbia.
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Nov 11, 2013 18:22
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ThetaOmnikron posted:Looking to go from Chicago O'Hare to Bangkok, Dec 19 - Jan 7, dates flexible by ~2 days on either side. Looks like it's just going to be about $2400, but figured I'd ask for tips here before booking. $2049 on a mix of UA and NH, stop in NRT. Best option I see at the moment.
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Nov 12, 2013 05:00
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ThetaOmnikron posted:That's about $400 cheaper than anything I could find. Which dates got you that price? Leave 12/17, return 1/9. 
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Nov 12, 2013 16:34
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DontAskKant posted:Is the 'buy tickets when they are cheaper on Tuesday' rule actually a thing? Like, make the purchase on a Tuesday not fly. It is a thing, but not a hard rule to be sure. Statistically speaking, discounted fares are loaded on Tuesdays and higher fares are loaded over and during weekends. But that pertains to the fares themselves, and not necessarily the days on which travel would occur.
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Nov 13, 2013 18:40
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ThetaOmnikron posted:Was playing around with fares on Hipmunk and followed the booking link to the airline's (Qatar) website– but once there, the Hipmunk-quoted price is gone. Any ideas? Hipmunk utilizes fare data as posted to one of the GDS (Global Distribution System) platforms out there. Airlines update the GDS of their choice (sometimes more than one) a couple of times per day. Thus it is entirely plausible that a fare with a limited number of seats sells out before the next GDS update, resulting in a tool that utilizes GDS data showing a fare that the ticketing carrier won't actually sell. Verification of fare availability is what is happening when you click on a link to go to a booking engine and they show you a splash page that says, "Hold on just a sec..." or whatever.
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Nov 14, 2013 01:39
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ThetaOmnikron posted:Got it! If you don't mind, one more question: the Chicago-Bangkok trip is something I'd still like to book, but now have a hard return date, so Dec 18(ish) to Jan 5. Prices have spiked pretty seriously since just earlier in the week– what's the best way to go from here? Book now or wait for a few days/longer? I checked all the major gateways and there are no savings to be had. If that's a price you're willing to pay, I wouldn't wait more than another week or so. Price can do anything, but I don't know why stuff would start getting cheaper suddenly, especially with the overall industry shift to raise fares.
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Nov 14, 2013 21:09
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FISHMANPET posted:So I'm looking at booking a ticket for late June/early July that goes BWI>DEN>MSP>BWI. I'm not sure on dates yet, but would there be any trick to booking a multi-city trip? Not really; plug in cities into the search engine of your choice and see what comes out. Using Matrix or Hipmunk is a good idea as you can put together itineraries on multiple carriers that way as you're dealing with the hubs of three different airlines: BWI (WN), DEN (UA, WN), and MSP (DL). While you may or may not want to fly on WN, many carriers still price match them fairly competitively.
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Nov 16, 2013 01:31
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FISHMANPET posted:It's for a very price conscious friend of mine, and she's got no problem with Southwest (it's what she used bwi>msp last time she visited) so I'll give that a try. I'll poke at some more travel sites and see what comes out. Yeah, I'd wait a bit and see what happens when WN publishes their schedule for that time period.
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Nov 16, 2013 13:06
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Whip Slagcheek posted:Trying to plan a vacation from DC (or NY) to Ireland (either DUB or SNN, doesn't matter) leaving 05/08 and coming back 05/15. I have some flexibility on the dates but I have to leave after the 7th. The best I've found was DCA to DUB at $768pp. Do you see anything better out there? $724 out of JFK, coming back to IAD to hit the late departure to DUB. That's a decent price for DUB, as I rarely see it go below $700 these days. $744 for the non-stop out of EWR.
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Nov 16, 2013 13:09
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Whip Slagcheek posted:Where are you seeing this? You're a drat travel ninja. ITA's Matrix search. No big deal.
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Nov 18, 2013 01:56
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Emasculatrix posted:Is there a good site that can tell you deals based on your origin? I have 2 weeks off next month, am flexible on the dates and location. I just want to go somewhere exciting! Google and Kayak both have map options that will show you results of other's searches for those particular markets. So if you find one you like, don't be surprised to see a different fare when you search because there is no telling how old the data they're using is. It's not a bad tool, but you have to know what you're really getting when you use them. Cached results can get stale, especially for non-peak markets.
