Airline ticket question

[bolinp78]

Are my quotes showing up to you as bad as they are to me? It's quoting the wrong text

[will.c]

Your quotes are working fine.

It's getting slightly too technical for me, but I get the overall picture. Thanks for the interesting and informative posts!

[777ER]

Since I work for an major airline, I can tell you these:

Tickets are generally the cheapest on an tuesday, buy before 3pm.

Those 'seats available' are not an accurate representation of what's really available.

For example, I check online at JetBlue for flights and they say "2 seats remaining at this price", it's a scheme to try to pressure you to buy the ticket.
They try to fool you the plane is almost full...so I check via my airline and it shows the real #'s of seats open.

Hint; an row of seats is reserved until 24 hours before departure (for deadheading crew should the airline needs it) then it's released as available.

Unless it's an seasonal flight (only operates a few months out of the year), the ticket prices are going to be high because the airline will not operate flights unless they can make money on it so hence why they're expensive.

In the past, labor was the highest cost of operating an airline...now it's the cost of fuel.

Here's a couple of links that may help you:

http://www.yapta.com/
They track the price and alerts you when it goes for less than what you pay for...and even tells you how to get a refund.

http://www.bing.com/travel/
Good estimate guide to give you an educated estimate to 'wait' or 'buy' the ticket based on alot of factors compared to flight loads, ticket price tracking, etc
Even shows you the prices history by the months.

[The Ghost of Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by 777ER

For example, I check online at JetBlue for flights and they say "2 seats remaining at this price", it's a scheme to try to pressure you to buy the ticket.
They try to fool you the plane is almost full...so I check via my airline and it shows the real #'s of seats open.

well there's a caveat to that...2 seats remaining at this price often truly means there are 2 seats left in that specific fare bucket. aka when the Q fares are gone, then other, pricier fare buckets open (Y/B, etc.) so while that's no indication on how many seats are left on the airplane, and to a certain extent is a sales pitch, it's also just as much of a heads up that fares are about to go up because that inventory is almost depleted.

of course there are many intangibles with that as well. if the flight continues to sell poorly on Y/B fares, or other more expensive fares, revenue management can release more Q fares as it sees fit. there's a million ways to skin the cat.

[Express]

Originally Posted by The Ghost of Tom Joad

well there's a caveat to that...2 seats remaining at this price often truly means there are 2 seats left in that specific fare bucket. aka when the Q fares are gone, then other, pricier fare buckets open (Y/B, etc.) so while that's no indication on how many seats are left on the airplane, and to a certain extent is a sales pitch, it's also just as much of a heads up that fares are about to go up because that inventory is almost depleted.

of course there are many intangibles with that as well. if the flight continues to sell poorly on Y/B fares, or other more expensive fares, revenue management can release more Q fares as it sees fit. there's a million ways to skin the cat.

but one way to fly zed.

i like your style. you probably are more knowledgeable than a travel agent.

[donovan]

So glad that someone else is noticing that flying is getting ridiculous.
Pays to be in the military now...