Fired Airline Ticket Agent Reveals Airline Secrets (9 page)

Something that I want to tell you here for New Yorkers….when flying out of New York, the best bet for a lowest fare will ALMOST ALWAYS be Newark (EWR).

Secret # 8: Look for code-share bargains

Some of you may have already heard of code shares. A code share is an arrangement an airline has with another airline that allows it to sell tickets served by the other airline. Under a code share agreement, each airline gets to sell seats on the same plane as if they were their own.

Code-sharing is supposed to help passengers by making things easier. You can more easily gain frequent flyer miles, for one thing. But be careful about this because the airlines won’t always tell you that you’ve been booked on a code-share flight.

With code-share flights come some problems though. By law, the computerized reservations systems owned by the airlines (CRS) is NOT supposed to show bias by displaying one airlines’ flights more prominently than another’s. But, this is not really the case. Code-sharing lets flights that used to be interline flights come up in the listings, which increases the chances of a travel agent or reservation agent to book them before seeing the cheaper alternatives. Here’s one example of a code-share savings. I tried to book a flight from New York to Amsterdam on TWA. The total fare was $1203 for TWA. With the TWA code-share partner, I paid $481. Look at how much I saved simply by asking if there were any code-share flights from New York to Amsterdam.

Continental Airlines has a code-share airline, called America West. And America West usually ends up being cheaper than Continental. For example, book on America West (it says Continental on the outside of the plane—but it’s a code-share flight, remember), and you save $150 from Phoenix to Fort Meyers.

Here’s the challenge—find out which flights are code-share flights (call up and ask!!), and check the pricing offered by BOTH airline partners.

If you’re booking online, you should be able to see (read the fine print) to find code-share flights. The code-share airline is usually there, but in smaller print or in a footnote.

Your best bet to take advantage of the code-share situation is talking to a travel agent. They usually can search all the code-share flights.

And keep in mind that even though you may have found code-share partners offering drastically different fares for the same flight, it doesn’t mean you found the cheapest way of getting to your destination. Other ways to get lower fares include low-fare airlines, consolidators, or even air courier flights.

Secret # 9: Buy roundtrip, even for one way flights

One day you’ll have to take some sort of one way flight. Maybe you’ll have to fly somewhere and drive back to where you started, or some other issue forces you to have to fly one way.

The first thing you’ll want to do is check out a low fare airline. The low fare airlines (like Jetblue.com) have one way fares that tend to be somewhat reasonable. But, if there is NO low-fare carrier serving your destination, you will likely find that major airlines offer one way fares at sky-high prices.

The solution is for you to buy a roundtrip excursion fare and use only the outgoing coupon. All you’re doing for the airline’s purpose is “missing” your return flight. If you are using this trick though, ALWAYS make sure that the flight you want to take is the FIRST coupon on the ticket. Otherwise, the airline will think you are a no-show and cancel your return reservation. If you show up with the wrong ticket they will make you feel like a criminal. I know because I’ve done it. The airline employee is always wary of people pulling this trick, unless it’s done right.

Secret # 10: For international Business Class flights, buy one way tickets, fly roundtrip

If you are flying overseas in business class, ask the travel agent if it’s cheaper to book two one way tickets instead of one roundtrip ticket. This works because the one way ticket for the return leg of your flight will be purchased “abroad” technically, so is in foreign currency. If the exchange rate at the time of purchase works in your favor, you will see significant savings! It is very unlikely that this trick will work for leisure fares in coach class.

NOW for the Secrets that allow you to “break” the airlines’ rules, read on, and read carefully !!

Secret # 11: Hidden Cities

Most of you already know that when you buy an airline ticket, you not only bought a product, but you really bought a contract between you and the airline.

Some of my buyers have used the following secrets and gotten nasty letters and threats from the airlines…but you need not worry. It’s not illegal to use any of these secrets and tricks. It just annoys the airlines because you’re saving money!

Some readers have told me that this is confusing, so you may have to read this section a few times to get the gist of it.

Business travelers that want to avoid minimum stay requirements and one way fares use the “hidden city” trick. It is often less expensive to fly from City X to City Y and catch a connecting flight to city Z than it is to fly from X to Y. City Y is a “hidden city” here. So, the business traveler purchases a ticket to the more distant city, city Z, but deplanes when the plane lands at his actual destination, city Y.