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Nov 18, 2013 01:57
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MasterControl posted:Has Skyscanner been mentioned? Ived used the ita thing and found I personally like ss better. Just plug in departure cities and zero in on the dates. The lack of open jaw searches does suck though. Skyscanner isn't a bad tool, but I do lots of open-jaw and multi-city searches so it's not so useful for that. Skyscanner's true value lies in the number of Asian LCCs that it will return fares for.
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Nov 18, 2013 03:48
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xjohnson posted:Looking for round trip tickets HEL to BOS Dec 27 to Jan 10 How flexible are you? I can get you down to 834EUR but it requires getting yourself over to ARN (Stockholm) and a tag-on flight from EWR to BOS. If you can't get to ARN easily/cheaply, then it doesn't make much sense. The 9:40PM arrival you're looking at is on BA; I imagine the reason they're showing this is because your departure from HEL is too late in the day to connect to the normal US departure bank. Normally you have to leave pretty early from a secondary European city to hit the US departure bank from one of the big gateways.
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Nov 18, 2013 17:18
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HookShot posted:Arriving late in the day on an international flight is the best thing, you get to go right to sleep and have basically no jet lag. See, that was my plan when I went to PVG a couple of weeks ago. I stayed awake for the last eight hours of the flight, had dinner, and crashed out with a full eight hours of sleep. The next afternoon was miserable as I couldn't hardly keep my eyes open.
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Nov 19, 2013 17:00
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HookShot posted:Oh, really? I have no problem with that usually, if I've fallen asleep at night and gotten 8 hours I have no problem the next day, but I find landing at like 10am in Europe (or good God 6am in Australia) and then having to stay awake the entire day after being awake the whole flight is just the worst hell on the planet, and I always have to write off the entire first day of a trip because of that. Yeah, I was hoping it was going to be better because I was headed west (TPAC) instead of east (TATL) but it didn't seem to matter. I made it through but goddamn it sucked. I had less issues last time I went to Europe for a short trip.
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Nov 19, 2013 19:16
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Geriatric Pirate posted:Mackieman, do you have any experience with fuel dumping or something similar? I've tried to read the thread on Flyertalk but they're too cryptic for me. I'm looking for HEL-SIN-HEL 30/12 - 5/1 with flexibility on the return. Cheapest I can get is about 1100e total with two separate bookings, HEL-CPH-HEL and CPH-SIN-CPH (not direct flights). I've used FDs in the past, but not for quite some time as I do most of my travel on UA and I know some of the guys that work there and know that they watch for this sort of thing. A temporary savings now is not worth getting my account closed or an add/collect notice issued (though the latter seems more unlikely than the former). Something like that old adage about not making GBS threads where you sleep. That said, I haven't done one in ages because they're simply not that easy to do anymore. The guys posting in those threads at FT and MP are pretty hardcore about it, thus the cryptic language. There is a subset of the population that is in the game to get as much as they possibly can for as little expenditure as possible and they're willing to do almost anything to achieve that goal. I'm decidedly not a part of that mindset and while I hate YQ as much as the next guy, doing a bunch of ethically questionable stuff to get around it, especially given the potential downsides, I choose not to engage in the activity. Thus, I don't know any of the current 1X or 3X dumps nor do I have the desire to decipher them. On the topic, there is a lawsuit in New York District Court where a group of travelers are suing BA over their YQ charges on award tickets, noting that they aren't, in fact, tied to the price of fuel as BA's CoC says they are. The outcome of that will be interesting to watch as it may cause airlines to remove YQ as we know it and either build it into the base fare or simply call it some other kind of service fee that doesn't have anything to do with fuel. More info on that topic can be found here. Edit: Just realized you were asking for fare help too, heh. 30/12 - 5/1 HEL-CDG-SIN//SIN-AMS-HEL, AF on the outbound, KL on the return. 780EUR. Edit Again: Holy poo poo I'm a moron. Something about transposing the date/month format from the month/date format used here in 'Merica. The price above was for November 30.  Looking at your actual dates, I see 898EUR on QR, but it's in and out of ARN. So if you can get to ARN for less than 200 Euros, then that may be an option.
