🚀Hey there, I'm so glad to see this video has been useful to so many of you. I've got a number of new travel videos for you (with much better audio). If you're interested in hacking your way to the best flight prices, though, this one is particularly helpful ➡ruclips.net/video/EyIBKbXhP9c/видео.html
Excellent info. As a former travel agent, booking directly with the airline is best even if a bit more expensive. If things go sideways, they can easily fix it but if you booked with a reseller or agency you are stuck with whatever they can or are willing to do. Plus fees.
Book with anyone other than the airline you will regret it if anything goes wrong as you will be talking with an ass on the phone in Seattle or Mumbai telling you they will answer in a month or two/ Airline will have a representative at the airport to address
@@DavidGTravels Seems Central and South America Business Class has become a thing of the past. Economy Plus has no attraction in replacing. AeroMexico has become my favorite but miss the Embraer 190 and absolutely will not fly Boeing Max and hesitate flying any Boeing. I worked mainly with Military and NASA, but familiar with the engines and instrumentation on Commercial Aircraft. I practically wrote the procedure for Spectrographic Oil Analysis Program. Boeing lost its quality control in the late 1980s. Too many drugs being used by their workers. As I once told a US Marine Major, "You think you're so special then tell me why they let drug crazed sailors work on your plane." Yup that did it. Knew I was right, never flew a gain and took an early retirement. Sure glad Lockheed no longer makes Commercial Aircraft, they had the worst quality control of any.
Kiwi wanted to charge me 50 USD for the second baggage from Chicago to Frankfurt via Istanbul . In the Airline regulations of Turkish Airlines it was stated that the 2nd baggage is free. So I booked directly over Turkish Airlines and saved 50 USD in contrast to Kiwi. Happened last year in June. So check, doublecheck and then check it again.
In Europe my flight was cancelled while i was touring the countryside, when i finally got to see the email to get a refund the time period ended, i could not find any way to contact Kiwi, any emails i sent never answered, never got the refund so for me, Ki-Wi-No-More
ALWAYS! Book with the airlines directly!!!! Always! If there are issues of any kind, third party bookers make it difficult, if not impossible!! Don’t be an amateur!
Absolutely….I learned the hard way more than once….i now book direct with the airline….and direct with the hotels…I often travel with ppl who chase deals…if I decide to extend my stay there’s never a problem usually get upgrade …. while the others are frustrated trying to get reply from third party sites and cost a fortune
I’m a million miler and still sometimes book w third party sites. It just depends on the savings and route. Agree that booking directly with the airline is lower risk and, depending on your ff status, can make more sense long-term. But I sometimes buy last minute business class seats on Priceline for a third the price that the airlines are charging. The gamble is sometimes worth it to me when flying long hauls.
Bad Experience with Kiwi. You might want to do a video on this so others don't fall into the same trap. I booked with Kiwi for HNL to Sdf flight 3 months in advance. Good fare basic economy tickets on Hawaiian and Spirit. Paid for the tickets. 1 month later kiwi tells me Spirit cancelled their flight. Kiwi tells me they can try to get my money back, but once you say okay, it is non revocable. A day later kiwi tells me they got a credit from Spirit for the flight good only for 2 months, and that the Hawaii flight was cancelled with no refund. So basically by letting them try to cancel, I got screwed. Couldn't even use the Hawaiian ticket anymore to get to the mainland. This was all two months in advance. I'll never use kiwi again. Like you said, find the flights with them, and do the rest yourself.
Unfortunately booking with OTAs can often add complication to traveling. As I recommend in the video, book direct wherever possible and use other websites as search tools. -David
Used Kiwi for cheapest direct from Europe to Southeast Asia. Well who would have known Athens Singapore route exists direct for 200 bucks. Amazing tool if flexible.
@@DavidGTravels Thanks. And full disclosure, we used itamatrix after learning Kiwi, and then booked on the airline site directly. It was about 4 hours of "what ifs" for cities and dates (ending up using multi-city) and inputting options and amazingly we have better flights than we could have imagined (and could not otherwise find.)
The Google Flights recommendation was a winner for me on it's own!! Thank you for mentioning and I'm sure I will rewatch and explore some of the other engines later as well.
Awesome information, thank you so very much! We will be traveling a lot starting in the fall and will want to economize by finding the least expensive flights.
What I see right now is that airlines artificially keep the number of flights low to charge approximately 50% more than before COVID. Having less flights they pack airplanes full and often overbook (I hear them announcing it at the gate that the flight is overbooked and they need someone to agree to fly with another flight). Having their flights overbooked they have very little stimulus to offer discounts. That's why I could not find any discounted flight from my town in Canada to Bangkok for September-October using the mentioned websites though it is the low season. Probably, the situation is better when you fly from the USA but when you travel from Canada it is expensive like hell.
@@mitzoss Many routes have less flights than pre-COVID, though there are other routes that have much more competition now. Though passenger numbers are getting close, they're not back to pre-pandemic numbers yet. So there's still some continious adjustment being made by airlines. But all of this is only so helpful to the average traveler to consider - in the end there are deals to be had using the techniques outlined in this video. Feel free to ask any more specific questions @mitzoss
Thanks david,but i,m a sub now,and i,ll see what i can learn from you,theres plenty of good knowledge in your corner.thanks for the google advice,but i,ll still do kiwi and battle with ita,many thanks great education its all upside.you sort the flies from the bugs,thanks a lot.respect
Thanks for the info on ITA, David. I’ve been travelling the world for years and years but never knew of ITA. Love an in-depth review of their website/business in general. I’m a senior now and can’t endure those long haul flights in economy anymore. I spend a good bit of my time trying to find deals in business class flight travel.
Totally understand about long-haul economy, working on a new video to give more insight into some strategies I use to get cheaper business class tickets. As for ITA there’s not much of business there, it’s just a really useful search engine.
@@roja7426you only use it for research. You ALWAYS book directly with the airline. If something goes wrong, those third party booking sites don’t help you.
