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LOW-FARE LOW DOWN

With planning and a bit of chutzpah, you can fly for less money than the airlines would have you know. Herewith, some strategies. Some are applied common sense. Some are a bit sneaky. There’s a gray area between the boundaries of underground shopping and the downright unethical, so let your conscience be your guide. And be careful. We’re not saying we’ve done all these. We’ve just heard about them, you know.
By D Magazine |

1

BOARD AT AN AIRPORT OTHER THAN THE ONE AT WHICH YOU’RE TICKETED.

Depending on where you’re headed, it’s sometimes cheaper to purchase a ticket to fly from a city other than the one in which you actually board. A flight from Houston to San Francisco that stops in Dallas might cost less than the same flight boarded in Dallas. Buy your Houston-to-San Francisco ticket in advance, and get a seat assignment and boarding pass. Call the day of the flight and tell the reservations agent that you’re stuck in Dallas and must board from there. You’ll be told to report to the ticket agent in Dallas to change your ticket (and price). Don’t. You’ve got your boarding pass, so just get on the plane. Know, however, that if you try this on a full flight you could easily be bumped in Dallas because, regardless of your boarding pass, if there is just one empty seat left in Houston, the airline will try to sell it. Also, being bumped in Dallas could easily screw up your return-ticket status.



2

HOP OFF EARLY.

Same principle but backward- and easier. Often, a longer flight that makes one or two stops is cheaper from point of origin to point of termination (say, Atlanta to Miami) than the same flight which you would deplane along the way (in Pensacola). The trick is to find your true destination along a cheaper flight’s route. Travel agents and ticket agents are forbidden to cooperate in planning what’s known as a “phantom city” scheme, but there’s nothing to keep you from inquiring about different destinations and the corresponding flight numbers. The best way to check your options is through a flight schedule book that you can pick up at the airport or at a travel agency. The one catch is that you can’t check any baggage, since it will be tagged through to the destination specified on your ticket.

3

TAKE AN EXTRA TRIP TO PUSH YOU OVER THE TOP IN A FREQUENT FLYER PROGRAM.

This is why it pays to read your “frequent flyer” notices. You might have enough miles credited to your name so that taking one or two more trips within a given period of time will win you a free trip. If you’re 1,200 miles short of a free trip to Hawaii, for instance, making a trip to New York will push you over the top, and you get both trips for the price of the cheaper one.



4

1-800-AIR TICKET.

That’s 1-800-247-8425, the toll-free number of a new ticket purchase service based in Dallas. As with a travel agency, the service is free. AIR TICKet lists flights on a computer (Delta’s Data II system, which lists about 700 international carriers without showing a Delta bias). The service can call flights up according to both price and time, and can, in short, tell you just about the cheapest and/or most convenient way to fly for your money, even (or especially) when it involves switching carriers. But don’t be misled. (No man or machine can as yet claim a foolproof ability to find the best travel option; the science still involves too many variables.) AIR TICKet pays for the call from anywhere in the state (and soon from anywhere in the nation), provides $100,000 worth of free flight insurance and hand-delivers your ticket to your door, free of charge. It also issues bonus points for its own frequent-flyer plan.

5

TAKE A CHARTER TRIP, THEN DITCH THE GROUP.

This is an increasingly popular and cheaper way to travel, particularly when going abroad. Chartered tour groups frequently offer packages that cost as little or less than commercial air fare alone to those same places. Depending on the charter, you can often unabashedly ride “piggyback” over and then leave the group, making your own plans for lodging, food and touring-then meet the group for the flight back. In some cases, you can participate in only as much of the charter tour as you like. Some charter groups can even break down the package costs so that all you ever pay is the discounted price of the flight.

6

CHANGE YOUR NAME TO GIVE FREQUENT-FLYER MILES TO A FRIEND.

This means not only using your friend’s name when you reserve a seat and buy the ticket, but also presenting your friend’s frequent-flyer I.D. card. Your friend, of course, can do the same for you, especially if he is flying a carrier that you fly often and he flies infrequently. The airlines get paid for the mileage, someone gets credit for it and nobody’s hurt.

7

BUY YOUR TICKET AS SOON AS YOU KNOW YOU’RE GOING TO FLY.

Waiting for fares to go down, as they sometimes do, makes no sense, since more often they go up. Fortunately, the gamble is weighted on the side of the person who doesn’t hesitate. If you purchase a ticket and the fare goes down before you fly, the airline will reimburse you for the difference. If the fare goes up, you fly for what you paid.



8

RETAIN YOUR SUPERSAVER FARE WITH A DOCTOR’S EXCUSE.

If you’ve purchased supersaver or discounted tickets and are unable to fly on the day for which you are scheduled, a written note from your doctor will allow you to fly later and still retain your discounted fare (which normally would not be negotiable).



9

GET BUMPED.

Every flyer’s nightmare, right? Not necessarily. Airlines overbook because they know that people often don’t show up. Occasionally, more show up than they can accommodate, especially during holidays. When a flight is filled, the last people to show up for seat assignments will be the first to be bumped, but the gate agent will almost always ask if there are any volunteers who would like to wait and catch the next available flight free of charge. Some airlines will even give the volunteer, in addition, a free round-trip ticket or a ticket discount. Should the situation come up, the move is worth considering, since it might well mean only a few hours’ delay and considerable savings. You might even plan this “windfall” by buying a ticket on a popular flight, then check in late.

FATHOMING THE



FREQUENT-FLYER



Why bother with frequent-flyer plans? Because they’re worth it. And the great thing is this: The airlines will do the bothering. All you need to do-and now-is sign up. Even if you consider yourself an infrequent flyer, join. There’s no cost, and your mileage account will be forever building. Even a few trips a year can pay off.

The premise of the programs, which almost all of the airlines now offer, is that the passenger is rewarded for logging air miles. The more miles flown, the better the rewards. The confusion comes from the variety of reward systems used by the different carriers, but since you can join as many plans as are offered, and since the airlines keep you posted on your standing, there’s nothing you have to worry about. Once you sign up, you’re given a membership number that you present when buying a ticket, and the airlines credit the miles flown to your account after the flight departs. A real plus to frequent flying is that now many of the carriers are teaming up so that your miles flown on one will add up with your miles flown on another, and vice versa.

Basically, a certain number of miles flown eams you either a discounted ticket, a free ticket and/or discounts with participating automobile rental companies and hotels. American’s AAd-vantage Program, for example, entitles the passenger who has flown 20,000 miles to a 25 percent discount off a round-trip ticket on either American or Frontier. Fifty thousand miles flown on Delta equals one free first-class ticket one-way or round-trip, as well as several car and hotel discounts. Every month that you fly, each of your clubs mails you a notice about your mileage status and the award options you have. If you’ve accumulated, say, 47,000 miles, entitling you to a 40,000-miles pri:e, which you take, 7,000 miles credit will remain in your account.

Some ticket rewards are designated for certain distances, while others are unlimited. Most plans give you extra miles for flying first-class. Most of the carriers drop an automatic number of miles into your account simply upon joining (Eastern gives you 5,000). On Ozark, frequent-flyer awards can lead to a vacation on a luxury cruise ship.

Dallas’ own Metroplex Club is a frequent-flyer plan especially designed for the D/FW traveler. It gives flight-miles credit to passengers flying one of five carriers- Braniff, British Caledonian Airways, Emerald Air, Mexicans and Air Spirit-as well as awarding “miles” for staying in Hyatt hotels, renting Hertz cars and eating at certain Dallas restaurants. Some travel agencies and ticketing services have their own frequent-flyer plans as well.

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