The "Best Airfare" Conundrum

Some of you remember back in the day when flying was a gigantic luxury.  The cost of airfare kept most American families out of the air and stuck to vacations within driving distance.  Then, as the economy changed, flying became more and more of a feasible way to get you from point A to B.  Because of that, slowly but surely flying became an ordinary thing for travelers and now it is something that everyone treats as a commodity on the open market.  "How cheap can I get it?"  That is now the standard measuring stick someone uses when looking to fly.

Article after article are being written about how you can attempt to get the cheapest price out there.  Some will tell you to make sure you buy on a Tuesday or a Thursday or try logging on a different computer in case the airline knows you were looking at that flight previously.  Some will tell you to fly on certain days in order to get a better fare (I will come back to flying on certain days in a minute).  And other "experts" will try to tell you to wait 60 days to buy before your trip or some other amount of time before you are wanting to fly.

But here is something that is very important when it comes to waiting or looking for cheaper airfare etc.; what if the flight you really wanted is sold out after you waited to see if airfare is getting any cheaper?  What if you really wanted to leave on a Thursday, but those flights are gone and now you are leaving on a Friday? What if your 6 night vacation just got shortened to a 5 night vacation because seats sold out?

The "how to get cheap airfare" articles never ever address the issue of sold out flights.  They also never address the issue of double connections or terrible layovers.

The majority of the traveling public will not want sit in an airport for 6 hours because that long layover saved the person $30.   The majority of our clients do not want to leave at 5am and arrive at their destination at 9pm because they left one airport, flew to another with a 3 hour layover, flew to another one with a 3 hour layover and then finally on to their destination.  But that all day-double connecting flight may have been the cheapest by $30-$40 each way.  Is the extra $60 to $80 worth it if you have to spend $20 to $40 for airport food because you traveled all day and on flights where there was no food service?  Is that extra savings worth the chance that your luggage may get lost between points A to D? We professionals say no it is not. We say there are more factors at play when deciding on what airline to fly and how much the ticket is going to cost.

So when looking at airfare, here are the criteria WE use for our clients when it comes to the air portion of their vacation:

1)  How early can we get you to your destination?  Our theory is to get you relaxed in a pool chair or hammock as quickly as possible.  Early morning departures with single connections and shorter layovers usually accomplish just that.  Early departures also allow for mishaps such as weather delays, mechanical issues etc.  If you are taking the last flight out because it is the cheapest, you have no room for mishaps and may end up spending the night in the airport.

2) How long is the layover?  We prefer an hour to 2 hours.  Anything shorter has the traveler at risk of missing a connection.  Anything longer than 2 hours is overkill and not preferable.

3) Where is the connecting city?  If you are flying in the winter, connecting in Dallas may be better than connecting in Chicago or Detroit.  If you are flying internationally, we know which airports have the better customs set-up and which ones do not.  Miami is horrific (generally) when it comes to getting through customs.  Dallas on the other hand seems to have theirs more organized and streamlined.  So connecting cities matter.

4) Are you flexible when it comes to schedule?  I mentioned above that I would come back to this. Flying on a Tuesday or Thursday may be preferable simply because the airports tend to be less crowded.  Forget the idea that it might be cheaper to fly on certain days.  I like to fly on certain days for the sake of possible shorter security lines and check in lines.  Sundays, Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays tend to be more crowded due to business and leisure travel. So regardless of being cheaper or not, days of the week can make for a better overall travel experience.

5) Do you have a frequent flier account?  United may be $50 cheaper than American, but you may have a frequent flier account with American and this next trip may give you enough miles for a free airline ticket on your next vacation.  So spending that extra $50 may end up saving you $500.

So again...none of the above is ever discussed in the "How to get cheap airfare" articles.  No one walks into a clothing store and says, "I want the cheapest pair of pants you have.  I don't care about how they fit, what they look like etc.  I just want the cheapest."  Yet so many treat their travel plans this way, especially when it comes to airfare.

So there you have it.  You now have our airfare advice and we didn't have to write some complicated computer program to help you figure it all out.

Google Flights...What You Should Know

There seems to be a lot of hubbub these days when it comes to Google and their dabble into the travel arena.  Some are saying it will transform our industry yet again while at the same time giving Google and particularly their new flight search site Google.com/flights way too many props for being some form of ingenious new way to book your airfare.  One recent travel writer made a claim that Google flights is even better than a travel agent.  So what I thought I would do is simply show what it does and explain how I even use it as a tool when looking for the best airfare for my clients.   Then you be the judge whether or not you think it is the best thing since sliced bread and professional advice from a experienced travel consultant.

First...let's be clear.  Google.com/flights is simply an airfare search page.  That is all it is.  It is not a vacation package booking engine.  It is not even an airfare booking engine.  It is simply a search site. Let me show you how it works and how I use it.  Let's assume you want to fly from good ole Nashvegas (that's Nashville to you lay-people) to Los Angeles during May of this year.  Let's even assume that your dates are flexible.  For the most part, regardless of advertising gimmicks, travelers and their schedules are usually not that flexible due to vacation times at work, school etc. But let's assume you ARE flexible and can travel at any point in May.

Here is what the search page would look like as you enter the originating airport, your destination airport and the dates of travel...

You can see that $322 round trip looks to be the best looking fare for the entire month of May.  So if I click on May 1st and then click on May 16th for my return...it shows me the following options for my outbound flight...

So after choosing the 6:00am departure...it shows me more details of that segment of the trip...