Here’s an example that may make this less confusing:

A business traveler has to go on a short midweek business trip from Minneapolis to Detroit. The airline’s quote for the fare is $950 for a roundtrip. Or, the other option is that the business traveler could book two one-way tickets for $470 each. Instead of doing that, the traveler books two one way tickets as follows. One ticket is from Minneapolis to South Bend Indiana, which requires a change of planes in Detroit. This ticket costs $290, instead of $470.
The second ticket purchased (return flight) is from Detroit to Peoria, Illinois, requiring a change of planes in Minneapolis. This ticket costs $180 instead of $470. When he travels, he uses only the first coupon of each ticket and discards the second coupon. He is careful to book two separate tickets at two separate times, preferably with two different airlines. By doing this, he is keeping both the airlines and his travel agent in the dark about what his intentions are. In addition, he will NOT add his frequent flyer number to either of these tickets.

There is one problem with using this trick. That is, you won’t be able to check any baggage. Any bags will be checked to the final destination, but you are not planning on being at your final destination. Some of you may want to try to check in bags and tip the curbside check-in man to send your bags to your “hidden city” but this is really pushing it. Just stick to carry on luggage!

The airlines do not like people trying to turn their fare structures around to their advantage, and they are trying to catch people who do this. So, keep this in mind: always make your second coupon the unused one. If you bought a cheaper ticket from say, Peoria to Detroit, with a change of planes in Minneapolis, and discarded the first coupon, and then tried to board the flight in Minneapolis, the airline would know you were a “no-show” in Peoria. They would ask for proof that you actually flew from Peoria to Minneapolis, and you wouldn’t have any proof, because you didn’t fly there.

Remember, although it is not illegal to use this trick, a lot of airlines prohibit it or frown down upon it. All major airlines, except for Southwest prohibit Secret # 11.

Something else I wanted to share with you is basically the airline’s reservation system. To look at the same exact fares that the airline reservations agent looks at when you call their toll-free number to book a flight, follow this link:
http://www.air-fare.com/cities.htm

From this website, you can click on the hyperlink for your departure city, or the city closest to your city and the site will automatically redirect you to the destination cities that you will be able to choose from..

Here’s a sample of the results you’ll get when you’ve followed the directions (the sample I’ve chosen is from Newark (EWR) to Los Angeles (LAX) for round trip fares. As you can see from the sample below, the fares range from $285.00 to $1722.00.

NEWARK TO LOS ANGELES - ROUND TRIP FARES

1) LOWEST COMPANION FARE - [- TKT BY 22MAR -]

[- ADD FUEL SURCHARGE -]

NW-K $ 285.00 14-DAY ADV/SAT STAY NOON TO NOON MON-THU/PM SAT BEGIN TVL

2) LOWEST STANDARD EXCURSION FARE - NO REFUND ( UP TO $100 AIRLN CHNG FEE )

[- ADD FUEL SURCHARGE -]

ALL $ 317.00 14-DAY ADV/1-DAY MIN BEGIN TVL 6DEC01

3) 2ND LOWEST STANDARD EXCURSION FARE - NO REFUND ( UP TO $100 AIRLN CHNG FEE ) [- TKT BY 22MAR -]

[- ADD FUEL SURCHARGE -]

NW-K $ 335.00 30-DAY ADV/SAT STAY NOON TO NOON MON-THU/PM SAT BEGIN TVL 1APR02

4) LOWEST 21-DAY ADVANCE - NO REFUND ( UP TO $100 AIRLN CHNG FEE )

ALL $ 358.00 14-DAY ADV/SAT STAY

5) LOWEST REFUNDABLE FARE

[- ADD FUEL SURCHARGE -]

TZ-H $ 640.00 NO ADV/ BEGIN TVL 21JAN02

6) SECOND LOWEST REFUNDABLE FARE

[- ADD FUEL SURCHARGE -]

[- BLACKOUT 16DEC99-10JAN00 -]

TZ-Y $ 1076.00 NO ADV/ BEGIN TVL 21JAN02

7) LOWEST FIRST CLASS AT COACH FARE

HP-Y $ 1490.00 COACH UPGRADE TO FIRST - NIGHT FLIGHTS BEGIN TVL 21MAY01

8) LOWEST REGULAR FIRST CLASS

HP-F $ 1722.00 NO ADV/ 7:45PM-3AM