Beef Of Ages fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Nov 19, 2013 |
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Nov 19, 2013 19:23
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Geriatric Pirate posted:Yeah, I know fuel dumping is risky and requires a bit too much flexibility for my liking (and it was funny to read about those travellers who got stranded in RGN after taking advantage of super cheap ex-RGN flights). Yeah, looks like QR is publishing poo poo data, not sure. If you know of a good travel agent you might call them and feed them the info from ITA and see if they can ticket it, but I bet they can't. QR's site doesn't even show service on January 5. Edit: OneTravel seems to want to book it. May give it a shot. Beef Of Ages fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Nov 19, 2013 |
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Nov 19, 2013 19:50
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manwithoutskin posted:I'm going on a two month trip to Europe in May and it's getting down to ticket buying time. I've been looking for the past two weeks at ticket prices and it has remained pretty unchanged. I don't see anything dramatically better than that, and I haven't for a while. It's certainly cheaper than what you'd likely pay if you tried to get those tickets in, say, March. When searching, consider both NYC and WAS as departure points (six airports between them) as you can often save money this way. If you want to go to PRG, also look at TXL, MUC, SZG, and VIE as entry points since PRG is easily accessible by train from one of those cities. On the way out, also consider HEL, ARN, RIX, and VNO as potential alternates if the savings warrants.
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Nov 22, 2013 03:01
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Jeoh posted:Don't forget MUC, LH has really been pushing it as a (Euasian) hub lately. Indeed, and UA is starting IAH-MUC next year which I am really happy about. I'd much rather connect in MUC than FRA any day unless the FCT is involved.
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Nov 23, 2013 04:11
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Tilda posted:Would love some help with an international flight folks; So the real question here is: how much bullshit are you willing to put up with? Because you can save some money, but it's quite a trip. I looked at fares as a straight round trip to HIR and back, and also as an open-jaw to HIR and back from one of the Australian gateways. Surprisingly enough, it's just about the same price to do the Australian side trip, though you'd also need a separate ticket to get from HIR to Australia. Now for the bad news: HIR is not easy to get to. The cheapest options (£1347 for the return, £1377 for the stop in Australia) require three stops to get down there and three on the way back, and you have to leave from MAN. MAN-AUH-MEL-BNE-HIR on the way out; the first two segments are operated by Etihad and the last two by Virgin Australia. The return is pretty much identical on the round trip. If you do the Australia stop, it leaves from MEL and you can go back to MAN or directly to LHR for the same price, with a plane change in AUH for good measure. If you want to make it all part of one ticket, the price rockets to about £2400, and I think you can easily find a ticket for far less than £800 to get you from HIR to somewhere in Australia. Additionally, if you want to do less plane changes/stops, you're also looking at somewhere around £2000. I didn't do a whole ton of different time frames because the few that I checked all showed very similar fares. So you may want to do some additional intensive searches and see if some magic savings can be had on a particular day. I was looking at a five day stretch on both the departure and return, but like I said, it wasn't exhaustive.
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Nov 23, 2013 18:27
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Arglebargle III posted:I'm heading home to northern Wisconsin from Chengdu for the Chinese New Year. I'm leaving around January 16th and will return Feb 8th. Is there a way I can search for connections that will take me straight to Rhinelander (RHI)? Or Wausau? Whenever I do searches on big sites it turns up nothing although I know a flight from Chicago to Rhinelander or Wausau would cost very little in the middle of February and I would like to not put my family through a 10 hour round-trip drive to pick me up. sellouts posted:Ita matrix shows flights to rhi or wau easily. 2 or 3 stops. Looks like around 10700 yuan on delta. a little more for 2 stops. With some adjustment of dates you can get it to 9000 yuan. 7000 if you travel in February exclusively. Sorry for the late reply; I've been traveling (and getting stuck at IAH  ). Any decent search engine is going to show you connections (as many as are required) to get to RHI or WAU. But I would not expect it to be cheap as Chinese New Year is extremely travel heavy. Airlines know it and charge accordingly.Something to consider is checking prices into ORD or MSP and seeing how much it costs to have a separate (and unprotected) ticket from that hub to your destination. I would be willing to bet that it's not anywhere near as cheap as you think its going to be. In almost all cases, small cities with limited service have an inversely proportional relationship to price.
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Dec 12, 2013 15:40
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DontAskKant posted:Is it true that flights are cheaper if booked on Tuesdays, like bought that day? Sounds like it isn't a thing. It actually is a thing. But it's not universal or to be counted upon. Statistically speaking, fares have the highest probability of being at their lowest on a Tuesday. Fares are updated in the various GDS after the weekend'd analysis is done on Monday. But it doesn't always happen as fare pricing is highly dependant upon market, season, and a bunch of other factors that I discuss in the first couple of posts in this thread. The key, as always, is being vigilant: watch fares and when they reach a point you're willing to pay for, buy it.
