Use Calendar to buy Airplane Tickets
Use Calendar to buy Airplane Tickets
I find there is two features of buying tickets online that is almost always better than a travel agent.
- The Pop Up Calendar
- Next day and previous day option
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Bangkok Thailand - Southeast Asia
Khao San Road
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Andy of HoboTraveler.com --- Submit Hotel URL
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The travel agents of the planet love a person that says, I am leaving on this date, sell me a ticket. I see buying a ticket as work, every hour I put into the job, I save normally about 100-500 US dollars per hour, and for sure I never just trust any travel agent, I check their work.
The better online Airplane booking sites include two features that make it easier. The pop up calendar that allow me to choose what I think may be the cheaper day of the week. The next and previous buttons, I will click up about 10 days and down about 10 days and see what is the lowest price offered.
Sadly, the price of taxes is now more than tickets, so there is this real next hazard, I must get all the way to the end before I know the true price. Nonetheless, shopping dates is easy online, which is just a great way to annoy the travel agent. I laugh when a travel agent gets annoyed for me shopping price, days, times, etc, because doing this online is easy, and if they make it difficult, well, the fact is this, I will buy online.
I do not enter the date; I click on the calendar pop up and choose Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
After I see the price, I then click on the Previous 10 times, down, the I go up Next about 10 days. After I am through, I have a good feel for prices. This is the last thing a travel agent wants, is you to know what is the going price for tickets.
I can still walk into the travel agent and buy the ticket from the same company, minus his or her ability to feed me the bull.
Sadly, I tried to buy a ticket, and the credit card was refused, said to use a different one. I did this and still refused, well, it is not a perfect world, I will wait a few hours, I suspect the Philippines are not open for business as of yet, or who know, maybe the bank is in some mid-cycle crisis. Nonetheless, they say there is a problem, I find often it is on their side, not my side. Nevertheless, I am not going to complain about to much security on credit cards, and seems silly to complain about too much security in an airport.
Use Calendar to buy Airplane Tickets
posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com at 12:35 AM
6 Comments:
This is a good strategy. Although this is good for the low cost carriers it is also worth looking at the "matrix". I am not sure if you have seen this before but you sign up for a free name and password and search for airfare. You can do specific dates, weekends only, or an entire month.
http://matrix.itasoftware.com
It searches thousands of sites at once and it quite nice. You cannot buy from this site so you do not have to worry about them getting a commission. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Bobby
http://travelogue.traveladdict.org
So I trust a site... hmmmm
Expedia years ago gave good deals.
Then it was Travelocity,
Then it was Kayak
The goal is to hook you to not compare.
Bottom line, always compare prices and of course use thingss like this and realize no one internet pages is every going to sell you the best deals.
There are tickets, like Charter, or Private planes, extra flights, standby etc that suddenly appear outside the radar.
I do not trust the business models of internet sites. I am one, and I study this all the time. The belief is, if I can get away with it, then why not do it.
One of these SE Asian airlines I've never been able to buy a ticket for electronically -- I believe it was Cebu. Check the fine print, I believe they have disabled the ability for all USA credit cards to process on their site. You have to call the operator or buy from an agent.
I used Cebu to purchase in Singapore... hmm, not Thailand.
I also cannot access the bank in the USA now. My bank has added more security and I think they blocked me..
I hate to access banks overseas, paypal shut me off in Switzerland and I had to make tons of fax to get them to turn me back on.
But, I have not had my money stolen.
I too have heard from expats that Cebu Pacific will not take CC over the net. Too much net fraud.
Best,
Hoz
I have no idea how to learn the truth other than to continue to try. Emeriates will allow me to buy in Asia, however not in Africa. I think though they say, not allowed.
I purchased online Tickets with Cebu while in Singapore and in Philippines. I guess I have never purchased from Thailand to Philippines.
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