
How to Beat High Airfares (2011) - Plasmoid
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/magazine/mag-08subversion-t.html?_r=1
======
useful
Part of my job is to prevent this. We are very good at cancelling your ticket
based on airline rules if we know you wont get on a plane based on your other
flights. Airlines ban/fine travel agents (and sometimes passengers) that abuse
their rules.

~~~
tnuc
You're not doing a very good job.

Almost all my flights these days use a 3X to reduce the YQ.

The economist does a fairly good job at explaining it.
[http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2013/11/fuel-
dumping](http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2013/11/fuel-dumping)

~~~
jbkkd
Could you tell us some more about how you do it?

~~~
exhilaration
_Experienced dumpers scorn novices seeking guidance, unless the newcomers can
offer hot new 3Xs in exchange._

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outericky
According to this story [1], in 2012 airlines made just $0.37 per passenger
trip. So, while I think the inefficient pricing is in need of repair, to say
that prices are too high, is unfortunately not true. I hate paying for
transcontinental flights as much as the next guy, but what other way can you
cover 3000 miles that cheaply and quickly?

[1] [http://online.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-
fo...](http://online.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for-
losers-1410535536)

~~~
jib
Is that because of pricing or because of company structure/setup though?
Ryanair is currently predicting 510M profit on 81M trips in Europe for 2014.

Not saying they are a model company in any way (the main thing I disagree with
is some of their employee treatment), but they are certainly proving that it
is possible to operate a profitable airline with low prices and high quality.

~~~
jacob019
only $6.30 profit per trip and that's the best example of a profitable
airline, crazy

~~~
jib
That is on about 3-4B revenue or so though, so its actually a pretty good
profit margin.

~~~
jacob019
That would be only $49 in revenue per trip, seems low.

~~~
Someone1234
When you put it in those terms it seems almost insane. How can any company
operate on such low margins? I mean, yes, the "Walmart model" is the answer,
but it seems like they could go under very easily if hit by something
unexpected.

~~~
epochwolf
> it seems like they could go under very easily if hit by something unexpected

They do.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_bankruptcies_in_the_Uni...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_bankruptcies_in_the_United_States)

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phantom784
A risk of this is that the airline is only required to get you to the actual
destination your purchased. If your flight is cancelled, they could re-book
you with a routing that doesn't fly through your intended destination.

~~~
TeMPOraL
They should start doing that, or something similar. Say you book a flight from
city A to city B, but you really intend to drop off at the place C which is
the middle-stop. Airlines could every now and then switch the route to go
through a different city D without announcing it in advance. Getting stuck in
a different city at random would quickly drive the point home to cheaters.

~~~
Someone1234
That's unlikely simply because it would upset a lot of people, non-cheaters,
as it both alters their itinerary but also alters the total travel time (e.g.
8 hrs instead of 6 hrs).

Plus that isn't really how aircraft travel works, it isn't a single aircraft
which travels from A to B to C, it is a connection which only exists because
aircraft A and B land at the same airport within 30-60 minutes of one another.

Now everyone understands if there is an aircraft issue/emergency and the
airline needs to re-route you. But if they started making a random habit of it
just for "fun" (to catch less than 0.1% of their customers) people would get
upset very quickly.

~~~
nostrademons
It would also wreak havoc with the airlines' routing system. The reason this
hack works is because airlines try to route connecting flights through hub
cities so that many different passengers can get to many different cities; if
they routed the connection through a different city, suddenly all the _other_
passengers would find themselves with no way to get to a final destination.

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misterbwong
The article is touting hidden city ticketing. While this is still a valid
strategy, one needs to be careful when employing it as the airlines hate this
behavior. It's not against the law but (I think) it is against their contract
of carriage.

Better (and less dodgy) advice would be to follow these websites:

[http://www.theflightdeal.com/](http://www.theflightdeal.com/) (my current
favorite)

[http://faredealalert.com/](http://faredealalert.com/)

[http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/](http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/)

Set up an IFTTT alert on the RSS feed for your home airport and/or desired
destination and jump on it when you get the notification.

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nathancahill
Here's a site that lets you search for these flights:
[https://skiplagged.com/](https://skiplagged.com/)

I've used it many times, usually saving around 50% on flights. I never check
bags anyway, so it works out well.

~~~
Someone1234
You can use a similar technique to get ultra-cheap First/Business class
tickets to places like Europe.

You book a flight to some poorer European country, like Poland for one
example, it will have a stop-over in either Paris or London, you then
disembark there.

The tickets will be partly based on the cost of living in the destination
(Poland) so be significantly cheaper than a ticket to London or Paris direct
in those classes (i.e. same exact aircraft, same route, same class, but
cheaper).

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joshvm
There was a great Stack post on this a while ago. Basically it always boils
down to booking early, really, that's how you get those cheap flights. The
"book a few weeks before" option is bunk.

For most of us Europeans, jumping off at a stopover isn't an option, although
it _is_ possible to do this on trains sometimes (and actually it's very legal,
you're entitled to break your journey at a valid calling point).

[https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/2952/flight-
ticke...](https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/2952/flight-tickets-buy-
two-weeks-before-even-during-holiday-seasons)

~~~
pidg
In the UK, you can break your rail journey on the flexible ticket types, but
not on Advance fares.

