Last minute air fare for real
 

I needed a last minute flight from NYC to CLE (with a Sat night stay) which I normally pay $150-200 or so in advance. This was hours worth of work to try and find last minute under $400 as CO and the other airlines stuck to their $1,000+ fares, yet if you go on ebay, lastminutetravel and trip.com sites, they advertise an entire hotel, car and air for $300 or so dollars (intending only to use the flight portion). Although, when I tried to book it, it wasn't avialable. Direct flight web-savers were not available alhtough I tried to route through small cities like Allentown which brought the price down to $580, yet 5 hours of travel for a usual 1-hour flight..truly what is the secret to book a last minute fare if necessary within a reasonable price? Any suggestions? I ended up using 37,500 miles and the flights were virutally half full. Silly!

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I would try PriceLine.com

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Tom

Consolidators sometimes have unsold inventory. Economytravel.com is one I have used. I think Cheaptickets is one and probably much larger. I am not aware of a search engine that searches all of the consolidators.

I would not. He did not want to spend 5 hours on the plane for a normally 1 hour flight, and that is the chance you take with priceline. I would never buy an airline ticket without knowing what airline, schedule, and routing they were using. That is why I never use priceline. Not only that, but priceline is really just a consolidator that does not reveal prices.

There very well may be another place to get the same priced flight, it is just that when you "bid", priceline is really just checking to see if they have anything for that price or cheaper, and charge you your "bid" price. The only reason they may find certain routes cheaper is because some airlines may strike deals with consolidators called "no name" deals. Basically the airlines may give them a break if they do not reveal what airline it is until the ticket is purchased, thus avoiding a "price war" with other airlines. Personally, I would rather always know all that info before buying on priceline so I would not use it.

Airlines take great pleasure (and profit) by forcing people like him who are making last minute plans to pay top dollar. They presume that if you are buying a trip that late, you probably have to take it (as is the case with many business travellers) so they will extract from you all they can. By pricing flights that way, one last minute flight can net them the profit of 3 or 4 advance purchase flights so they dont care if an extra seat or two sit empty.

Might be a great thread to post/move to Travel BUZZ?

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~ Glen ~

Glen,

I agree.

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Craig6z
Buzz & United Moderator
[email protected]