Flight prices... what the frack
Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2018 1:37 pmI know all about the wacky wonderful world of bullshit airline prices... but dammit if it didn't almost bite me in the ass.
So I need to travel internationally and you always hear that you should book 90+ days out. That's nice, except when you want to travel short notice.
So I google flight my itinerary and get a few prices from multiple airports.. all about $700-$750 round trip. Not sure if the price will go up or down I wait a few days and watch google price tracker. 5 days later the price of one flight DOUBLES ($778 -> $1532) and another goes up about 20% ($706 -> $793) FOR THE SAME AIRPORT. The only thing that separates the flights is about 4 hours between take off times.
Fudge that.
So I widen my search to airports within 200 miles. Find a flight on the same day, in the morning, for $531, each leg has a layover (outbound 43 minutes, inbound 3 hours) and I even added in a seat upgrade to premium economy because one of the jets is just to small (I know... I've flown the type before). So still got my round trip airfare for under $600.
Sure, I have a 2 hour vs a 1 hour drive.. but all told for the price savings its a no brainer. I'm still going to follow the prices and see if I get the best price or not... but I don't think I can beat $531 for an international flight.
What's really crappy is that the airlines have ticket prices so screwed up that you actually get in kind of a bidding war with yourself. Most countries airline prices are so much more stable and not subject to these wild swings.
So I need to travel internationally and you always hear that you should book 90+ days out. That's nice, except when you want to travel short notice.
So I google flight my itinerary and get a few prices from multiple airports.. all about $700-$750 round trip. Not sure if the price will go up or down I wait a few days and watch google price tracker. 5 days later the price of one flight DOUBLES ($778 -> $1532) and another goes up about 20% ($706 -> $793) FOR THE SAME AIRPORT. The only thing that separates the flights is about 4 hours between take off times.
Fudge that.
So I widen my search to airports within 200 miles. Find a flight on the same day, in the morning, for $531, each leg has a layover (outbound 43 minutes, inbound 3 hours) and I even added in a seat upgrade to premium economy because one of the jets is just to small (I know... I've flown the type before). So still got my round trip airfare for under $600.
Sure, I have a 2 hour vs a 1 hour drive.. but all told for the price savings its a no brainer. I'm still going to follow the prices and see if I get the best price or not... but I don't think I can beat $531 for an international flight.
What's really crappy is that the airlines have ticket prices so screwed up that you actually get in kind of a bidding war with yourself. Most countries airline prices are so much more stable and not subject to these wild swings.