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I recently used Flightfox to book a flight from Monterrey, Mexico to London. The cheapest flight I found was US$1109, Flightfox found one for $959. It was well worth my $49 fee.

However, I'm puzzled as to how they found me this bargain price. The flight they found for me included third flight, which I didn't use (and indeed couldn't use), from San Jose, California to Reno, Nevada, on Alaskan airlines.... on a date I was in the UK.

The retail price on this trip was roughly $1300, and I got it for $959.

Somehow by bundling this flight with my round-trip fare from Mexico to the UK, I was able to save money.

How was Flightfox able to find this deal? How can I find them myself--assuming that's even possible, without some special agent mojo?

Flimzy
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    hop into the [chat], we have had a few discussions on this on occasion :) – Mark Mayo Feb 20 '14 at 23:10
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    possible duplicate of How does "Fuel Dumping" work? – Doc Feb 21 '14 at 03:11
  • Note that whilst this isn't exactly a duplicate of the above post, the discussion of how to find these fares is probably not something worth covering as it's generally against the airlines Contract of Carriage, and can have multiple negative side effect... – Doc Feb 21 '14 at 03:12
  • @Doc: You're saying that these bundled prices, like the one Flightfox gave me, aren't worth it? I'd love to know why... perhaps I should ask a new question? – Flimzy Feb 21 '14 at 14:33
  • @Flimzy For example, the United Airlines Contract of Carriage states "UA reserves the right to cancel bookings and/or reservations which it deems abusive, illogical, or which are booked and/or reserved with no intention of flying.", and most other airlines will have something similar. So if they catch you doing this, they can cancel your entire ticket, without refund. The odds of getting caught are low, but there is always a risk. – Doc Feb 21 '14 at 15:51
  • I questioned the FF guy about this, and asked if it could pose similar problems to hidden-city booking, and he assured me there was nothing shady about it. I guess he wasn't being very straight with me. – Flimzy Feb 21 '14 at 16:00
  • I'm pretty sure you can file a complaint with your credit card company in such a scenarion, which would most likely result in a refund. – JonathanReez Feb 22 '14 at 07:19
  • Any answer yet? I'd be interested to know too! I have used many site search engines, but flightfox claims to find the cheapest possible routes/deals. – NomadTraveler Feb 24 '14 at 23:59
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    @NomadTraveler: Look at the link at the top of the question. This "bundle discount" I got was actually, upon closer examination, a case of "fuel dumping," and not an intentional discount at all. The linked question explains what this is, in basic terms... it's quite complicated. I've decided I don't care enough to learn to do it. :) – Flimzy Feb 25 '14 at 01:07

2 Answers2

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I can't give you a single tip that would work for you or anyone else. Ticketing and air fares are a serious business and there is no single tip that can give you the kind of knowledge to find these fares.

Not every ticketing agent is qualified to come up with these nice prices, you can visit a travel agency and two different agents would give you two different prices (I had first hand experience). They need to have deep knowledge in many things, including the reservation system, IATA rules, airlines` rules, etc. This kind of knowledge has no single source, it is an academic knowledge (rules and regulations) combined with technical knowledge (reservation systems) combined with real life experience.

If you have the will and the time (and some money), you can always join one of IATA's courses on the topic, they will give you a good starting knowledge on the topic. Then you can continue reading online about fares and ticketing. Also, you need to have a course on one of the ticketing systems (like Amadues), this will give you a solid knowledge on how the real life ticketing and fares process is done. From this point you will be able to come up with better fares.

Flimzy
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Nean Der Thal
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I was one of the flight experts on flightfox when it was contest-based last summer. Just didn't have time to do it anymore.

In the era of priceline, kayak, cheapoair, itamatrix, etc, searching for airfare online is much easier than before. If the journey is simple (e.g. roundtrip without any constraints), then simple search in one of these sites will result in the cheapest airfare. Multiple searches depending on dates, etc might be required. There are some tricks like not all airlines are available through online travel agent (e.g. priceline). If you are US-based, southwest is an example.

If the journey is more complicated, multiple cities, fixed or variable order, etc then it might become impossible for automated/exhaustive search engines to evaluate all of the possible options. Although, the human travel agent cannot try all the possible options, but he/she can find a solution.

Yes there are some tricks but you need to know how to search and be patient in trying out different options.

Mohammad Moghimi
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