
On plane travel - ditados
http://blogs.gnome.org/otte/2011/10/08/on-plane-travel/
======
joshwa
The ultimate travel geek toolbox:

<http://matrix.itasoftware.com> \- especially once you learn the advanced QPX
language, e.g.:

    
    
        SFO,LAX CX,AA,KE F HKG,ICN,NRT ~CZ+ KMG
    

Search for flights from LAX or SFO, on Cathay Pacific, American, or Korean
Air, a single flight to stopover cities Hong Kong, Seoul, or Tokyo, then any
number of flights except on China Southern to Kunming, China (where I happen
to live).

They're also the source of inspiration for Hipmunk's Time Bar interface.

The one downside: you can't book directly through them. But once you know your
exact itinerary you can go book somewhere else. Sometimes you'll have to call
to get the fare code/construction that Matrix recommends, as it won't always
come up in an airline website or kayak search.

<http://kvstool.com/> (Subscription required, windows/WINE) Search all kinds
of fare, routing, timetable, award info. Uses the Sabre, Amadeus, and
Worldspan (the 3 major info brokers). Has a pretty decent mobile website that
has saved my ass more than once (I can see that there's open seats in business
on a particular flight, etc).

And down the rabbit hole: <http://flyertalk.com/>

Lots of people also like <http://expertflyer.com/> (subscription required) as
a web-based alternative to KVSTool, but I find its search engine too
restrictive and the results more difficult to quickly parse.

~~~
ben1040
The ITA Matrix tool was ridiculously helpful when dealing with my old
company's corporate travel agent. They would invariably put me on some
horrible flight schedule unless I used Matrix to find the best route and just
give them the flight numbers to book.

It also was great the one time I was 4 segments away from requalifying for
platinum on AA and needed to make it up before the end of the year. That
routing language is good when you need to stuff extra segments into a trip and
have them be on a specific airline.

Turned out the cheapest route was to have me go to Omaha (by way of Chicago)
where I met a friend for lunch in the airport cafeteria and then hopped right
back on a plane home.

------
cletus
> 6\. ook with the airline

Unfortunately, I have to agree here, which is unfortunate for sites like
Hipmunk and Kayak.

I once booked through Expedia (years ago) a return flight from the UK to
Australia and accidentally picked the wrong airport. I lived not far from
Heathrow but I picked a departure from Gatwick and return to Heathrow. I rang
up the airline (Emirates) and they said they could change it if it was booked
through them and Expedia were no help.

Nowadays American Airlines has all my details so booking flights through their
website is easy.

Hipmunk provides a great interface and I feel bad for not booking through it
but I've been burnt on this a number of times so just won't do it anymore.

Plus there are other advantages like seat selection through the airline's
website.

Perhaps the business model for online travel booking needs to evolve from the
current commission model to an affiliate model like Amazon. If, say, Hipmunk
directs you to aa.com they get a commission on purchases made by you on aa.com
for the next 24 hours or whatever.

------
corin_
Maybe it's just because I've flown far too many times, but this seems to be
such general and obvious information, stuff that would seem common sense to my
mother who isn't exactly high-tech. Are there really people, other than those
obsessed by loyaly miles, who _don't_ look at different airlines, and there
really people who, if they don't have a rock solid requirement of the date,
check +/- a few days?

The biggest tip I would add on: just because an airport is named for a city,
doesn't mean it is close. For example budget airlines in Europe often pick
really shit airports, such as London Stansted, or there's an Oslo airport that
is ~90 minutes away from Oslo. Even for decent airports, depending on your
final destination, there could be a big upside/downside chosing between London
Heathrow or London Gatwick... New York JFK or Newark..

~~~
flipbrad
I'd add many, many others, for example: don't book priority boarding with
ryanair if you're a solo traveller; just get on last (this also means you get
to keep your legs stretched as long as possible) and sit between the people at
the front who always grab a window and aisle seat. Everyone else then roams
further in to do the same, midway down the plane, leaving the middle seat
free.

~~~
mongol
I don't understand what you mean with sit between people in the front. What is
the point of that? Is not the middle seat something you want to avoid?

