Scoping out bargain airfares online
Finding the best airfare can be almost as much of a journey as the trip itself. ITN readers may find the following airfare journey an instructive example.
My late March ’09 journey to the graduation of Raquel, a nursing student whom I have supported through college, as well as a visit to several Rotary International friends in Bacolod, Philippines, began in January.
Bacolod is a rather undistinguished city in the Visayas, the central part of the Philippines between the big islands of Luzon in the north and Mindanao in the south. Most of the wonderful Philippines beach resorts are in the Visayas, though my trip was not a beach visit.
The online search engine Kayak.com listed just Philippine Airlines (PAL) as flying from Los Angeles (LAX) to Bacolod (BCD) via Manila (MNL), for $1,469. Expensive! There had to be a better way, a consolidator, something. Why not look at LAX-MNL and MNL-BCD separately?
Kayak offered a long list of options from Los Angeles to Manila, with Hawaiian Air at $1,021 and Northwest Air at $1,046 being the best — a good start if there were a reasonable way to get on to Bacolod.
Kayak listed no MNL-BCD flights, but I knew that PAL went to Bacolod, so it had to be a route not searched by Kayak.
I went to a webpage about the Bacolod airport (www.flightstats.com/go/Airport/airportDetails.do?airportCode=BCD) and looked at the arrivals. (The arrivals are listed with the origin cities on most airport sites.) There were about six flights a day from Manila, half on PAL (www.philippineairlines.com) and the other half on Cebu Pacific (www.cebupacificair.com), so the Bacolod leg had some options.
Now to locate the best LAX-MNL fare. After the Hawaiian flight at $1,021 and the Northwest flight at $1,046, Kayak listed flights by Asiana, Korean Air and, near the top, Cathay Pacific, at $1,206. Here’s where the legwork started.
I needed to visit each airline’s website and check the price for that route to see if it was better than the price Kayak listed for that route on that airline. (Beyond giving the prices, Kayak listings are good for showing most of the carriers on a route.)
On each carrier’s website I looked for “Deals and Promotions” or similar on the main page. I entered the site through this link, not by typing in my itinerary in their “locate flights” form. This is where you may find your unlisted deal. Checking a dozen can take time, but I quickly got good at it.
I went through several with no luck and then struck gold. On the Cathay Pacific site (www.cathay pacific.com), clicking “Offers and Promotions” led to a dull page offering a list that included the “Deal of the Month.” On that bright page was a big red box listing 10 cities, including Manila with flights from $740 round trip.
Selecting “LAX-MNL” and filling in my dates brought me to the winner, an $846 fare, all inclusive — almost $200 less than the Hawaiian Air fare on Kayak.
Most sites allow just an exact date, but some accept nearby dates, giving you a better chance at “the” low fare. Cathay Pacific offered an excellent fare grid, making finding the optimum flight a cinch.
The Manila-Bacolod segment appeared straightforward. Using each carrier’s website, I found that PAL’s flight cost PHP3,098 (about $69) and Cebu Pacific’s, PHP2,633 ($59). I selected PAL because in Manila they fly from the international airport’s NAIA II terminal and Cathay Pacific lands at the NAIA I terminal, while Cebu Pacific flies from the more distant new NAIA III terminal. I “purchased” my ticket on the PAL website.
It was not to be. At checkout, the website rejected my credit card, suggesting I try another card. Giving up after several cards, I called PAL. I was told they were having trouble processing cards, so they sent me a credit card approval form, to be faxed to PAL in Manila along with copies of my credit card and ID.
When nothing happened, I called PAL again and, after the normal 20-minute wait, was told that, for security reasons, they were not clearing any card purchases from the US for internal PHP-denominated flights. They offered to hold my reservation for in-person payment in Manila, which I accepted.
All the PAL customer service personnel had been courteous and helpful during my well over an hour total on the phone, but the totally third-world way that PAL was set up gave me cause to worry about the safety of flying on that airline. It was time to look elsewhere.
So I checked out Cebu Pacific, which I had not previously known. They are the Southwest Airlines of the Philippines, with over 20 new Airbus planes and a very good safety record.
I bought my ticket with no trouble on their website. However, this was stopped by my bank’s fraud-detection department, from which a rep telephoned me as I waited for final online approval from Cebu Pacific. Despite my telling the bank rep to approve my credit card transaction, apparently there was too much of a delay and the transaction was listed by CebuPacific as declined by the time I got off the phone.
On a second try, after a firm talk with my bank, the charge was declined by Cebu Pacific without putting it through to my bank. I e-mailed Cebu Pacific twice with no response, so it was back to plan A, Philippine Airlines!
To try to make sense of this, as well as confirm my reservation, I called PAL again. They confirmed my reservation for in-person payment at the ticket counter in Manila.
The reservation agent said they have very strict charge card standards for US cards because of numerous fraudulent US cards. If any error is made or a discrepancy exists in the card information I input, no matter how small, the airline will deny the charge as well as future charges on that card, though she could not tell me how long this card denial would hold for.
The PAL agent also said they would accept attempted online reservations for added domestic travel at the very low online prices for payment at the ticket counter if I called US reservations after the card was refused.
My total was $915 (LAX-MNL on Cathay Pacific for $846 plus MNL-BCD on PAL for $69). When compared with PAL’s $1,469 fare, this looked very good — a savings of over $550!
What about consolidators? I tried several, having used them with great success in the past. Three quoted me prices that were a mirror of Kayak. So much for that avenue!
A warning — one Los Angeles consolidator, located on a reputable Philippine site, revealed a decidedly unsavory side when he offered, after but a few seconds of conversation, their sex trips. Exercise care with unknown ticket sellers.
These fares surely lasted but a few weeks, at best, and my destination was unique, but the metrology and lessons are universal. Hopefully, the hassle is not!
At the core is checking the airline websites individually. You may win! Even if you don’t, booking direct with the airline can have advantages over booking through a travel agency or booking site like Orbitz.
ED GRAPER
Goleta, CA