WEBVTT - Avoid These 5 Common Airfare Mistakes

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<v Speaker 1>How to avoid the most common airfare booking mistakes.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich on Tech Daily.

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<v Speaker 3>Happy Monday to you. Just got back.

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<v Speaker 1>From San Francisco, more specifically Petaluma. If you didn't hear

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<v Speaker 1>over the weekend, I was filling in for Leo Laporte

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<v Speaker 1>on his Tech Guy radio show, which is on a

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<v Speaker 1>bunch of radio stations nationwide. Got to go up to

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<v Speaker 1>the Twit studios to do that and it was a blast.

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<v Speaker 1>So if you didn't hear that over the weekend, I'll

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<v Speaker 1>post the audio.

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<v Speaker 2>From the show in today's show notes.

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<v Speaker 3>All Right, now, let's talk about travel.

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<v Speaker 1>This is one of my favorite topics booking airfare because

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<v Speaker 1>I'm always searching for a fair whether it's to go

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<v Speaker 1>home back to New Jersey where I'm from, somewhere on

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<v Speaker 1>vacation or just dreaming most of the time, or somewhere

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<v Speaker 1>for business.

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<v Speaker 2>And Hopper is one of the tools that I love

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<v Speaker 2>to use.

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<v Speaker 1>This is an app that kind of analyzes billions of

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<v Speaker 1>daily flight searches fifteen billion, they say a day, and

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<v Speaker 1>they analyze all this stuff to help give you the

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<v Speaker 1>best information when it comes to booking airfare.

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<v Speaker 3>And what they really do is give you perspective.

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<v Speaker 1>On an airfare. So let's say you're traveling to Hawaii.

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<v Speaker 1>You find an airfare of five hundred dollars, they're going

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<v Speaker 1>to tell you if that's a good deal based on

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<v Speaker 1>the dates and times you're going, because sometimes airfares are

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<v Speaker 1>just more expensive, and they have that historical data to

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<v Speaker 1>let you know.

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<v Speaker 3>So they say they looked at all this stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>And found the most common booking mistakes, and you could

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<v Speaker 1>be losing out as much as five hundred and seventy

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<v Speaker 1>one dollars on domestic trips wow, and a whopping nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and sixty one dollars on international trips.

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<v Speaker 2>So here are their costliest mistakes.

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<v Speaker 1>Number one, you're an impulse bier. Average cost forty six

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<v Speaker 1>dollars on domestic one thirty nine on international. Hopper found

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<v Speaker 1>that two out of three ticket prices will drop at

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<v Speaker 1>some point within twenty four hours of the original search

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<v Speaker 1>or booking, so they say it pays to wait, which

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<v Speaker 1>is interesting because most of the time, when you find

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<v Speaker 1>a fair, you think that it's going to go up

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<v Speaker 1>immediately because you just found it and it's in your browser.

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<v Speaker 1>But apparently that's not the case, and Hopper also says

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<v Speaker 1>keep in mind, most major carriers in the US allow

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<v Speaker 1>you to cancel your booking within twenty four hours of

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<v Speaker 1>purchase for free. Now, yes, that is true, but I

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<v Speaker 1>will tell you my experience with United Airlines because I

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<v Speaker 1>did take advantage of that one time.

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<v Speaker 2>And here's what happened.

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<v Speaker 1>They canceled the flight, but they did not automatically refund

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<v Speaker 1>me the fair so it kind of stayed in the

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<v Speaker 1>system as a credit and I was like, no, no, no,

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<v Speaker 1>I want my money back, and so I had to

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<v Speaker 1>call and get that back.

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<v Speaker 2>So just keep that in mind.

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<v Speaker 1>Your experience could vary depending on the airline that you're using.

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<v Speaker 1>But I'm just telling you that so you know, all right.

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<v Speaker 1>Number two costliest mistake. You're not checking alternate airports. Average

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<v Speaker 1>costs thirty two bucks domestic, ninety nine dollars international. So

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<v Speaker 1>they say, if there's an alternate airport, you can save

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<v Speaker 1>an average of ten percent.

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<v Speaker 2>And let's just look at the LA Area.

