Is There a Secret to Finding Cheap Airline Tickets?  ... this is a question we get all the time. Where can I find cheap airfares? Are prices at BahamaCruise.com as good as anyone else? Well, there are a lot of answers and variables to that question for sure. Do you value your time? How much time are you willing to spend and how much will you really save? Do you have a personal travel agent? I guess you have the internet or you wouldn’t be reading this.  

Airfare prices are complex beasts but they are driven by the same set of factors that all consumer products are driven by … availability, demand and competition. Once in a while an outside factor such as a deal with the destination will drive price as well … more on this later.  

Airline tickets are available to agents through four main reservation systems (which are owned by the airlines) Galileo, Apollo, Sabre and Worldspan. Travel agents, internet companies and others all have access to these seats and as they enter sales the prices change accordingly. Flights with seats in high demand will see an increase and flights that are not selling will drop their prices accordingly.  Usually an agent or company uses just one of the systems, and since the systems are owned by different companies they are not all updated at the same time, therefore calling different agents or using different online services may yield an array of prices and even change at the same source at different times of the day ….  ever check the price and by the time you get your credit card out it went up $49 …. Great Huh?  

And, that’s not all ... many agencies and online companies charge service fees of  $1 to $20 or more and sometimes it is hard to figure out exactly what you are being charged for unless you have your reading glasses on and a little extra time to read the fine print. These fees are usually reasonable though and needed by the agency as the airlines cut commissions years ago leaving the agents with airline customers holding the bag unless they wanted to work for free! Best thing to do is just look at the TOTAL Price! Let the fees fall where they may.  

At one time, we at BahamaCruise.com had a net rate contract with one of the major carriers (name held back to protect the guilty!) on some flights to Grand Bahama Island . This particular airline had made a deal (with the government) to fly to this destination as long as they had so many seats guaranteed at an agreed rate. At the time, we could have easily filled the planes with our customers … except for one problem … our contract rate was lower than the guaranteed rate from the government. In other words, the airline made more money off the empty seats than if we filled them!  Duh!  

So, what should you do?  Well, the best advice we can give is:

1. Start early … most carriers have lower prices for bookings 21 to 30 days in advance and this will at least give you a chance to see what the going rates are for the flights you are interested in.

2. Be Flexible … being flexible with your dates can sometimes make a big difference. Flying on different days of the week can change the price dramatically depending on if you are flying into a business market or a resort market. Fridays and Mondays are usually the most expensive days to fly and the weekends are always in demand … Tuesdays and Wednesdays are usually the cheapest. Also, be flexible about your flight times … it is always nice to miss the traffic, or get there early but remember that there are a lot of other people thinking the same thing so a little inconvenience can save you a bunch.

3. Use smaller discount airlines when available … most of the regional airlines focus on specific markets and because of their attention  they probably have lower overhead and pass it on to you in the price of your ticket

4. If you fly more than two or three times a year … join a travel club or frequent flyer program

5. Keep checking … prices will continue to change as inventory, sales, competition and other factors constantly work through the system … when you think you have a good one  … jump on it!  

 If all this is just too much of a hassle, takes too much time and just doesn’t seem to be worth the trouble … well join the club. To me, I would rather spend my time elsewhere so I like to use one of the big search engines of the major travel planners like Priceline, Travelocity, Expedia, or Cheaptickets. So far, that has been the bet for me.  

Happy flying,
Bobby Bahamas