How to land a deal on airfare (from SmartMoney TV)

thanks

by michelle smith on Tuesday, March 23, 2010

@Matthew, yes indeed, we shortened them because they were too long. AOL was sending them as attachments because of the length, and we were getting flamed. Speaking of getting flamed, Paul, PLEASE! Did you not notice that Expedia has a flexible date search and we DON'T INCLUDE IT in our flexible date tool. So how do you explain that. That's because they don't do as many routes via flexible search as our competitors do. Is that profit motivation? We are most certainly not the same company as Expedia. Expedia doesn't list Southwest's fares or Allegiant's or promo code fares. We do, even though we get no revenue for doing so. Hope that clears things up.

by George Hobica on Monday, March 22, 2010

@George: Airfarewatchdog? Haven't heard of that one! It looks REALLY good. hehe On a serious note, I miss being able to see all fares in my e-mail alerts. I really don't like having to click on the city to see everything. I know you all probably changed that because some e-mails get really, really big, but I wish I could opt back to the old way. Plus I really liked the sort by price feature when it was accidentally turned on! Oh, plus what happened to the ability to receive e-mail notifications when someone comments on a blog post? I know you guys were getting a lot of spam, but now that you have re-captcha, that should have stopped. BTW, like that you used re-captcha instead of another service, love how we're all contributing to transcribing books on every captcha.

by matthewsoft on Monday, March 22, 2010

Full consumer disclosure (stating the obvious for most): Most clicks at Airfarewatchdog.com generate commission revenue for Airfarewatchdog.com, which is actually the same company as Expedia.com. Reasonable minds will argue that it calls into question the credibility of a lowest-fare resource when profit motivation attaches to bargain-sharing. For example, there is the built-in motivation to divert attention away from a direct booking if there is better commission revenue from a wired-up reference. Also, consumers should realize that several cash-back sites pass commission revenues directly back to consumers (e.g., 2% of the total spent at Expedia.com). Out of respect, I won't mention them here. Speaking ONLY for myself, all of this is why I take any advice from Airfarewatchdog.com (which is, again, the same company as Expedia) with a grain of salt.

by Paul on Monday, March 22, 2010

@Matt, Yes, I did leave out a couple of other sites that provide fare alerts.... there's one called Airfarewatchdog.com that's really good :) also their parent company Expedia has a good alert system--and of course Kayak and its acquisition Sidestep. The great thing about Airfarewatchdog, don't forget, is that we include Southwest and also promo code discount fares

by George Hobica on Monday, March 22, 2010

Great interview again George! Liked how you mentioned Priceline, although I would add they can also be good to to book with in advance, especially for smaller airports. For example, ORD-GSP is usually very pricey, >$400 roundtrip. However, on Priceline I can usually nab the route non-stop for ~$150. Luckily Priceline does have a new "inside track" so you can see what others may be getting before you bid. http://travela.priceline.com/insideTrack/flights/from_New_York_City-NYC.html Before that, usually someone had to simply try multiple times, and I think Priceline still requires a 72-hour wait before trying again unless other airports/dates/etc are changed/added. I was also surprised you didn't mention Kayak as a fare tracker too, I pretty much use them exclusively now based upon their nice little graph they give for how fares are going. I haven't used Tripadvisor I admit. Yapta is great, but sometimes the fares they pull are off. Bing is great as well, but again fares are a little flaky and they're missing my lovely graph, plus I think their e-mails are little hard to understand [fare changes]. I used to get Travelocity alerts all the time, but I really don't like getting all the fare jumps up and down, plus usually I want specific dates. Sometimes with Travelocity I would get an awesome alert, and even if I clicked on it within minutes of getting the e-mail, it was gone; that just frustrates me. Farecompare is a little over zealous on the e-mails and the fares can be a little wonky, too. Orbitz is great, I just miss the graph. Actually now that I think about it, when it comes down to it I love Kayak for the simple fact it's all in one e-mail the most. Usually I get multiple e-mails a day with the other sites. Anyway, still a great interview George, thanks for all your great work. Except don't tell too many people about Priceline, I don't want them eating up all my inventory, haha.

by matthewsoft on Monday, March 22, 2010

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