Recently, I found a tool to that helps determine whether the price
of an airline ticket is a bargain or not.
How do you know if the price you are being quoted is actually a low
price? There is a way and I am going to tell you now.
You must first set a benchmark price and the best benchmark is the
"retail" price the airlines are selling the ticket to your destination
for.
Why is the retail price the benchmark? Because that is highest price you
should pay. So any price below that would be a bargain, right?
Not long ago, I came across a website that scans up to 30 online booking
engines. This including the major sites such as Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia
and all the major airline sites.
You can use this site for yourself, it's free. The name of the site is Sidestep
and is located at www.Sidestep.com
When you find the lowest price for your destination on Sidestep, you have
effectively set the benchmark, the retail price. Because all of these sites
are selling "retail" prices.
Incidentally, consolidator tickets are the airlines "best kept secret" from the public.
To show you how this works, on Sidestep I checked the price for a return
ticket from Chicago to London, departing April 15th and returning one
week later. Sidestep revealed the lowest price was $738 on Air Canada's
website.
So now, I have set a benchmark price. Anything I find under $738 would be
a better buy, right? A bargain fare.
Then, I checked the fares on our booking engine located at Adventure Travel Service, consolidator airline tickets, and we have a fare of $568 on United Airlines.
That's a savings of $170, a true bargain fare!
So now you can use a free tool to determine the benchmark price, "retail", then continue
your search and you'll know if you are getting a bargain fare as you compare it to the
benchmark price.
David Tinney, an expert in the travel industry, is the owner of Adventure Travel Service
and author of the best selling e-guide, Why Not Fly Free?
Here's what you'll learn... Strategy creates free travel Fly anywhere in the world, just pay the taxes Learn to be a savvy passenger Find out secrets from a travel agent Click to learn more.
All Travel articles by David
Tinney
are located here. No reproduction/reprint of this article without written permission of the
author.
Recently, I found a tool to that helps determine whether the price
of an airline ticket is a bargain or not.
Here's what you'll learn...
Strategy creates free travel