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<v Speaker 1>You've got Lax, you've got Burbank, you've got Ontario, you've

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<v Speaker 1>got Long Beach, lots of different airports that you can

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<v Speaker 1>fly into, and depending on where you live, one of

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<v Speaker 1>these might even be more convenient. But again, if you're

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<v Speaker 1>open to these things, you could save some cash. Number three,

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<v Speaker 1>you're not being.

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<v Speaker 2>Flexible with dates.

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<v Speaker 1>They say sixty five dollars on domestic, one ninety eight

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<v Speaker 1>on international, and that is true. In general, Flying on

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<v Speaker 1>Friday is going to cost you twenty percent more than

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<v Speaker 1>flying on the cheapest day. In general, Saturday night days

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<v Speaker 1>are going to cost you four percent more. And let's

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<v Speaker 1>face it, if you're going on a weekend trip, everyone

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<v Speaker 1>wants to go on Friday.

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<v Speaker 2>Return on Sunday.

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<v Speaker 1>Tuesday usually the cheapest day to fly, not necessarily the

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<v Speaker 1>cheapest day of book though, so keep that in mind.

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<v Speaker 2>You have to be flexible with your dates. And I've

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<v Speaker 2>run into this all the time.

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<v Speaker 1>Your kids have certain dates off for spring break, or

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<v Speaker 1>a couple days off during the week because of a

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<v Speaker 1>school program or the teachers are out, and those are

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<v Speaker 1>the best days to fly for you personally. But if

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<v Speaker 1>you extend it a day on either side, you might

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<v Speaker 1>save a lot more money.

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<v Speaker 2>All right. Number four, you're booking too late.

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<v Speaker 1>Average cost one hundred and thirty nine dollars on domestic,

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<v Speaker 1>five twenty nine on international. Hopper says, gone are the

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<v Speaker 1>days when you could land a last minute deal because

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<v Speaker 1>the airline discus they had spare seats.

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<v Speaker 2>Now this is all done by.

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<v Speaker 1>Computers, so clearly algorithms are at play here. They're making

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<v Speaker 1>sure that every plane is sold out or even over sold.

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<v Speaker 1>This really comes into play whether you're looking at business

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<v Speaker 1>or leisure routes. So for instance, business routes, the best

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<v Speaker 1>time to buy is three months before departure. When it

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<v Speaker 1>comes to consumer routes, it's actually better to buy about

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<v Speaker 1>a month in advance of departure. And finally, number five,

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<v Speaker 1>you're booking too early. So again you don't want a

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<v Speaker 1>book too late, but you don't want to book too early.

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<v Speaker 1>So airlines put their flights on sale eleven months before departure.

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<v Speaker 1>But according to Hopper's research, you don't really find any

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<v Speaker 1>deals until about one hundred and fifty days prior to

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<v Speaker 1>take off. That's about five months before departure. So if

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<v Speaker 1>you book more than six months ahead, that can actually

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<v Speaker 1>cost you. Because the airlines are setting their prices conservatively,

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<v Speaker 1>all those people that are booking early, they're sort of

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<v Speaker 1>paying the most. And I will just tell you from

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<v Speaker 1>what I've noticed in tracking prices, they go up and

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<v Speaker 1>down almost every day and for instance, a flight I

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<v Speaker 1>was tracking from Lax to Newark to go home, it

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<v Speaker 1>was five p sixty, then three eighty the next day,

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<v Speaker 1>then four forty two, then five forty seven.

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<v Speaker 2>So it goes up and down.

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<v Speaker 1>And that's the beauty of having an app like Hopper

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<v Speaker 1>or using something like Google Flights to track your prices

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<v Speaker 1>is that you can see, look, okay, this is a

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<v Speaker 1>comfortable price for me. I'm just gonna go ahead and

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<v Speaker 1>book it. So again, Hopper is a great app. Definitely

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<v Speaker 1>check it out. Download it. Just go to my website

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<v Speaker 1>richontech dot tv for the link.

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<v Speaker 2>If you like this podcast, please rate and review it.

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<v Speaker 1>I love the ratings, but the written reviews really help

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<v Speaker 1>in getting more people on Apple podcasts to discover rich

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<v Speaker 1>on tech.

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<v Speaker 2>Thanks so much for listening. I'm Rich Demiro. I'll talk

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<v Speaker 2>to you real soon.