Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
•
Travel midweek.
Flying Tuesday to Thursday is cheaper than
flying on weekends. An added bonus: Midweek transatlantic
flights are sometimes half empty, allowing you to stretch out
across extra seats. Ahhhh, nice.
•
Stay over Saturday.
To exclude business travelers from the
cheapest fares, most airlines offer lower rates for trips that
include at least 1 Saturday night. So don't book a 6-night trip
where you arrive on Sunday and depart for home the follow-
ing Saturday, or you'll pay more than you have to.
•
Use a consolidator.
Also known as a bucket shop, a consol-
idator is a gold mine for low fares, often below the airlines' dis-
counted rates. There's nothing shady about them—basically,
they're just wholesalers that buy in bulk and pass some of the
savings on to you. Some of the most reliable consolidators
include
Cheap Tickets
(
&
800/377-1000;
www.cheaptickets.
com),
STA Travel
(
&
800/781-4040;
www.statravel.com),
Lowestfare.com
(
&
888/278-8830;
www.lowestfare.com),
Cheap Seats
(
&
800/451-7200;
www.cheapseatstravel.com),
and
1-800-FLY-CHEAP
(www.flycheap.com).
•
Surf the Internet.
This is the hot way to buy air tickets, though
it's still best to compare your findings with the research of a ded-
icated travel agent. See “Planning Your Trip Online,” below.
•
Make a bid.
You can also bid for seats on your desired flight
with travel auctioneers such as
Priceline
(www.priceline.com). In
some cases—though very rarely—winning bids are as low as $5.
• Consider a
charter flight.
They're often dirt cheap, but the
downsides are that they offer fewer frills, offer fewer flights per
week, and their tickets are ordinarily nonrefundable. From the
United States,
Sceptre Charters
(
&
800/221-0924
or 516/
255-9800) operates the largest and most reliable charter pro-
gram to Ireland. It sells tickets on America Trans Air flights to
Shannon from Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Ange-
les. Several companies in Canada operate charter flights from
Toronto to Ireland, including
Signature Vacations
(
&
800/
268-7063
in Canada or 800/268-1105 in the U.S.),
Air
Transat Holidays
(
&
800/587-2672
in Canada or 514/987-
1550), and
Regent Holidays
(
&
800/387-4860
in Canada or
905/673-3343).
BY FERRY
If you're traveling to Ireland from Britain or the Continent, espe-
cially if you're behind the wheel of a car, ferries can get you there.