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Dec 12, 2013 15:47
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DontAskKant posted:I'm having trouble finding a flight to Goa, India from Seoul, Korea (ICN) my dates are December 24 or late (Dec 23) and i have to be back January 2 or super early January 3. Saw flights to Calcutta somewhere for about 600 and there are supposed to be cheap flights domestically in India, but I'm not seeing it. Goal is $900 or under and to maximize vacation time. Any advice? Skyscanner isn't helpful and i can check itamatrix at my computer tomorrow. Xandu posted:I looked at ita, and China Eastern Airlines has cheap flights to Calcutta, even less than 600, if you are okay with a couple of layovers. And there's a few domestic Indian airlines (Jet Lite and Jet Airways) that can get you to Goa for 4-500. Yep, China Eastern is the way to go there. Couple of stops, but not many other options. DontAskKant posted:Whoa, why is it so expensive to fly domestically? Because you waited until like two weeks before you wanted to travel. This is what happens. 
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Dec 12, 2013 15:51
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FISHMANPET posted:And a question of my own: A hub or focus city isn't required in the true sense of the word, but there aren't a ton of onward flights from non-hub or non-focus cities that airlines tend to market very effectively. For example, you could buy SFO-AUS-IAH and throw away the AUS-IAH segment, but it's pretty rare that the airline search engine (UA in this case) will show you that routing. You have to search multi-city itineraries for that sort of thing to happen. I also wouldn't make a habit of doing this as it can piss off the airline if you do it a lot.
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Dec 12, 2013 15:54
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Shnicker posted:Hello, I'm currently in Thailand and I've been looking for a ticket home (the US) for March and April for two people. I was looking at flying out of Bangkok on March 3 or 4 to New York City, and then flying out of San Francisco on April 25 or 26 back to Bangkok. The problem here is that you're using a debit card. Though many merchants allow the use of debit cards as credit transactions, it is not a credit card and when a merchant requires a true credit card, it won't pass muster. That's why the validation is failing on Air China's site. Their site isn't broken; you've not specified valid payment. If you don't have a true credit card and can't get one, you can place the ticket on hold and go to one of their ticketing offices (they likely have one at BKK) and pay for it in cash there. In sum, answer to question one: nope, it works ok. Answer to question two: yep, it can and does. Answer to question three: Nope, they all are pretty much the same. If there is a price difference, go with the cheaper one.
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Dec 12, 2013 16:03
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BabyRyoga posted:I'm trying to get from Los Angeles (LAX most likely) to DC (probably needs to be DCI) on the 2nd of Jan until the 5th of Jan, and prices seem pretty hosed up right now. Is it best to try and get it asap for $450-500 or wait a little longer and see if it goes down? Goal is $300-400 round trip. SAN-BOS-BWI on the way out, IAD-LGB on the way back. $344.20 on JetBlue (B6). If you can get down to SAN cheap enough and don't mind the 20 minute Amtrak ride to get into DC from BWI and the cab or bus to get out to IAD, it's not a bad way to go. You get in early on the 2nd and leave early on the 6th. If you want to leave out of somewhere around LA, it's $415 to depart LGB.
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Dec 13, 2013 18:03
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BabyRyoga posted:Hmm, SAN might be a problem, but LGB is an acceptable option. I would probably have to work my week around being in San Diego for New Years and hanging out with area friends in order for that to work. I don't know anything about the transit systems in DC, but anything that is doable by bus sounds cheap and would work. I would want to avoid Taxis, and Amtrak sounds like it would bump costs up quite a bit. Amtrak isn't terribly expensive if you buy tickets way in advance, usually. Last time I went to DC I flew into BWI and took the train down; I think it was $9 each one-way for my wife and I. And the shuttle from the airport to the train station is really not a big deal in my opinion. But it's all about your personal valuation of the options; only you can determine what makes the most sense for you. And I would book as soon as you found a fare you were willing to pay for. As I noted in the first post, the idea of last minute cheap plane tickets is pretty much a myth.
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Dec 14, 2013 18:29
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Joose Caboose posted:Is there a general rule of thumb for how far in advance to buy tickets for general locations? For example if origin is in the US, are there certain timetables for how long in advance to book flights for domestic/Europe/South America/Oceania, etc. to get optimal prices? Not really, no. As noted in the first post of the thread, prices vary widely from market to market. Generally buying in advance nets lower fares, but sometimes things change, and not always in your favor. It's the nature of the system in that airlines are constantly trying to maximize their yields. The only thing you can do is try to stay away from known peak travel seasons (Chinese New Year in Asia, summer in Europe, etc). I often go to Europe during the winter or very early Spring for this purpose. I'm going to BRU and VNO in a couple of weeks, SNN on a mileage run the week after that, and then to LHR, VIE, SZG, EDI, and DUB in March. I wouldn't be doing any of those things during summer because it's hot and full of people then, and I dislike both of those things.
