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When to Buy and What to Avoid

When's the best time to buy the ticket but six to eight weeks before this is a question I got when should I buy I'm going to europe in august and flights are so expensive assuming there is no you didn't find some crazy fight deal this is every day um searching six day weeks is the best time to buy and there's a reason for this so airlines have a really complex community computer mile that talks you know analyzes previous buying patterns sales competition prices and then uses that this was spit out the price to you and the airline might have ten to fifteen price points for that flight and of course they want those the higher price points to be you know they want people to buy at the higher price points so on a flight that you're going to say next year you know you're going to europe next summer you're booking your in advance the airline has really no idea what's the price of jet fuel next year what if we had a recession and no one's fly that wherever sunday that london becomes the hot s...

pot and everybody wants to fly it what if what if what if and so they're going to price at higher for events sort of hedge their bets they priced it too low they fill up at a lower price point and yeah maybe then a year from now all their competitors have raised their rate and they got stuck you know, with all these passengers right a deal I mean they're not out to like, hey, I'll give all these consumers these deals they want your money um so too far in advance is not good so as we get closer and closer to departure date airlines will the plane sort of fills up and if demand starts rising in this load factor of the plane search rising, they're going to start selling the higher price ticket way start to get closer and closer planes not flights not selling when you start selling at the cheaper tickets and they're going to constantly keep changing prices until they find that balance of, you know profitability hoping that they're going to get more people at the higher at and this is really great for consumers because people tend to book early I'm going to go I'm going to go to europe in august already know my dates I'll just book it now well you gotta wait you know I like high acts little price monitor thing because it can show you a historical trend, but that doesn't mean you know it's going to go keep going down I can just drop right back up so six day weeks you know eight to twelve for big international departures, especially on frequent roots you know francisco hong kong, new york, london, chicago, paris, whatever by then, the airlines have sort of figured out how full is are playing do we need to release a bunch of the cheap seats or every soldier an awful way to start raising the price is weak because based on previous sales history and you know consumer by habits we can predict that more people are going to have to buy really quickly and we can get people out to cheaper fares because airlines put people into two groups business card travelers and leisure travelers. If you're a business traveler, you're very specific to your flight dates and you tend to also fly last minute so you're like whatever I have to get to this meeting in chicago I'm going to go leisure travels a little bit more price sensitive um so they have to price tickets a little lower and airlines are consciously china balance those two so after this, airlines have a cut ideas that how much they're the tickets going to be in plain factor within thirty days. If you're booking within thirty days, you probably need that flight your book within two weeks a week you really need that flight because you waited last minute tickets are going to go through the roof why? Because they got to they know that you need them more than they need you and so you're gonna pay their fair especially because business travelers tend to fly last minute and book last minute so they sort of raised that better for everybody else now you had mentioned that you had heard that um airlines will offer cheap deals to fill planes last minute that is really true for tourists and cruises because nobody wants to go on an empty ship or be the only person on antar airlines do not do that for the life of me I have no idea why because once that plane takes off it's empty but they will keep reason that price to departure day you can show up in front of the airline and be like, hey, I want to go to rome and leaves and we're going to bologna that flight leaves in an hour and I just saw on your web site it's half empty great five thousand dollars they do not care, it goes up it makes zero sense if somebody could predict airline prices they probably would have already and they'd be facebook rich they probably richer than then secretary because that this is one thing you know everyone is always one rebel plans I don't get off topic mapple I'm curious because this is something that's relatively new because they used to have what were standby ticket he really could go into the airport and get the last seat on the plane and they would give it to you for a huge price what shifted security so you remember back in the day you could just be a courier yeah, I did that a few times yeah, I think about that now you can't airport security but we live in a post nine eleven world I need background checks I need to make sure you're not getting on the plane you are who you say you are. Um so um yeah, so security you can still fly standby and you can still you know if you but now you have to book a