How to get free or discounted airfare.
Mar 23rd, 2009 | By salele | Category: Discount TravelBy Salihu Ibrahim.
Most of us go to an airline website or travel agency to purchase tickets. Once we have a confirmed seat on a flight that is scheduled to leave on a particular day, we don’t have time to think of making other plans such as giving up our tickets to someone else and negotiating with the airlines to get vouchers for discounted airfares or other perks.
Host a group tour.
There are many ways to get discounts if we go as a group. We can get group discounts at airlines, tours, cruises, even restaurants. To learn more about group discounts, go to http://www.ambassadortours.com/ . Hosting a group is easier than you think. If you are able to describe the sights and wonders of the destination and arrange an itinerary that is attractive to certain crowds such as friends and family or company trips or religious groups, you can certainly get the whole trip free along with some cash for your expenses. In effect, you become a travel guide for the tour. http://www.globetours.com/ also encourages people to get groups and rewards them with freebies and cheap tickets.
Get bumped
Airlines usually predict the number of passengers that may miss the flight for various reasons. If they predict, say, that 10% of passengers do not show up on that particular day as seen from previous experiences, then they may allow 10% more booking to allow those otherwise empty seats to be filled.
It may happen that on a particular day, the number of people checking in is more than 100% of the seats! The check-in agents at the gate gauge the situation and make quick announcements asking for any one in the group who is willing to give up their seat for another flight. This is the best time to get up and go to the gate agent – IF you are traveling alone or with adults only and you are willing to go on a delayed flight to the same destination or go on an alternate flight with a stop in between (which may get you more frequent flyer points in addition to other bonuses) .
If you agree to give up your seat, you may be able to negotiate with the airline agent at the gate on what you would like to get in exchange for your seat on the plane. Now you are in a situation where you are given choices – like a seat on the next flight and if this is the last flight of the night, then a seat on the first flight the next morning, etc. Some individuals like to get “bumped” so that they can negotiate and get what they want.
In addition to the free seat on another flight, the airline is in a position to offer you perks such as vouchers for discounts on future flights. If you expect some inconvenience on the next assigned flight, such as timing, seating, stops, etc, you can discuss it with the agent and negotiate an acceptable settlement.
Fun things come in packages
When you are looking to go on vacation, it is also good to plan further and get a hotel and car rental or a cruise and local tour to add to the fun. There are many sites which offer discounts on airfare just because we book the rest of the deals with them. Cruise lines often offer free flights to the sea ports.
For example, when we booked a cruise from Hawaii, we got free airfare to Honolulu, the starting port. This ticket would have normally caused us about $1500 anyway! All we had to pay was $1699 which included an ocean view state room for 7 nights, free food 24×7 days, free shuttle from the airport to the sea port, free shuttles to markets in all the seaports we visited, one LUAU evening with free shuttle to the luau PLUS airfare! And it was the best vacation we have ever had!
Check out the NCL cruise website: http://www.ncl.com/nclweb/home.html . Pick a cruise and contact your travel agent to do the rest of the work for you!
Would you like to help transport packages?
If you would like to help the freight agencies, you can get temporarily work for them to transport overnight packages from country to country for free or discounted airfare. The only restrictions to this type of work is that your baggage may be restricted to carry-on, at least in one direction, and that you may have very few days at the destination that you expect.
Use frequent flyer miles
Most of us can collect thousands of frequent flyer miles without spending an extra penny. That means we can get free flights without ever taking one flight (forget the term “frequent flyer” J.
Frequent flyer miles are awarded in several ways. There are shopping portals you can register to get miles every time you shop. You can use credit cards that award you miles every time you use it. And there are some websites where if you write blogs or comment on your travel experiences, you will get air miles! All these add up to several thousands of miles. Currently, in the US, 25,000 miles gets us one free ticket to travel to anywhere in the North American continent including Canada and Mexico!
Use consolidators
Consolidator websites such as http://www.travelocity.com and http://www.expedia.com/ are wonderful in helping us get packages or discount airfare. The best way to find bargains is to register through their website for alerts when the price drops by a certain amount, say $25.00. These websites send you an email when the price drops by the amount you have indicated and you should immediately go to the site and book the ticket. This way, you can get the fares at the prices you are willing to pay.
How to find better deals?
There are sites on the internet that can get you amazing bargains by comparing the sites of the major airlines, in other words, doing the work for you. Sites like http://www.AirfareWatchdog.com http://wwwFareAlert.comhttp://www.kayak.com http://www.travelzoo.comhttp://www.Farechase.com compare the prices at travel websites Expedia, Travelocity etc.
It’s a good idea to go to foreign airfare websites when hunting for international fares. Sometimes they offer much better options, sometimes half the price, than US based websites. One example is http://www.DiscountAirfares.com . Also try to get a flight on a US airline to the country of destination and then fly domestic carriers inside the country. Countries in the European Union have several tourist passes that may allow you to visit several countries for one low fee.
Bon Voyage! J
Another great tip is to sign up for the airlines’ newsletters. They will send you their sale fares every week, and you can watch for great deals to your destination, or if you have flexible plans, they also offer last minute deals to popular cities all over the US.