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Dec 14, 2013 18:32
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PicklesMcGillicuddy posted:My girlfriend in Berlin is planning on visiting me in San Francisco in mid-February (around the 18th), and then we want to fly back together in early April (probably the 1st). Is there any way for her to get a round-trip ticket, and for me to get a one-way that puts us on the same return flight without me having to buy the whole round-trip? Or should we just suck it up and buy two round-trip tickets? So she's in TXL and you're in SFO, and she's coming to visit you and then you want to leave together so you can visit TXL and stay there on some sort of permanent basis? I just want to make sure I understand what you're trying to accomplish. Assuming my understanding is correct, there is nothing prohibiting you from buying a one-way ticket on the same flight that she returns to Germany on. Do be aware that in most cases, one-way international tickets are charged at full fare, so they are significantly more expensive than the same flight as part of a round trip. Depending on the dates and the airline, you'd have to search and compare the fares and see what makes the most sense as there are cases where the round trip price does not equal the price of two one-ways. Also consider than unless you're an EU citizen, a one-way ticket into the EU without proof of egress may cause them to not let you into the country.
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Dec 14, 2013 18:37
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LaserWash posted:Mackieman or someone else who plays the "Miles game," There's a lot of people doing something similar to what you're planning on with the expectation that all your US miles will translate into AA miles at some point in 2014 (I'm betting April as that is when US reciprocity with Star Alliance and UA ends). If you can churn and bank miles, go for it. Aggressive churning is a bit too much work for me so I don't tend to be as involved with that side of things as others are. Just be very aware about what you're doing: AA has not announced very many details about what the combined program will look like. I think it's a safe bet that US miles will become AA miles on a 1:1 basis, but that's not written in stone anywhere. Also consider the power of the AA network to get you where you want to go. If you like Europe, be wary of the fuel surcharges on awards, especially in premium cabins. There's lots more info out there on this sort of thing over at MilePoint; I don't patronize AA very often so I'm not as familiar with the intricacies of that particular program, though I know people who are. And feel free to ask mileage nerd questions and have those discussions in this thread. The topic is a little to niche to survive as its own thread, I think. We can talk about those topics as much as you like in here, including the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the devaluations roll in as they did over the last couple of weeks for pretty much everyone except AS and AA, mostly because AA hasn't announced anything yet due the merger. And I suppose DL flyers got a slight improvement in their global diamond upgrade certs can now be used on fares lower than Y/B/M.
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Dec 14, 2013 18:44
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LaserWash posted:I'm totally invested in united mileage plus. So the thing with fuel and environmental surcharges that AA/BA have going on is totally foreign to me. The best I understand, it's best to skip stops and layovers in the UK and there is a lawsuit going over those charges. Most of our travel is into and out of Germany, which on American means leaving from College Station or San Antonio is a stop in Dallas, then on to Frankfurt, the best I can tell. The fuel surcharges are for BA-operated itineraries. So if you can stay on AA metal, my understanding is that you can avoid those. It's less about traversing the UK and more about BA-operated flights where those charges kick in. The downside (for me, anyway) to using AA is that they have one flight a day to FRA; so if there is no award space, you're hosed unless you can get award space to LHR on AA metal and then connect on from there. Since Germany is your goal, it may be more advantageous to look at the Chase cards (Ink and Sapphire) that allow you to transfer points to MileagePlus on a 1:1 ratio. Otherwise you'll be banking heavily on availability on AA.
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Dec 14, 2013 21:43
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Varkas posted:Is there a good resource for finding last minute cheap flights to nowhere in particular? (well, English speaking areas) Most services seem to revolve around having a particular destination in mind. I'm basically wanting to do some spontaneous weekend travel after work on a Friday night. Of course I'll do a quick bit of research before committing to any destination. Not really. There is no reliable way to get that kind of data (airlines like to own or control as many booking channels as possible) and even if there was, there's so much of it and it changes so frequently that it would be difficult to present anything reliable. If you're limiting your search to English-speaking areas, pick out the major gateways in those areas and start watching fares between your local gateway and those other locations. When you find a fare you're comfortable with, jump on it.
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Dec 14, 2013 21:46
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