Eat, Pray, Fly!

My author friend, Patty, is flying down to Ecuador in the month of June to write her version of the book Eat, Pray, Love. She’s fluent in Spanish and will be staying at a nearby hostel. When I spoke with her last night, she asked me about the best way to fly to Ecuador and how to find the cheapest ticket. I covered some of that information in the book, but here are some more “cheap ticket” ideas:

*Book your ticket on a Tuesday, actually to be
precise (Wednesday at 1:00 a.m.). After that time the various airlines go into price-war mode and the tickets will start to escalate—reaching a peak on Monday.

*Try to schedule your flight on a Tuesday to Tuesday or Wednesday to Wednesday for the cheapest fare or if it’s a short flight, Thursday to Sunday works best.

*Keep with one airline. We use American Airlines because we’re accumulating air miles. But obviously if there’s a flight for $416 versus $700, we’ll book on the cheaper airline.

*Overnight flights are less expensive (but you already knew that). No one likes to take the red eye, but sometimes it works out for the best.

*Look for an airline that puts you at your destination in the morning. The good thing about an overnight flight is the fact that you arrive at your destination in the a.m., which means you don’t have to spend the night in Quito or Guayaquil.

One of the flights I looked at from Philadelphia to Guayaquil, puts you in Guayaquil at 11:00 a.m.; however there’s a 9-hour layover in the Miami airport. It’s a trade-off. Do you want to spend 9 hours in the Miami airport or arrive in the evening at Guayaquil and spend the night? As a writer, I love being stuck in airports and watching people, but others would rather NOT!

*American Airlines and LAN airlines have cheap tickets code-share agreements, so you can still rack up the frequent flyer miles. Personally, I would rather take LAN airlines any day of the week. Their airbuses are wonderful, the service is exceptional and the crew is always professional and kind. American Airlines has the great distinction of being the “meanest” airline in the skies and missed being the worst airline second only to United. I’m not sure what happened to the "friendly skies," but better choices might be Copa or Continental.

*Book on CheapTickets. With few exceptions, booking on CheapTickets has been our best bet. The only exception is if you go directly into the airline site (i.e., AmericanAirlines) and book directly from them. Sometimes the airlines will have a cheaper price by $20 or so, but not always.

*Be flexible on dates and times. When you book a flight make sure you leave the times flexible, that way it will bring up a list of all the flights ranging from daytime flights to the red eye. Of course, the “sleepy” flights will always be cheaper.

For June 1-29, 2011, I found a ticket with LAN/American from Philly to Guayaquil for $646 ($759 including tax and fees). Tickets in that time frame ranged from $646 to $1,500, which is not too bad for the summer months. However, two months ago, I was able to find a ticket for $416 (roundtrip), but I think we won’t be seeing those prices for a while.

There are some good deals out there; it just takes some researching. Month to month and week to week the prices change. Many airlines allow you to bring up a window to check the fluctuations during the month to find the lowest price. You can also subscribe to FareCompare, Yapta or Kayak to track prices. For instance, in the months of October-November, the cheapest time to fly is on October 28th. You can even sign up for their alert e-mails to let you know when a particular flight is hitting an all time low.

If you’re willing to be flexible with your flying dates and times and you’re willing to fly the “not so friendly skies,” you just might be able to snag a good deal and write your version of the book, “Eat, Pray and Fly."

Until next time...hasta luego!
 



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