Cheap Airline Tickets

[judycruiser]

Anyone interested?

 

I just brought airline tickets from Little Rock to New Orleans in March for $300 each on the website with the traveling grome. Tickets have been $500 or $600 each.

 

Check it out.

 

Judy

Little Rock

Edited December 26, 2013 by judycruiser
Removed info

[golfadj]

Thanks for sharing

[wrigley80]

How far driving distance is that?? $300 still seems like a lot to me

[judycruiser]

How far driving distance is that?? $300 still seems like a lot to me

 

Its 8 or 10 hours driving. Depends on where you put the priority. To us, we do not drive long distances. $300 is a bargain compared to what they have been.

 

BTW, just looked at the website and tried to book again, the fare is changed back to the high prices ($600 or more per ticket) I have been seeing. It looks like there was an error on the website. I wonder what will happen to my tickets; I do have prints showing me as booked with a confirmation number.

 

I had a feeling it was too good to be true!!!!!

 

Judy

[beachbum53]

How far driving distance is that?? $300 still seems like a lot to me

 

Its 8 or 10 hours driving. Depends on where you put the priority. To us, we do not drive long distances. $300 is a bargain compared to what they have been.

 

BTW, just looked at the website and tried to book again, the fare is changed back to the high prices ($600 or more per ticket) I have been seeing. It looks like there was an error on the website. I wonder what will happen to my tickets; I do have prints showing me as booked with a confirmation number.

 

I had a feeling it was too good to be true!!!!!

 

Judy

 

I'm guessing it would be $300.00 per person. I guess you'd have to compare driving 8 to 10 hours, with family, the potential of the car breaking down, possible road construction (and other delays), the cost of fueling up (both to and from the port), and everything else associated with a long drive, to the cost and convenience of flying to determine what's the best bet. Hopefully, that $300.00 is a one day sale that you were lucky enough to find, and not a mistake on the part of the airline. Either way, since you've got a confirmation number, seems like they are obligated to honor it.

[hightownCO]

From my experience at price checking, NOLA is an expensive place to fly. From St. Louis, I can fly cheaper to any other port city (HOU, FLL, MIA, LAX) than NOLA. $300, especially if nonstop is probably not bad.

[Jimmy Geegitz]

Is that round trip?

[judycruiser]

Is that round trip?

 

Clarification: $300 per person is round trip with one stop in Atlanta from Little Rock to New Orleans on March 8 and returning on March 22. March 8 is right after Mardi Gras which probably accounts for some of the exremely high fare. Low fares were on website for just a few minutes.

 

I think this was a mistake not a one day sale; all websites now show much higher prices with no mention of low fares

 

I will see if they honor price without me complaining.

 

Judy

[krogers2063]

Love to getting a great buy.....I would much rather hop on a plan and be there in a couple of hours than driving for hours. :D

[Mrtwo]

We have made this trip twice from Tulsa and getting ready to do it again tomorrow; It's about 680 miles and around 12 hours of driving for us.

We just made this trip on 11/8 for the last sailing of the Conquest out of NOLA, 1,420 miles total and $185.00 in Gas. We found a package deal at the Ramada in Metairie, free parking for up to 14 days and free transportation to the cruise port so there was no added expense for parking or cab fare .

We're off first thing tomorrow, taking the family with us this time. New Years cruise on the Elation. We always drive down the day before and have made it two different ways;

1 - Straight through to NOLA which is around 12 Hours give or take.

or

2 - A stop in Lafayette 10 hours, then in to NOLA the next morning with about 2 Hours.

 

Each time we have checked Air Fare from Tulsa and it's always around $800 RT for the two of us. Driving just makes more sense to us and gives us the extra cash to spend while on the cruise.

[FlyerTalker]

Sorry for the splash of cold water, but....

 

The price paid by one person for a specific flight flying on a specific date purchased on a separate specific date has NO bearing whatsoever on what your particular flight parameters will cost. Rather, your ticket will be a combination of basic supply and demand, marketing objectives, yield management objectives and overall business conditions within your specific city pair. And chasing someone else's price is folly, to say nothing of likely being frustrating.

 

The OP was likely finding that "last seat" in a lower fare bucket -- not a "mistake" and not a "sale". Remember that pricing is a dynamic process as seats come in and out of inventory. Further, sales are promoted - what's the benefit of holding a "sale" except to drive business to your company. And thus you see them promoted by the airline. And a mistake is when you have tickets priced orders of magnitude from the norm. Such as $40 business class tickets rather than $4000. Usually the result of fat-fingered data entry. Just because you find a seat that happens to be lower than what you saw before does NOT make it a sale....it means there was a cheaper seat IN INVENTORY when you searched. Not that all seats or all flights or even a preponderance are "on sale".

 

But, if posting prices is such a big deal....I just bought a ticket from Singapore to Bali for $108 roundtrip!

 

For the final word, read the signature line from fbgd.

