Another excellent FareCompare page (great for finding fares)
Wed, 07/16/2008 - 02:21
Eurotripper
With this one, you can do a wide-ranging search very easily, although dates are difficult to pin down initially. But it’s very helpful if you are flexible as to your destination and just want to get a good deal.
So, for example, I put YVR and SEA in the Departure Cities. (Some people would probably want NYC and PHL, etc.) I can then choose the Destination Zones I want (most people here obviously want Europe).
The results are perfect, and some of the fares (many) theoretically exist but have zero seat allocation. But if you keep trying, you may find something, and like I said, it helps to be flexible.
(Don, I know you have mentioned FareCompare a number of times, but I don’t know if you highlighted this page particularly.)
Yep, that’s a good one. Looks similar to this one: http://www.farecompa… I sometimes post city results from this page as a direct link on forums. Farecompare is amazing. It’s an integral part of my strategy to get best airfares, together with ITA, B’buddy, and low-cost airlines.
That search is bringing up some really tempting results, but how do I get from those results to an actual (e-)ticket in my hand? Every time I try to search the actual flight on FareCompare, by any method, I can’t bring up any thing close.
For example, I’m staring at LAX to Caracas for $382 (!!!) (I know, not Europe… sorry, just an example), yet when it comes down to a date search, I can’t find anything under $1000… I checked out the fare rules and am working with valid dates, checked directly at the airline website, tried other search engines for the same cities/dates, and no luck.
So… what is the relationship between these “published fares” and actual, obtainable, flights? I’ve been wondering this about FareCompare for a while now. I always check there, but I don’t think I’ve ever been led from farecompare.com to a viable flight. Am I doing something wrong?
I have been led to viable flights many times, but I think in your case, you may be looking at a destination that has some “bugs” in terms of fares, taxes, surcharges, currencies, etc. Another issue is that an airline may have a published fare for that route of $X, but have zero suits available in the flight class that costs $X.
After getting a hint from Farecompare, go to Orbitz and do a flexible search, and to ITA. Also try Lessno.com and Vayama.com . When checking on Orbitz, I see most fares (for the date period I checked) are $984 all-in, but there is a flight on Air Canada for $645 all-in.