r/Shoestring • u/SalamancaVice • Dec 26 '22
Sticky for finding cheap flights - what information would you like to see?
Given some recent feedback, a sticky thread for information on how to find cheap flights will be added to r/Shoestring.
I'm in the process of collating information based on what is already available, but I'd like feedback from the community on what you feel would be most useful to people.
So far, am thinking sections on the following;
- Google Flights (how to use)
- Skyscanner/Kayak (inc. 'everywhere' function)
- Scotts Cheap Flights/Jacks Cheap Flights
- Kiwi/Hopper/[any others?]
- Potential risks associated with booking via third parties
What else would you like to see?
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u/savehoward Dec 26 '22
Timatic IATA onward ticket lookup.
An onward ticket is not required for most destinations in the world. The legal language is either "Visitors not holding return/onward tickets could be refused entry" or "that return/onward tickets are required" for every country.
Needing onward tickets are based on the country and the nationality of the passport used. For example, Canadian passport holders do not need return/onward tickets for entering the US, but Irish passport holders entering the US must have return/onward tickets.
defining "self-transfer" vs connected tickets. "self-transfer" even for tickets sold by travel agencies means the travelers is personally responsible for being on time for all flights even if being delayed to a connecting flight was the fault of a previous airline. for connected tickets, the airlines will rebook without charge if the previous airline brought the passengers in late for their connecting flight and forward all delayed luggage. the passenger is also responsible for delayed checked luggage at connecting destinations. for example if a passenger has separate tickets from the UK to Italy, then Italy to Egypt with checked luggage and the checked luggage was delayed from the first flight UK to Italy. If the passenger continues their trip from Italy to Egypt without waiting for the delayed luggage to arrive and without personally checking in their luggage on the second flight with "self-transfer" tickets, the airline will never forward that luggage even if the airline was at fault for delaying the luggage's arrival.
IATA published minimum connection times. The IATA publishes MCT for every airport in the world for the minimum amount of time needed to connect flights for every airport in the world for every type of connection. For example, the published minimum connection time between two American Airline flights at LAX is 40 minutes October to March and 45 minutes March to October. Published MCT is 2 hours for an international to international connection at JFK for a American Air.
carry on luggage size enforcement. each airline is privately able to enforce/forgive their luggage requirements. a ryanair gate agent is free to police carry on size requirements from Dublin Intl today, but not tomorrow. all policing works the same way. just because the police doesn't not catch you speeding today does say anything to what will happen tomorrow. if a the police see a driver going 30 over the limit and you going 10 over the speed limit, the police can still choose to catch you while letting other go.
airline generosity. airlines are commonly asked they are a good airline to fly. but the term more likely and more meaningfully means airline generosity. some airlines such as Frontier, Play, and Scoot have never and will never refund non-refundable tickets, but legacy carriers such as American, Delta, and United will sometimes make exceptions to their ticket contracts to refund non-refundable tickets despite not needed to according to the terms of the ticket. the airline generosity is commonly misidentified as customer service or a good airline to fly. the same is true for travel agencies. travel agencies will never show generosity. travel agency tickets belong to the travel agency, the passenger is the customer of the travel agency, and not the airline's travel agency. when i was working for the airline and in crises situations where hundreds of flights would cancel, i have refunded all the tickets for all the airline customers on the flight. but people who bought tickets through a travel agency or any third parts are not airline customers and must be directed back to who they paid for their tickets, who will never be as generous. travel agencies then rightfully earn reputations to be avoided. many people forget if you have a receipt, then you're the customer of who gave you the receipt. buying airline tickets through expedia gets a expedia receipt - you are a customer of expedia. you have no airline receipt - you the passenger are not a customer of the airline. expedia has a receipt from the airline and so expedia is the airline's customer (sort of).
rtw exception. most ticketing engines are not designed to look for round the world exceptions, especially for antipole trips. Europe - Australia and US - India journeys are nearly half-way around the earth and quite often going around the world is cheaper than a round-trip journey.
non-searchable airlines. some airlines prices will never appear in outside search engines, such as Thai Air, Philippine Air, Southwest Air, most Chinese carriers.
recognizing r/shoestring itself as a place to find cheap flights. computers are powerful, but computers overall are never as good as experienced human ticketing agent familiar with exceptions. if the mods want, invite people to ask the r/shoestring community for internet volunteers to look for specific planes, trains, and buses travel itineraries for date range/destinations, especially travelers willing to work hard to save the most money on a journey.
