Anyone who’s looked at airplane tickets with a budget eye knows how maddening it can be. Take it from me, the latest in a long line of frugals, waiting to see if that airfare drops another cent can be agonizing. I definitely lost a few nights of sleep obsessing about when that airfare would drop another cent in my recent extravaganza of booking (and then changing) my flight for my upcoming trip to Asia. I learned a few things along the way about how to book a flight, any flight…domestic or international!
Even though I had great flexibility in my travel plans, I weighed a great deal of factors in making my reservation. I had three major stipulations:
- To fly a non-U.S. based airline (let’s face it, they all suck and I’ve already had the experience of spending 21 hours flying to Asia on United and it was pretty miserable!)
- To fly an airline that would earn me valuable United mileage
- To fly an airline that had Audio-Video On Demand (AVOD–again having spent 21 hours flying to Asia on United with only the main screen to focus on was pretty miserable).
Where Do You Find the Cheapest Fare?
I started by searching for fares, as, let’s face it, money trumps just about anything here. You can save yourself a whole lot of time by searching what’s called an aggregator, which basically searches all of the other sites (Travelocity, Priceline, individual airlines, Vayama, etc) for you. Some examples of these include Bing Travel, Kayak.com, and Mobissimo. These sites will show you the lowest fare and who is offering it. From there, you can follow their link and usually (but not always) find that fare.
Out of these, I found Bing Travel to be the most useful by far. It definitely has the most comprehensive search and, if you’re looking for domestic flights, even provides a prediction as to where the fare will be going. Unfortunately, this was not available for my flight.
One thing that I noticed in my process is that Kayak came back with fares that were considerably higher than those Bing offered, so I didn’t really bother with them. Mobissimo doesn’t allow you to do a Multi-City booking, which I was looking for, so I didn’t give them much thought. But the one thing that Mobissimo really has going for it is that it also searches low fare international carriers (like Air Asia), which Mobissimo and Bing definitely missed.
Pretty consistently lowest priced results on Bing come from a website called Vayama, which claims to be the be all, end all of international travel. They seemed to be having a sale on flights to Asia every weekend where you could save $10. Other than that, their fares didn’t seem terribly different than others. One thing to be aware of though is that I read a lot about how their phone support is virtually non-existent.
I’ve also heard a lot about Airfare Watchdog, which is more of a research site, as you can’t book through them. They do track down some astounding fares though, like a recent roundtrip they features from New York to Lima, Peru for less than $200! Of course, replicating that deal could be tricky!
If Prices Are All the Same, What’s the Better Airline?
In my case, I was out for as nice an experience I could have for as little money as possible! Whenever I saw a cheap fare on a foreign carrier, I checked out what the folks at SkyTrax had to say about them. They rate airlines (and airports) between one and five stars. You can view all the criteria they judged on and read reviews from other fliers. In case you’re curious the current 5 star carriers are (drum roll please):
- Asiana Airlines (based in Seoul)
- Cathay Pacific (based in Hong Kong)
- Kingfisher Airlines (based in Bangalore)
- Malaysia Airlines (based in Kuala Lumpur)
- Qatar Airways (based in Doha)
- Singapore Airlines (based in Singapore)
Another fantastic site for researching good airlines (and all things commercial air travel) are the forums at FlyerTalk. Here members post Trip Reports, many of which include pictures, to help you get an idea of what such a long flight with your prospective airline will be like. It’s really a fantastic resource!
Where Should I Sit?
Everyone has their own seat preference, but not all seats of that type on the plane are the same. Especially on a big long haul plane, there are many factors to consider. Do you really want the extra leg room of a bulkhead or exit row seat?
Maybe not, as people tend to congregate in these areas, particularly near the galleys and lavatories. Maybe that window seat you like has an equipment box underneath, greatly reducing your legroom? SeatGuru will tell you exactly what you need to know, with seat maps for every aircraft type, including where outlets are located and what the video situation is.
What About Stopovers?
As for me, I settled on Asiana, as they fit all of my requirements, had a fantastic price, and just happens to be one of the top 6 airlines in the world! There is, of course, a catch. Their schedule needs a bit of improvement, as all flights from the U.S. arrive at Incheon (Seoul’s airport) in the wee hours of the morning and depart in the evening. In stark contrast, both flights to Bangkok depart in the evening and arrive between 6:30 and 8:30 in the morning. This combination requires a nearly 12 hour long layover in Seoul.
It’s not quite the end of the world. If you ask for it, they’ll theoretically provide you with what the airline industry calls “Stopover Paid by Carrier” (STPC); either a hotel room or a tour of the city. But the key is, they don’t advertise this and you have to call them to arrange it in advance. Also note that some carriers won’t do didly squat for you depending on what fare class you ended up in (based on what you paid for your ticket), so it’s best to investigate this situation before buying your ticket.
The way my arrangements panned out, I am departing New York JFK at 12:30am and arriving at Seoul Incheon the next day at 4:40am. I then depart for Hong Kong at 9:30am and arrive at 12:00pm. On the return, I leave Bangkok at 1:15am, arriving in Incheon at 8:30am. Then, I kill 11.5 hours in Seoul before my departure to JFK at 8:00pm, arriving one hour later at 9:00pm thanks to the International Date Line!
Since I had the time to spare, spending such a long time in Seoul on the return trip is actually an exciting prospect. I think I would feel otherwise if I had it on the inbound route, having just spent 14 hours straight on a plane!
Oh, and after finding the fare on Bing, I booked it at Orbitz, as they did not charge me a booking fee like Asiana’s web site did!
P.S. Anyone else notice that all those “5 Star” airlines are Asian carriers?
