Nov 20, 2013, 7:48 am
Last edit by: Pat89339
Do not call the airlines under any conditions! This is the fastest way to kill the trick and bring unwanted attention to your itinerary! And do not post precious deals in this thread, this is by far the fastest way to kill the trick!
************************************************** ******
This is NOT the right place to ask: "Can you help me with a low fare for AAA-BBB?" This is not the beg-it thread, but the trick-it thread.
This thread deals with unique combinations of routes and booking tricks in order to lower prices on airline fares. Prices that would astound the general public are often achieved by the posters in this thread.
Many people, including airline representatives, monitor this thread. For that reason, it is unorganized, very content heavy, often lacking details, and written in shorthand. It takes patience and effort in order to understand the conversation and be able to participate as an active member.
We encourage you to read the entirety of this thread if you would like to get started and to experiment as soon as you understand the gist of Trick It. Lots of time spent reading, practicing, and learning is the only way to be able to reproduce our tricks and discover new ones yourself. There are many, many people who ask for advice here, so productive members are only able to help those who have shown a concerted effort and progress over a long period of time (months).
If you have no idea what this thread is about, a good place to start are various blogs' posts on the subject. At the very least, read the Rules for posting in this thread. They're also listed in the very first post, below.
Older portions of the thread have been separated into archive thread by year. They are listed below
2008 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2009 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2010 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2011 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2012 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2013 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2014 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
************************************************** ******
This is NOT the right place to ask: "Can you help me with a low fare for AAA-BBB?" This is not the beg-it thread, but the trick-it thread.
This thread deals with unique combinations of routes and booking tricks in order to lower prices on airline fares. Prices that would astound the general public are often achieved by the posters in this thread.
Many people, including airline representatives, monitor this thread. For that reason, it is unorganized, very content heavy, often lacking details, and written in shorthand. It takes patience and effort in order to understand the conversation and be able to participate as an active member.
We encourage you to read the entirety of this thread if you would like to get started and to experiment as soon as you understand the gist of Trick It. Lots of time spent reading, practicing, and learning is the only way to be able to reproduce our tricks and discover new ones yourself. There are many, many people who ask for advice here, so productive members are only able to help those who have shown a concerted effort and progress over a long period of time (months).
If you have no idea what this thread is about, a good place to start are various blogs' posts on the subject. At the very least, read the Rules for posting in this thread. They're also listed in the very first post, below.
Older portions of the thread have been separated into archive thread by year. They are listed below
2008 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2009 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2010 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2011 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2012 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2013 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2014 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
Trick it / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
Sep 28, 2017, 3:14 pm
#8552
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: CDG, ORY
Posts: 116
is that 3x dump 100% C2-C1 flight on that same career im trying but nothing good at the moment :P , can you confirm that your 3x dump also. c2-C1 possibility ?
thanks guys
Sep 28, 2017, 3:49 pm
#8554
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: CDG, ORY
Posts: 116
Sep 28, 2017, 5:31 pm
#8555
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: New York Metropolitan Area 45 km from JFK
Programs: UA,AA,AS,BA
Posts: 4,607
This post is meant to give credit to fd contributors and also share my learning curve experience for noobs, wanting to get in to this hobby.[/B]
Here is 3x my contribution (found it this morning)
Fly from trump tower to famous city in Province of Varese via largest city in the Maghreb. BF is $3.00
You can ITA it with 3x to/from C3ne to dump 100%. You can negotiate for $195.xx including my 3x (can you lower it with cheaper 3x? let me know)
Happy hunting!
Here is 3x my contribution (found it this morning)
Fly from trump tower to famous city in Province of Varese via largest city in the Maghreb. BF is $3.00
You can ITA it with 3x to/from C3ne to dump 100%. You can negotiate for $195.xx including my 3x (can you lower it with cheaper 3x? let me know)
Happy hunting!
You may have missed posting on Sep 9, 17, 2:53 pm. Posting and pricing referred to and included
additional "flexibility" option.
Base Fares have come down quite a bit since then, now as low as $ 1.00
Last edited by WingedWorldExplorer; Sep 28, 2017 at 5:40 pm
Sep 29, 2017, 8:31 am
#8556
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 51
This post is meant to give credit to fd contributors and also share my learning curve experience for noobs, wanting to get in to this hobby.
There are many contributors but I want to give shout out to jorun, RangeXT, FrankTalk, giggy, BryanIAH, janetdoe, man4business, Mr. Bean and last but not least, WWE. I and many other have greatly benefited from your knowledge in picking this new hobby. Thank you for your posts throughout the years. Some of em are now on sabbatical leave from this tread, but please note, your past contribution are not forgone.
