BobKop

STL-MWA sample date: 26-09
MWA-STL sample date: 26-09

Plenty of availability visible on ITA in August, September, October.

When paying with Maestro you can get the routes through a European website (www.exbir.de/flugsuche) for about $9 (€6,58/€6,69 OW); considering there is a 500 mile minimum, this will get you 1.8 cpm. IF you have another creditcard it will be €24, which is the normal ITA rate ($32), which is still 6.4 cpm.

Also; it's a Cessna 402





Thumbs up to www.exbir.de

aacharya

The 500 minimum applies for Cape Air. That makes this 1.8 cpm, or 0.9 cpm, if a R/T price. Insane.

I see is that it is skipping all US TSA and other flight segment taxes when using Maestro - as $32 would seem to be incorporating those.

PGV

Thank OP, it looks like a cheap way to fly the 402. Sorry for what might be newbie questions but how do you pay with Maestro and how do you get the site to reflect those fares? Thanks.

mediator

Maestro is a kind of debit card and widely used in EU. FWIW, it's not available in the States.

brumbrum

Maestro is NOT widely used anywhere. These scam sites (opodo, edreams, govolo, tripsta, bravofly, rumbo and many more) and their own aggregators (exbir/skycheck, jetcost) are simply advertising prices, which cannot be achieved. Sometimes you can achieve them with any very obscure card (the types are constantly changing), but even in this case these scammers let you buy some two tickets and then your card/name is blocked with no more possible purchases on all these sites.

skunker

Plus, the airline could make you pay those taxes at the airport.

brumbrum

IMO the airline gets it all from the OTA, when you΄re lucky enough to buy it. Still better for them to advertise unreal prices (and honour them in few cases while adding up to 100euros for the "card payment" to all the others) than if they΄ve had to play fair.

BobKop

You should double check before you make such claims. The fees for 'card payment' are added after discount, so normally it is only a few bucks above the normal price in the end.

I am not defending them, but you both are horribly misrepresenting the situation.

1. Almost EVERY debit card in the Netherlands and almost all the rest of Europe is Maestro, so it IS widely used in a lot of places, just not the US.
2. I have used some of them (Bravofly, Opodo) before with the low rates and had no problem; taxes did not have to be paid at the airport (ridiculous statement). when checking in the airliner shows the normal price, so nobody will ever come after you for any money later.
3. Some of the German websites (ab-in-den-urlaub) with discount accept American Express for the discount (obscure card? sure...)


The whole point of these websites is that they give discount on one card to end up high in the search results; and then hope the people don't have that card to book with, and book the normal price (plus a bit more). In the European Union they are legally obliged to show the all in price that needs to be bookable (hence the one card). This is the same for Ryanair (but there the lowest price you can only book using their own prepaid creditcard).

irishguy28

Maestro is used extensively around the world, and is ubiquitous in several European countries...

oliver2002

Elumbus is selling it for 7€ plus 5€ for Amex & Visa too:

https://www.kayak.de/flights/stl-mwa/2014-09-26/

If you manage to have the form of payment (fp) they are currently discount the offer at you will get a legit ticket, they issue the ticket with FP INV (Invoice) so the airline gets the full amount and internally swallow the difference with some marketing cost center. Last night I bought a trip on seat24.de (operated by a finnish OTA) and saved aprox 50€ per ticket. Payment with visa and MC was 0€ extra. Of course they try to sell you various insurances and try to scare you that no rebooking services will be offered if changes occur, but a savvy traveller knows their rights

irishguy28

What use are Cape Air miles to European fliers?

Or do people genuinely want to see St Louis and Williamson County?

brumbrum

101 euros (opodo-when buying a ticket for 22) means "few bucks" only for you.

BobKop

No, because I book with the right form of payment also, who would buy the €22 ticket when there is a €6 ticket? if they were really scammers, they would make a €5 ticket and then charge €100. You just don't make sense. They are not scammers, they just pray on people who don't look beyond that website. That's called business, not a scam. A scam is when someone doesn't know they are being taken advantage off. Do you call it a scam when the same seat in a plane is more expensive with the original airline than with the codeshare? Same principle.

Tripsta: Maestro = €0 extra, the rest €34 extra. So just book somewhere else if you don't have Maestro.
And yes: Elumbus is selling it for 7€ plus 5€ for Amex & Visa


EDIT: I just checked Opodo, and the extra charges on the ticket are:

- AmEx:€20
- MasterCard: €20
- Visa: €20

So I'm not sure what you are talking about...?


So please, brumbrum: just don't book it. We'll be flying the flights without you; who wants a pessimist next to them on a plane anyway

brumbrum

1) almost every card? Funny...
2) me too. Currently I'm blocked as is anyone who bought more than two tickets. Many discussions write about the same.
3)amex is the same case. Sadly EU legislative probably permits such scams. Only the .co.uk versions are writing that it's for few people (the last fair country in Europe)
4) yes, it's their point and I don't. see a reason why to help them scamming people this way by copying such a "deals" from exbir.
5) sure, you can still think that paying five times the price of ticket for the card pprocessing is ok and that maestro is a standard card when buying tickets. Civilizated countries call it scam or at least misleading advertisement.

irishguy28

Where are you based, brumbrum?

Almost all Dutch "Pinpas" cards are Maestro cards. (They may even all be Maestro cards, as I don't know of any Dutch bank that issues cards that are NOT Maestro). The system is almost as ubiquitous in Germany. In Europe, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, and the UK all issue Maestro cards. The old Laser card system in Ireland that was discontinued earlier this year was also a Maestro system.