~~~
flipbrad
Ryanair flights are packed so tight to the aisle (which sees so much traffic
by Ryanair's cart-pushing peddlers) that aisle seats are simply a guarantee of
getting your shoulders or feet barged, not extra comfort. Fool's gold. The
benefits to sitting at the front (besides not having to get on til you
absolutely have to) are hassle-free and speedy embarking and disembarking,
beating the rush to passport control/immigration desks.

------
apaprocki
"Hacking" airports is especially useful due to certain airport layouts. #1
rule about standing in line: everyone just stands in line without
understanding why they are standing in line.

For instance, in Philadelphia, the airport security is outside of the inner
walkway which connects terminals D & E. E was the international terminal, so
there was always way less traffic going in/out of the gate. Sometimes D would
have a security line backed up to the curb. Simply walk over to terminal E and
bypass the entire line.

Similarly, in LaGuardia, there are _two_ taxi lines outside the American
terminal. One is all the way at the end, hidden from sight. Everyone not
familiar with the airport just lines up at the main one and if you walk around
the edge of the terminal you can hop in a taxi right away.

Anyone seriously optimizing their travel, though, will most likely be a
loyalty member of some airline alliance and the goal is to maximize your
upgrades (free or otherwise) to always fly business/first.

For example, AA has a "challenge" where you can automatically earn Platinum
status if you earn 10,000 points in 90 days. This isn't terribly difficult if
you're flying to an international conference. You quite literally call a 1-800
number and say "I want to take the challenge." Platinum gives you automatic
domestic business class upgrades when available!

------
gst
And on Roundtrip vs. Oneway:

In most cases roundtrip is way cheaper, even if you only require a oneway
flight. The cheapest roundtrip from Vienna to San Francisco is something like
700 EUR, with oneway it costs around twice as much for half the flights (1400
EUR).

One notable exception for flights between US and Europe is Air Berlin, where
oneway costs only half of roundtrip. But they only fly on certain days under
the week and may therefore not show up when you search for a site.

Next best option is to just book roundtrip and just let the return flight
expire. Warning: Most airlines invalidate all the other flights after you've
missed on of them. So make sure to only let the last flight(s) expire.

And the most important rule at the end: Never ever (even if it's free) fly Air
France or over CGD airport. The experiences I had there were (multiple times)
so awfully bad that one wouldn't believe them if I told then.

------
s1rech
I try to always fly with Lufthansa, even if it is a bit more expensive. They
are usually on time and they serve food and drinks. You can almost guarantee
that Iberia will have some delay. KLM is also nice.

To avoid: Ryanair. Seriously, even if it's cheap it is not worth it. Also, the
one time I flew with Alitalia I got the worst headache I've gotten flying.

~~~
jamesbkel
Obviously it's anecdotal, but I've also had a few bad Alitalia experiences and
plan not to ever fly with them again.

------
eding
anyone who is a serious frequent flyer needs to be on flyertalk.com - its
basically the ultimate hub for all things related to flying and frequent flyer
programs and airport rules and ticketing tricks. one can also trade
'instruments' on their coupon connection forum.

------
moeffju
<http://rome2rio.com/> actually took a lot of hassle out of flying for me.
Sure, they don't list "no-frills" airlines like Ryanair, but I don't want to
fly those anyway. Check them out if you don't know the site yet, they were on
HN some months ago.

Also, <http://skyscanner.net/> has not been mentioned yet. From the article,
Amadeus seems to do something similar, but I've only used Skyscanner so far
and have been quite happy with the results.

------
enra
Seems like Hipmunk should integrate Airport ratings to their flights, and
stuff like if there's a free wifi available.

------
andrewcooke
it recommends amadeus <http://www.amadeus.net/> which i've never used before.
now that i try it out, i cant see any prices! am i doing something stupid?
does anyone else see prices? if not, what's the idea? how do i know these are
lowest cost?

~~~
steve-howard
I'm seeing prices in british pounds, which isn't terribly useful to me. I
generally use kayak.com to look for flights, and this looks like an exact copy
of the interface.

~~~
andrewcooke
ah! it seems that it doesn't show prices if you select multiple destinations
(i was planning a round trip SCL - SEA - SFO - SCL). but when i try a simple
return i see the same as you. thanks.

