Ask HN: How do you find airline tickets? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you find airline tickets?

#31

Post by bjacobt » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 4:28 PM UTC

Our family of four is on an international vacation right now, peak season for the destination.

I checked all - direct airlines, kayak, Google flights, etc. I had specific dates and most online quotes were between $8,000 - $12,000 for cheapest economy ticket. 8k tickets had more stops/duration.

A local travel agent found a comparable ticket with good duration and stops for $5,500 for all of us. And I paid $600 for seat selection since we were traveling with kids and didn’t want to risk sitting apart.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find airline tickets?

#32

Post by hinata08 » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 11:42 PM UTC

I'm surprised none used the API of Amadeus.

It will give you the same results as most booking websites. (Most of them rely on a shortlist of companies like Amadeus or Sabre.)

And you can't buy tickets without creating your own company plus extra steps, so you end up on a booking website anyway.

But eh, we're IT guys and that's fun.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find airline tickets?

#33

Post by lencastre » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 5:45 AM UTC

ITA kayak combo

Re: Ask HN: How do you find airline tickets?

#34

Post by zachmjr » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 9:38 AM UTC

1. Using Google Flights to find flights based on my preferences. 2. Use VPN and incognito mode to check prices directly on airline websites. 3. Pick the cheapest option.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find airline tickets?

#35

Post by Jagah » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 12:44 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: How do you find airline tickets?

#36

Post by 97-109-107 » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 1:50 PM UTC

Used the following engine to find outliers - different results than the typical popular search engines mentioned so far.

[Budget air tickets from low-cost airlines - combine lowcost carriers for optimal routing - find cheapest airfare among many airports at once](https://www.azair.eu/index.php)

Re: Ask HN: How do you find airline tickets?

#37

Post by ivanvanderbyl » Sat, Jul 22, 2023, 3:23 AM UTC

landemva wrote: post #17

ITA matrix has options to remove 737MAX, so I start there.

Regardless of how you personally feel about 737Max, hundreds of them are flying every day without issue.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find airline tickets?

#38

Post by alister » Sat, Jul 22, 2023, 4:51 AM UTC

johnwalkr wrote: post #18

Google flights is the best starting point. But during and post-covid, it's really recommended book directly with an airline. A travel agency will likely take half a day to rebook you after a cancellation, but an airline will put you on the next flight. Definitely don't book 2 separate tickets with 2 airlines to save money, because it's still pretty likely one flight will be cancelled/delayed and you will get stuck. C…

> Forget about maximizing points for your personal bookings.

I agree that trying to maximize points to gain free travel is often not worth it for non-business travelers, but sticking as much as possible with one airline to gain a higher frequent flyer status can make your travel a lot more comfortable. Higher status allows you check in bags for free, airport lounge access for free, picking your seats for free, but most importantly you can bypass the ridiculously long lines for check in and sometimes get priority security screening as well.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find airline tickets?

#39

Post by alister » Sat, Jul 22, 2023, 5:12 AM UTC

Mizoguchi wrote: post #15

Google Flights has in my opinion the best interface to initiate the search. But it won't show you necessarily the best price if you are flying international airlines. So I always end up in the airline's website locally connected via VPN. Sometimes the difference is absurd, tickets selling for $300 in the international version of the website go for $60 if you access the regional version or from other countries except…

I can confirm that this is absolutely true for LATAM Airlines. Booking a Brazilian flight (origin and destination within Brazil) is cheaper on LATAM's Brazilian portal than on LATAM's USA portal whenever I've compared them. You don't need a VPN: just look at latamairlines.com/br/pt vs latamairlines.com/us/en.

Ahh, but they are very sneaky. The Brazilian site only accepts payments with credit cards issued by Brazilian banks. They won't accept credit cards from the USA or other countries. You have to use the USA portal or international portal of LATAM if you want to pay with a non-Brazilian credit card, and you'll pay more for the exact same flight.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find airline tickets?

#40

Post by switch007 » Sat, Jul 22, 2023, 12:30 PM UTC

dzhiurgis wrote: post #25

johnwalkr wrote: post #18

Google flights is the best starting point. But during and post-covid, it's really recommended book directly with an airline. A travel agency will likely take half a day to rebook you after a cancellation, but an airline will put you on the next flight. Definitely don't book 2 separate tickets with 2 airlines to save money, because it's still pretty likely one flight will be cancelled/delayed and you will get stuck. C…

IDK how Google flight is a serious option when any complex query (2 layovers on obscure route) always ends up with "oops the price you've seen before isn't available anymore" or you need to "Call agent" to get realistic price.

I've noticed the "oops the price changed" a lot recently, but prior it was rock solid for years for me (mostly European airlines/flights)