From: hal@finney.org
Date: Wed Jun 13 2001 - 17:33:58 MDT
John Grigg writes:
> For various personal reasons(lack of money as well as opposition from
> others) I postponed buying an airline to fly from Anchorage, Alaska to San
> Jose. Now, ticket prices are VERY high. I have surfed the net trying to
> find a good price but do not fully understand the intricacies of buying
> online and not getting burned. I only have $500 to spend.
Unfortunately, as you have found, last-minute airline reservations are
very expensive. Most last-minute flyers are businessmen whose travel is
paid for by their companies, making them relatively insensitive to price.
Consumers can usually plan their flights some weeks in advance and the
airlines offer many more discounts to attract their business.
The best I found for you was using www.orbitz.com, a new reservation
service. Anchorage to San Francisco International airport, going down
Friday afternoon and returning Monday afternoon, is $733 round trip.
That is above your $500 limit, but most other options were over $1000 so
it is a relatively good price. Flights to San Jose airport were more
expensive, San Francisco International was better. It's a half hour
ride on the commuter train down to San Jose, a few dollars.
I have never used Orbitz but I have bought tickets online through
Microsoft Expedia (www.expedia.com) with good results. Expedia does
not have that fare, though.
You might also consider priceline.com. They supposedly sell last-minute
unsold seats at a discount. "Name your own price," as the commercials
say. You could try offering $500 and see if it worked, it couldn't hurt.
I'd try SFO first and then SJC if you have time.
Sorry that you had to run into this last-minute bad news.
Hal
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