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I'm researching plane fares to Europe and back and between cities in
Europe
for this summers' looping tour as are several people on this list.
Below is a good article that I just googled about how to find the
cheapest air fares.
Any other nuggets of wisdom that people have found regarding things to
make touring less expensive?
These are mine and they are America-centric because..............well,
that's where I live.
Please chime in everyone else. We need to know how to get around on
the cheap
in your respective countries. We'd do the same for you if we had any
kind of decent
public transportation (outside of planes) but we don't..........that
sucks!
1) One from me is that five years ago, touring Europe, one could just
go to train station
and buy an inexpensive ticket. Because of that, we did not pre-buy
tickets before
touring in 8 countries last summer and found, to our horror, that the
British and European
train companies had changed their pricing policies to reflect those of
American Airlines
(i.e., buying at the last minute costs an exorbitant jump in price).
This was particularly
brutal in London. I had such a long and ambitious tour that this
ended up costing me
hundreds of dollars more than I had anticipated:
Buy tickets early...................but not too early (when they are
also higher).
I'd say anywhere from one to two months out from your trip
2) Also, for Americans, the price of petrol in Europe and the UK is
staggering compared to
what we are used to in terms of subsidized gasoline prices in the US all
of our lives.
If you are trying to save money, do not rent a
car.............period........point................dot!
Additionally, most Airplanes between cities only allow for 20 kg
limit (which is lower
than the traditional 50 lb. limit Americans are used to.
Many extremely cheap flights limit baggage to 10 kg and the per/kg
overweight fees can be
astronomical.
Flying from Stockholm to Glascow five years ago, we got a $45 flight
and paid
$600 of excess fees.
Check your airline's excess baggage fees before you buy your ticket if
you are carrying gear.
It will save you tons of money.
The high cost of flying (only with baggage overages as otherwise, it can
be inexpensive)
also precludes flying unless you can't help it or you have extreme time
constraints.
3) Consequently, take trains!!!!!!!! subways!!!!!!!! graciously
accept rides when they are proferred!!!!!
Stay off of planes if you can help it.
4) Going from country to country, also look into
Ferry's................frequently, they are much cheaper than
going by other means. Instead of taking flight number two from
Glascow to Belfast (another $45 flight
with a $600 baggage overage), we took a ferry that costs $19. It took
longer and I was forced to
go live on the air of BBC Belfast from a remote phone out in the ocean
instead of making a live
appearance, but it saved mucho dinero.
5) Don't buy food at train stations if you are trying to save
money. When possible, buy at local grocery stores
or supermarkets before you go to the train station or airport. It
just seems like a little bit extra to pay inflated
station or airport prices but it really adds up over the long run (or
else it did for Chris and I).
6) Transformers that will do the job kicking US 110 voltage up to 220
voltage are not cheap and they
are very heavy to lug around. If possible, check ahead of time to
see if the venue or promoter you are working
with has one. You'd be surprised at how many places do, but don't count
on it! Check ahead and assume nothing.
The Y2K Festival finally went out and bought one and a lot of people
putting on loop festivals are doing the same thing
to accomodate their foreign guests. I also have left transformers
with Paul Marshall in Belfast, Ireland and
Luca Formentini near Lago Di Garda, Italy. Anyone who wants to can
borrow those but they need to be
returned or left with an active touring live looper somewhere in Europe
or the British Isles so I can pick it up later.
7) Don't buy the MacBook Pro with the bitchen 17" screen! Those
suckers are heavy and carrying them around
hurts your back. You also have problems on many forms of
transportation because the screen size is not really
designed for travelling (especially on small aircraft). Save some
major dough and buy the 13" or 15"
8) Don't catch this cold I have................it's friggin' miserable.
9) and now that article I promised earlier:*
*
<http://www.thecanadianpress.com/>
Here are two words for a frugal flyer: Patience and Wednesday
CP - Tue Mar 03, 11:26 PM EST
By Joshua Freed And Harry R. Weber, The Associated Press
Want to fly cheap? Time to break some bad habits.
Like buying the first cheap ticket you see or waiting until the last
minute to book a fare. As the economic slump continues and both business
and leisure travel declines, fares are getting cheaper as airlines try
to fill seats. A round-trip ticket from San Francisco to Boston, for
instance, was selling on Feb. 4 for $238, down from $400 on Nov. 1. Even
with such bargains, however, travellers need to know a few tricks to get
the very best prices.
First, don't hurry.
Matthew D. Weyer sometimes spends hours researching fares online.