Thank you.
Few bullet point for new comers, form slightly old new comers
…
• Do not ask for strikes - if you just want low airfare, you will not get help, might get flamed. It is hobby, Sr. member are willing to help you if ask intelligent question that reflects that your research and thread rules
• Read this thread from beginning but ... intelligently. This is very long post, a lot of it will not make sense to you, most of tricks no longer work, but if you follow users I called out earlier, you will improve your FD101 very quickly.
• It will help if you are good with programming, I downloaded this whole thread, made note of “coded tricks”, search for any past reference and context around it to have some understanding. Make sure to google the coded keyword that can provide additional understanding. Hint: do word count by post and look for the longest posts. Those are the most helpfuls ones.
• Invest time in understanding fare rules (available thru ITA). Once you have good understanding, you can then get creative.
• Search, search and search. My first 3 fd came thru while I was following specific lead from thread, I never got replicated that specific trick but instead found other ones.
• Utilize tools if you can but you get by without. My stack involves ITA, expert flyers, farefreaks, my own compiled db with open source flight and airport database, and script to lookup OTAs.
• Most of my bullets have been mentioned previously... I am simply reiterating for new comers like me.
Here is 3x my contribution (found it this morning)
Fly from trump tower to famous city in Province of Varese via largest city in the Maghreb. BF is $3.00
You can ITA it with 3x to/from C3ne to dump 100%. You can negotiate for $195.xx including my 3x (can you lower it with cheaper 3x? let me know)
Happy hunting!
There are many contributors but I want to give shout out to jorun, RangeXT, FrankTalk, giggy, BryanIAH, janetdoe, man4business, Mr. Bean and last but not least, WWE. I and many other have greatly benefited from your knowledge in picking this new hobby. Thank you for your posts throughout the years. Some of em are now on sabbatical leave from this tread, but please note, your past contribution are not forgone.
Thank you.
Few bullet point for new comers, form slightly old new comers
…• Do not ask for strikes - if you just want low airfare, you will not get help, might get flamed. It is hobby, Sr. member are willing to help you if ask intelligent question that reflects that your research and thread rules
• Read this thread from beginning but ... intelligently. This is very long post, a lot of it will not make sense to you, most of tricks no longer work, but if you follow users I called out earlier, you will improve your FD101 very quickly.
• It will help if you are good with programming, I downloaded this whole thread, made note of “coded tricks”, search for any past reference and context around it to have some understanding. Make sure to google the coded keyword that can provide additional understanding. Hint: do word count by post and look for the longest posts. Those are the most helpfuls ones.
• Invest time in understanding fare rules (available thru ITA). Once you have good understanding, you can then get creative.
• Search, search and search. My first 3 fd came thru while I was following specific lead from thread, I never got replicated that specific trick but instead found other ones.
• Utilize tools if you can but you get by without. My stack involves ITA, expert flyers, farefreaks, my own compiled db with open source flight and airport database, and script to lookup OTAs.
• Most of my bullets have been mentioned previously... I am simply reiterating for new comers like me.
Here is 3x my contribution (found it this morning)
Fly from trump tower to famous city in Province of Varese via largest city in the Maghreb. BF is $3.00
You can ITA it with 3x to/from C3ne to dump 100%. You can negotiate for $195.xx including my 3x (can you lower it with cheaper 3x? let me know)
Happy hunting!
I'm still very new to this and only flown 1 3X so far, but to my surprise I figured out your contribution within 5 minutes. I would definitely fly this, if I could get this working out of one city in Canada this airline flies to. Bit of a pain to travel to "Trump tower" or other US cities for a dirt cheap price error or 3X lol.
Thanks again
Sep 29, 2017, 8:41 am
#8557
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: CDG, ORY
Posts: 116
Thanks for your post and contribution
I'm still very new to this and only flown 1 3X so far, but to my surprise I figured out your contribution within 5 minutes. I would definitely fly this, if I could get this working out of one city in Canada this airline flies to. Bit of a pain to travel to "Trump tower" or other US cities for a dirt cheap price error or 3X lol.
Thanks again
I'm still very new to this and only flown 1 3X so far, but to my surprise I figured out your contribution within 5 minutes. I would definitely fly this, if I could get this working out of one city in Canada this airline flies to. Bit of a pain to travel to "Trump tower" or other US cities for a dirt cheap price error or 3X lol.
Thanks again
I tried to check for that city who that airlines flies too --> this destination has a high BF and the price is high too.
Good luck.
