Southwest Offering 50% Off Flights on Facebook
To celebrate the growth of its Facebook fanbase to 3 million, Southwest Airlines is offering half-off fall flights through the end of the day.The offer applies to select roundtrip flights (they’re labelled “Wanna Get Away”) that fall on Sept. 5, Sept. 11, Sept. 18, Sept. 25, Oct. 2, Oct. 31 and Nov. 6.
Fans are asked to use the promo code “LUV2LIKE” when booking onsouthwest.com to take advantage of the offer, which expires at midnight PT on Friday.Southwest wasn’t able to tell me what percentage of its flights qualify for the promotion on each of those days, but I was able to find at least one flight from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to my home airport in Orange County, CA, and back on each. It’s possible to get a partial discount by only booking the initial or return flight of your trip with the discount. Unfortunately, those who have already booked flights on those dates will be unable to take advantage of the offer unless they cancel their previous reservations and make a new one.
And don’t worry — unlike that other Southwest promotion, this one isn’t a scam.
1. Kayak
Kayak searches hundreds of websites at one time, turning up the web's best flight deals.
You can also set fare alerts for flights. Choose preferred travel dates to destinations of your choice. Kayak fare alerts can be scheduled as daily, weekly or monthly emails.
Kayak's interface also lays out airfare to a particular place across a span of a month or more. Travelers can then pinpoint the lowest rates and the cheapest dates to fly. The company also offers exclusive deals from "Secret Carriers" — airlines are revealed after purchase. Kayak's money-saving management tools also include price alerts.
Yapta is an online tool that helps travelers keep a close eye on airline prices, before and after ticket purchases.
Flyers can use Yapta — now powered by Kayak — to search for the cheapest flights in the upcoming months.
Yapta's super power lies in its ability to track fare changes after tickets have been purchased. If prices drop, Yapta users can claim an airline refund for the difference directly on the platform.
Most travelers aren't aware of airline refund policies. Some airlines offer a refund with any price drop, while others offer a refund when the price drops below a specified amount.
Student travelers can buy discounted flights to destinations all over the world withStudentUniverse.com.
The company works directly with major airlines to push the best deals for students. "We are able to negotiate special fares because airlines can depend on our patented verification technology to make sure that students are the ones benefiting from these reduced fares," the company said in an email.
Only verified students can purchase discount tickets. Passengers save $100, on average, per flight with Student Universe.
Skyscanner is a flight comparison platform that lets travelers display the lowest airfare available in a month or year on a graph, so users can quickly pick the cheapest dates to travel.
One search on Sky Scanner compares offers from 600+ airlines, covering more than 67,000 routes worldwide. Like Kayak, Sky Scanner directs customers to official booking websites without fees.
If you haven't decided where to spend your vacation days, use Sky Scanner's "Search Everywhere" option to see where the cheapest flights are leaving from the airports nearest you.
Cut additional costs by searching for "indirect" routes or by using the "flexible" search tool — to mix and match airlines.
Like Student Universe, STA Travel bargains with global airlines to win students exclusive travel deals.
STA Travel Exclusive Tickets are available for students under 26. Tickets from top global airlines are "competitively priced" — plus, dates are flexible after purchase.
Airfarewatchdog is an airfare alerts tool. The site's "dealhounds" will send you an email alert when ultimate deals are found.
Users can schedule alerts for specific city-to-city routes. Travelers can also set alerts for "Anywhere That's Cheap" from all nearby airports. Amazingly low deals will be emailed to you daily, two to three times weekly or once a week. Airfarewatchdog covers most airlines including Southwest Airlines, and smaller carriers.
Each day, Airfarewatchdog also rounds up the Top 50 Fares available for users.
Momondo is a powerful travel resource that scours more than 700 airfare websites for the best deals.
The company describes itself as "small" and "unbiased," searching low-cost carriers, travel agency websites as well as flight offerings from the largest global airlines.
Since their 2006 launch, the company has built more than 700 robots that scan websites "just like a person would do."
Momondo, based in Copenhagen, has especially great coverage in Europe. There are always flights with smaller, niche carriers available. If you can't find deals to low-key destinations in Asia, Africa and Australia, using Momondo is your best bet.
We also love that users can search for direct or indirect flights to multiple destinations.
Priceline's Name Your Own Price program is great for heavily slashed round-trip tickets to anywhere. Money-saving deals — often up to 50% off — are available with some traveler flexibility.
In the Name Your Own Price program, travelers can select travel dates, but can't control what time their flights leave and return. Flight details are shown after purchase. Patrons, however, can pick their departure and arrival airports.
Priceline can guarantee low prices because you'll be flying off-peak. The flights are not guaranteed non-stop. Possible connections gives the company leeway to save passengers money.
We also recommend Priceline for their last-minute travel deals.
Timing is everywhere when booking cheap flights. Bing Travel has a nifty "Price Predictor" answers the question -- “when is the best time to buy?”
This feature tells customers to wait or buy tickets when they're searching for flights in the U.S., Canada and to most worldwide destinations. Bing's airfare predictions are based on a wide sweep of 100+ travel sites, historical airfare data, trends, patterns and simulation technology.
Bing's patented travel platform technology is currently 75% accurate. Customers can save $50 on average per flight with Bing Travel.
The FareCompare travel gurus suggest it's best to buy airplane tickets mid-day on a Tuesday or Wednesday. FareCompare is a great online destination for tips from travel insiders and for flight comparisons.
In one search, FareCompare compares fares from more than 500 airlines. Since 2004, the company has been collecting data about historic and current airfares.
Its alert system sends an email or Facebook message once airfare on a specific route hits the minimum change specified by the user.
A unique FareCompare feature is the Getaway Map for individuals who haven't decided where to go. By entering a departure city, the interactive map shows you how far you can get with your current budget.
What do you think of This Post ? Let us know in the comments.
0 comments:
Post a Comment