@@roja7426 Thanks for commenting. In this video the methods I show on kiwi are intended to give you a powerful way to search for flights, but when it comes to booking them I recommend to always try to book directly with the airline if possible.
Glad you found it helpful, I have a bunch of other videos on how to find the best flight deals in my all about flights playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLlHFWceWhDiToruSro5wuxwKK3VNkycWb&si=pbURoK1I3IqfA1yv If you’re talking about an ITA matrix video I have one in the works, too.
Interesting video but I never use these sites. I book directly with the airlines because, in the long run in my case at least, it's easier to manage flights directly with the airlines. Okay, I'll never get a first class ticket for $700 instead of over $3,000 but I do get points for my flights and usually end up with enough for a couple of nights for free each year in pricier hotels in major cities. 😊
Thanks for commenting. I booked business class tickets between the US and Europe for around the price you just listed and booked directly with the airline.
Agree that you should aearch on kiwi, but then book directly through the airline. I learned when the flight I booked on kiwi ended up being less expensive had I booked directly on the airline
Having had two airport managers as good friends over the years, you would be surprised to know where airlines cut costs. Having a high regard for life, I do not do discount airlines. Depends what you call a great deal. It depends on the value you put on your life. If you get into a habit of using one major airline all of the time, they will usually give you great bargains.
Definitely agree that a suitable airline depends on your needs. To be fair to low-cost carriers I’ve had horrible experiences on them, but I’ve also had a lot of really good experiences (and half empty planes) flying them.
Some things you ahow disappeared too fast and i didnt get the chance to see what you were showing. A slighly longer pause would be good. Good info though. Needed this 2 weeks ago!
Thanks for the feedback, I'll keep it in mind for future videos. When a video is fast, I find the slow-down and pause functions in RUclips help me out.
Make sure to tell these people that if you you Skiplagged or just hopping off on that middle flight, you have a high chance of being banned from that airline. Do that on the four or five major airlines, and then you never fly again.
Thanks for commenting! If you're interested in learning a little more about skiplagging and my thoughts on it, here's a video for you: ruclips.net/video/2qJyi1jpiyo/видео.html Do keep in mind that Skiplagged is useful for other flight search techniques and I go over this in the video. -David
@@DavidGTravelsI know all about it and while you may get away with it at first, Airlines’s do keep track of that kind of information and once they become aware, you can definitely get banned from flying them again.
@@jaxx-_-123but does skiplagged show you the flight continues beyond the city you bought the ticket for? Maybe I don’t want to Skiplagged. I just like to buy tickets through them.
@@TheBoobanyes, if you buy a ticket from city A to city C but get off in city B in the middle of your journey, that is against the terms of service and could get you banned from that particular airline. If you just did it once they probably wouldn’t do anything but if you make it a habit…..
@@jaxx-_-123 but I mean does skiplagged show me my ticket actually continues to city C? Because I search for city A to B. Skiplagged can show me this flight to city B. But it also goes to C. Does it show me this? Or am I skiplaggning in ignorance?
I booked a business class flight from LAX to Lisbon the Jetblue part was layflat and the TAP part was just recline. On the way over to Boston Delta economy was way better than I expected with Two decent meals and free alcohol
Gee david,thats a lot of info,but real good sense,i,m a big flakey ,so i,ii have to concentrate more withv something like ita.but kiwi is a starter,thanks.
Thanks for sharing, this can also be a really useful tool for finding cheap flights. Often you don't even need a VPN to get prices from different countries, either. I've got a video in the works that covers this topic, so stay tuned!
Ello Mr T-Spurt. Just wondering. Do you end up saving/ extending battery life by using the front display screen. I'm really keen. It's just the battery life 👍🫶🇦🇺
I found a premium economy one way to LHR and upper class return one way to IAD for a combined $570 total. I like to take info provided by different travel apps & websites and enter the info into the other ones until I whittle it down to the least expensive for what I want.
i think i have been on these sites but what i noticed is you have to take luggage and check out and check in? if i am travelling international destinations where there is stop over in anohter country that is very painful to exit/do immigration etc?
No matter where u go, flights are expensive these days. Everybody wants their cut, airline, govt tax etc. Im disaapointed overall when it comes to buying tickets now a days.
Very happy your video appeared in my feed today! With friends and family in Asia, Europe, and all over the US, I've used the internet for travel booking at least 25 years. You give a few tidbits here I'd never heard of, will definitely try out. I'm very grateful for the pointers, you have my subscribe. Thank you!
@@DavidGTravelsI didn’t even know about Google flight. I stopped using google for hours because Google is deceptive, showing you what they want you to see. And then you go there, it’s another price. But thanks for this flight video. It’s ridiculous how it’s so hard to book holidays. And the longer you take, the price ticks up.
American Airlines is suing Skiplagged. Where people were barred from an airline for skiplagging. If your tickets going to airport A - B - C and get off at airport B. On the return flight should be C - B - A. but your get on airport B and finish at airport A. That's how the airline catches you.
@scottsmit1115 United sued Skiplagged and lost. If you skip a flight all the rest of your flights on that ticket will be cancelled. But keep in mind that Skiplagged is also a useful search engine for other flight booking techniques.
Not completely traveling to your final destination is frowned upon and hopping off at the hub city is likely to get you the boot .@This happened to me on BA last year .
Hey @paulgilliland2992, thanks for the comment! You’re right that skiplagging has some controversy attached to it. Skiplagged is also a useful search tool for other flight search techniques, though - I talk a bit about this in the video if you’d like to learn more.
Looked at booking a hotel with Kiwi, went on the web and there are many posts of people with a bad experience. It looks like some people lost their entire payment, when originally it looked like they had a bargain. I opted to pay the full price. Just a question, have you ever booked with Kiwi and how many times????
I mean I have booked with kiwi, but I generally recommend booking direct with the airline. Make sure to watch through the whole video to see how to use Kiwi and the other sites to search for flights.
do you know if there is an easy way to search for multi ticket flights? example going to point A to C cost 2k but buying one ticket for A to B then B to C only cost 1300. This is where im stuck right now haha. Cant find an easy way to search like this. Multi city is close but not close enough to work as it doesn't search for cheaper ways via separate tickets.
