What's a good way to get an airline ticket fast?

**AuntieEmma**[$] · #1 05-06-2003, 02:23 AM

I may need to get a cross-country airline ticket on short notice, like maybe 24 hours notice. I haven't done this before -- I usually reserve flights a month in advance -- so I don't know what would be a good way to go about it. I would imagine that just going up to the ticket counter and buying a ticket there would be very expensive. I've heard of Priceline and Orvitz, but haven't used them, so don't know much about them. And I know that some airlines have last minute deals, but is there any way to find out about those besides checking each airline's website individually?

Anyone have any experience or ideas? Thanks.

**mrisch**[$] · #2 05-06-2003, 02:36 AM

Frontier runs through Denver and has low fares on short notice

Try hotwire.com or priceline. Orbitz likely will likely not net much.

**Joubert**[$] · #3 05-06-2003, 08:45 AM

Expedia and Travelocity are the other two majors. Also, I don't know where you're going, but think about checking for hub cities. For example, United in SF and Chicago and Dulles, Delta in Atlanta and Cincinnati and so on.

Frontier, American West, AirTran and JetBlue all have decent walk up fares. Coverage is sporadic.

The nice thing about Orbitz is that it will price a trip for you with each leg on a different carrier.

Good luck!

George
(Who flew DC to Atlanta for $167 last week and DC to Charlotte for $800 several weeks earlier and said Huh?)

poseidon · #4 05-06-2003, 10:47 AM

You might want to try cheaptickets.com -- not only do they give you a rate comparable to Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz, but they also offer free parking at a bunch of airports if you purchase through them.

But, nobody will really beat hotwire.

My MIL decided Saturday morning that she wanted to leave for Wisconsin yesterday -- Monday -- (the fight between my wife and MIL is still going -- sigh) to see her sister and brother. We tried booking her through the major outlets and the best price we could get was $265 plus fees (it would wind up bringing the price to around $280 or so). That was on ATA (a horrid airline), and would mean that she'd have to leave Denver at about 6am and go to St. Louis or Chicago with about 5-hour layovers.

We priced it through hotwire.com and got her a fare for $205.00 (final cost, no additional fees).

The downside with hotwire.com is that you don't know what airline you're flying and you don't know what time of the day you're flying until you accept (meaning: pay for) the flight offered. About the only thing that's assured is you won't get a red-eye flight unless you say it is okay.

The good news is that they'll tell you who their partner airlines are. ATA isn't one of them, so we knew that she was going to be getting a better deal. The other good thing about hotwire.com is that you know the limit on the # of connections.

So, we purchased it. I've used hotwire.com for many, many flights and have had awesome schedules. My MIL unfortunately took about the worst of the draw: she flew out of Denver at 5pm (not bad) and landed in Madison at 11pm (not good). When she returns, she leaves Madison at 6:30am (not good) and lands at 10:30am (good). She has, strangely enough, a layover in Tennessee somewhere.

But, for a last-minute fare, the price can't be beat. This fare went through Northwest and would have cost $850 plus fees (we checked the website).

CurtisEdmonds · #5 05-06-2003, 10:51 AM

Quote:

George said in post # :

(Who flew DC to Atlanta for $167 last week

And you didn't stop by and say hi.

frazzledspice · #6 05-06-2003, 12:03 PM

I've used priceline for funerals. The problem is that you can't determine what time of day you'll be flying in.

Southwest Air is another fairly inexpensive alternative. Their same day fares are higher than super-savers, but nowhere near as high as United, American, etc.

**Joubert**[$] · #7 05-06-2003, 01:29 PM

Curtis, flew in on Monday at 5:00 p.m., took a partner to dinner and flew out at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. Next time. You buy.

poseidon · #8 05-06-2003, 04:44 PM

Quote:

frazzledspice said in post # :
Southwest Air is another fairly inexpensive alternative.

Only if you fly in the limited venues that Southwest goes. Same thing with Frontier. The biggest problem with Frontier (which, of course, is perfect for me) is that if you're flying anywhere, you're stopping in Denver on the way over.

For me, flying anywhere that Frontier flies is a non-stop flight.

**theworm**[$] · #9 05-06-2003, 04:49 PM

If it's not to late to add here - after you get the price on one of these discount sites, if you can check that airlines own site. Sometimes the rate on their own site is better. I got a great fare on travelocity once. The best rate was on American airlines. I then went to the American site, and got the same exact flights for $30 less.

