The vagaries of online ticket purchase
Oct. 7th, 2003 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carbonelI need to go to Chicago in just over a week for a media-related convention (ZebraCon). I hadn't bought my airline ticket yet, despite knowing for two years that I was going to this convention. This isn't, alas, anywhere near the first time I've done this. For some reason I have this tendency to delay purchasing airline tickets until a week or two before I need it -- at which point the ticket prices are higher than they would have been otherwise.
This time I was reasonably complacent because I didn't have as many time constraints as usual, and I figured I could save money by flying into Midway. (O'Hare is usually around $150 more at last-minute prices, but is considerably more convenient for family visits.) But when I actually got around to checking my usual air travel site (the ITA fare checker), the cheapest fare to Midway was $358. (I normally expect week-ahead fares to Midway to be around $180 and to O'Hare to be around $350.)
If I'd had to, I would have bit the bullet and paid the money or maybe bit down a bit harder and drove down instead, but I decided to try a few Web sites designed for last-minute flyers.
Orbitz.com referred me to hotfares.com (or something like that), a PriceLine clone. The price was satisfactory ($203), but I wasn't willing to commit to a purchase until I knew what time I would be flying. And lastminutetravel.com came up with the same fares as ITA, plus a $5 service charge.
So I tried the last discount site I had marked -- site59.com. I'd never bought anything there, and had totally forgotten what it was supposed to be good for. When I brought up the site, I remembered. It wasn't just for tickets; it was for package deals. So without much hope, I checked to see what they had for deals to Chicago.
Airfare and hotel, no. Wrong hotel. Airfare and dinners, no. The restaurants listed are downtown, and I'll be staying in the north suburbs. Airfare and car rental? Hmm. I hadn't planned on renting a car, but it'd certainly be convenient to have one. And the price listed is "from $202 per person." Sounds too good to be true, but worth checking out.
Tell it only one person (default is two), and choose a 4 pm flight on Northwest to O'Hare. Perfect. There's a bump in price for only have one person, but it's still cheaper than any other fare I've found. Only one flight available returning Sunday, and that's at 8:30 am. Scratch that. Wait, I could return early Monday instead. Sure enough, there's an 8 am flight available on Monday. Or 7 or 9, for that matter. There are advantages to having parents (and thus free crash space) in Chicago.
The final cost, with the increase for one person, but the decrease for having the car less time than the maximum possible (presumably because of the early-morning return), is $264.05. This is approximately $100 less than I would have paid for a considerably less convenient flight to Midway. And I get a rental car for the weekend, which will be exceedingly convenient.
Must remember this website.
Hmm. Doesn't seem to be a mood selector for "boggled," which is the one that currently fits. Though "hopeful" is also appropriate right at the moment, since the Cubs and Marlins are tied at six.
This time I was reasonably complacent because I didn't have as many time constraints as usual, and I figured I could save money by flying into Midway. (O'Hare is usually around $150 more at last-minute prices, but is considerably more convenient for family visits.) But when I actually got around to checking my usual air travel site (the ITA fare checker), the cheapest fare to Midway was $358. (I normally expect week-ahead fares to Midway to be around $180 and to O'Hare to be around $350.)
If I'd had to, I would have bit the bullet and paid the money or maybe bit down a bit harder and drove down instead, but I decided to try a few Web sites designed for last-minute flyers.
Orbitz.com referred me to hotfares.com (or something like that), a PriceLine clone. The price was satisfactory ($203), but I wasn't willing to commit to a purchase until I knew what time I would be flying. And lastminutetravel.com came up with the same fares as ITA, plus a $5 service charge.
So I tried the last discount site I had marked -- site59.com. I'd never bought anything there, and had totally forgotten what it was supposed to be good for. When I brought up the site, I remembered. It wasn't just for tickets; it was for package deals. So without much hope, I checked to see what they had for deals to Chicago.
Airfare and hotel, no. Wrong hotel. Airfare and dinners, no. The restaurants listed are downtown, and I'll be staying in the north suburbs. Airfare and car rental? Hmm. I hadn't planned on renting a car, but it'd certainly be convenient to have one. And the price listed is "from $202 per person." Sounds too good to be true, but worth checking out.
Tell it only one person (default is two), and choose a 4 pm flight on Northwest to O'Hare. Perfect. There's a bump in price for only have one person, but it's still cheaper than any other fare I've found. Only one flight available returning Sunday, and that's at 8:30 am. Scratch that. Wait, I could return early Monday instead. Sure enough, there's an 8 am flight available on Monday. Or 7 or 9, for that matter. There are advantages to having parents (and thus free crash space) in Chicago.
The final cost, with the increase for one person, but the decrease for having the car less time than the maximum possible (presumably because of the early-morning return), is $264.05. This is approximately $100 less than I would have paid for a considerably less convenient flight to Midway. And I get a rental car for the weekend, which will be exceedingly convenient.
Must remember this website.
Hmm. Doesn't seem to be a mood selector for "boggled," which is the one that currently fits. Though "hopeful" is also appropriate right at the moment, since the Cubs and Marlins are tied at six.
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no subject
Date: 2003-10-08 04:48 pm (UTC)new zine
Date: 2003-10-20 08:04 pm (UTC)Re: new zine
Date: 2003-10-21 05:39 pm (UTC)More later.
checking in
Date: 2004-01-04 04:31 am (UTC)I tried to call you last month to chat, but I don't think I have the new phone number yet.