Awesome video , please check for me ,the cost ,sit,the airplane I should used . From Lagos Nigeria to Miami Florida on 14 to 30 , April 2024 , from Tega , Nigeria
Gota a question. If you use skiplagged to find a flight with a layover where you're going, can you get your checked bags at the layover point, or do they stay with the airline for the duration of the entire flight?
Quite a few, but do keep in mind that they’ll usually be wide-body planes on long haul flights or small jets on more regional routes. My favorites so far are the upper decks of British Airways and Qatar Airways A380s, but the 767s United flies to and from Berlin are decent enough too.
Well there is a giant fail on Kiwi. I put in indianpolis +150 miles to cancun, MX +150 miles ANY TIME, up to 1 stop, and it says there are no flights. Obviously something isn't working correctly.
That’s strange, I’ve actually never had it show no results at all. A good alternative would probably be to put the exact airport codes given there wouldn’t be that many for that search. Most likely ORD would be the cheapest nearby to CUN but more than 150 miles.
@@DavidGTravels I played with it and tried 10-15 different trips, 2 of them came up with no results but if I tweaked it a little sometimes it still worked. It actually seemed to hang up after I chose +150 miles. I removed that and left it at a single departure point and it worked. Just a hiccup I suppose.
When ever I use a 3rd party booking to look for low fares and then try to book directly with the airline line the price goes up $300 sometimes up to $1,000., ho back to the 3rd party and it’s still the low price. So I end up booking with them. How do I get the same low price when booking directly with the airline???
That can happen, but it’s very rare that third-party sites will be more than a tiny bit cheaper. The process I find the most success with is to search for the flights i research directly on the airline’s website, but you may find that you get a better price by clicking into the airline’s website from another search website from time to time.
When considering a travel site that advertises inexpensive tickets, one has to wonder why are the tickets so inexpensive? One of the ways, that is not legally allowed by airlines, is using someone elses frequent flyer miles. The travel company purchases frequent flyer miles from someone that cannot use them for one reason or another. The miles are purchased for rock bottom cost. Then the travel company uses the frequent flyer miles to book your ticket sometimes consolidating miles from different entities. There have been many recorded instances where the airline has booted people off flights with no refund, sometimes in the middle of their trip, and you may be banned from flying that airline.
Thanks for commenting. In this video you’ll find information on how to use five sites that are often overlooked to find flight deals that can be booked on the airline’s own website.
I found if I book through a on booking in the US or a US based airline in the US they were running credit checks on me. I have not lived in the US in 12 years, and have not had credit since 1984. However this often caused flight cancellation, sometimes just an hour or two from departure. As is the credit bureaus have an US address for me dating back prior to 1981. But have found my mailing address in Costa Rica where I live. My bank cards are all Debit. Rhus I book directly only with Non-US Airlines as never a problem.
@@DavidGTravels Correct, they shouldn't, and illegal to do so. But I can do nothing about it living outside the US. Well except never using US based agencies or airlines.. I was also informed I needed a Photo ID with US Mailing Address to enter the US. Seems my US Passport no longer good enough ands total lack of US Government appreciation for my 32 years US Army Service. About 6 years ago I asked CitiBank if they ran credit checks to open a bank account. I was informed they didn't. After about 20 minutes the account was denied as I failed their credit check. as I had no history in over 30 years. American Government and Businesses are so dishonest so I avoid them at all cost. No others have been a problem except perhaps COPA. In nearly all attempts to schedule flights the transaction fails as they require a US Mailing Address matching my Card. And the Debit Cards used are Costa Rica and The Address Costa Rica which does not contain a house number, street name, State or Zip Code. I add being as it is my Costa Rica Address is not able to be contained by computers in the US. Our system is kind of like a pirate treasure map. A prominent location followed by direction and distance maybe a few times. But the system works just fine here. Mail Delivery country wide in 1 day Monday through Saturday. In the past 11 years I have traveled to 79 countries. And for the first two years had no problems as I had a bank and use of a friend's US Mailing Address. But he died and the bank would not allow me to continue.
@@Metal_Face_Doom Because you are in the US and I am not! And I opted out of credit and credit checks in 1984. So what they do is entirely illegal. But that is a standard with the US, Violation of Freedom and Rights is a standard. Not to mention as a US Citizen I was denied entry to the US 8 months ago for not having a Government Photo ID with US Mailing Address. So evidentially my US Passport is no longer good enough. I served 32 yeas in the US Army and my ancestors in America 86 years before the United States was even an idea. The credit checks are only run with US Airlines and US based booking agencies, never with non US based ones. I have not lived in the US in over 12 years and the problems began 2 tear after I left as obviously my financial records could not be tracked as I had none in the US. not even a utility bill. Americans are pea brained as they have no concept of what Freedom and Privacy are.
Thanks for commenting! Keep in mind that on this channel I don’t quite have the bandwidth to give individual travel ideas in depth. But you could try breaking up your trip with a few stops along the way - maybe something like Singapore for a few days and then India and Turkey. There are a fare amount of low-cost options in Asia and Europe.
@@DavidGTravels Thank you for your time but i think i will have to end up paying someone from youtube as i cannot go that way due to the medication i am on as it takes a lot but i thought to Apia and then to Hawaii to the mainland and to Canada and need to break it up to the Uk if that makes sense. Thank you and if you are ever looking for a paid job well always let me know as i need to get over that way as my son has a terminal illness. 😞
I’ve never seen any unique last-minute flight deals that couldn’t be found for similar prices elsewhere on Travelocity. It’s almost always best to book direct with the airline where possible, so for these third party websites I try to focus on the ones that are most usually for searching for flights (not booking).
@@DavidGTravels sure. Was looking for a next day flight. All the airlines said $900. Travelocity said $575 and it would be on one of the big 4 airlines. Alaska, delta, American or united.
@@nellybelly623 Great to find an awesome deal no matter where. I have booked quite a few last-minute flights and nearly all of them could be booked for at least near the lowest price directly with the airline.
