Start your search as early as possible (at least a month in advance). While better rates may come al

So you think getting a cheap airfare is as simple as calling your favorite airline (the one with the honey-roasted peanuts) and forking over your credit card number. Unless you are traveling on someone else s dime, you couldn t be more misguided. Or perhaps you are a wishful all inclusive hotels in costa rica traveler all inclusive hotels in costa rica who scours the newspaper all inclusive hotels in costa rica s travel section looking for the lowest fares advertised, only to find none of them are ever available on the weekends you want to go. So you stay home and play solitaire. Loser. You re a loser not because you play solitaire (it s a great game!) but because you didn t bother to try to get a cheap airline ticket.
Getting all inclusive hotels in costa rica the lowest airfare from Point A to Point B can be a ridiculously frustrating experience, especially if in mid-flight you discover your neighbor paid a third what you did. (Unfortunately, all inclusive hotels in costa rica murder charges still stick in federal airspace.) The way airlines work, failing to get the best fare happens more often than you would like to believe. This SYW will help guide you through airfare all inclusive hotels in costa rica hell to make sure you are the one with the cheapest seat. Then you ll be the one everyone wants to kill.
Airline pricing all inclusive hotels in costa rica is a complex, unpredictable beast driven by three ugly words: competition, demand, and inventory. all inclusive hotels in costa rica Airlines call it yield management, but we doubt if even airline CEOs fully understand it. How could they? How can any rational person explain why a one-way flight is just as expensive as a round-trip ticket? Or why the only seats from Boston to San Francisco every weekend from now until eternity cost $1,000? Well, you found us in the nick of time, because before you even attempt to buy an airline ticket, you must know the forces at work. Only when you know your enemy may you slay him violently.
All major airlines feed their available seats and prices into four central reservation systems that are owned by various airlines. The systems are Apollo, Sabre, WorldSpan and Galileo (sound like the names of American Gladiators , don t they?). Airlines then change their prices based on demand. all inclusive hotels in costa rica If a certain flight is selling well, the price will increase. If another flight has no takers, the fare will drop until the airline gets some. As a result, all inclusive hotels in costa rica fares and inventory are changing every minute.So why is it so hard to keep track of the prices? A bunch of reasons:
Internet travel sites and travel agents use the central reservation systems which are updated periodically during the day. The four are not updated at the same time, which explains why different searches may yield different results.
Airlines change their prices all inclusive hotels in costa rica based on competition . If one airline flying the New York-Miami all inclusive hotels in costa rica route drops its rates by 20%, chances are all airlines will drop their rates, so as not to give the discounter a competitive advantage.
Fare differences all inclusive hotels in costa rica can exist for the same route on different airlines because of other factors. For example, if one airline has the market share for that route, it may not need to lower fares to attract passengers.
To complicate matters, all this happens at the speed of light. Prices for a specific flight can go up or down even as your travel agent is getting your credit card information from you, so your cheap ticket can be whisked out from under you. And your fare is never guaranteed until you have paid. That s the gamble. Fortunately, it can work both for you and against you.
Airlines also use inventory to their advantage and to lure the unsuspecting flyer. They divide seats on each flight into several price ranges and set aside a certain all inclusive hotels in costa rica number of discounted tickets. all inclusive hotels in costa rica Naturally, the lowest fares draw your attention to advertisements. Of course by the time you call (unless you are quick on the draw) those seats will be gone. Inventory brings us back to demand . If there is low availability and high demand, you will have to wait for a cheap fare. But that does not mean you should give up on a trip that is very popular. Sometimes airlines will change their fares or open up more discounted seats, depending on how sales are going.
Because of all these factors (competition, inventory and demand), it is essential to look around and comparison shop. Regardless of whether you use the Internet or a travel agent, you will come up with a wide range of prices. all inclusive hotels in costa rica The challenge is to know how to make the cheap fares yours.
Start your search as early as possible (at least a month in advance). While better rates may come along, it ll give you a starting point. Also, many deals involve making your reservation at least 21 days before departure. But last minute tickets can sometimes be the cheapest, if you buy a last minute e-fare. These are listed by individual airlines on their websites, or at a travel website such as www.webflyer.com. These last minute fares give you very little flexibility, but they are often very cheap. Read more about this in step 3.
