Airfares -Money Saving Travel Ideas
Having the time to travel is one of the great benefits of being retired. Being able to afford to do all the traveling you want is another matter. The following are a number of tips and suggestions to help you save money on your next airfare.

Purchase Airline Tickets Online
Online ticket purchases can save you a significant amount of money. The airline industry still uses a crazy system where one seat on the plane may cost $100 and the seat right next to it in the same class, the same section of the plane, the same flight may cost $700. There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to this madness although somewhere someone has some convoluted scheme which no one can understand. I think the theory is that the airlines allocate certain tickets at a low price to try and guarentee a certain passenger level, once these tickets are sold then they have the next priced level and so on. I am not sure how many levels they have but the idea is to get the tickets at the lowest price level. Usually this means booking as far in advance as possible. Often the price has to do with the day that you are traveling. Here are some suggestions to take advantage of this convoluted system:

Book as early as possible
Use an online system that shows you a few days before and after the specific day you want to fly. Often there is a significant price difference by going or returning a day earlier or later.
If you cannot find an automatic system that shows before and after days, manually check the day before and the day after on both the departure and return dates.
Some of the discount airlines like JetBlue or Southwestern do not list with the major listing services so you should check these airlines on their own sites

Check more than once
If the price seems high try checking back the next few days. It used to be that the earlier you booked the cheaper the flights were and if you checked back a few days later the prices would either be the same or higher. Lately the system has been acting in an unpredictable manner where the lowest prices seem to vary day to day. This is tricky as if yo first check on a very low day, you might not get that low price again so you need to decide if the price you are quoted is a reasonably good price I would advise taking it as even if it goes lower it will probably not be by much.

Bid Pricing
There are a number of services where you can put in a price bid on the fare you want to pay and commit to purchasing the ticket at that price if it comes available. There are some great bargains that can be had with these types of systems but beware of a number of pitfalls.
Cannot specify time
Usually these bid tickets let you specify day but not the time of day you want to travel. Sometimes you will find yourself on either a very early or very late flight.
Cannot specify route
Often these bid tickets put you on convoluted routes that require a number of stops. This can often double or even triple the amount of time it takes to get where you want to go.
You are never sure when your bid will be accepted
Most trips require the coordination of a number of factors such as accomodations, ground transportation, etc. Many of the bid sites do not guarentee that your bid will be accepted nor do they tell you when your bid will be accepted. This means you will not really be sure if you are going on the trip until sometimes the very last minute. For many the savings may be worth the uncertainty but for many people locking down your plans in advance so that you can enjoy the anticipation and make the rest of your plans is worth the extra cost.
You should keep these factors in mind when putting in a bid. It is probably not worth it to use this type of system to save a few dollars. On the other hand if you can save hundreds of dollars it may make any extra hassles worthwhile.

Check Airline Specials:
Most of the airlines run specials to try and boost traffic to particular cities or on particular routes. Many offer companion tickets at a greatly reduced rate. Some great bargains can be found this way and it pays to check the sites of the major airlines to see what they are currently offering. Be aware though that sometimes an airlines special can end up costing you more than booking through a travel site like orvitz or expedia. This is bacause the airlines are offering discounts on their standard publish fare, not their lowest discount fare that is often available by booking early. The end result is that a 50% discount off of published standard fare may still be more than you could normally get by booking early and getting a low fare ticket. If there are certain places you are interested in visiting you should occassionaly check the online fares so that you have a good understanding of what the airfares are going for so that when you are finally ready to book you can tell whether a particular offer is a good one or not.

Use E-Tickets
Airlines now charge an extra fee to send you a hard copy of your ticket. E-Tickets work just as well and save you money. Just remember to print out a copy of your purchase receipt that has the tracking number on it. You will still be able to fly even if you forget to bring this with you as they can look the information up on their computer system but this causes extra delays and is definitely not the way to go. Having a copy of your confimation is worth the extra effort.

 
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