Sep 29, 2017, 8:59 am
#8558
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: New York Metropolitan Area 45 km from JFK
Programs: UA,AA,AS,BA
Posts: 4,607
El AL + AA Tel Aviv - New York with 1 week stop-over in European Capital € 488 ,01
LY/AA TLV - JFK - TLV with 1 week stop-over in European Capital
€ 488 ,01 . Bookable on .IT and .NL OTAs.
No 1X
€ 488 ,01 . Bookable on .IT and .NL OTAs.
No 1X
Last edited by WingedWorldExplorer; Sep 29, 2017 at 9:36 am
Sep 29, 2017, 1:03 pm
#8560
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 1,610
I have a specific question if someone has gotten screwed on their 3x due to visa rules.
Here's the situation:
Lets say PRG - JFK - PRG roundtrip is say $1000. As a US citizen I can fly this no issues.
Now lets say I have found a 3x such that say adding PRG - SVO upto one week later brings the fare down (not more than a week gap). But as a US citizen I will need a visa to enter russia which is $$$. Obviously not planning on flying this segment.
But .... when I'm boarding PRG - JFK - PRG (specially inbound JFK - PRG), is there a visa-check for Russia or would they say "oh you have a week till your connecting PRG-SVO flight, so we will only check visa eligibility for PRG for now". I understand that a visa check is 100% if I bought the ticket with < 24 hour layover JFK - PRG - SVO. But what if the ticket is bought with a PRG stopover 1 week gap?
Do we have real-life experiences of this?
Here's the situation:
Lets say PRG - JFK - PRG roundtrip is say $1000. As a US citizen I can fly this no issues.
Now lets say I have found a 3x such that say adding PRG - SVO upto one week later brings the fare down (not more than a week gap). But as a US citizen I will need a visa to enter russia which is $$$. Obviously not planning on flying this segment.
But .... when I'm boarding PRG - JFK - PRG (specially inbound JFK - PRG), is there a visa-check for Russia or would they say "oh you have a week till your connecting PRG-SVO flight, so we will only check visa eligibility for PRG for now". I understand that a visa check is 100% if I bought the ticket with < 24 hour layover JFK - PRG - SVO. But what if the ticket is bought with a PRG stopover 1 week gap?
Do we have real-life experiences of this?
Sep 29, 2017, 1:43 pm
#8561
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: AY Plat
Posts: 15
Boston-London Non-Stop
Helsinki-New York Non Stop
$ 159.18 All-in OneWorld Bookable on US OTA.
Originate in New York ( NYC-LON // HEL-NYC) and price is $ 169.93
Use AA BCN-JFK Non Stop as return and pay $ 176.88
In this case ITA is your friend, if programmed correctly.
Helsinki-New York Non Stop
$ 159.18 All-in OneWorld Bookable on US OTA.
Originate in New York ( NYC-LON // HEL-NYC) and price is $ 169.93
Use AA BCN-JFK Non Stop as return and pay $ 176.88
In this case ITA is your friend, if programmed correctly.
Sep 29, 2017, 4:28 pm
#8562
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: New York Metropolitan Area 45 km from JFK
Programs: UA,AA,AS,BA
Posts: 4,607
Strike works equally well in reverse. Especially from PRG/OSL/ARN/TLV/VCE/VNO/GVA/ATH and PMI.
Even LCA is not too bad.
Last edited by WingedWorldExplorer; Sep 29, 2017 at 4:44 pm
Oct 1, 2017, 1:50 am
#8563
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 11
Hello friend,
with my small experience, not all what you find on ITA you are going to find it on OTA to book.
i have an exemple that im working on it since 1 week --> no OTA to book my flight C2 - C6 for 492 euros with CA & 3x strike.
all OTA show me the price of 950 euros. hard to me with my little experience to book, i asked for help in earlier post.
Thanks for all
with my small experience, not all what you find on ITA you are going to find it on OTA to book.
i have an exemple that im working on it since 1 week --> no OTA to book my flight C2 - C6 for 492 euros with CA & 3x strike.
all OTA show me the price of 950 euros. hard to me with my little experience to book, i asked for help in earlier post.
Thanks for all
Oct 1, 2017, 2:58 pm
#8564
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: LPL/MAN
Programs: *G (Aegean); AF/KL Silver; BA Bronze; Amex Platinum, Priority Pass.
Posts: 15
This post is meant to give credit to fd contributors and also share my learning curve experience for noobs, wanting to get in to this hobby.
There are many contributors but I want to give shout out to jorun, RangeXT, FrankTalk, giggy, BryanIAH, janetdoe, man4business, Mr. Bean and last but not least, WWE. I and many other have greatly benefited from your knowledge in picking this new hobby. Thank you for your posts throughout the years. Some of em are now on sabbatical leave from this tread, but please note, your past contribution are not forgone.