@@DavidGTravels I don’t know why I said Travelocity. It was Priceline. I could not find any deal on those airlines that could come close to competing. I do not know why I said Travelocity because I totally agree with you, I find the airline & book direct. Way better if there is any delays or issues. Ended up not taking the flight because I couldn’t find feedback on Priceline.
I’ve found some good deals on Priceline, particularly for rental cars which I talk a bit more about in my recent video about rental car hacks: ruclips.net/video/0KvbeihFW8Q/видео.htmlsi=xqkJWBfeArVjG18F But for last-minute flight deals, I’ve found they’re almost always bookable for near the best price directly with the airline.
Kiwi is another low-cost carrier rated site that nickle n dimes you for luggage as well. Also, they work by keeping you stranded your 2nd leg back to usa. Jfk to Italy 9 hrs Italy to jfk 17 hr...8 hrs in airport 😂
The fare might not be bookable then anymore. This could really be related to a number of things but it’s hard to say without having more info. Make sure you checked both of those boxes in the bottom right in ITA if you didn’t. If you’ve also tried putting it into a few other OTA/metasearch sites, you could look at other flights with the same fare if there are any.
I travel out of jfk , nothing is cheap unless you book months in advance or off peak , also so websites track you ,clean you history every time you look ,or used a VPN
Thanks for sharing. I booked a flight to Europe for about $130 one-way five days before travel in December 2021, so there are some last-minute deals from JFK at times. It’s a good idea to just set your browser to clear the cache each time you close and reopen it. That said, the idea of prices changing because of cookies during your search is really blown out of proportion a lot of the time. Most credible flight search websites don’t do that at all.
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🚀Hey there, I'm so glad to see this video has been useful to so many of you. I've got a number of new travel videos for you (with much better audio). If you're interested in hacking your way to the best flight prices, though, this one is particularly helpful ➡ruclips.net/video/EyIBKbXhP9c/видео.html
Excellent info. As a former travel agent, booking directly with the airline is best even if a bit more expensive. If things go sideways, they can easily fix it but if you booked with a reseller or agency you are stuck with whatever they can or are willing to do. Plus fees.
Welcome to the channel and thanks for sharing your insight!
wud not touch a reseller with a barge pole
Book with anyone other than the airline you will regret it if anything goes wrong as you will be talking with an ass on the phone in Seattle or Mumbai telling you they will answer in a month or two/ Airline will have a representative at the airport to address
@@riskyron1416 Agreed, book direct wherever possible!
@@DavidGTravels Seems Central and South America Business Class has become a thing of the past. Economy Plus has no attraction in replacing. AeroMexico has become my favorite but miss the Embraer 190 and absolutely will not fly Boeing Max and hesitate flying any Boeing. I worked mainly with Military and NASA, but familiar with the engines and instrumentation on Commercial Aircraft. I practically wrote the procedure for Spectrographic Oil Analysis Program. Boeing lost its quality control in the late 1980s. Too many drugs being used by their workers. As I once told a US Marine Major, "You think you're so special then tell me why they let drug crazed sailors work on your plane." Yup that did it. Knew I was right, never flew a gain and took an early retirement. Sure glad Lockheed no longer makes Commercial Aircraft, they had the worst quality control of any.
Been using ITA for years and love it. I'll look for another video about it from you. I can always learn something new!
Awesome and thanks for the feedback! I've got another video on ITA in the works along with many others. 👨💻
Yes please!
Kiwi wanted to charge me 50 USD for the second baggage from Chicago to Frankfurt via Istanbul . In the Airline regulations of Turkish Airlines it was stated that the 2nd baggage is free. So I booked directly over Turkish Airlines and saved 50 USD in contrast to Kiwi. Happened last year in June. So check, doublecheck and then check it again.
Book direct to avoid stuff like this.
It's only worth booking with kiwi when it has special deals, otherwise it's better to book directly with the airline
In Europe my flight was cancelled while i was touring the countryside, when i finally got to see the email to get a refund the time period ended, i could not find any way to contact Kiwi, any emails i sent never answered, never got the refund so for me, Ki-Wi-No-More
Thank you my friend. Yes - we need a separate video re. ITA Matrix - but only if there are more fan requests.
Thanks for watching, and I have an ITA video planned as well as plenty more weekly travel videos. Thanks for the feedback!
Loving your channel. You get right to the point.
Thanks for watching, happy travels!
ALWAYS! Book with the airlines directly!!!! Always! If there are issues of any kind, third party bookers make it difficult, if not impossible!! Don’t be an amateur!
Preach :)
There is no reason to ever need a travel agent.
Yes, I lost $3600 with Priceline
Absolutely….I learned the hard way more than once….i now book direct with the airline….and direct with the hotels…I often travel with ppl who chase deals…if I decide to extend my stay there’s never a problem usually get upgrade …. while the others are frustrated trying to get reply from third party sites and cost a fortune
I’m a million miler and still sometimes book w third party sites. It just depends on the savings and route. Agree that booking directly with the airline is lower risk and, depending on your ff status, can make more sense long-term. But I sometimes buy last minute business class seats on Priceline for a third the price that the airlines are charging. The gamble is sometimes worth it to me when flying long hauls.
Bad Experience with Kiwi. You might want to do a video on this so others don't fall into the same trap. I booked with Kiwi for HNL to Sdf flight 3 months in advance. Good fare basic economy tickets on Hawaiian and Spirit. Paid for the tickets. 1 month later kiwi tells me Spirit cancelled their flight. Kiwi tells me they can try to get my money back, but once you say okay, it is non revocable. A day later kiwi tells me they got a credit from Spirit for the flight good only for 2 months, and that the Hawaii flight was cancelled with no refund. So basically by letting them try to cancel, I got screwed. Couldn't even use the Hawaiian ticket anymore to get to the mainland. This was all two months in advance. I'll never use kiwi again. Like you said, find the flights with them, and do the rest yourself.
Can you threaten then legally?
Unfortunately booking with OTAs can often add complication to traveling. As I recommend in the video, book direct wherever possible and use other websites as search tools.