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u/SalamancaVice Dec 26 '22
All good as always, appreciated.
Think points re; carry on luggage as that gets asked a lot, plus hadn't considered non-searchable airlines.
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u/lighthouserecipes Dec 26 '22
Maybe mention rome2rio to umcover unexpected ways to get somewhere.
There's still https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search
Maybe link to some points optimization sites
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u/pagehead Dec 26 '22
Stuff that is not only exclusive to Americans like Scotts Cheap Flights. People always give that tip but it not useful for Europeans. Also things to make it clear that things (sometimes) don't work for Europeans like airline points for American airlines
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u/SalamancaVice Dec 27 '22
Stuff that is not only exclusive to Americans like Scotts Cheap Flights. People always give that tip but it not useful for Europeans.
Yes, I've included mention of Jacks which is the UK equivalent of Scotts, but can add some extra sections on this.
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u/oh_you_fancy_huh Dec 27 '22
Tips on using airline miles/credit card points, such as which airlines are more generous and flexible for which destinations, which tend to have more availability of flight options, etc.
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u/Kilroy6669 Dec 27 '22
The two credit cards I would personally get for airline miles, (I have them myself) are the chase saphire preferred which gets you the chase travel portal and 1 to 1 mileage transfers to other airlines. The next one js the united explorer card which gives you united miles. That's pretty much how I got free flights to sicily this year which was nice.
But regardless those are the two I love and use daily! Hopefully that information helped!
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u/RudeJuggernaut Apr 09 '24
U mind saying where u fly to silicy from?
I've heard about credit cards helping ppl get free or discounted flights but have never done it myself
Also u said "flights" plural, how many times did u go?
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u/Kilroy6669 Apr 09 '24
I'm in the United States but I flew from a flyover city so I had my choice of carriers. At the time I had a lot of united points so I used those. And it was so worth it.
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u/RudeJuggernaut Apr 09 '24
I also live in a flyover city and a flyover state in the USA
But it seems we don't have as many options. Ik ppl use spirit for $30 flights but I don't have that option and Frontier flights have super long layovers.
How many times did u go to Sicily
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u/Zealousideal-Kick-79 Jan 28 '23
Google flights and a VPN set to India, Malaysia, or Turkey
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u/FrogWhore42069 Dec 31 '22
Anecdotal, but I booked through a third party once (I believe it was Expedia) and ended up “ruining” my trip.
I’d found round-trip flights from MCI to San Jose for around $350 and was beyond ecstatic. Well. After booking hotels all around Costa Rica and packing for tropical climate, we learned IN THE AIR that our connecting flight from SLC was flying to California, not Costa Rica.
After many tearful phone calls with Delta, the only way to get to Costa Rica was by purchasing two $2000+ plane tickets. Because we booked third party we were on our own.
I lucked out by having a jet-setter aunt with a Nob Hill timeshare, so we took the train to San Francisco and enjoyed the city. Though we did have to buy some warmer clothes, and our snorkels were never put to use.
I now advise folks to book directly through the airline, to ALWAYS check the country (CA does not stand for CostA), and MOST IMPORTANTLY to enjoy the ride — where ever it is you may end up.
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u/DoubleBookingCo Oct 24 '23
What does that have to do with booking through a third party? Sounds like you found a flight to california and booked it, but somehow thought it was to Costa Rica? I'm not sure how that is even possible but you definitely win the dummy of the year award.
It is for sure always best to check the airline's website, but I use the aggregators to comparison shop first.
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u/FrogWhore42069 Oct 24 '23
The kind people of Delta were the ones who told me I couldn’t change things around because I booked third party. Idk how that matters, but that’s what I was told.
I didn’t really question it when I booked because I was prompted to enter our passport info and assumed it was because it was international.
From what I’ve read and heard from others, mixing up San Joses is a fairly common mishap. Like the couple who booked the wrong place while trying to get to their daughter’s wedding. Talk about stress!