[greatam]

Anyone interested?

 

I just brought airline tickets from Little Rock to New Orleans in March for $300 each on the website with the traveling grome. Tickets have been $500 or $600 each.

 

Check it out.

 

Judy

Little Rock

 

IF the fare was TRULY a mistake and purchased through Travelocity, the chances of having the tickets honored are about 100%. IF it was just a short time sale, no worries at all.

 

Travelocity made a BIG mistake a few years back on tickets to Fiji. $51 per person from LAX and SFO. And Icelandair made a BIG mistake on an Iceland trip-$61.00

 

Both were buy one, companion fare paid ONLY the taxes. They FORGOT to put the buy one in the fare listing.

 

It was touch and go with Icelandair. Travelocity graciously honored their "mistake". In fact, the CEO of Travelocity at the time posted on Flyertalk that all fares would be honored. AND sent an email to everyone who had put an email address down on their reservation.

 

The amount of FREE advertising they got because the story was written up in USA Today, many of the business journals, Forbes, WSJ, splashed all over the internet probably far exceeded the amount they had to pay Air Pacific for the tickets.

 

Icelandair-yes, they honored the tickets. BUT it really was touch and go because they were trying to get the GDS (Global Distribution System) to eat the charges. They must have come to some agreement because FINALLY all charges were honored. GREAT trip to Iceland for very, very cheap (but damn, the hotel bills were more than 4 times the air fare).

 

 

Enjoy your bargain trip.

Edited December 26, 2013 by greatam

[greatam]

Sorry for the splash of cold water, but....

 

The price paid by one person for a specific flight flying on a specific date purchased on a separate specific date has NO bearing whatsoever on what your particular flight parameters will cost. Rather, your ticket will be a combination of basic supply and demand, marketing objectives, yield management objectives and overall business conditions within your specific city pair. And chasing someone else's price is folly, to say nothing of likely being frustrating.

 

The OP was likely finding that "last seat" in a lower fare bucket -- not a "mistake" and not a "sale". Remember that pricing is a dynamic process as seats come in and out of inventory. Further, sales are promoted - what's the benefit of holding a "sale" except to drive business to your company. And thus you see them promoted by the airline. And a mistake is when you have tickets priced orders of magnitude from the norm. Such as $40 business class tickets rather than $4000. Usually the result of fat-fingered data entry. Just because you find a seat that happens to be lower than what you saw before does NOT make it a sale....it means there was a cheaper seat IN INVENTORY when you searched. Not that all seats or all flights or even a preponderance are "on sale".

 

But, if posting prices is such a big deal....I just bought a ticket from Singapore to Bali for $108 roundtrip!

 

For the final word, read the signature line from fbgd.

 

While you know I generally agree with you 100%, we have a newbie that does not understand dynamic pricing and most likely hit the lucky "sweet spot" on a fare.

 

Was it a mistake or just the "gnomes" at work who bought too may tickets on a particular day? You and I will never know.

 

Your advice is 200% correct under NORMAL situations. We don't have any way to know whether the OP hit a one time sale fare, a mistake fare or just the normal course of business with fares going up and down due to yield management.

 

All your info is VALID. Please don't anyone else think they are getting CHEAP tickets because they don't get the same price.

 

fbgd posted the line that applies to 99% of airfares.

[judycruiser]

My purchase of cheap tickets this morning has been charged to my credit card.

 

We're going to New Orleans for a reasonable air fare. Looking forward to B2B on the Serenade of the Seas.

 

Hope some of you have good luck like I did today. Keep checking web sites several times a day. I happened to hit the short time when the cheap tickets were available.

 

Judy

[waterbug123]

I'm guessing it would be $300.00 per person. I guess you'd have to compare driving 8 to 10 hours, with family, the potential of the car breaking down, possible road construction (and other delays), the cost of fueling up (both to and from the port), and everything else associated with a long drive, to the cost and convenience of flying to determine what's the best bet.

 

A true comparison would be something like this:

Driving = approx. 9 hours travel time, vs. Flying = approx 6.5 hours travel time

(.75 hours drive to airport, park, wait to check bags + be checked in 1 hour before departure + 1.5 hours gate-to-gate Little Rock to ATL + 1 hour layover + 1.5 hours gate-to-gate to ATL to New Orleans + .75 hours to get bags and cab to hotel. (will vary depending on exactly how far OP's house and hotel are from the respective airports, exact length of layover and so forth)

Cost = $600 flying vs. approx. $180 in gas to drive

(approx. 900 miles round trip at 20 mpg at $4/gallon; does not account for wear and tear on the car, assumes OP gets decent but not fantastic gas mileage, and allows for gas prices to go up from what they currently are in the south)

Potential pitfalls: I'd call it even. Yes, the car could break down or there could be construction delays or other traffic issues etc. if driving. Likewise, the flight could be delayed or even cancelled due to mechanical issues, weather, crew shortage, etc.