-David
I heard you recommend NOT booking with Kiwi. Great video!
He said NOT to book with KIWI
KIWI stinks. They did something similar to me. Never got back a refund.
Used Kiwi for cheapest direct from Europe to Southeast Asia.
Well who would have known Athens Singapore route exists direct for 200 bucks. Amazing tool if flexible.
Awesome! That route is on Scoot (Singapore Airlines low-cost subsidiary), so make sure to consider baggage and other costs. Happy travels!
Thank you. We saved 45% on our October booking to Europe. Big thumbs up.👍
Great to hear, enjoy your trip!
@@DavidGTravels Thanks. And full disclosure, we used itamatrix after learning Kiwi, and then booked on the airline site directly. It was about 4 hours of "what ifs" for cities and dates (ending up using multi-city) and inputting options and amazingly we have better flights than we could have imagined (and could not otherwise find.)
Awesome, so glad you found an amazing deal!
Which site did you use
@@essviot1165 ita matrix and then direct booked.
The Google Flights recommendation was a winner for me on it's own!! Thank you for mentioning and I'm sure I will rewatch and explore some of the other engines later as well.
Thanks for watching!
I went to google flights. The prices were higher.
Awesome information, thank you so very much! We will be traveling a lot starting in the fall and will want to economize by finding the least expensive flights.
Glad it was helpful, happy travels!
Seatguru isn't maintained well anymore. Aerolopa is a greay alternative and kept updayed for the moment. Great video.
Thanks for watching!
This is one useful Vlog and it must have taken you a lot of time to assemble it. Thank you very much, duly subscribed
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! Each of my videos usually takes around a week of editing depending length and other factors.
Holy moly!!! Thanks so much! And a BIG YES to any future videos you think are worthwhile making!! Subscribed!
Welcome to the channel!
What I see right now is that airlines artificially keep the number of flights low to charge approximately 50% more than before COVID. Having less flights they pack airplanes full and often overbook (I hear them announcing it at the gate that the flight is overbooked and they need someone to agree to fly with another flight). Having their flights overbooked they have very little stimulus to offer discounts. That's why I could not find any discounted flight from my town in Canada to Bangkok for September-October using the mentioned websites though it is the low season. Probably, the situation is better when you fly from the USA but when you travel from Canada it is expensive like hell.
Thanks for sharing!
I wish you could comment more than "Thanks for sharing!" I am interested how you're responding to those arguments@@DavidGTravels
@@mitzoss Many routes have less flights than pre-COVID, though there are other routes that have much more competition now. Though passenger numbers are getting close, they're not back to pre-pandemic numbers yet. So there's still some continious adjustment being made by airlines. But all of this is only so helpful to the average traveler to consider - in the end there are deals to be had using the techniques outlined in this video.
Feel free to ask any more specific questions @mitzoss
Canada is expensive for everything.
Thanks david,but i,m a sub now,and i,ll see what i can learn from you,theres plenty of good knowledge in your corner.thanks for the google advice,but i,ll still do kiwi and battle with ita,many thanks great education its all upside.you sort the flies from the bugs,thanks a lot.respect
Happy travels!
Thanks for the info on ITA, David. I’ve been travelling the world for years and years but never knew of ITA. Love an in-depth review of their website/business in general. I’m a senior now and can’t endure those long haul flights in economy anymore. I spend a good bit of my time trying to find deals in business class flight travel.
Totally understand about long-haul economy, working on a new video to give more insight into some strategies I use to get cheaper business class tickets. As for ITA there’s not much of business there, it’s just a really useful search engine.
He clearly stated he recommends booking with the airline directly and not through Kiwi.
He did include kiwi and showed you how to use it. Although he didn’t say to use it entirely.
@@roja7426you only use it for research. You ALWAYS book directly with the airline. If something goes wrong, those third party booking sites don’t help you.
@@roja7426 Thanks for commenting. In this video the methods I show on kiwi are intended to give you a powerful way to search for flights, but when it comes to booking them I recommend to always try to book directly with the airline if possible.
55 countries, Wow, congratulations on your travels. Will try these sites out hopefully when economy and safety get better or pre COVID.
Best of luck!
Great information. Just subscribed. Another video would be great.
Glad you found it helpful, I have a bunch of other videos on how to find the best flight deals in my all about flights playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLlHFWceWhDiToruSro5wuxwKK3VNkycWb&si=pbURoK1I3IqfA1yv
If you’re talking about an ITA matrix video I have one in the works, too.
David, can't wait to try some of your ideas to get my wife and I back to the Philippines. Great stuff.
Enjoy!
Thank you! This was a great video, love what you shared! Have a good week! xo
Same to you!
Interesting video but I never use these sites. I book directly with the airlines because, in the long run in my case at least, it's easier to manage flights directly with the airlines. Okay, I'll never get a first class ticket for $700 instead of over $3,000 but I do get points for my flights and usually end up with enough for a couple of nights for free each year in pricier hotels in major cities. 😊
Thanks for commenting.
I booked business class tickets between the US and Europe for around the price you just listed and booked directly with the airline.
Agree that you should aearch on kiwi, but then book directly through the airline. I learned when the flight I booked on kiwi ended up being less expensive had I booked directly on the airline
Dang!! Thank you for all that information! Really appreciate it. Instantly SUBBED!! ❤👍
Welcome to the channel, overjoyed that you found it useful!
I just stumbled on your site. I found your video very helpful. I have subscribed.
Glad to hear, happy travels!
Having had two airport managers as good friends over the years, you would be surprised to know where airlines cut costs. Having a high regard for life, I do not do discount airlines. Depends what you call a great deal. It depends on the value you put on your life. If you get into a habit of using one major airline all of the time, they will usually give you great bargains.
Yeah, I draw the line at DC-3's In South America, where there are more drums of diesel than passengers.
Definitely agree that a suitable airline depends on your needs. To be fair to low-cost carriers I’ve had horrible experiences on them, but I’ve also had a lot of really good experiences (and half empty planes) flying them.
