Travel China and Beyond

Best airfares not to be found online?

In recently booking some international travel for a buying trip for my online store ( www.chinafinds.com ), I came across an interesting phenomenon. Although I have always been a big fan of online booking sites such as Orbitz and Expedia, I found to my surprise that the best deals on American Airlines and United were to be found, not on their websites or on Orbitz/Expedia, but with their telephone reservation centers. Several years ago, the airlines started charging an additional fee to purchase flights via their telephone reservation agents, while it remained free to purchase flights via their websites. As a result, I had pretty much abandoned telephone reservations. However, in searching for the cheapest and best economy flights from Austin to Beijing, I found that Orbitz had the best online fares, with Expedia a distant second, and that the airlines’ own websites sometimes had decent prices, but were generally higher than those on Orbitz. However, if you called to check with the airlines, the fares were not only the lowest available, they actually allowed you to make a reservation and would hold it from 24 to 72 hours, depending on the airline in question. Yes, you had to pay $15 extra, but it was definitely worth it. Why the airlines are pursuing this policy, I have no idea, and it may only be relevant to international itineraries. The next time I fly within the U.S., I will definitely have to check out the deals available online versus over the phone to see if this is the case with domestic flights as well. The deal I got with United was really excellent, by the way. With all taxes and fees included, I am paying $818 for my ticket and $679 for my 8 year old daughter’s. Plus, as my daughter has elite status on United, we get to be seated in the Economy Plus section of the airplane, which has 5 inches extra legroom compared with regular economy seating. The extra legroom will be a real bonus on the long, long flight to China. In addition, my daughter’s elite status gives us access to the business class lounges on the day of our flight. The lounges are great at any time, but particularly when you are traveling with a tired child. Elite status is really not that hard to get, particularly if you are planning to travel to Europe or Asia and are going to log a bunch of miles in a short amount of time. See my post on airline challenges for more information. Plus, if you have achieved elite status with one airline, others will usually match that status for the current year if you ask.