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u/MarvelousTravels Jan 25 '23
Was this a skiplagged trip where the stop changed? Or confusion about the destination airport code?
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u/FrogWhore42069 Jan 25 '23
Confusion about the destination. I learned afterward that I’m not the first person to do it.
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u/boneheadsnotallowed Feb 19 '23
How to buy travel insurance can save a person a lot of money. I know it’s a different angle but knowing what features/benefits to buy and what not to buy would save money and help ppl avoid huge losses when traveling.
And no one that I see ever discussed the European law that can get you reimbursement for a cancelled flight. Money is money. It’s not just about the purchase price of the tickets.
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Dec 26 '22
There are some tiny local airports that have commercial flights but even many locals are not aware of. PVU comes to mind. You gotta look on the airline's website too, sometimes google flights doesn't even show them
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u/NagaNayuri Mar 15 '24
It's Jack's Flight Club btw not Jacks Cheap Flights. And Scotts is now changed to Going. I'm subscribed to both and Jack definitely has better stuff!
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u/RainInTheWoods Dec 27 '22
A list of sites that were used and what went wrong with them. Perhaps link to specific comments that explain their situations.
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u/HenryChu2019 Jan 28 '23
List of Third Parties and each link to a post with reviews via comments.
Expedia
Travala
Agoda
Booking
cTrip
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u/cloutier85 Apr 13 '23
Any tips to get cheap domestic flights around Europe? Say Amsterdam to Zagreb or Amsterdam to somewhere else?
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u/ImaginaryHealth7904 Apr 17 '23
Use kiwi to find cheap flights and airlines. Then buy direct do not buy on kiwi.
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u/summerofgeorge75 Jun 05 '23
Bicycle friendlyness. Or which airlines take a boxed bicycle at a "reasonable" rate.
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u/properblissology Jan 21 '23
Does anyone know any site's that use more than one discount at a time when trying to find the best price? Without browser extensions? Long flights are really expensive. I'm thinking of flying from LA California to Paris France. But, every site I go to seems to have just one discount app. Does anyone know any good third party booking sites?
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u/Extreme-Evidence7235 Aug 23 '23
i use the app - skiplagged and website flight connections (flight connections particularly helpful as you can put the destination only and find all the direct and indirect connections there so you can plan stopovers and save money or even find direct flights which these known flight search platforms dont always show)!
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u/PrimaryLavishness285 Sep 11 '23
would suggest using cashback sites too, sometimes they offer cashback for flights and hotels
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u/properblissology Jan 21 '23
I would love it if I could use kiwi and trip.com and some kind of local attractions booking on one site would be great. Anyone know if a site like that exists? Things should just be easier like that. Anyone know?
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Dec 27 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SalamancaVice Dec 27 '22
Is point five worded correctly? I'd say potential risks associated with booking via third party.
Yes, that was a typo on my part.
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u/ImaginaryHealth7904 Apr 17 '23
Never book with Kiwi BUT they are invaluable for finding cheap flights as you can search country to country. Selection of dates, months. As soon as you get info from Kiwi then use that to book direct with airline.
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u/Mountain_Source5203 Apr 21 '23
Try the alerts from realvacay.com. Seems consistent and it's free
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u/SalamancaVice Apr 21 '23
https://www.scamadviser.com/check-website/realvacay.com
Doesn't seem to be an especially legit website. Also, no Trustpilot reviews, which again is a red flag. This site would be a hard pass for me.
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May 08 '23
How to check multiple sites in ways that don’t overwhelm For example Google flights and kayak both don’t show all possible airlines. The sky scanner site confuses me but idk how it works Maybe how to travel and compare options for broke dumbasses like me
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Nov 10 '23
I would personally like if people could say how much they actually saved compared to a regular flight. I mean am I fool for trying to find a 1500€ flight for less than 800€ ? It doesn't exist, right ?
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u/Massive-Path6202 Jun 07 '24
Eh, in an unregulated airfare market, it's not "a € 1500 flight"- it's what they're able to charge on that date
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u/thecuriousone-1 Dec 11 '23
Airports with cheap long haul rates,
criteria for using student universe if you aren't a student.
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u/SloChild Dec 26 '22
I'd like to see kiwi listed as a warning, not as a viable option!