ticket, you have to have paid money or you have to have, like, a campaign by the path you're someone you know worked for an airline you just can't show up and be like yeah, you know I see this flights leaving in thirty minutes can I hop on it now let me do that uh so next part is round the world tickets and he's coming to multi stop tickets I have never used around the world ticket I don't like them because you can find so many budget carriers now is you can fund get you find on the road pretty cheaply I flew around the world on my first trip for less in two thousand dollars I use points against a great point because you're fine for free on these points for one leg I got that cheap uh ticket to europe I waited for a cheap flight on on tiger airways which is another budget carrier in southeast asia to get me to australia and then I waited for cheapflights apply home that was actually most defensive flight that was a thousand bucks and that was pretty much everything but if you can wait you know you're willing to fly budget carriers rather will think it's from maybe not so great so what is it around the world take it around the world tickets are like airline passes basically you fly an alliance but say I get uh I book my ticket through united I find their partners around the world star lines I go through american I find their partners around the world um one world is their lives delta same thing on sky team on this is great because you know you got to you know he loves star alliance I love one world I could be on the planes aye like and fly the company as I like but there's you can't really mix and match if you get if you book through the airline there's enough you can't make the match on another thing we'll get to that. So should you buy one? It really depends in my situation it wasn't really good who should buy one do you have a set schedule? Do you know you can only go away for a year on? You're not really going to change your dates you're traveling through popular itineraries on your frequent flier who wants to gain points I'm you're willing to pay a little more to fly more luxurious carriers you want the point you want to earn points you're not really going to change thanks a lot you know you're going to go from a to b to c you know and that's going to be your route because if you start changing things around thes they're going to go up you can change dates usually for free but you know let's say let's say I want to meet him in bangkok but my original fight was the singapore now I have to change my ticket and you're gonna have to pay this big fare difference we should not buy a round the world tickets is your flexibility you change your mind you hate airline rules do you have time and you can wait for deals essentially you just want to go from point a to point b sc whenever you feel like going and you can wait for deals and you can you know you have more flexibility there are a number of travelers I know who swear by round the world tickets but they tend to be frequent flyer hounds and then they also tend to have sort of a set routine date we're not really changing things a lot but if you're like hey you know I want to kind of go with the flow or you're really price sensitive like he just wants the cheapest thing another world tickets are not that cheap they can go sorry fifty hundred go all the way up to eleven thousand dollars he's got eleven thousand dollars spent on flights yeah nobody uh I don't know why that that you're done that's weird I told you I wasn't really great at power point but another one way together on this is it points and miles so if you do want around the world ticket you have point this is really a great deal because you can book it around the world ticket on american airlines one hundred twenty thousand points it sounds like a lot if you doing these credit card things and getting you know, fifteen thousand points where you sign up you're moving your points from you know another car into your american airlines account easy one hundred twenty thousand points get you around the world where is you know sometimes a one way flight is one hundred thousand points again airlines make no sense whoever thought that was a rational price increase I don't know but this is great I uh you know I have a number of friends book around the world take it one hundred twenty thousand points free ship around the world that's when I like booking with airlines there is another option if you don't want a book within the airline directly there are like resellers este travel ah company called air tracks u k showing company called uh flight center so you book with them and these rules over here all this stuff is really applies to the airline if you're booking directly with them if you just really want a multi stop ticket, I have a little bit more flexibility I would use a third party website um, because they will mix and match airlines because you know they'll get you united in one way, then the toss you on, you know, cafe fly and the put you on the qantas fly and then air india and you know, whatever, they can be great for multi stop tickets, but the downside is that you have less flexibility and changing your dates, and now you're dealing with a lot of different carriers and a lot of different rules in general, I would say that should you get a ticket really depends on what your travel goal is, where you're going your timetable and how flexible you you can date if you want to hit five destinations and you know you're going to do it, you know, within a certain timeframe, buying a