When you buy through 2nd party websites the airlines aren’t accountable for your flights the websites are. I lost over 1,200bucks on travelacity
Hey Rubin, thanks for the comment. I always recommend aiming to book direct with the airline where possible.
Some things you ahow disappeared too fast and i didnt get the chance to see what you were showing. A slighly longer pause would be good. Good info though. Needed this 2 weeks ago!
Thanks for the feedback, I'll keep it in mind for future videos. When a video is fast, I find the slow-down and pause functions in RUclips help me out.
Excellent video and information. Much thanks.
Glad you found it useful!
Good to know Info. thank you for the nice video.
Glad it was helpful!
Make sure to tell these people that if you you Skiplagged or just hopping off on that middle flight, you have a high chance of being banned from that airline. Do that on the four or five major airlines, and then you never fly again.
Thanks for commenting! If you're interested in learning a little more about skiplagging and my thoughts on it, here's a video for you: ruclips.net/video/2qJyi1jpiyo/видео.html
Do keep in mind that Skiplagged is useful for other flight search techniques and I go over this in the video.
-David
@@DavidGTravelsI know all about it and while you may get away with it at first, Airlines’s do keep track of that kind of information and once they become aware, you can definitely get banned from flying them again.
@@jaxx-_-123but does skiplagged show you the flight continues beyond the city you bought the ticket for? Maybe I don’t want to Skiplagged. I just like to buy tickets through them.
@@TheBoobanyes, if you buy a ticket from city A to city C but get off in city B in the middle of your journey, that is against the terms of service and could get you banned from that particular airline. If you just did it once they probably wouldn’t do anything but if you make it a habit…..
@@jaxx-_-123 but I mean does skiplagged show me my ticket actually continues to city C? Because I search for city A to B. Skiplagged can show me this flight to city B. But it also goes to C. Does it show me this? Or am I skiplaggning in ignorance?
Great video. Liked and Subscribed.
Awesome, thank you!
Thank you for sharing. Can you do one on hotels
Glad you asked! I’ve got one in the works right now and it will be out soon.
Just a heads up that you can find a couple different videos about hotels deals now, happy travels!
ITA matrix will make me a global nomad!! thank you thank you thank you
Best of luck!
Great sharing David...thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
Great info. Thak you!
My pleasure!
Thank you very much for the information! New subscriber here.
Thanks a lot, mate. You have made my day.
Glad to hear that!
Short and sweet love this site
I booked a business class flight from LAX to Lisbon the Jetblue part was layflat and the TAP part was just recline. On the way over to Boston Delta economy was way better than I expected with Two decent meals and free alcohol
You are great. First one I gave a thumbs up to and have been listening for a while. HINT listen at 1.5 speed.
Thanks for that!
Outstanding! Thank you for sharing 🙏🏼
Glad you enjoyed it!
Gee david,thats a lot of info,but real good sense,i,m a big flakey ,so i,ii have to concentrate more withv something like ita.but kiwi is a starter,thanks.
Maybe google flights is good base if you don’t have much time
This was brilliant! Thank you kindly.
You're very welcome!
Great info in single vid, thanks
Glad you found it useful, stay tuned for weekly videos!
Could you do a video on booking round trip flights with different cities? Say San Francisco to Amsterdam and the return is Madrid to San Francisco.
I can definitely consider including that in a video in the future, thanks for commenting!
Hello, lots of valuable information. Lots to learn. Did you mention apps or should we use the website on a pc?
Great question! I usually tend to do most of my flight searching on a computer, but some of the sites mentioned have decent apps too.
Great info man. Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Using a VPN to change the country the flight is being booked from can yield cheaper prices too.
Thanks for sharing, this can also be a really useful tool for finding cheap flights. Often you don't even need a VPN to get prices from different countries, either. I've got a video in the works that covers this topic, so stay tuned!
It’s a myth. Have no real effect
Ello Mr T-Spurt. Just wondering. Do you end up saving/ extending battery life by using the front display screen. I'm really keen. It's just the battery life 👍🫶🇦🇺
Hey there, I'm not sure what you mean :)
Great tips, thanks!!
Glad it was helpful!
I found a premium economy one way to LHR and upper class return one way to IAD for a combined $570 total. I like to take info provided by different travel apps & websites and enter the info into the other ones until I whittle it down to the least expensive for what I want.
Nice deal
i think i have been on these sites but what i noticed is you have to take luggage and check out and check in? if i am travelling international destinations where there is stop over in anohter country that is very painful to exit/do immigration etc?
This is really a case by case thing, but I highly recommend trying to book directly with the airline where possible.
-David
Solution - don’t check luggage. Travel lighter to remove the risk.
Here's how I tend to travel for reference: ruclips.net/video/uVKPUnqZBUw/видео.html
Thanks for the tips!
You bet, stay tuned for plenty more!
No matter where u go, flights are expensive these days. Everybody wants their cut, airline, govt tax etc. Im disaapointed overall when it comes to buying tickets now a days.
I don’t know if I agree, but the introduction of unbundled fares definitely has led way to more fees that can feel hidden.
Very happy your video appeared in my feed today! With friends and family in Asia, Europe, and all over the US, I've used the internet for travel booking at least 25 years. You give a few tidbits here I'd never heard of, will definitely try out. I'm very grateful for the pointers, you have my subscribe. Thank you!
Glad to hear it helped, happy travels!
Google flight is a greAt start for me... I will try the others. Thanks for the info 😊
Have fun!
@@DavidGTravelsI didn’t even know about Google flight. I stopped using google for hours because Google is deceptive, showing you what they want you to see. And then you go there, it’s another price. But thanks for this flight video. It’s ridiculous how it’s so hard to book holidays. And the longer you take, the price ticks up.
Great content! Subscribed
Thanks and welcome!
American Airlines is suing Skiplagged. Where people were barred from an airline for skiplagging. If your tickets going to airport A - B - C and get off at airport B. On the return flight should be C - B - A. but your get on airport B and finish at airport A. That's how the airline catches you.
@scottsmit1115 United sued Skiplagged and lost. If you skip a flight all the rest of your flights on that ticket will be cancelled. But keep in mind that Skiplagged is also a useful search engine for other flight booking techniques.
