|
Post by welle on Sept 28, 2016 4:06:47 GMT 2
I just had a big positive surprise when I booked a flight with United Airlines with miles on their website. The website has changed and it is very easy to book flights with miles on short term notice with no penalties. Love it.
As an aside, if you get the United mileage plus credit card and fulfill a few conditions, you get 30 000 miles for free. That equals a flight from the US to Europe (one way).
|
|
|
Post by auntieannie on Sept 28, 2016 17:30:41 GMT 2
nice one, Welle! and then you tell us and that's free advertisement for them.
|
|
|
Post by ninchursanga on Oct 4, 2016 18:36:30 GMT 2
Wow, and that with United Airlines. United Airlines and American Airlines are the two I always try to avoid. Good they made some changes.
|
|
|
Post by welle on Nov 29, 2016 22:46:50 GMT 2
Here's a good one for finding cheap flights with lots of search options:
kiwi.com
Over Thanksgiving it found flights a couple of hundred dollars cheaper than any other website I checked. It would have routed me through another country, not an option most other sites check.
|
|
|
Post by welle on Jul 19, 2017 20:32:48 GMT 2
A friend just had really good luck finding a round trip flight from San Francisco to Malaga Spain on cheapoair.com.
I have not used this site personally but her flight was $600s compared to about $1000 for the dates we tried.
Another tip I got for flying cheaply to Spain from the US west coast was going to Norwegian Airlines, book a flight from Oakland, CA to Copenhagen, Denmark. Then fly to Malaga in Spain from there.
|
|
|
Post by Kate_R on Jul 20, 2017 2:57:15 GMT 2
Booked our flights to Japan last night. We are going with ANA and they also had a lovely website - so easy to use! Much better than when we booked flights in December (think that was zuji)
|
|
|
Post by OnlyMark on Jul 20, 2017 9:05:39 GMT 2
Cheapoair has a lot of bad reviews.
|
|
|
Post by welle on Aug 29, 2017 10:08:10 GMT 2
Cheapoair has a lot of bad reviews. I guess my friend was lucky then-her trip happened smoothly with Cheapoair. In November I will learn whether Kiwi.com can deliver during Thanksgiving week.
|
|
|
Post by auntieannie on Aug 29, 2017 10:54:56 GMT 2
Since moving back to Switzerland, I have found that Swiss has cheaper/better flights to London than Easyjet.
|
|
|
Post by shrjeff on Aug 30, 2017 7:22:59 GMT 2
Another tip I got for flying cheaply to Spain from the US west coast was going to Norwegian Airlines, book a flight from Oakland, CA to Copenhagen, Denmark. Then fly to Malaga in Spain from there. iberia is now serving oakland-barcelona non-stop with its low cost airline... even when adding seat selection and checked suitcase the price is good (our berkeley friends are flying in october so this is very up-to-date - like last saturday)... i'm sure vueling has cheap flights between malaga and barcelona...
|
|
|
Post by Baz Faz on Aug 30, 2017 10:26:55 GMT 2
|
|
|
Post by OnlyMark on Aug 30, 2017 12:10:50 GMT 2
They do have a fairly bad reputation but we have had family flying with them a few times with no problems.
|
|
|
Post by OnlyMark on Aug 30, 2017 12:20:37 GMT 2
Re: Emirates Airline - let's see how they go for now but yesterday my daughter was to fly from Frankfurt to Lusaka with them. The Frankfurt/Dubai plane was cancelled due to a technical fault. They did put her up in a posh hotel last night and she is currently on a new flight. But it means she cannot get the connection today from Dubai to Lusaka. She will have to get it tomorrow and thus have another night in a hotel, this time in Dubai. She has flown quite a few times but never just by herself and such a long way. So, bless her, she is a bit panicky and not knowing what to do or what she is entitled to. I've been in contact with her last night via Whatsapp and explained what she must do and what she should get. However, just before she took off this morning, and I was out running an important errand, when I return home I get another message from her asking, "When I get to Dubai, where do I sleep? Do I have to spend the night in the airport?" Obviously, she has completely forgotten what I told her, so I've winged off a few more messages to her, hopefully she will get them when she arrives, telling her to immediately contact an Emirates Air desk/tell the cabin crew/ask someone official etc etc. What she doesn't know, and it is too complicated to tell her, is that as she is flying business class, she is entitled to a limo service to and from the hotel.
|
|
|
Post by shrjeff on Aug 30, 2017 15:25:43 GMT 2
They do have a fairly bad reputation but we have had family flying with them a few times with no problems. as we have, latest last fall from barcelona to porto... it isn't business class but for these short, iberian peninsula, hops it's fine...
|
|
|
Post by auntieannie on Aug 30, 2017 19:09:49 GMT 2
|
|
|
Post by shrjeff on Aug 30, 2017 19:17:26 GMT 2
unfortunately they don't have a route map on their website and i'm too jet lagged to google sion...