round the world ticket can be a better deal because you're purchasing in bulk that's that's sort of the idea here is that the airlines are cutting your break because you're buying a bunch of tickets at once uh, to booking round the world tickets while you're traveling with your kids, would you get an extra discount if it was ultra book you've got, you know, no, no, unfortunately, you get the ticket is sort of individual it's not like, ok, I'm going to fly this route to get four tickets, so do I get a slight or just count? That route is the whole room is one ticket, so you'll get a discount if you price it out a little bit individually, you know, four times, but each ticket in sort of its own separate, I take it you have to determine the flexibility of the family is a unit because a lot can change for family and you might need that extra flexibility. I know one thing you definitely want to remember, do you due diligence if you want to go from new york, london, london, south africa, johannesburg to bangkok, backto new york, right, prices out individually, like we talked about and then price out this way and see, you know, get a sentence like don't just jump in like I need a multi stop ticket, so I'm going to do this, you know, sometimes it works are cheaper if you just look by yourself, you know? And if you don't mine flying an airline that has no parks you just want to save money doing this way that's what I did and it was much cheaper when I priced out my root around the world it was double what I would want to spend so I saved a bunch of money so again it should you want it depends because let's quote bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from god and the best part of travel is when you are just sort of going with the flow and you end up somewhere that's how I ended up in amsterdam for so long I went to amsterdam flew to barcelona realized I really missed uh and change my ticket teo to bangkok I extended it went back to him sam uh you know you lose flexibility when you're sort of set and it's sort of a root or it's in dates and then you can sort of change the dates you can't change the route and maybe you meet many you meet the one and then you decide that you're not going to india anymore you're following them on its authority through um you know east africa who knows any questions relate really its flights around the world tickets you want an answer at this very moment yes you know what airlines still allow a ticket for a year they all though so around the world ticket will last is good for a year so if we leave today around the world to get can use well last until a year from now, if I book a flight I can change it up to a year from them just reading recently that this guy I booked a first class ticket first class tickets always refundable and for a year he walked into this lounge, ate lunch, changed his ticket for a date and blocked out and do this every day for years for food and they got wise to it and he just cancel the ticket got his money back and, uh hey for free for a year but yeah, question about onward tragic so this one has come up a lot of before we move on. Sorry to throw you off. A lot of people are asking this yeah addressing, getting around the onward travel requirements maybe if it's for like a retiree, that or anyone who doesn't want to have those fixed travel plans in advance? Yeah, travel is the phrase they're using a lot. Yeah, so a lot of countries you cry you to have proof of honor travel uh the I've only conjured I've only been asked about proof of andhra traveled twice once in ireland actually every time in ireland and every time in the uk you guys are really not about showing proof of a hummer travel I was only what I didn't know this and I went to ireland I went to flew into england meaning friends and then we're going to ireland it was my birthday celebrated my birthday and she wouldn't let me in I think I'm calling for my birthday and she kind of double checks doing ok is your birthday don't do it again and since then I always carry proof of a homer travel of ireland in the u k even if I have to buy cheap mega bus ticket that leaves from london and goes to paris that's like five pounds anything you need something for other countries it's really most of time up to the airline just before they let you on the plane so you know, do you have proof of onward travel? Uh when I have landed I've never actually been a lot of countries they never been asked um if you're worried about it and if the airline is going to make a big deal about because I have been you know, on airlines just are from out of australia is really bad one they always wanted knowyou're you're leaving because if they let you on the plane and you don't have proof they're in trouble so they're kind of watching their own backs a good way to get around this is by a refundable airline to get if you're worried buy refundable ticket land called the airline get your money back they're getting a cheap bus or train out of the country but in the refundable airline route is one of the ways I flew from greece to bulgaria and the airline was like, yo, bulgari, does your car, your proof of bomber travel? You need to have something. So I just right then and there, by the refundable ticket, forgot about it to the last day I could refund. It was like, oh, I got to get my money back here called up call, you know they're your funding, that the ticket was good. Sometimes there is a small feet, um, but most fully refundable tickets that you buy it's, full of refundable and there's, no faith.