That's why you buy 1-way tickets each way instead of a round trip.
@@DoomFinger511but 1 way tickets are more expensive.
@@TheBooban Hey, it’s just arithmetic. A-B-C and B-A one way may add up to less than A-B RT. If not, don’t do it!
@@TheBoobannope, not always the case.
Fabulous info.
Glad it was helpful!
Cool! Didn't know about ita matrix! Imma def go down the 🐇 🕳 haha
Nice!
does google flights use ITA matrix? it sure feels and looks like it in a slightly more simpler interface
Sort of, google now owns both and google flights was influenced by ITA Matrix.
Very useful information. Much appreciated kind sir. 👍🏾
Happy travels!
Not completely traveling to your final destination is frowned upon and hopping off at the hub city is likely to get you the boot .@This happened to me on BA last year .
Hey @paulgilliland2992, thanks for the comment! You’re right that skiplagging has some controversy attached to it. Skiplagged is also a useful search tool for other flight search techniques, though - I talk a bit about this in the video if you’d like to learn more.
Looked at booking a hotel with Kiwi, went on the web and there are many posts of people with a bad experience. It looks like some people lost their entire payment, when originally it looked like they had a bargain. I opted to pay the full price. Just a question, have you ever booked with Kiwi and how many times????
I mean I have booked with kiwi, but I generally recommend booking direct with the airline. Make sure to watch through the whole video to see how to use Kiwi and the other sites to search for flights.
Great and Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching!
Skiplagging can be risky. It can get you banned by an airline.
Seat guru can be wrong. I always check aero lopa too.
True that, it’s always important to consider the risks when skiplagging.
@@DavidGTravels btw, thank you for pointing out kiwi. This is my go to now!
@@cdt996 Glad it's been useful, sure has saved me some money in the past!
Incredible! Thank you!
You're very welcome!
do you know if there is an easy way to search for multi ticket flights? example going to point A to C cost 2k but buying one ticket for A to B then B to C only cost 1300. This is where im stuck right now haha. Cant find an easy way to search like this. Multi city is close but not close enough to work as it doesn't search for cheaper ways via separate tickets.
Google flights is a good go-to tool for this. For one-way tickets you can just search separately, but often open jaws can get you much lower pricing.
Awesome video , please check for me ,the cost ,sit,the airplane I should used .
From Lagos Nigeria to Miami Florida on 14 to 30 , April 2024 , from Tega , Nigeria
I made this video to help you check for yourself, happy travels!
Great information, thank you!!👍🙏
Glad it was helpful!
Yes make an another video on ita and finding cheap flight
Thanks for the feedback, I’ve got this and more in the works so stay tuned!
Thanks for the video 👍
Your most welcome!
Gota a question. If you use skiplagged to find a flight with a layover where you're going, can you get your checked bags at the layover point, or do they stay with the airline for the duration of the entire flight?
No checked bags
Which airlines have that two seat option do you find? I love that.
Quite a few, but do keep in mind that they’ll usually be wide-body planes on long haul flights or small jets on more regional routes. My favorites so far are the upper decks of British Airways and Qatar Airways A380s, but the 767s United flies to and from Berlin are decent enough too.
Keep up the great work
Thanks so much!
Well there is a giant fail on Kiwi. I put in indianpolis +150 miles to cancun, MX +150 miles ANY TIME, up to 1 stop, and it says there are no flights. Obviously something isn't working correctly.
That’s strange, I’ve actually never had it show no results at all. A good alternative would probably be to put the exact airport codes given there wouldn’t be that many for that search. Most likely ORD would be the cheapest nearby to CUN but more than 150 miles.
@@DavidGTravels I played with it and tried 10-15 different trips, 2 of them came up with no results but if I tweaked it a little sometimes it still worked. It actually seemed to hang up after I chose +150 miles. I removed that and left it at a single departure point and it worked. Just a hiccup I suppose.
@@davidmsmith268 Ah okay, likely too much data to load. ITA is also useful for this kind of search.
When ever I use a 3rd party booking to look for low fares and then try to book directly with the airline line the price goes up $300 sometimes up to $1,000., ho back to the 3rd party and it’s still the low price. So I end up booking with them. How do I get the same low price when booking directly with the airline???
That can happen, but it’s very rare that third-party sites will be more than a tiny bit cheaper. The process I find the most success with is to search for the flights i research directly on the airline’s website, but you may find that you get a better price by clicking into the airline’s website from another search website from time to time.
When considering a travel site that advertises inexpensive tickets, one has to wonder why are the tickets so inexpensive? One of the ways, that is not legally allowed by airlines, is using someone elses frequent flyer miles. The travel company purchases frequent flyer miles from someone that cannot use them for one reason or another. The miles are purchased for rock bottom cost. Then the travel company uses the frequent flyer miles to book your ticket sometimes consolidating miles from different entities. There have been many recorded instances where the airline has booted people off flights with no refund, sometimes in the middle of their trip, and you may be banned from flying that airline.
Thanks for commenting.
In this video you’ll find information on how to use five sites that are often overlooked to find flight deals that can be booked on the airline’s own website.
Cool video..! Thanks.
Glad you liked it, plenty more for you!
Interesting David, thank you.
Very welcome
I found if I book through a on booking in the US or a US based airline in the US they were running credit checks on me. I have not lived in the US in 12 years, and have not had credit since 1984. However this often caused flight cancellation, sometimes just an hour or two from departure. As is the credit bureaus have an US address for me dating back prior to 1981. But have found my mailing address in Costa Rica where I live. My bank cards are all Debit. Rhus I book directly only with Non-US Airlines as never a problem.
No flight booking website should be running credit checks on you when you use it to book flights.