So you can either get a good deal by booking in advance, _or_ by breaking a
cheaper, longer journey - but not both.

~~~
joshvm
Not to mention that you should always split tickets if possible, particularly
if you change service providers. That and avoid London and First Great
Western; their ticket prices are obscene.

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frequentflyeru
If you really want to beat high airfare, stop buying tickets and figure out
how to accrue frequent flyer miles at the lowest rate. BoardingArea.com is a
good resource. Few years back, people figured out US Mint was selling gold $1
coins at cost + free shipping, so people (myself included) bought them on
their mileage earning credit card and just re-deposited the coins into the
bank. Some people earned $1M+ miles for free.
[http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB126014168569179245](http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB126014168569179245)

~~~
r00fus
Do these kind of arbitration opportunities still exist except as mistakes? I
assume that channel would have been made unprofitable after discovery...

~~~
fennecfoxen
It's arbitrage, not arbitration. I believe the mint began by denying orders
from people suspected of being crazy-exploitative, and ultimately terminated
the program altogether. (You can still order the coins, but you'll have to pay
for shipping.)

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kazinator
How the airlines could confront this is by not reliably stopping in the
intermediate cities. That is to say, multi-leg flights should sometimes not
stop in those some of the intermediate destinations, so that passengers who
want to get off there using a cheaper ticket face a gamble: the risk of ending
up in the wrong city, wasting time and money to get where they really want.
Yes, the plane has to pick up people from those place, but the logistics of
that could be worked in with the uncertainty so those people are taken care
of. Some other plane grabs them in that case or whatever. Perhaps another
airline's plane with some kind of sharing plan.

Say two airlines N and M have flights from A to D. One airline stops over at
B, and the other at C. They could enter into a flight sharing agreement so
that they pick up each other's passengers at B and C. Then it is not known
whether any given N or M flight will stop at B or whether at C. The only sure
destination is D.

(Not saying I agree with this, but it's better than other tactics, like
bullying customers who are only behaving rationally. "May or may not stop in
Dallas": problem solved.)

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serve_yay
The biggest problem is as they point out - you can't check your bag, and if
you board too late they will force you to check it. Then you're screwed. So
you get that unique modern form of anxiety - trying to board the plane before
everyone else so you don't have to gate check. You better have a bookbag and
nothing else.

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jacob019
I don't see how this could work for the return flight. If I book Indianapolis
to LA to get a cheaper ticket to Denver, I would still need a flight back from
Denver, so even if I save 20% on the first flight, I'm only saving 10% on the
round trip. Am I missing something?

~~~
mikegreen
You have to book two one-way tickets. One IND-LAX thru DIA, and another one
DIA-LAX. If you booked a round-trip IND-LAX, both thru Denver, and you skipped
the DIA-LAX on the outbound, the rest of your ticket will be cancelled.

It can be substantial even doing it one-way, a popular route I flew into ORD
was $454 each way on its own, but going thru ORD onto somewhere like MKE was
$89-105 consistently. So even with the full-fare ticket back, it would reduce
the price from nearly $900 r/t to $600ish. YMMV.

~~~
nostrademons
Alternatively you could do a second hidden-city trip, eg.DIA->ANX via LAX, and
just not not use the second leg of the return trip.

~~~
noer
airlines will cancel your ticket if you don't get on the plane for the first
leg

~~~
nostrademons
Two one-ways, two different airlines. Fly from, say, LA to Indianapolis via
Denver on, say, Delta and get off at Denver. For the return trip, fly Denver
to Anchorage via LA on say Alaska Airlines and get off at LA. You have
completed your travel plans, and from the perspective of each airline, you
just missed your connection on a one-way trip.

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Dawenster
I heard about this a while back so my friend and I made this search engine:
[http://www.flyshortcut.com/](http://www.flyshortcut.com/). Only works in
North America, and like most people say - be mindful of the risks!

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geofffox
I know it's supposedly new thinking, but I used this trick often in 1970-71.
Flying to West Palm Beach from LaGuardia was more expensive than just getting
off a flight that stopped at PBI while continuing to Miami.

Thank you Eastern Airlines.

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_dark_matter_
This needs a (2011) tag.

~~~
cake
That's why the tips felt so irrelevant.

Last time I checked booking two tickets made no difference, kayak and all are
all well known and I hope that everyone checks at least if there's not a
cheaper alternative with these. Usually I can't find anything that I didn't
know about, maybe it's because the number of airlines is diminushing every
year.

I must also add that I hate those people coming with huge bags, filling the
overhead bins as advised in the article. There's no room in the cabin, the old
lady won't be able to lift it on her own or you'll get the bag in the face
because she's not carefull. In my opinion only backpacks and laptops bags
should be allowed, the way it used to be (not so old man rant).

