How are 3rd party flight booking sites so cheap? Whats the catch?
I am traveling to Western Australia in December. The round trip tickets I am seeing on Kayak are like only $1000-$1200 but if I go directly through Qantas they are like $1600-$2000. I wanna spring for the deal, but scared I will regret it. I understand with 3rd party booking it is a mess if you try to cancel or move a flight but I don’t plan to do any of that. What do you BSDs think I should do?
"But I don't think of you"..... Howard Roark
Share this
Study together. Pass together.
Join the world's largest online community of CFA, CAIA and FRM candidates.
Studying With
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh boy!! Here come the EXPERTS!!!!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It be like that sometimes.
If you can cherry pick the dates. Google flights can prolly get you a round trip for 500 to 900 bucks. You’ll prolly book directly as well. I prefer to book with orbits, it’s usuallt he same price but I get rewards of 6 percent for flight and close to 10 percent for hotels.
I love my cheese. I got to have my cheddar.
Now you’re getting the hang of this place…
"When what I'm doing isn't working, that's when I'll take your criticisms." -- Me, some time ago
Orbitz lets you cancel within 24 hours of booking. Maybe Kayak has a similar policy?
How much are the tickets supposed to cost? Just because Qantas charges you more than Kayak doesn’t mean that this particular Kayak price is good to begin with.
Also, those prices are not in Australian dollars, right? Just checking. I don’t think I’ve seen this sort of difference before.
“Visit the Water Cooler forum on Analyst Forum. It is the best forum.”
- Everyone
Every airline must give you the option to cancel a reservation within 24 hours of booking per U.S. federal regulations.
so the prices i got were usd. google flgiths can scour all the flight prices and dates over the next 6 months and offers you the lowest prices. the key is flexibility. if you can be flexible. you can prolly go any country around the world for 1k. with an average of 500 bucks for most coutnries.
for example (all in usd) from la
vegas 66
hawaii 358
madrid for 396
hong kong for 440
sao paolo 640
cape town 704
melbourne 790
my buddy just told me of tj trip. he got laid by a bunch of dimes for around 10 usd. anyways his grand plan now is to move to sd. make money USD, spend MEX peso on th other side. its acqually quite smart.
I wonder why no one has made like a weekend party bus from sd to tj under the idea that it is for sightseeing.
I love my cheese. I got to have my cheddar.
Nery, with Vegas flight at $66, you’d be crazy not to go.
Please explain the $10 expenditure.
“Visit the Water Cooler forum on Analyst Forum. It is the best forum.”
- Everyone
pros apparently just throw themselves at u to entice you. so you can get a lot of freebies if you wanted (vs us no money, no butt grabbing). a dollar or two will get you a pretty long lap dance (vs in the us, a special deal is like 20 bucks for 3 min). getting laid for an hr will cost like 10 to 20 bucks, and they’ll have a room for the hr. (vs a local street in vegas is prolly 200 to 500, call card is prolly 500 to 1k).
anyways i knew this was the case a long time ago, but we were so scared off tj. no one wanted to drive there. but apparently they went with 2 people that do this often so they had a quality guide! anyways it easily 1 upped bitcoin’s vegas story.
also i know that 10 to 20 soudns low. from my research, it should be around 40 bucks. but he went with a bunch of mexican americans that prolly knew what local prices vs gringo prices.
i think the biggest thing for me was the quality issue. the idea that you get what you pay for. but apprently the chicks are super hot, although hard to know if they are clean. and i guess thats the risk!
I love my cheese. I got to have my cheddar.
Studying With
I just went to check this. LOL, I would do something like that knowing me
. No, it is USD. Today I see I could get my roundtrip for $1400, so it has come down. However, If I can save $400-$300 I am still going to spring for that. I just have to make sure the 3rd party site is including baggage fees and the like in their price. That could be the difference right there!
"But I don't think of you"..... Howard Roark
Tanks for clarifying all. I was not sure if Nery was talking about prostitutes or if absinthe is just really cheap down there.
“Visit the Water Cooler forum on Analyst Forum. It is the best forum.”
- Everyone
I’ve noticed that the 3rd party sites will quote the cheapest available i.e. can’t choose seats, no luggage, nonrefundable, etc. and when you realize you need all of this you end up paying the same price as if you went directly to the site.
I always use 3rd party to travel oversea. Never had any issue with luggage, paid 20 bucks to choose seats.
Studying With
yea, in the past I ALWAYS booked 3rd party, usually Orbitz. I never thought twice about it and was never charged more for the regular baggage and could pick my seat when I checked in. Why am I freaking out about it now???? I find as I get older I worry about EVERYTHING. lol
"But I don't think of you"..... Howard Roark
Studying With
Well, it’s done. Round trip from Philly to Perth for $1200 including the fee to pick my seat
. I used skyscanner to find me the price on justfly.com. What a deal! (I think
)
"But I don't think of you"..... Howard Roark
Google flights is the way to go. It even checks if its cheaper in the local currency, since the flights prices aren’t always 1:1 currency rates. I once flew one way Norwegian paying Krone and back USD. To this day I still get emails in Norwegian but can’t understand them enough to unsubscribe.
Sweeeeeet safe travels
We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, 'Please, please. It’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore. Mr. President, it’s too much.' And I’ll say, 'No, it isn’t!' We have to keep winning!
“Mmmmmm, something…” - H. Simpson
You go, guuuuuuuuurl!!!!!!
“Mmmmmm, something…” - H. Simpson
Skyscanner is where it’s at …even if they did sell out to the Chinese.
If you’re booking long haul in advance they always have deals with 3rd parties (usually ones you’ve never heard of) that can be as good 20% cheaper than booking direct with the airline. I was hesitant at 1st but my natural prudence couldn’t be held back any longer and I now tend to book with them rather than direct.
It seems that it’s all good as long as long as you’re lucky and there are no cancellations, downgrades, delays etc. Which is pretty much how it is if you book direct with the airline anyway.
Have a fantastic trip!!
I forgot to mention this, although the site you used might have already done it. If you use a VPN service to change your country of origin on your IP address, you get much cheaper international flights. As part of their pricing strategies, most airlines detect where you’re searching for the ticket from and charge a higher price to travelers from the US.
#FreeCVM #FreeTurd #2007-2017
Similarly, it’s always best to use incognito mode. If you repeatedly search for the same flight they’ll jack the price on you.