Knowing what a ticket usually sells for allows him to spot cheap fares
almost immediately.
Weyer sets up email alerts for prices on the route he's shopping for at
fare-watching sites like Kayak.com or Farecast.com. He finds out whether
discount-carrier Southwest Airlines Co. flies a route. He also checks
the ticket on booking sites like Travelocity or Orbitz.
Weyer recently shopped for a flight from Greenville, N.C., to Chicago, a
ticket he said commonly runs around $410. He was tempted at $280. He
eventually paid $180 on Priceline.com. Weyer figures he spent about two
hours spread over a couple of days searching for the ticket.
Weyer starts shopping as far in advance as he can but doesn't book right
away. He considers it safe to book between one and three months ahead of
time. Legacy carriers generally show their schedules for about 11 months
out. The window is shorter for discount carriers. Southwest's window is
currently six months, and AirTran's is nine months.
The 24-year-old Chicago college student and software programmer once
flew for only $9 on Spirit Airlines from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale,
Fla., and says the most he has ever paid for a ticket is $240.
Having a price in mind is good advice. A sense of timing helps, too.
If you tend to make travel plans during weekend down time, reconsider.
The best time to shop is late Monday or early Tuesday, some fare experts
say. Airlines often start fare sales on Sunday night or Monday morning,
said Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com. Those sales alone are fine if they
include the flight you want. But other carriers generally match the fare
sale by Monday evening or Tuesday morning, giving you more choices.
Seaney said Wednesdays are generally the cheapest day to fly. Tuesdays
and Saturdays are also good days to fly because demand is low and the
airlines are trying to fill seats.
It's natural for travellers to book their flight when the workday is
done or the kids are asleep. But the airlines are posting fares on their
own schedule. They file fares to the computer system that shares them
among websites and travel agents three times each weekday - 10 a.m.,
12:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern time. It's 5 p.m. Eastern on Saturdays and
Sundays. That means fares can change at those times, so when you do see
a fare at the price you're looking for, grab it.
Former New Yorker Jill Gott of Providence, R.I., spent 2 1/2 weeks
checking American Airlines' website several times a day before snagging
a $109 round-trip ticket from New York-LaGuardia to Atlanta. She said it
was only available for about three hours before jumping back up to $250.
"I just decide what I want to pay for something, and I just keep
clicking away until I get it," she said.
But shopper beware. Fares start to rise again seven to 10 days before a
flight - sometimes as long as 14 days or more, depending on the airline
and sale offer. Airlines raise fares closer to the departure date
because last-minute seats tend to be bought by business travellers and
others who must fly at certain times.
Roger Johnson, director of revenue management at New York-based JetBlue
Airways Corp., notes that it can be risky for a flyer to delay buying a
ticket in hopes it will be even cheaper. He says there's no good way for
customers to know whether a fare sale will show up in their market.
"They would be gambling that this would happen and would probably lose
out more than they would win," he said.
AirTran Airways spokesman Tad Hutcheson said his advice is simple: "I
would follow the Moscow rule of shopping - you see it, you like it, you
buy it."
Where to buy also matters. For an airline ticket only, your best bet is
an individual airline's website because you'll skip the extra fees some
travel Web sites charge. Also, while Orbitz will show you a handful of
round-trip flights from Baltimore to Austin, Texas, for instance, a key
option is missing. Southwest doesn't sell on those sites. That means
checking its website is a must if you're flying near a city they serve.
For instance, on Feb. 24, Southwest was offering tickets on the
Baltimore-Austin route for as low as $99, while Orbitz's cheapest
offering was $193.
If you're packaging airfare, hotel and a rental car, however, consider
Orbitz and Travelocity, which often discount such bundles.
Like Weyer, you can also try Priceline, where users can bid for tickets.
A customer may end up with an undesirable itinerary, like flying in the
wrong direction to make a connection, but the fare can sometimes be
cheaper. Not all airlines, however, participate in Priceline's "name
your own price" offer.
Another piece of advice - learn to love St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago
O'Hare, and other hub airports where you can connect to your final
destination. Non-stops are convenient, desirable - and sometimes more
expensive, said George Hobica, who runs airfarewatchdog.com. That's not
always the case, though, so always compare.
If travel isn't possible or desirable in the near term, don't worry. Tom
Parsons, chief executive of travel website BestFares.com, said great
fare sales are possible in the coming months for travel during the peak
summer period.
"I would keep watching and watching and watching," Parsons said. "This
is a very fragile airfare system out there."