Fired Airline Ticket Agent Reveals Airline Secrets (7 page)

Here is a short list of destinations you can travel to with courier travel.

Boston
departure-

Destinations
available:
London

New York City
departure-
Destinations available:
Amsterdam, Auckland, Bangkok, Bangkok, Beijing, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Capetown, Caracas, Copenhagen, Dublin, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, Manila, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, Montevideo, New Delhi, Paris, Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Tel Aviv, Tokyo

Washington DC
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Destinations available:
London

Miami
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Destinations available:
Buenos Aires, Guatemala, Guayaquil, Lima, London, Quito, Rio de Janeiro, and Santiago

Chicago
departure-
Destinations available:
Bangkok, Brussels, Hong Kong, London

San Francisco
departure-
Destinations available:
Bangkok, London, Manila and Singapore

Los Angeles
departure-
Destinations available:
Auckland, Bangkok, Brisbane, Cairns, Hong Kong, London, Manila, Melbourne, Seoul, Singapore, and Sydney

Current Sample Airfares for these flights:

Here are the names and contact information for the various courier companies
:

Here are some more things I want to cover now:

Like I mentioned earlier, fares change every second. A deal that’s available now, may not be available ten minutes from now. What’s going on with the airline fares?

Fares change quickly because of supply and demand for airline seats. If there is a group tour going from Newark to Orlando and that group books 15 seats, then BAM, just like that, the remaining seats on that flight become significantly more expensive. If that group cancels their plans, the fares go down again, allowing more people to buy.

As with everything, there are exceptions. An example is: it’s generally cheaper to book a roundtrip ticket 2 or 3 weeks before a flight. Why? It’s because airlines reserve their high-priced tickets for the last-minute business traveler. Here’s an Airline Secret you probably don’t know—one of the top reasons that U.S. airlines are able to stay in business is by having a small number of passengers (mainly those business passengers) pay full fare.

Does that mean that it is ALWAYS cheaper to buy an airline ticket way ahead of time?

NO NO NO NO NO. I can’t stress this enough. There are so many people who think that booking months or a year ahead of time will get them the lowest fare. This isn’t necessarily true!! There are numerous airlines that offer special weekend deals just a few days before the flight will be taking off. The airlines’ computers tell them which flights have too many empty seats. The airline then discounts these “city pairs” and sells them at a low price—with restrictions. The restriction is generally a Fri or Sat departure with a return by midnight on the following Tuesday. But, you’re still getting a REALLY good deal!

And we’ve all heard of airline consolidator tickets that allow you to fly overseas (and several domestic destinations). You can often buy these tickets a day or two before travel and pay the same fare, or less for what you would have paid if you had booked three or four weeks earlier. Why you ask? Because this is the way MAJOR domestic and international airlines quietly unload unsold tickets. And you can benefit from them!

Let’s talk about travel agents for a minute. How much do you think your travel agent makes? Take a guess? Well, on average, a travel agent used to make 10% of what your ticket costs. Then that average went down to 8%, and now to 5%. There is a maximum commission rate that allows the airline to cap how much your travel agent can make. In some cases, the airlines only pay the travel agent $10.00 for one flight booking. Why am I telling you this? Because as a result of the caps that are put on the travel agent’s commission, more and more agents are forced to impose a service fee to cover their costs. So, what should this tell you? There are some travel agents who will book airline tickets without imposing a fee. There are some who have declared that they will NEVER charge a fee. However, I think that eventually, the airlines will cut down the travel agent’s commissions to nothing, and the travel agents will not be able to offer their services without a fee.

So, if you know a good, knowledgeable travel agent, who does NOT impose a fee—consider yourself in luck! Remember a good relationship with a good agent is always something good to have! Why? Because once you are armed with the secrets I will tell you (codesharing, booking, bucket seats, etc) you will want a good travel agent to help you book your flight (even if there is one who imposes fees, you may still save $$).

Ok, first off, where do you live? I don’t mean what town you live in or even what state. What I mean to ask is which airlines fly from your local airport (or airports)? The first thing you need to do is find out who flies from your local airport. If you live nearby a number of different airports, find out who flies from all of them. Some of you may be from a small city, and may think you know all of the airlines. Next time you go to the airport, walk around and look behind the ticket counters on the walls. Look at the smaller airline names that you may never have even heard of. Next, you’ll want to find out where these airlines fly to. Stop at the ticket counter and ask for their flight schedule. Or find the airport website if they have one. If you see promotional items like for frequent flyer cards, take them. You can also ask the ticket agent for a copy of the latest “in-flight magazine.” This usually shows the airlines’ flight maps, which will prove extremely useful.

You might also want to try the airline’s website. Go to Google.com if you don’t know the website for the airline you want to fly, and type it into Google’s search bar. Then look for the search results to see what would probably be the official website name for the airline. Click the link and it should take you to the airlines’ website. Find the route map on the airline’s website, and keep it. Save it on your computer or print it out. You’ll want it for future reference. If you live in a larger market, you’ll have plenty of websites to visit and plenty of route maps to print and save. Trust me, this may sound dumb, or useless, but read on, and you’ll find out why you need these maps.