Emergency flight, need advice
 

I have a friend who needs to get from GSO to her aunts' funeral in Portland (PDX). My friend can leave Sat. Jan. 7 and return Wed. Jan 10. I've searched and can't find anything under a thousand. Any ideas where to look for a lower fare? Thanks in advance!

I also tried to search a few booking pages on the net but I couldnt either find something cheap, maybe Priceline.com is the answer in this situation or?

Ring the airline direct, explain the situation, and ask for a compassion fare.

. I called AA and the compassion fare was still a thousand. They have a senior coupon book for $676 (2 r/t tickets) and she can fly standby. The rep. said the flights look excellent for the dates my friend needs to fly.
Thanks for the help, I knew I could count on my FT friends.

If the times are completely flexible both days, you might try Hotwire in addition to Priceline. Normally, Priceline is cheaper, but it sounds like time is of the essense here. The question is how to get a reasonably priced routing not necessarily the absolute cheapest.

Always check alternate airports.

Using www.Expedia.com :

$950.49 r/t UA between RDU and PDX, changing in ORD and SEA.
$632.50 r/t CO between RDU and SEA, changing in IAH.

Amtrak runs between Seattle and Portland four times a day.


[This message has been edited by JS (edited 01-05-2001).]

I realize that this may be presumptuous of me to suggest, but in similar situations, I have given friends free tickets. If you have lots of miles and this person is really a friend, you might consider that. Maybe she'll do something nice for you someday. (Note that this is not a suggestion to sell or barter frequent flyer miles!!!!!)

Bruce

<< My friend can leave Sat. Jan. 7 and return Wed. Jan 10. >>

Saturday is January 6. The fares I posted before were for January 7 departure.

Leaving Saturday, January 6 is cheaper:
$586 r/t on any airline between RDU and SEA.
$739.24 r/t on UA between RDU and PDX.



[This message has been edited by JS (edited 01-05-2001).]

I tried everything including hotwire;itasoftware.com; all the cyber specials that I subscribe to/monitor; and even flying one airline RT from GSO into one city and out on another RT to PDX, and I can't do better than the under-$700 quoted above, even trying different days - leaving Saturday 1/6 is definitely cheaper. Best of luck.

Sorry for the date errors. Her departure dates are flexible, Sat. or Sun. I didn't check RDU since that's a 4 hour drive for her but I did pass that info on to her.
So far she likes the AA senior coupon booklet deal.
Again, thanks for ALL your help and suggestions. I'm always overwhelmed by your willingness to take your valuable time to help someone not so "travel savy".
BTW, she said if I would give her enough miles for a ticket she would give me 12 jars of pickled beets next Christmas. You don't know how tempted I am to trade. I LOVE PICKLED BEETS! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I don't know all of the restrictions, but you could purchase 2 e-fares for this weekend. Most of the fares are departing on Saturday, return Monday or Tuesday.

GSO-PHL 189 r/t USAir
PHL-SEA 289 r/t USAir
Then take the train option or I imageine weekend airfare between SEA-PDX can't be more than $150. Travelocity pulled up $217.

Another option, CLT-DEN is only $158 r/t. It is not PDX but is closer to your destination and Frontier may have driven prices down there.

To search for fares and more info: www.webflyer.com/deals/

DEN to PDX is never cheap, esp. at the last minute. Frontier has had little effect on this market.

BTW, travel by Amtrack SEA to PDX is 4 hours.

Since U mentioned the senior coupon book, exactly how old is the psgr? Over 62 or over 65...?

Check the fares out of RDU. Always much cheaper.

tvl4free, with AA senior is 62.