live_aloha

Please share your tips on how to find the best priced tickets for airline travel

I've heard the best days to book are on Tuesdays, when prices are lowest---have you found this to be true?

Is it best to book directly with the airline or go through something like Kayak.com?

Starting point is Hawaii, traveling to Tanzania (JRO). West coast departure city can be San Diego, Los Angelas, San Francisco or ? I think if I depart out of LAX or SFO I can fly with KLM all the way.

Looking at travelling early October 2012. Also want to end the trip with 2 nights in Rwanda.

Appreciate your comments!

qwovadis

www.farecompare.com great booking tips Tues afternoon IS best booking month late January is best lowest booking traffic.
kayak.com/buzz cheapoair.com airtreks.com airawards.com
Good deals for me in the past,LAX usually best prices.
Sometimes shuttle Southwest.com or otherto NYC or IAD on
the east coast can save hundreds. Lastly www.travelzoo.com
others have sale packages including air from $1695 or so
on sales that can save a bundle if you can find something that will meet your needs.

Good luck!

wildlifepainter

I've gone to Tanzania 3 times in the last 4 years from SFO (San Francisco) on KLM. We've always booked with KLM and their prices do not change on a day to day basis. Delta prices do vary (KLM partner) but usually KLM is cheaper IMO. In Feb the usual price is around $1600 to $1800. I paid $1691 early in the year but I think it went down to $1600 if I'd waited and booked it in the summer.

I have a trip to Kenya booked for Feb/Mar 2012 using KLM and I paid $1565 back in June. Today it's $1350. I guess I should have waited but then peace of mind has a value too. I hope this helps.

I'm trying to get to Namibia next October 2012. The price is $1650 with Airline Consolidator and $200 more with Expedia and thousands more with the airline (SAA). Does anyone have experience with the consolidator? What would you do?

wildlifepainter

Wanted to add that I'm going to Rwanda after Kenya and it was cheapest to book that round trip directly with Kenya Airways instead of bundling it with the international flight.

sandi

As above, you've got to check around the various resources available.

Supposedly, Tuesday is a good day or after midnight any day when the airlines reset their systems for those tickets they had on-hold and not booked.

2/days only in Rwanda? Where? Kigale/KGL only? Or do you plan gorilla trekking? The latter, permits at $500 to visit the cousins. For this short period, and the air to/from, you might want to consider, at minimum an additional day.

Good luck!

live_aloha

Great info---thanks so much for all your comments!

quovadis, good to know about late January being the best booking month. Seems to me that when I was checking prices for my trip to Kenya August 2010 the fares were running in the $1400+ range, but by the time I actually booked it was up to $2000! Probably started looking in January and finally booked closer to departure time.

wildlifepainter, I have no experience with the cosolidator, but hopefully someone on this forum does and can chime in on that one. You are so right about piece of mind--would've been nice to get your Kenya ticket for $200 less, but not if you had to stress over it and/or risk not getting a seat!
To me, flying KLM would be so much nicer than having to go with Delta part way, so good to know about the cost savings. The last trip I went on Delta to Amsterdam, then picked up KLM to Nairobi. The service was like night and day, with KLM being far superior.

Thanks for the booking tip about Rwanda!

sandi, I am planning to do the gorilla trek in Rwanda, so will be looking for any and all information about that.

ShayTay

You don't actually book on Kayak; it just searches out flights. From Kayak, you link through to the fare they've found. Sometimes, the flight may be listed as "Delta" or "Multiple Airlines" even though it's all on KLM because of codeshares. It wouldn't hurt to check 'em out if the fares are lower. You might find that they are actually all KLM flights.

live_aloha

Good to know, ShayTay---thanks!