@@DavidGTravels Correct, they shouldn't, and illegal to do so. But I can do nothing about it living outside the US. Well except never using US based agencies or airlines.. I was also informed I needed a Photo ID with US Mailing Address to enter the US. Seems my US Passport no longer good enough ands total lack of US Government appreciation for my 32 years US Army Service. About 6 years ago I asked CitiBank if they ran credit checks to open a bank account. I was informed they didn't. After about 20 minutes the account was denied as I failed their credit check. as I had no history in over 30 years. American Government and Businesses are so dishonest so I avoid them at all cost. No others have been a problem except perhaps COPA. In nearly all attempts to schedule flights the transaction fails as they require a US Mailing Address matching my Card. And the Debit Cards used are Costa Rica and The Address Costa Rica which does not contain a house number, street name, State or Zip Code. I add being as it is my Costa Rica Address is not able to be contained by computers in the US. Our system is kind of like a pirate treasure map. A prominent location followed by direction and distance maybe a few times. But the system works just fine here. Mail Delivery country wide in 1 day Monday through Saturday. In the past 11 years I have traveled to 79 countries. And for the first two years had no problems as I had a bank and use of a friend's US Mailing Address. But he died and the bank would not allow me to continue.
Credit checks for booking a plane ticket directly through the airline? This doesn't sound accurate at all
@@Metal_Face_Doom Because you are in the US and I am not! And I opted out of credit and credit checks in 1984. So what they do is entirely illegal. But that is a standard with the US, Violation of Freedom and Rights is a standard. Not to mention as a US Citizen I was denied entry to the US 8 months ago for not having a Government Photo ID with US Mailing Address. So evidentially my US Passport is no longer good enough. I served 32 yeas in the US Army and my ancestors in America 86 years before the United States was even an idea. The credit checks are only run with US Airlines and US based booking agencies, never with non US based ones. I have not lived in the US in over 12 years and the problems began 2 tear after I left as obviously my financial records could not be tracked as I had none in the US. not even a utility bill. Americans are pea brained as they have no concept of what Freedom and Privacy are.
The flights from Australia to the Uk is hard as i can only fly 4 to 5 hours at a time and its not cheap. Love some advice please. Thank you.
Thanks for commenting!
Keep in mind that on this channel I don’t quite have the bandwidth to give individual travel ideas in depth. But you could try breaking up your trip with a few stops along the way - maybe something like Singapore for a few days and then India and Turkey. There are a fare amount of low-cost options in Asia and Europe.
@@DavidGTravels Thank you for your time but i think i will have to end up paying someone from youtube as i cannot go that way due to the medication i am on as it takes a lot but i thought to Apia and then to Hawaii to the mainland and to Canada and need to break it up to the Uk if that makes sense. Thank you and if you are ever looking for a paid job well always let me know as i need to get over that way as my son has a terminal illness. 😞
@@mareelewis7639Use a travel agent. That’s what they do.
Do they apply for flights to Africa?
Definitely 👍
That's great INFO, THANK YOU !!
Glad it was helpful!
Yes make another video for more clarity so we can use it effectively
Will do, thanks for the feedback!
You won me over on "nifty" and you don't have any gray hair LOL!
Nice
Well done.
Thanks.
"I've got my work cut out for me." :)
Glad it was useful, you got this!
Nice video 👏👏👏👏
Thank you!
Why do you think it's better to book directly with the airlines rather than, like, Cheapoair? Thanks!
Check out my video “The Best Way To Book Cheap Flights”
What do you think of Travelocity for last minute deals?
I’ve never seen any unique last-minute flight deals that couldn’t be found for similar prices elsewhere on Travelocity. It’s almost always best to book direct with the airline where possible, so for these third party websites I try to focus on the ones that are most usually for searching for flights (not booking).
@@DavidGTravels sure. Was looking for a next day flight. All the airlines said $900. Travelocity said $575 and it would be on one of the big 4 airlines. Alaska, delta, American or united.
@@nellybelly623 Great to find an awesome deal no matter where. I have booked quite a few last-minute flights and nearly all of them could be booked for at least near the lowest price directly with the airline.
@@DavidGTravels I don’t know why I said Travelocity. It was Priceline. I could not find any deal on those airlines that could come close to competing. I do not know why I said Travelocity because I totally agree with you, I find the airline & book direct. Way better if there is any delays or issues. Ended up not taking the flight because I couldn’t find feedback on Priceline.
I’ve found some good deals on Priceline, particularly for rental cars which I talk a bit more about in my recent video about rental car hacks: ruclips.net/video/0KvbeihFW8Q/видео.htmlsi=xqkJWBfeArVjG18F
But for last-minute flight deals, I’ve found they’re almost always bookable for near the best price directly with the airline.
Yes. Please make another video.
Glad you enjoyed this video! I’ve got dozens of new videos since this one.
Kiwi is another low-cost carrier rated site that nickle n dimes you for luggage as well. Also, they work by keeping you stranded your 2nd leg back to usa. Jfk to Italy 9 hrs Italy to jfk 17 hr...8 hrs in airport 😂
Book direct… and claim EU261
YES..PLEASE MAKE ANOTHER VIDEO ON ITAMATRIX
Should have one for you around July, in the meantime I’ve a bunch other travel videos coming out weekly. Thanks for watching!
i found a multi leg trip ams-han and dps - ams for with ita matrix for 700 euro and even with book with matrix it's 150 to 300 euro more.
Give it a try direct on the airline’s site.
@@DavidGTravels Above 1100 euro there....
The fare might not be bookable then anymore. This could really be related to a number of things but it’s hard to say without having more info. Make sure you checked both of those boxes in the bottom right in ITA if you didn’t.
If you’ve also tried putting it into a few other OTA/metasearch sites, you could look at other flights with the same fare if there are any.
excellent . Thank you very much
Thanks for watching!
This is good stuff..!
I travel out of jfk , nothing is cheap unless you book months in advance or off peak , also so websites track you ,clean you history every time you look ,or used a VPN
Thanks for sharing. I booked a flight to Europe for about $130 one-way five days before travel in December 2021, so there are some last-minute deals from JFK at times.
It’s a good idea to just set your browser to clear the cache each time you close and reopen it. That said, the idea of prices changing because of cookies during your search is really blown out of proportion a lot of the time. Most credible flight search websites don’t do that at all.