Discounted airfare

[jimmyjazz 46526]

I'll be doing a fair amount of travelling over the next few months.  First up is a one-way from Albuquerque to Austin in mid-July.  I went to Google Flights and Southwest and found a bunch of options, but my wife fell into some sort of discount airfare wormhole (Kiwi, etc.) and was able to beat those prices, usually by splitting legs between airlines.  I really don't care about multiple airlines if the layovers are reasonable, but I'm unfamiliar with the booking site.  Is Kiwi legit?  Are there alternatives that are better?

I used to just go to ITA Matrix, which I believe was folded into Google, along with Southwest, which has never seemed to allow 3rd party quoting.  I guess Matrix never gave me the option of multiple airlines, but I honestly don't recall.  Travel pros, help a guy out . . . 

[futureman 22566]

just use vonlane

[shnsajax 3592]

Its almost 2020, why the fuck don't I have access to worm holes yet?

[Anastasis 23518]

Seems like rerouting in event of delays missing connections would be a mess.  

[Your Mom 4884]

If you get delayed on one airline you’re going to have a harder time getting rebooked on the second airline and it will cost you more. But as long as you can control the weather and the supervise maintenance of each airline before your flight this shouldn’t be a problem.   

[Guest Lobo]

Just fly Allegiant to Austin from ABQ.  Yeah, it's a shitty airline but it's non-stop and it's cheap(er).  

Sure you can save $25 by booking a flight with a layover on two different carriers, but as stated above-that's a big risk when it comes to the first flight being delayed, and surely a 2-hour layover in Dallas or someshit isn't worth your time or $25.  

[jimmyjazz 46526]

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

Just fly Allegiant to Austin from ABQ.  Yeah, it's a shitty airline but it's non-stop and it's cheap(er).  

If I'm reading their site correctly they only have flights on Monday & Friday.  That doesn't work very well for my Wednesday trip.

Good points on the downside of a missed connection on a different airline.

[HenryJames 66368]

9 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'll be doing a fair amount of travelling over the next few months.  First up is a one-way from Albuquerque to Austin in mid-July.  I went to Google Flights and Southwest and found a bunch of options, but my wife fell into some sort of discount airfare wormhole (Kiwi, etc.) and was able to beat those prices, usually by splitting legs between airlines.  I really don't care about multiple airlines if the layovers are reasonable, but I'm unfamiliar with the booking site.  Is Kiwi legit?  Are there alternatives that are better?

I used to just go to ITA Matrix, which I believe was folded into Google, along with Southwest, which has never seemed to allow 3rd party quoting.  I guess Matrix never gave me the option of multiple airlines, but I honestly don't recall.  Travel pros, help a guy out . . . 

Used Kiwi to book a flight to DC in August. Got a confirmation from the airline a few minutes afterward.

[gecko 1104]

"...my wife fell into some sort of discount airfare wormhole (Kiwi, etc.) and was able to beat those prices, usually by splitting legs..."

Wow, you'll do anything to save a few $$ on airfare.

[jimmyjazz 46526]

35 minutes ago, gecko said:

"...my wife fell into some sort of discount airfare wormhole (Kiwi, etc.) and was able to beat those prices, usually by splitting legs..."

Wow, you'll do anything to save a few $$ on airfare.

Yikes.  That doesn't read the way I intended.

Oh well, at least somebody's getting some.

[midtown 3348]

You can try skiplagged.   I know he got sued by the airlines but he won.

[Firemans4Horn 18344]

If southwest flies to the destination I want to go 99% of the time I’m booking with them. Booked a flight with American recently and holy shit is their website terrible to use. 

[Firemans4Horn 18344]

When I did my trip around the world I used ITA and skyscanner mostly. I was also able to utilize some of the European travel agencies “student” tickets but none of that applies over here. 

[mycox 582]

You can use kiwi for the prices. Then go to the airline's direct site and book the same flight. 

[Uncle Nate 2097]

Has anyone flown Boutique Air?  https://www.boutiqueair.com/

I'm intrigued.  Especially if I can fly them for a lot less of the price of the big carriers from Dallas to Albuquerque  (granted it's a puddle jumper, but still).

Edited June 28, 2019 by Uncle Nate

[JimmyHoffa 1188]

The only reason  to ever fly discount is to fly direct. There isn't a chance in hell I would trust a budget airline (aside from Southwest which I don't lump in with the rest) with connections. Fuck that. 

[midtown 3348]

Southwest isn't budget at all and out of SA they are more expensive then the big 3 90% of the time

[futureman 22566]

than

[jimmyjazz 46526]

skiplagged ended up showing one price but then tripling it after selection.  Screw that.  I went to the individual airlines and booked them separately.  It's a long layover in Denver so I'm not all that worried about a missed connection.

[Updawg 2334]

Be sure to check your luggage so you have to exit the terminal and go through security again

[gmr548 16645]

Google flights in incognito mode and a check of the Southwest website will get you the best result, or very close to it. Close enough that digging around a bunch of other bullshit sites isn't worth the time. I believe I've seen legs split between airlines on there, but it may be partner/codeshare sort of things I'm thinking of. I would think that extra layer of risk probably isn't worth the marginal cost savings anyway.

[ChiTownDoc 21256]

On 6/28/2019 at 9:16 AM, jimmyjazz said:

Yikes.  That doesn't read the way I intended.

Oh well, at least somebody's getting some.

Was gonna say, I can handle booking you all on southwest and even throw in some drink tix.  Shoot me a DM bro. 

[CooterBrown 18116]

Booked Frontier to go to Disneyland in October. Flew them out there back in March and other than the unpadded cheap seats, it was perfectly fine.

 

Joined the Travel Den for $49 so kids fly free. 2x $89 round trip for two adults and two kids flying free. Additional costs were upgrading to the seats with actual padding and 35” of space, added 2 check bags, and the ridiculous fees Frontier charges to actually make a profit.

 

All in, it ended up costing $505 for 4 round trip direct flights. SWA was $450 a ticket for one connection flights.