CurtisEdmonds · #10 05-06-2003, 04:54 PM

Quote:

George said in post # :
Curtis, flew in on Monday at 5:00 p.m., took a partner to dinner and flew out at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. Next time. You buy.

If I'm buying, that means hot dogs and chocolate shakes at the Varsity.

**AuntieEmma**[$] · #11 05-06-2003, 05:01 PM

Thanks, everyone. Great info, and I'm printing it out. And it's not too late. I still don't know if I'm going to need to go right away. The situation is my mother may be discharged from the hospital today (but I still don't know that -- will know pretty soon) and has been insisting that she wants to go home, doesn't want to go to my sister's, and doesn't want any hired nurses or home health care aides coming into her apartment. Still trying to talk her into not just going home alone, but if that doesn't work, then probably the best thing is for me to go in right away (if she'll accept that). So still waiting to find out when she's going to be discharged, what she's going to be doing, etc., but once I find out, I may need to act quickly.

Another thing I thought of with the airline stuff -- is there any way to do this so I could get an outgoing ticket right away, but maybe keep the return date open? Or do all of these deals depend on getting non-changeable round trip tickets?

poseidon · #12 05-06-2003, 05:49 PM

Almost any deal that I've seen means you need a set return date (e.g. not an "open-ended" ticket as you're describing).

"Open-ended" tickets are very expensive as a rule of thumb.

#13 05-06-2003, 05:59 PM

Stop fighting the extradition order?

**conradd** · #14 05-06-2003, 06:19 PM

I've had really good luck with changing the return date with Southwest Airlines. I changed Shane's return to Camp Pendleton 3 times without penalty.

Deb

**AuntieEmma**[$] · #15 05-07-2003, 02:37 PM

Update --

On the family dramas -- all family dramas are resolved. Everything worked out ok. I had thought it would, but sheesh, I could have lived without the suspense.

On the airplane tickets -- what I ended up doing was getting a ticket with frequent flyer milage. Was sure I wouldn't be able to use the mileage with such short notice, but checked it out just for the hell of it, and found out I could. I guess the airlines really are hurting -- I looked at the seating chart and there were a lot of empty seats.

Before doing that, I played around with hotwire. They came up with a price of $234 for a round-trip cross-country flight, which is really pretty good. I sort of stared at the screen for a while, but got nervous about pressing the "purchase" button, without knowing the times. I may use it in the future, though. I've been at sort of a loss as to how to get tickets ever since TWA went out of business -- they used to sell their tickets at a HUGE discount on one of the travel sites (which was basically set up in the first place just to dump the tickets that the disgraced ex-president had been given as part of his golden parachute), and that made it very easy.

I am saving the info on this thread for next time.

**Joubert**[$] · #16 05-07-2003, 08:03 PM

I think (may not be 100% accurate, but am pretty sure) that Carl Iachan's hostile attempt on TWA netted him the ability to sell tens of thousands of TWA, now American, tickets dirt-cheap. I'm on the run now or would go research it, but that's my fuzzy recollection.

Glad everything worked out!

**AuntieEmma**[$] · #17 05-08-2003, 12:39 AM

Quote:

I think (may not be 100% accurate, but am pretty sure) that Carl Iachan's hostile attempt on TWA netted him the ability to sell tens of thousands of TWA, now American, tickets dirt-cheap. I'm on the run now or would go research it, but that's my fuzzy recollection.

Yeah, that's what it was -- that's what I was talking about, except I couldn't remember Icahn's name (and I can't remember the name of the website/travel agency either -- Global something-or-other, I think)

I had just assumed that the same deal didn't exist with American Airline tickets -- that the deal died when TWA did -- but maybe I'm wrong -- if Icahn's old TWA tickets are now American Airline tickets, and he's still selling them somewhere, that would be great!!

Quote:

Glad everything worked out!

Thanks.

**Joubert**[$] · #18 05-08-2003, 09:11 AM

That's okay, you couldn't remember his name and I misspelled it early in the morning.

But apparently the deal did not translate to AMR. I have no idea how they voided it or what the terms were, but they clearly managed to get out from under the site (lowestfare.com)

http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2002/M.../18673472.html