|
|
|
Post by Baz Faz on Aug 30, 2017 19:37:58 GMT 2
Powdair actually flies from Bristol to Sion. I put in return dates in December and it was £305 - that is three-quarters of the cost of our return flight to Kuala Lumpur in January. Of course we are not taking skis to Malaysia.
|
|
|
Post by OnlyMark on Aug 30, 2017 21:35:57 GMT 2
unfortunately they don't have a route map on their website and i'm too jet lagged to google sion... It's a suburb of Mumbai/Bombay.
|
|
|
Post by auntieannie on Aug 30, 2017 22:13:20 GMT 2
it is a town in Switzerland, Jeffy. heart of the Swiss Alps.
|
|
|
Post by Baz Faz on Aug 30, 2017 22:57:05 GMT 2
For some reason I am put off flying to an airport in the heart of the Alps.
|
|
|
Post by shrjeff on Aug 31, 2017 6:58:42 GMT 2
well... when i did google I found that Sion is an alternative spelling to Zion and wondered why the airline isn't flying to our neighborhood accordng to google maps!
|
|
|
Post by auntieannie on Aug 31, 2017 11:02:01 GMT 2
Baz, December is the single most expensive month to fly to Switzerland. Maybe try another month?
jeffy, yes, I knew of that. just not sure exactly of why it came to that. the latin name is Sedunum and the german name is Sitten.
|
|
|
Post by welle on Aug 31, 2017 18:48:03 GMT 2
|
|
|
Post by welle on Nov 28, 2017 1:20:30 GMT 2
Update on kiwi.com
Travel right after Thanksgiving went without a hitch. The only hassle was that I had to go to the airport to check in with Southwest Airlines, I could not do it online. Thumbs up!
|
|
|
Post by sophie on Nov 28, 2017 3:30:21 GMT 2
As I had used my Avion points (through my Visa), when I cancelled my trip to Colombia last week, I was given a cash equivalent credit which I will need to use by about this time next year. I am happy with the amount they gave me. As my first flight was with United, they ‘own’ my credit. Hopefully this won’t be a major hassle. Thanks
|
|
|
Post by welle on Nov 30, 2017 8:40:29 GMT 2
Another website friends seem to be using successfully for cheap flights is www.skyscanner.netI just started looking around on their website. Does anyone have experience with them?
|
|
|
Post by OnlyMark on Nov 30, 2017 11:00:54 GMT 2
Welle, the website is good for information but there are a number of complaints regarding finding a cheap option on a flight and then clicking through to the link for companies like Gotogate, Tripsta and a few others. Then getting poor service from them or finding the flight is not actually available with them and they offer a more expensive alternative. If though you click through to the airline's website it is ok and then you book actually with the airline itself. This is fine. I use Kayak.com for the same purpose as it is as good if not better than skyscanner.
1) My rule of thumb is that I will use them for information on alternatives. If the flight(s) are with one airline then I sometimes just click through to the airline's website and book. Often though I will ignore the click through and just open a new tab and go straight to the airline anyway to double check, thus not clicking through.
2) If the flights are a part of the same alliance often the first/major airline will show the code share as part of its results and I will do as previously and go to the airline itself to book.
3) For flights that are not part of an alliance and are a little complicated - like one I've just booked from Harare to Frankfurt then return from Malaga to Lusaka - no one airline or alliance/code share comes up with the best options for time or price. So - I check the permutations on Kayak and Skyscanner (because they don't always come up with the same and complete information) - but don't click through anywhere. I just go straight to Expedia and Ebookers, search again and ultimately book on there - because I've always had good service from those two agent sites whereas some others have quite bad scare stories as to service/changing flights/cancelling/asking for more money etc.
In conclusion for my preference - Skyscanner/Kayak use for information. Same airline/code share, book through major airline. Complicated flights with no code share/alliance or cheaper that way/more convenient times than one airline alliance, I book through Expedia and Ebookers.
I'm actually in the middle of trying to sort out the following flights for next year - LUN - FRA x 1 LUN - FRA - LUN x 1 HRE - FRA Rtn AGP - LUN x 1 FRA or CGN - AGP or MAD x 3 FRA - AGP x 2 AGP - FRA x 1 AGP - CGN x 1 AGP - VIE/TRE x 1 LUN - HRE - AGP - LUN x 1 I think I've missed a couple of legs out there, but you see how complicated my life is, especially as there are a number of different dates and a range of dates for several of the flights that would be suitable.
|
|
|
Post by sophie on Nov 30, 2017 17:31:42 GMT 2
Mark, after reading your post I remembered why I use travel agents on more complicated agendas!
|
|
|
Post by OnlyMark on Nov 30, 2017 17:38:31 GMT 2
I'm an arrogant sod though who always thinks he can do better.
|
|
|
Post by sophie on Nov 30, 2017 17:43:17 GMT 2
Haha! Then you have no one to blame when cooling your heels in some god forsaken airport!!
|
|