4 ms·

I've flown from SEA-NYC for $1.86. I flew from YYV to Romania, and onto Turkey, for $200. I flew with my family of 5 in first class from SEA-YTO (Toronto) for $

I've flown from SEA-NYC for $1.86. I flew from YYV to Romania, and onto Turkey, for $200. I flew with my family of 5 in first class from SEA-YTO (Toronto) for $0, on Air Canada. Too many others to count. All from flyertalk. It's not as good as it used to be but there were times I've taken whole flights full of flyertalkers headed somewhere basically for free. Key to success: Find some friends who also like to do this and who will wake you up in the middle of the night if they find a great deal (and won't complain if you reciprocate). It's hard to watch flyertalk all the time and the deals go quickly.

hristov 12y ago
Just curious did you actually want to fly to new york? Or was it a case of "wow it is only 1.86 to go to nyc, i guess i am going".
- hueving 12y ago
  nah, you have to be up for random trips or have a list of places that you would be willing to go if free. It's much less likely that one will pop up conveniently for a trip you need to make any time soon.
- rubyrescue 12y ago
  Totally not need-based. A buddy and I just bought them and we decided to just make a weekend of it, went to a few good restaurants, saw a show.
zacharycohn 12y ago
I actually just started a service to do just that. For $8/m, I'll email/text people when the craziest deals drop. It's temoprarily sitting at amazingairfare.zaccohn.com, if you're interested.
- SeoxyS 12y ago
  I don't know I'd be willing to pay $8/mo for a service where I don't know if the notifications will be timely enough or of actually good deals. But I would happily pay 10-15% of the ticket price as a finder's fee for any deal that turns out awesome. (Kind of like the recruiter / employee referral model, where the company pays 15-30% of the starting salary as a fee.) Hard to enforce, though, so you'd most likely have to go on the honor system.
  - jdmichal 12y ago
    Why not give it the "Magic" treatment? Provider broadcasts emails / text messages. You can respond with some simple code, like "YES" or "BUY". Provider will then attempt to purchase at that rate using stored information. I would think the service fee would be best as a percentage with a minimum.
    - rubyrescue 12y ago
      That's tough because purchasing is often difficult. It took me dozens of tries to get a flight booked to Cypress once, through 4 cities. I ended up deciding the onerous itinerary was not worth the nearly free ticket. That's common so you don't necessarily want to insert yourself into these transactions for people, it really wouldn't scale.
      - zacharycohn 12y ago
        It's not just that it wouldn't scale - it wouldn't work even if I only had a dozen subscribers!
  - throw_away 12y ago
    One problem with the % cut model is if your service is really good (and finds those $1.86 flight deals), then you get a pittance. Maybe a flat $8 for each deal?
  - zacharycohn 12y ago
    $96 a year. I seem to be sending out 2-3 deals a month, sometimes more. If you book ONE deal (out of 24-36+), and save $400 off average price... it's worth it. If you don't think that's worth it - then you probably don't fall into the customer segment this is targeted toward. :) Also, the "finders fee" model requires a ton more work. Integrating with all the 3rd party ticketing sites (kayak, orbitz, priceline), and ALL the first party ones (delta, united... etihad... cebu air... aeroflot... etc etc etc). Considering this is a side project, that quickly becomes prohibitive.
imjk 12y ago
I have a similar track record to you from Flyertalk. As I also mentioned below, I also check http://www.pointsbuzz.com http://www.pointsbuzz.com for any breaking opportunities.
jeffwass 12y ago
Out of curiosity, were those free with or without taxes/fees? One of my friends about 12 years ago found round trip tickets from NYC to Egypt for $0 + taxes and fees. Fees came to about $100-$200 or so. He immediately bought 10 tickets for himself and friends. So an amazing deal, but still not free when considering taxes and fees.
- rubyrescue 12y ago
  Those were all-in. The $0 Air Canada one they actually called me and said that technically there was no contract of carriage because there was no money exchanged, but they let me have it anyway. And actually I remember now, it was $200 to Romania, and we ended up paying $230 more to get to turkey on a standard ticket. The Bucharest ticket was surely supposed to be $2000.

hristov 12y ago

Just curious did you actually want to fly to new york? Or was it a case of "wow it is only 1.86 to go to nyc, i guess i am going".

hueving 12y ago
nah, you have to be up for random trips or have a list of places that you would be willing to go if free. It's much less likely that one will pop up conveniently for a trip you need to make any time soon.
rubyrescue 12y ago
Totally not need-based. A buddy and I just bought them and we decided to just make a weekend of it, went to a few good restaurants, saw a show.

zacharycohn 12y ago

I actually just started a service to do just that. For $8/m, I'll email/text people when the craziest deals drop. It's temoprarily sitting at amazingairfare.zaccohn.com, if you're interested.

SeoxyS 12y ago
I don't know I'd be willing to pay $8/mo for a service where I don't know if the notifications will be timely enough or of actually good deals. But I would happily pay 10-15% of the ticket price as a finder's fee for any deal that turns out awesome. (Kind of like the recruiter / employee referral model, where the company pays 15-30% of the starting salary as a fee.) Hard to enforce, though, so you'd most likely have to go on the honor system.
- jdmichal 12y ago
  Why not give it the "Magic" treatment? Provider broadcasts emails / text messages. You can respond with some simple code, like "YES" or "BUY". Provider will then attempt to purchase at that rate using stored information. I would think the service fee would be best as a percentage with a minimum.
  - rubyrescue 12y ago
    That's tough because purchasing is often difficult. It took me dozens of tries to get a flight booked to Cypress once, through 4 cities. I ended up deciding the onerous itinerary was not worth the nearly free ticket. That's common so you don't necessarily want to insert yourself into these transactions for people, it really wouldn't scale.
    - zacharycohn 12y ago
      It's not just that it wouldn't scale - it wouldn't work even if I only had a dozen subscribers!
- throw_away 12y ago
  One problem with the % cut model is if your service is really good (and finds those $1.86 flight deals), then you get a pittance. Maybe a flat $8 for each deal?
- zacharycohn 12y ago
  $96 a year. I seem to be sending out 2-3 deals a month, sometimes more. If you book ONE deal (out of 24-36+), and save $400 off average price... it's worth it. If you don't think that's worth it - then you probably don't fall into the customer segment this is targeted toward. :) Also, the "finders fee" model requires a ton more work. Integrating with all the 3rd party ticketing sites (kayak, orbitz, priceline), and ALL the first party ones (delta, united... etihad... cebu air... aeroflot... etc etc etc). Considering this is a side project, that quickly becomes prohibitive.

imjk 12y ago

I have a similar track record to you from Flyertalk. As I also mentioned below, I also check http://www.pointsbuzz.com http://www.pointsbuzz.com for any breaking opportunities.

jeffwass 12y ago

Out of curiosity, were those free with or without taxes/fees? One of my friends about 12 years ago found round trip tickets from NYC to Egypt for $0 + taxes and fees. Fees came to about $100-$200 or so. He immediately bought 10 tickets for himself and friends. So an amazing deal, but still not free when considering taxes and fees.

rubyrescue 12y ago
Those were all-in. The $0 Air Canada one they actually called me and said that technically there was no contract of carriage because there was no money exchanged, but they let me have it anyway. And actually I remember now, it was $200 to Romania, and we ended up paying $230 more to get to turkey on a standard ticket. The Bucharest ticket was surely supposed to be $2000.