Idea for air travel for next year
Posted by Kitch on Wed, 2007-07-04 08:23
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 Location: Orlando, FL USA
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Hey Uncle Kage, have you ever considered seeing about getting a meeting code with an airline? I know for the past few years MFM has had an arrangement with Northwest. I was thinking AC could get codes with one or more airlines. AirTran came immediately to mind, since that's what I'm flying to AC on. http://www.eventfares.com/eventsavers.aspx |
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We tried that a few years ago with US Airways in Philadelphia. Exactly 10 people took advantage of it.
We tried it again with Frontier Airlines two years ago. I do not know how many people took advantage of it, but the numbers were "disappointing," according to Frontier.
US Airways no longer offers event codes, and they have a pretty big share of the gates at Pittsburgh. If we choose another airline, we need to give them some sort of minimum guarantee. I don't know if I am willing to do that again since people do not seem to use the event codes we set up.
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permalinkLocation: Roseville, CA, USA
The year that the Frontier Airlines offer was available, I tried to take advantage of it, flying from LAX to PHL. I found that our event discount was substantially more expensive than what I was able to get, for the same flight dates, without the code; and this was by purchasing the tickets from the Frontier website.
I know that several SoCal Furfen took that flight. I suspect that none of them used the code, because it would have cost us more.
Trying to get the best price for an airline ticket is like trying to get the best exchange rate on your money when you visit a foreign country. No matter how you do it, it always seems to work out to the other guy's advantage. Sometimes getting tickets early works out best, sometimes waiting until the last minute yields the best bargain.
...And unless you want to spend the convention feeling like a chump, do NOT ask the people around you, on the same flight and in the same class, what they paid for their seats.
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permalinkLocation: Hainesville, IL
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Part of the problem with these discounts is that they are typically 5%-10% off the unrestricted coach fare. To show just how useful that is, let's look at airfare from Chicago to Pittsburgh, departing on August 24 and returning August 26 (weekend travel, over a month away). The restricted (nonrefundable) airfare is $123 on USAirways. The same flights with unrestricted airfare is $237. As you can see, even with a 10% discount, that doesn't really do much for your attendees. That probably explains why so few people took advantage of the discounts in the past.
Hope this helps!
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Tom Brady/Duncan da Husky
Artists Alley and Con Store Manager
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permalinkLocation: Chicago, IL
To add on to what others have already said, I wanted to draw your attention (and everyone else's) to this site:
http://www.flypittsburgh.com/fareSaver.jsp
It's linked from our travel page, but judging by many blog entries I saw complaining about connecting flights, 500+ dollar tickets on the 4th, etc, I don't believe enough people are using this resource. Tell your friends!
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Those of us that take the train do appreciate the Amtrak discount! I didn't end up using it since my AAA discount works out the same and I can order that online at 3AM where with the con rate, I have to actually call.
But there were scads of furs on the train, including all the way up to our home station in CT.
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permalinkWell... seeing to the con being in june rather than in july already helps quite a lot, at least for transatlantic flights, as with july starts the main travel season within which flight are not rarely over 60% more expensive.
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