 

So.... spend an extra $420 to save 2.5 hours travel time? Some would say, "Absolutely worth it, we hate to drive and can afford it." Others would say, "That's crazy, we'd rather spend an extra 2-3 hours getting there and use the $420 for some excursions, drinks, etc."

:)

[greatam]

My purchase of cheap tickets this morning has been charged to my credit card.

 

We're going to New Orleans for a reasonable air fare. Looking forward to B2B on the Serenade of the Seas.

 

Hope some of you have good luck like I did today. Keep checking web sites several times a day. I happened to hit the short time when the cheap tickets were available.

 

Judy

 

What you are failing to understand is "dynamic pricing" via the totally beyond anyone's comprehension of "YIELD MANAGEMENT".

 

VERY, VERY sophisticated computer algorithms that determine how many seats are sold at what prices to yield the BEST outcome for the flight in terms of dollars and cents.

 

You lucked out!!!! Next person may pay $500 for the same seat next to you.

 

Checking websites several times a day may work. LUCK has more to do with it than any thing (from someone who books 500-700 airline tickets per year).

[gottogetaway2]

FYI: Southwest has multiple options from Little Rock to New Orleans in March for $292 round trip :)

[greatam]

dup post

Edited December 27, 2013 by greatam

[greatam]

A true comparison would be something like this:

Driving = approx. 9 hours travel time, vs. Flying = approx 6.5 hours travel time

(.75 hours drive to airport, park, wait to check bags + be checked in 1 hour before departure + 1.5 hours gate-to-gate Little Rock to ATL + 1 hour layover + 1.5 hours gate-to-gate to ATL to New Orleans + .75 hours to get bags and cab to hotel. (will vary depending on exactly how far OP's house and hotel are from the respective airports, exact length of layover and so forth)

Cost = $600 flying vs. approx. $180 in gas to drive

(approx. 900 miles round trip at 20 mpg at $4/gallon; does not account for wear and tear on the car, assumes OP gets decent but not fantastic gas mileage, and allows for gas prices to go up from what they currently are in the south)

Potential pitfalls: I'd call it even. Yes, the car could break down or there could be construction delays or other traffic issues etc. if driving. Likewise, the flight could be delayed or even cancelled due to mechanical issues, weather, crew shortage, etc.

 

So.... spend an extra $420 to save 2.5 hours travel time? Some would say, "Absolutely worth it, we hate to drive and can afford it." Others would say, "That's crazy, we'd rather spend an extra 2-3 hours getting there and use the $420 for some excursions, drinks, etc."

:)

 

VERY, VERY good analysis. One BIG reason I drive 229 miles vs 187 miles to LAX for my monthly flights to JFK. I fly to/from JFK in business class in a BED (via my automatic upgrade via my EXP status on AA) vs cramped in coach unless I pay for business or first on even a nonstop via US AIR to JFK.

 

Paying $350-400 nonstop AA 10 or 30 and sleeping all the way from LAX to JFk is sure a darn sight better than paying $2100 from PHX to JFK on a kind of sorta sleep experience on US from Phoenix.

[kenish]

A true comparison would be something like this:

 

Cost = $600 flying vs. approx. $180 in gas to drive

(approx. 900 miles round trip at 20 mpg at $4/gallon; does not account for wear and tear on the car, assumes OP gets decent but not fantastic gas mileage, and allows for gas prices to go up from what they currently are in the south

 

Great analysis..I can add to it by taking "other" things into account. According to AAA, it costs roughly 60 cents per mile on average to operate a personal vehicle (45 cents for a subcompact and 75 for a large luxury sedan, SUV, or pickup). Even the stingy IRS rate is 56 cents per mile.

 

The average 60c per mile cost comes out to $540. So close to airfare there's really nothing to think about unless you drive a fully paid-off and depreciated subcompact in good mechanical condition and not leased. And this doesn't account for meals on the road trip....if you aren't willing to add a 5-6 hour drive right after disembarking, there's probably one night's lodging too.

[judycruiser]

Personal considerations :

 

I do not drive; so husband has to do all the driving

 

Husband has been extremely sick this year; his stamina is not as good as it could be

 

Money is not an issue; we pick less hassle over money if we can.

 

We don't like driving/riding for long distances.

 

It's our choice. It's not important that I understand how/why the fare is what it is. I only have to know that we can pay for it and be happy with our decision.

 

Judy

100 plus cruises over a 40-year period

[waterbug123]

Personal considerations :

 

I do not drive; so husband has to do all the driving

 

Husband has been extremely sick this year; his stamina is not as good as it could be

 

Money is not an issue; we pick less hassle over money if we can.

 

We don't like driving/riding for long distances.

 

It's our choice.

 

Exactly. Based on the above, you'd fall squarely in the camp of those who say, "Absolutely worth it, we hate to drive and can afford it." More power to you. :)