So in case you were unsure of what IAH stood for on the previous screen, you now know that your flight is connecting through Houston and has a 3+hour layover.   So then I went to the next step which was to select my return flight option.  To keep it in that $322 range, I decided to come home on the 1:30pm flight which connects through Chicago.

Now here is what I want you to notice.  I have the flights I want and it appears that the price is going to be $322 round trip for these flights.  So what is my next step?  Book them right here on the Google site? Is Google now also my booking engine? No, not at all.  In order to book this flight, Google is directing me to "book with United."  United's website is where I would actually go to book the flights.  So Google did a good job of showing prices and flights associated with those prices.  But did it offer advice on which airport is the easiest to connect through?  Did it tell you that a 48 min layover may not be enough time to make a connection through Chicago's O'hare Airport?  Did it advise you that taking the latest flight out leaves virtually no options in case a delay were to happen due to weather or mechanical trouble with an aircraft?   Did Google.com/flights offer any sound travel advice other than providing you with times and prices?

So does this new search site mark the end of the need for sound professional travel agent advice?  What is it doing that some search sites have not already done?  Is it neatly arranged and easy to navigate?  Yes!  That is why I use it to see which airline may be offering the best prices for a given destination during a given time.  I then take that info and head straight to the airline itself to book for my clients.  And here is something to keep in mind...it is not offering any better price than what you are going to get straight from the airline.  It is not a cost saver in that way...it is a search time saver.  So do I, a professional travel consultant, use Google.com/flights?  I sure do.  But let's not make it out to be more than it really is.

Price vs Value: When Cheap Is Not Always The Best Value

When consulting with clients about their upcoming vacation, I usually ask the all-important question...what is your budget for the trip?  Quite often I get the reply, "We want it as cheap as possible."

But do you really want the cheapest vacation possible?  What if the cheapest price consisted of the smallest room at the resort in the furthest spot possible away from the pool, restaurants and beach and adjacent to the employee entrance and trash dumpster?  What if the cheapest price possible meant that you flew on a flight that left your home airport at 5:30am, connected through 2 different airports, had 2+ hour layovers at each airport and did not arrive at your destination's airport until 8pm that night?  And coupled with that, what if the cheapest price then included a shared transfer that stopped at 3 different resorts before finally stopping at yours...1 hour later?

Does that "cheap" price sound like a bargain now?  This is why value has to trump "cheap" price.  So many of us pay $3 or more for a java-house coffee than what we would pay for making a cup of Folgers at home because we put value over price (better experience over the cheapest).  But when it comes to the life-long memories we will make on a vacation, so many think "must go cheap."

So let me lay out what might be a better value and experience over the one I just painted earlier.  Now you leave your home airport around 7am, you connect one time with a 1 hour layover and arrive at your destination's airport @12:00pm.  Your travel consultant has arranged private transfers for you.  You get through customs and you are greeted by a person who is now your personal concierge for the drive from the airport to the resort.  He or she chats with you on your drive about the things to see and do and you and your traveling companions are the only ones in the vehicle and the only stop is your resort.  You arrive at your resort and are checked in by 1:00pm.  You are escorted to your junior suite overlooking the blue waters of the Caribbean.  You change and are at the pool sipping your first umbrella drink by 1:30pm.

Now, scenario number 2 is not the cheapest option for that trip.  But which one has better value and will offer a better overall experience?  Imagine you paying for scenario number 2 and you sit at the pool (the next day) by someone who has paid for scenario number 1.  You both left the same hometown airport, you are at the same exact resort.  But the person who paid the cheapest is telling you that he paid $200 less than you did.  If you didn't know the details of their package, you might think, "Hey, that is not fair. I paid too much."  But if the scenario number 1 person was honest and told you about their long layovers and that their luggage got misplaced between connection 1 and 2 and they missed out on dinner because they arrived too late and you can smell trash every time they open their room door, would you feel like you then paid too much?

Should "cheap" always be the driving factor?  I say no.  But here is what you can do to help your own personal travel consultant; come up with a budget that you would be comfortable spending for your vacation.  Let your travel consultant know that upfront.  He or she has knowledge of what a good vacation will cost for a variety of destinations.  And if your consultant says, "It will be difficult to put together a GOOD package to that destination for those number of nights for that budget," listen to him or her.  Make adjustments necessary such as cut back the number of nights or possibly think of an alternative destination, or possibly look at a different budget etc.  But whatever you do, don't run out to the internet and think your "cheap" vacation you just found is apples to apples to what your consultant was trying to advise you about.  That cheap vacation may be just that...cheap.

If Coffee Could Fly

If coffee could fly, we would all be flying first class.  This will be a brief look into the psyche of the American traveler. Proceed with caution, I may be talking about you.

We live in an age where everyone wants Ritz Carlton accommodations at Motel 6 prices.  Americans will spend hours searching high and low for the absolute cheapest price on every aspect of their vacation.  Travelers will opt for flights that leave at 5:00am with connections in 3 different airports and that does not arrive at their actual destination until 11:00pm that night to save $100 on airfare and then complain about not getting a bag of pretzels for free.  That same traveler will book a room at a hotel that they found on patheticallydirtcheapgetaways.biz and then spend 45 minutes with the motel’s manager complaining about the fact that the room is located near the hotel’s trash compactor.

But get this; that same traveler, the one who just nickeled and dimed every part of their “dream vacation,” will then march down to their favorite coffee venue and order a double-shot, no foam, non-fat, latte with a hint of cinnamon sprinkled on top and pay over $3.00 for a Venti and never complain a bit about not getting a free muffin.  Oh…and they do that 5 days a week or more.  You do the math.

Go figure…