Stay vague about your dates . Ask for the lowest fare, saying that your dates are flexible. That lets you know the best fare you could get so you can change your dates if price is the most important factor. Just to let you know, the cheapest dates to fly are usually in the winter, except for Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year s time. So if you can be really vague, try to arrange for your flight sometime during the cold season.
If you can adjust your times to fly , you increase your chances of getting a cheap fare. Taking all inclusive hotels in costa rica the red-eye flight can pay off for your wallet because no one wants to depart at 2 a.m. and arrive at 6 a.m.
Airlines typically attach restrictions to discount fares, like a 7-, 14-, or 21-day advance purchase and/or a Saturday night stay. Ask about these restrictions , so you ll know what to expect next time so you can start your search early when discounts seat are still available.
Keep checking . It behooves airlines to have full planes, so they may add discount seats without warning. A flight you might have given up on could yield you a seat if you checked back in a day or two or even a week or month later.
Ask about airports all inclusive hotels in costa rica other than your destination s main airport . Look into secondary airports outside the city or even in a nearby city that is less popular. People going to New Orleans for Mardi Gras who find no flights available can get lucky by flying into Baton Rouge, an hour away, or Mobile, Ala., two hours away by car.
Check smaller discount airlines that may not be included all inclusive hotels in costa rica in the central reservation systems. all inclusive hotels in costa rica These smaller airlines all inclusive hotels in costa rica usually only have area-specific flights available (e.g., the Southeast), but they are much cheaper than the big airlines. So especially consider them if you re not travelling too far.
Fly on a mid-weekday . Fridays and Mondays are the most expensive times to fly. And weekends are obviously in high demand. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the cheapest days to fly. Also, staying overnight on a Saturday can save you money, because then you ll get charged an excursion rate, not a business rate.
Try a consolidator . A consolidator all inclusive hotels in costa rica is an intermediary company that buys tickets at a discount directly from the airline. You benefit from their rates. However, while the consolidator industry has gained respect in recent years, be sure to use one that is reputable. Some have gone out of business overnight, leaving customers in the lurch. One way to find consolidators is to look for the small advertisements with 800 numbers they place in the travel section of any metropolitan newspaper. all inclusive hotels in costa rica Some consolidators specialize all inclusive hotels in costa rica in overseas flights while others focus on the domestic market and still others do both. Some even give additional discounts to students. You also may want to ask about cancellation charges as such tickets usually carry stiff penalties for changes or cancellations.Here are the web sites of some ticket consolidators. They use the central reservation systems to find cheap fares but also offer some tickets at an even greater discount.
The Internet has created a whole new world for air travelers. It has given you, the customer, access to the same computer systems that travel agents use (that s why travel agents always seem so sad nowadays . . . ). As a result, you have a lot of control over your time in the air. There are sites that will check the status of your plane, check fares for you, e-mail you when fares in your price range pop up, let you comparison shop, and allow you to buy tickets from the convenience of your home at 2 a.m.
The Internet is most often used as a research tool. Not everyone who finds their best rate online actually buys online, instead turning to the airline or a travel agent. But buying online is a handy option for those who want to get it done as quickly as possible, given that if you don t buy it now, the fare could be gone by tomorrow. Below is a review of some of the most popular Internet travel sites by category.
These sites have several services that slice and dice your flight inquiries in any number of ways. They can search one-way trips, round trips, all inclusive hotels in costa rica each leg of the trip, by price, all inclusive hotels in costa rica by date, by time, and by multiple airports. And they can bake a cherry pie. They can do it all. They typically also offer services to alert you to when low fares for desired routes become available or to examine baseline fares offered by airlines throughout all inclusive hotels in costa rica the year. Travelocity.com has airplane seat maps for 13 airlines, in case you want to choose your seat too. Many trip planning sites also have hotel room finders and car rental options. Cheaptickets.com has a Fare Aware option that shows what other passengers paid for a certain trip at the same time last year. For the top 1,000 routes in the United States, the service shows the average price, average number of passengers, what a one-way trip costs, the airline that flies that route the most often, and the low-fare courier rate. While some sites do international flights too, others such as Yahoo! only search within the Continental US, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
At www.smartertravel.com, you can do all of the above but also sign up for