The methods of finding cheap flights

What’s behind in methodology in finding cheap flights? What’s left the savings from all the hassle behind travel emergencies?

December 16 Cheap Flight’s Lecture

As a blogger, I am currently practicing finding the cheapest flight in the post-Covid-19 era. I wondered how I found the best deal in Southeast Asia or anywhere around the world. Booking on Kayak or Online Travel Agencies (OTA) last year, I remembered when I tried to fix the problem, there is often a lengthy process (phone call), leaving the shabby customer service and no refund. There is also no 24-hour cancellation. 

Finally, United has canceled my upcoming flights to Singapore amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The problem was unsolved.

If in case of emergency or have change plans, booking a Kayak or other OTAs can sometimes have a bad reputation for yourself and other travelers.

And no refunds.

And now, I have to resave my money for my upcoming flights. Itching heads.

Thrifty Traveler

I did not know that the deal was too cheap nor too expensive, so I had a lecture with a founder of Thrifty Traveler named Jared Kamrowski, who was a Certified Public Accountant or (CPA). Working as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s federal institution examiner, he was required to travel 100+ nights annually, which quickly accumulated hotel, airline, and credit card loyalty rewards. Just before he left the government job, he didn’t enjoy the job that interests him and continues to follow his dream of one day of an unknown prospect. 

He is currently helping the public find the cheapest flight for his living and has his skills to find cheap flights before founding the brand name (Thrifty Traveler). He is obsessing over collecting miles and points for over 15 years, engaging in savings on airfare and loyalty programs. Dreaming of his future, he starts with the founder of Thrifty Traveler in 2015. Working toward finding the job he loves, he continues to work remotely to help people with frequent flyer members save on points and miles on their loyalty program. Quitting his CPA Government job in 2017, he works full time as a CEO of Thrifty Traveler. Now, he has a team of 8 employees at the Thrifty Traveler, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As he thoroughly explains the methods of finding cheap flights, let’s take a look at why Google Flights is the best-recommended flight engine in favor of travel agents (TA) or Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) (Kayak, Skyscanner, Momondo).

The TA Trend:

The job market for travel agents will have a projected decline of 26% from 2019 to 2029. It will continue to shift toward online or home-based with a business owner with specialized experiences, e.g., solo travel, romantic, women, etc. (Bureau of Labor Statistics). 

The Best

• Specialized specific customers with the help of booking ideal trips/travel (e.g., Solo Travel, Women Travel, family travel)

The Worst

• Internet boom
• Shifted away from in-person to online booking with ease of advanced technology and improvements
• Often unsatisfied customer service and shabby ratings from various companies’ reputation 

Now the Online Booking Engine or Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)

Kayak, Expedia, Orbitz, Cheapair, Priceline, and Skyscanner, and other online booking engines, save some hassle, thanks to the internet search engines and advanced technology. People started to look and compare to a ticket’s price, especially when booking a ticket during the high season. These OTAs may significantly save some time for some people if their flight plans have changed at the last minute, but there are downsides. As he mentioned, the drawback of booking these websites, they often have shabby customer service, leaving many customers feeling frustrated and useless, leaving behind with little money left. There is also disregard the 24-hour cancellation rule, which in turn, waste the time and money. For OTAs’ calls, the wait became lengthy. He explained that booking these websites can end in a trip disaster. Let’s take the pros and cons of OTAs.

The Best (Stutzman, 2020)

• Aggregators or (metasearch engines)
• Easily compare to other search engines for a “cheap deals.” 
• Advertised a fare lower than the airline’s “mark up” price
• Allow earning points or miles through the OTAs

The Worst (Stutzman, 2020)

• Agent’s commission or fee for using the service
• Often filed for bankruptcy, e.g., bookit.com
• Some flights and/or OTAs may dishonor a 24-hour cancellation service
• Agents can “mark up” the airfare, making the airline ticket higher than anticipated
• “Middle Man” – have to work all the way out with the coordinate and make changes with the airline that you’re flying, which eats the time for your booking and costs
• Many mistake fares (e.g., Ticket from Newark to Singapore was only $180 instead of real $810 or Hong Kong was only $77 instead of real $770 via United) (Keyes, 2020)
• Little to nonexistent customer service
• Often the solutions for the trip plan remains negated

And Finally – Google Flights

As mentioned in his lecture, he recommends google flight to save most of the travel aches. Google Flights was founded in 2011 and went through several modifications over the past years to improve customer’s and user’s experience. He lists the reasons why Google Flights is the smart website to book a flight, even though you have no idea where you want to go on the next trip.

Why Google Flights?

Thrifty Traveler writer Potter pointed out the good advantages over Google flights:

• You can almost always book directly with the airline. Cutting out the “middle man” when booking flights is more important than ever – you’d much rather deal with an airline agent than shoddy customer service from a small online travel agency.
• No flight search engine does a better job showing months’ worth of flights to help you find the cheapest flights possible, period. It will even alert you if shifting your travel dates by just a day or two could save you.
• Google Flights allows you to search from multiple airports at the same time to find the cheapest airport to depart from – and that’s key when it comes to saving on international travel.
• As you’ll see, you have distinctive features and functions to filter your search results to find the flights you want – and avoid the flights you don’t want (Potter, 2020).
• Google Flights have unadvertised features called Google Flights Explore, Google Maps, and Google Trips.
• Bonus: Google Flights don’t sell Skiplagged flights. Read on why Skiplagged flights are a terrible way to save money. 

But there are some drawbacks:

• Southwest and Allegiant don’t sell flights on Google Flights – You must book directly with www.southwest.com, www.allegiant.com, or the airline’s website. Air China, China Eastern, Thai, and Philippine Airlines excluded from the Google Flights
• Certain carrier such as Aeromexico, Interjet, Oman Air, and EVA Air only have some, but not all, of their flights listed on Google Flights (Keyes, 2020) 
• Often in a methodology “Ghosting,” – cheap flight itinerary offers that are available but are unbookable conclusively through the airline’s website

Conclusion

While Google flights are worth the price, time, and fit to your ideal flight itinerary, there are other benefits for the “mapping” of places with the average cost of airfare around the world, depending on the season. In summary, there are all-in-one solutions to the flight search, thanks to Thirty Traveler, who recommended Google Flights. Thanks to Google’s advanced, easy-to-use features that enable customers to explore while searching for flights.  

References:

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Travel Agents. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/sales/travel-agents.htm

Keyes, S. (2020, October 8). How to Use Google Flights to Find Cheap Flights. Scott’s Cheap Flights. Retrieved from https://scottscheapflights.com/guides/how-to-use-google-flights

Potter, K. (2020, November 11). How to Use Google Flights to Find Cheap Flights Like a Pro. Thrifty Traveler. Retrieved from https://thriftytraveler.com/use-google-flights-find-cheap-flights/

Stutzman, M. (2020, March 30). Coronavirus Provides a Harsh Lesson: Book Flights Direct with Airlines. Thrifty Traveler. Retrieved from https://thriftytraveler.com/coronavirus-lesson-ota/

Stutzman, M. (2020, June 9). Everything You Need to Know About Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). Thrifty Traveler. Retrieved from https://thriftytraveler.com/online-travel-agencies-otas/