Personal Experience - Where did I go and what did I pay to get there?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Some Stories ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just so you know I'm not bullshitting you, let me share some stories of my own so you can have some real life examples on what you should pay.
In July 2011 I flew from Las Vegas, NV to Frankfurt, Germany. This was a non-stop flight on Condor airlines. I paid $874.00 round trip ticket plus taxes and all other fees. This included 2 checked bags and one carry-on (no extra fees because it was an international flight). Condor is a German airline (I've preferred flying on German airlines when I go to Europe, but I'm biased); they have awesome customer service, great in-flight entertainment and meals, and they don't make you pay for the pillow! (but there was a five dollar charge for the head phones...bring your own!)
How did I get this flight? I was referred to Condor by my aunt that lives in Germany. She had used it many times while flying to America. So far the best price we had come up with was around $1,100 to fly from Vegas to Frankfurt, but I continued searching on. At around 1:00 a.m. while procrastinating on Economics homework, I decided to search Condor again. Low and behold, a round trip flight for $814.00! I couldn't believe it! I tried desperately to buy four tickets (myself, boyfriend, mother, and brother) but of course my bank denied my transaction. After a frustrating hour of tears and explaining that it wasn't fraud, I really did want to spend that much money, I was told that the transaction could be done first thing in the morning. In the morning the cheap flight was still there ($60 more! grr bank) and I was able to purchase the tickets no problem.
In May 2012 My boyfriend and I went to Nassau, Bahamas for a week on a vacation package we bought on Cheap Carribean, (more on vacation packages at a later date). Included in the package was flight from Fort Lauderdale to Nassau on the carrier Bahamasair. Bahamasair flies primarily from Florida to areas in the Bahamas, which tend to be short flights (1hr-2) meaning they aren't using the largest planes. If you are afraid of flying (like I am), you might be a little nervous hopping on one of their smaller aircrafts. We made it just fine, the customer service was so-so, and since it's such a short flight, it's totally worth taking this low-cost carrier to the Bahamas. Our problem was finding the flight from Reno to Ft. Lauderdale. At it's cheapest you're looking at $400-$500, which may not seem a lot compared to what we've paid for international flights, but we weren't happy adding this amount to our "cheap" vacation package. We decided to fly from Sacramento on United for the price of $348.20.
How did I get this flight? There wasn't much that went into this one.We understood that anything under $400 would be worth it, and after selecting the route that would get us there cheapest, we searched multiple carriers till we found a price and time that worked for us.
Just so you know I'm not bullshitting you, let me share some stories of my own so you can have some real life examples on what you should pay.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Europe ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In July 2011 I flew from Las Vegas, NV to Frankfurt, Germany. This was a non-stop flight on Condor airlines. I paid $874.00 round trip ticket plus taxes and all other fees. This included 2 checked bags and one carry-on (no extra fees because it was an international flight). Condor is a German airline (I've preferred flying on German airlines when I go to Europe, but I'm biased); they have awesome customer service, great in-flight entertainment and meals, and they don't make you pay for the pillow! (but there was a five dollar charge for the head phones...bring your own!)
How did I get this flight? I was referred to Condor by my aunt that lives in Germany. She had used it many times while flying to America. So far the best price we had come up with was around $1,100 to fly from Vegas to Frankfurt, but I continued searching on. At around 1:00 a.m. while procrastinating on Economics homework, I decided to search Condor again. Low and behold, a round trip flight for $814.00! I couldn't believe it! I tried desperately to buy four tickets (myself, boyfriend, mother, and brother) but of course my bank denied my transaction. After a frustrating hour of tears and explaining that it wasn't fraud, I really did want to spend that much money, I was told that the transaction could be done first thing in the morning. In the morning the cheap flight was still there ($60 more! grr bank) and I was able to purchase the tickets no problem.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Bahamas ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How did I get this flight? There wasn't much that went into this one.We understood that anything under $400 would be worth it, and after selecting the route that would get us there cheapest, we searched multiple carriers till we found a price and time that worked for us.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~South America ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My boyfriend and I are now planning a vacation to South America for June 2013, and have already purchased our tickets back in November 2012. These tickets were planned around us going to the Galapagos and Machu Picchu, meaning that we needed to fly into Ecuador and out of Peru. This made it difficult, seeing that we needed to then plan what cities to fly into based on how cheap the next flights would be to other parts of the countries. We decided to fly from Sacramento or San Francisco to Quito, Ecuador, and then out of Lima, Peru back to San Fran or Sac. Low and behold, while searching for flights, we found an affordable one out of Reno!!! We had been prepared to pay (on the cheap end) around $1,000 to fly out of San Fran, and another $200 each to get there from Reno, but one night while searching on American Airlines (thanks to their low-cost strategy approach that didn't do them any good, their flights were on the cheap end) we found a flight from Reno to Quito and Lima to Reno for $891.64. I was amazed! This flight includes 2 checked backs, a long layover in Miami (we're going to the beach...at 8 in the morning), and 2 meals from Miami to Quito. Flight home is pretty much the same deal.
How did I get this flight? Again, extensive searching. There aren't many choice airlines that fly from U.S. to South America, or at least, not as many as you're going to find going to Europe, so realizing which airlines we were dealing with made this a big help. American Airlines is part of the One World Alliance, so even if we did go with a different airline, most of them were part of this program and thus, priced the same. We had also limited our search by deciding that we wanted to fly on a U.S. airline company. Though major carriers like LAN and TACA have excellent reviews (and we will be flying on both of them in South America), traveling internationally can be tricky, and things go wrong. If you feel iffy on the language of the airline you're flying with, I would suggest flying with an English speaking carrier just in case something goes wrong. It helped ALOT to have a mother that speaks fluent German (while mine kinda sucks) when our plane was overbooked in Frankfurt and they almost didn't let us on.
I hope this helps some of you out there understand what you can and can't pay for a flight. I'm always searching for what other people have paid for the same destination, and knowing what airline and what service their getting is a huge help in booking my flights. So sit back and enjoy your planning!
How did I get this flight? Again, extensive searching. There aren't many choice airlines that fly from U.S. to South America, or at least, not as many as you're going to find going to Europe, so realizing which airlines we were dealing with made this a big help. American Airlines is part of the One World Alliance, so even if we did go with a different airline, most of them were part of this program and thus, priced the same. We had also limited our search by deciding that we wanted to fly on a U.S. airline company. Though major carriers like LAN and TACA have excellent reviews (and we will be flying on both of them in South America), traveling internationally can be tricky, and things go wrong. If you feel iffy on the language of the airline you're flying with, I would suggest flying with an English speaking carrier just in case something goes wrong. It helped ALOT to have a mother that speaks fluent German (while mine kinda sucks) when our plane was overbooked in Frankfurt and they almost didn't let us on.
I hope this helps some of you out there understand what you can and can't pay for a flight. I'm always searching for what other people have paid for the same destination, and knowing what airline and what service their getting is a huge help in booking my flights. So sit back and enjoy your planning!
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