Ahhhhh the Journalist Life

Things tend to pop up on you as a journalist. An opportunity to interview the world’s leading authority on the Romani community came up at the last minute. I had to take it. Unfortunately I had already booked my flight to Bangkok. This presented a problem. I have an assignment in Bangkok on December 10th and there was no way I could get a refund on my ticket so I had to book another flight last minute. CHAAAA CHINGGGGG!!!!! 

Going into my search I knew that I only had a 8 day window. From the US to Bangkok is about 24 hours of travel. There is no way I’m doing 24 hours of travel and going straight to an assignment. So 8 day window it is. I began by trying to find a flight from the US to Bangkok since that’s clearly going to be the most expensive.

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING CASE STUDY IS BASED ON ONE WAY AIRFARE. THIS IS HOW I ALWAYS TRAVEL 

Flight to Bangkok

Most of my searches start at either Skyscanner or Expedia. Although great, I’ve found SS is better outside the US while Expedia is better inside. Not all consolidator sites have all airlines, hotels, or car rental agencies. It’s best to find 2-3 and compare. Since I didn’t have a specific departure point I started with Skyscanner.

Skyscanner has one of the coolest features of any consolidator. It allows you to put in your locations and selected “entire month” which will give you the flight prices for that time period. Using this feature I selected US-Thailand. As I expected the best three locations to fly out of were LAX, JFK, and FLL.

US-BKK

 

As you can see EVA Air is significantly cheaper. So the next step was start researching fees associated with each airline, as EVA and Norwegian are the clear winners. Having just flown Norwegian I already knew the fees. Although I had a bag fee from the UK to FLL, they include one checked bag on their lowest fare tier from the US-Thailand. I would need to pay for a meal though which would add about $30. EVA on the other hand includes luggage and meals. EVA has recently been named one of the top 10 airlines in the world. Having never flown with them I thought this was the perfect chance and booked with them directly. The flight I chose was easily the shortest for the price.  Now, how do I get to LA? 

eva air

Flight from Texas to LA

Now this is where it gets complicated. Getting from Austin to LA isn’t cheap. Austin just isn’t a hub for LA flights because we have Dallas and Houston here. Most people connect there. I began with Expedia. I quickly realized that a flight from Austin to LA wasn’t going to happen.

 

AUS-LA

Here’s the first problem. Prices from Austin to LAX don’t drop into a good price range until the following week. Even if I could reschedule my assignment the cost of the US flight and the Bangkok flight are swapped by week. Basically the first week of December had great prices to BKK but the second week are terrible. The first week had terrible flights in the US but great the following week. 
aus0la virgin

 

I finally found a “decent” price with Virgin America. I did a bit of research and found that VA charges bag fees also. $25 for a checked bag. So basically $250ish. I still found this VERY hard to swallow since I had flown from Florida at a grand cost of $127 early November. So I began researching flights out of the other hubs in Texas. Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. 

San Antonio was quickly eliminated. All of their prices were just outrageous so that left IAH and DFW. Their prices were very similar on Expedia but I found one airline was listed on SS that wasn’t there. Spirit Airlines. For my European readers, Spirit is the American version of Ryan Air. A low cost airline that nickle and dimes you for everything. Although I knew fees would apply their base price drew me in. 

FireShot Screen Capture #043 - 'IAH to LAX Flights I Expedia' - www_expedia_com_Flights-Search_mode=search&leg1=from_Houston, TX, United States (IAH-George Bush Intercontinental),to_Los Angeles, CA, United States (LAX-Lo

 

As you can see here, Expedia had the cheapest flight as Delta on the day I needed to fly out. The price was similar for the day prior. 

iah-la

SS listed the same flights Expedia had but also listed the Spirit Flights. The cheapest flight out of Houston I found was $17o on Spirit. That doesn’t include the fees I would have had to pay. Next stop, Dallas. 

DFW TO LAX EXPEDIA

 

Expedia pulled up a great price right away on US Airways. After checking I found their baggage fee is $25. About $160 total. The price was around what I was comfortable spending and the flight times were good enough for me to catch my 350pm connection.

DFW-LAX

To my surprise, SS found a Spirit flight with the base price of $64. Even given their terrible reputation I decided to check out their fees and then decide. After going through their site I found the flight would  be a bit cheaper even with the additional fees. The deciding factor, curiosity. I haven’t flown Spirit Airlines in over 6 years. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. But with this being their first flight of the day, a relatively short flight, and plenty of connection time I figured why not? Worse case I get some good content to write about. 

Spirit gets a Chance

BAGS

Spirit charges for a checked bag and a carry one. Total was $65. Although higher than other carriers, overall the price is still low comparatively. With everything included Spirit was still the cheapest flight from DFW-LA. 

SEAT SPIRIT

I decided not to pay for a reserved seat. Honestly, I never really care. 

INSURANCE
Now this is something I HIGHLY recommend for you Spirit skeptics. They’ve partnered with Travel Guard Insurance to provide travel insurance policies. At $14 this is a steal. I use Travel Guard as my primary travel insurance through World Nomads. They are one of the best you can find. If you have any worries then have them washed out with this add on. Now all I have to do is leave Austin at 2am for a 3 hour drive to Dallas for my flight. Shout out to my friend Ryan for volunteering to take me. 

So there you have it. This is pretty much how I always end up booking flights because my travel plans change from one minute to the next. And remember. these were book less than a week from departure. A quick tip. EVA Airlines (Taiwan) and Norwegian Airlines (Norway) really don’t raise their rates. A ticket you buy today for a trip months away will likely cost the same closer. I can’t say that for the greedy US based Airlines.

A $561 trip to Thailand 6 days in advance is damn good. Let this be a reminder or a wake up call. INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS AREN’T THAT EXPENSIVE ANYMORE!!!! From a basic cost/distance ratio, domestic flights cost more.