Thank you.
Few bullet point for new comers, form slightly old new comers …
• Do not ask for strikes - if you just want low airfare, you will not get help, might get flamed. It is hobby, Sr. member are willing to help you if ask intelligent question that reflects that your research and thread rules
• Read this thread from beginning but ... intelligently. This is very long post, a lot of it will not make sense to you, most of tricks no longer work, but if you follow users I called out earlier, you will improve your FD101 very quickly.
• It will help if you are good with programming, I downloaded this whole thread, made note of “coded tricks”, search for any past reference and context around it to have some understanding. Make sure to google the coded keyword that can provide additional understanding. Hint: do word count by post and look for the longest posts. Those are the most helpfuls ones.
• Invest time in understanding fare rules (available thru ITA). Once you have good understanding, you can then get creative.
• Search, search and search. My first 3 fd came thru while I was following specific lead from thread, I never got replicated that specific trick but instead found other ones.
• Utilize tools if you can but you get by without. My stack involves ITA, expert flyers, farefreaks, my own compiled db with open source flight and airport database, and script to lookup OTAs.
• Most of my bullets have been mentioned previously... I am simply reiterating for new comers like me.
Here is 3x my contribution (found it this morning)
Fly from trump tower to famous city in Province of Varese via largest city in the Maghreb. BF is $3.00
You can ITA it with 3x to/from C3ne to dump 100%. You can negotiate for $195.xx including my 3x (can you lower it with cheaper 3x? let me know)
Happy hunting!
There are many contributors but I want to give shout out to jorun, RangeXT, FrankTalk, giggy, BryanIAH, janetdoe, man4business, Mr. Bean and last but not least, WWE. I and many other have greatly benefited from your knowledge in picking this new hobby. Thank you for your posts throughout the years. Some of em are now on sabbatical leave from this tread, but please note, your past contribution are not forgone.
Thank you.
Few bullet point for new comers, form slightly old new comers
…• Do not ask for strikes - if you just want low airfare, you will not get help, might get flamed. It is hobby, Sr. member are willing to help you if ask intelligent question that reflects that your research and thread rules
• Read this thread from beginning but ... intelligently. This is very long post, a lot of it will not make sense to you, most of tricks no longer work, but if you follow users I called out earlier, you will improve your FD101 very quickly.
• It will help if you are good with programming, I downloaded this whole thread, made note of “coded tricks”, search for any past reference and context around it to have some understanding. Make sure to google the coded keyword that can provide additional understanding. Hint: do word count by post and look for the longest posts. Those are the most helpfuls ones.
• Invest time in understanding fare rules (available thru ITA). Once you have good understanding, you can then get creative.
• Search, search and search. My first 3 fd came thru while I was following specific lead from thread, I never got replicated that specific trick but instead found other ones.
• Utilize tools if you can but you get by without. My stack involves ITA, expert flyers, farefreaks, my own compiled db with open source flight and airport database, and script to lookup OTAs.
• Most of my bullets have been mentioned previously... I am simply reiterating for new comers like me.
Here is 3x my contribution (found it this morning)
Fly from trump tower to famous city in Province of Varese via largest city in the Maghreb. BF is $3.00
You can ITA it with 3x to/from C3ne to dump 100%. You can negotiate for $195.xx including my 3x (can you lower it with cheaper 3x? let me know)
Happy hunting!
I'm still quite new to this but am enjoying working my way through the thread and deciphering how to piece itineraries together. Your nudges allowed me to find my first strike. I've not been able to trim quite as much fat as you and the itinerary is of no real use to me, but it gave me a concrete foundation upon which to build. Since then I've found a couple more, and I'm having lots of fun trying out various combinations and slowly learning through trial and error.
I have a quick question regarding booking an itinerary. I've now been able to dump (or at least reduce) the YQ using ITA Matrix on a couple of itineraries, but have not (yet) been able to translate this into a bookable fare with an OTA. Is there a nack to doing this? Are there certain OTA's that work better than others? Or is it the case that some fares are simply unbookable? I presume going to a real life travel agent with the fare construction is a no-no as this would risk killing the itinerary, and anything useful which can be salvaged from the fare construction for future trips?
Obviously, I have loads more questions, but at the moment I'd probably be in breach of the posting rules! I'm certainly starting to get a feel for how to operate, but am struggling to replicate most of the recent posts on here. Hopefully I'll get better with time, and hopefully I'll be able to give something back in the future
Oct 1, 2017, 3:22 pm
#8565
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: C1 & C2
Programs: Tim Horton's Gold
Posts: 373