Spirrs Guy’s Quest to Flying

So this is what I did to find a ticket to South Africa. Ok, I have to admit I didn’t necessarily take my own advise in set one of the previous post on how to find flights online, which was finding and booking a flight at least 21 days prior, but that’s why I’m writing this, so you don’t have to go through the troubles as I did.

On my way to South Africa finding a ticket was relatively easy. I knew my girlfriend purchased her for about $1600 USD, and I was determined to get one cheaper.  I also knew on most flights there was a stop over for refueling somewhere. So, with those two things in mind, I set off to finding the my ticket. I knew I wanted something cheaper and one that would require me the least amount of stopping. Remember, you are not getting to South Africa in less than a entire days travel (that is anywhere in the US of A).

Getting there:

I used the normal Orbitz, Priceline, Travelocity and cheapOair.com, along with TravelStart.co.za and EconomyTravel.com. Travel Start was something I stumbled upon when search tickets, but it was a good start in understanding conversion rates as it deals with currency in Rands. Also, Economy travel was also a good place to look.

This was really all I needed to find a nice ticket I was happy with. Now, was it the absolute best? Maybe not, but for $1400 USD just under a month before take-off, I think it was OK. I had other things to worry at the time.

So, lesson here: Get your ticket in advance. And if you can get yours for under $1200, that is a very reasonable price.

So, a bit bitter I couldn’t somehow magical find a ticket for less than a thousand I now had a 2×3 space on multiple air crafts reserved for about 22 hours (JFK to Dakar, Senegal to Johannesburg to Durban).  Now, I get on the plane anxious to settle into my window seat, only to see a couple hung over Afrikaners who have been partying it up in the big apple for a couple weeks.  They incoherently explain that they wanted to sit next to each other, and with out even dealing with it traded my seat for a center seat in a row of four.  Was I annoyed and frustrated? Yeah a bit, I won’t lie. I sat down, cooled off and started talking to the rest of the party buddies. Turns out they were pretty cool people and had a lot of insight on the country I was about to embark on. 

Long story short, traded my seat with young Jollers from JoBerg, and in a boiling rage happened to make good conversation with them, and when the flight attendant announced that the hatched doors were closing and all passengers were on board, I found myself comfortably crawling into the adjacent row…entirely empty.

Cheers Fellas,  ’twas a nice flight!

So, lesson here: Be thankful I didn’t end up between two fat smokers with bad gas, that enjoyed prying about countless personal details.

To hear the unbelievable ticket charges for my return flight,
Read You want me to pay What!/#@?

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Looking for a Flight to South Africa?

So, you’re looking for a flight to South Africa? Prior to my trip over there I spent many hours looking for deals and prices changes from many different sites. My advice is start with what you are used to or the sites that you most frequently book with and one that you are familiar with.  Take a look at the prices, schedules, different airlines, stop-overs and transfers.  Once you have a good grasp on the overall price range of the ticket for that particular time period then you can begin to shop around and explore other booking websites for some possible deals. 

Don’t just settle for the cheapest ticket, ‘cas it might waste a lot of precious travel time.

Here’s what you do:

1. Look to buy tickets at least 21 day in advance. This will be considered an advanced purchased ticket. As we know they will only go up the closer you near take-off, seeing spikes at 15 days prior and even a bigger one 7 days prior.
2. Use travel search engines. These are your usual Orbitz, Priceline, Travelocity and cheapOair.com . Use the search engines you are familiar with to get an understanding of what the prices are looking like and overall travel stop, transfers and layovers.   NOTE: Search tickets that depart from other local airports around you. Also, try searching tickets with different departing dates.
3. Next search the search engines that searches the traval search engines.  You might have seen new flight and travel search engines that simultaneously search a whole bunch of discounts sites. If you haven’t try Kayak.com for example, they’ll search Hotwire, Priceline, Expedia, Travelosity, and Airfare.com all in one shot.
4. Search airlines directly.  If you see a ticket price that interests you, go directly to that airline website and look up that flight. This can save you some handling and other charges from the travel websites.

Good luck. This should be an exciting search. Cheers! You’re heading to South Africa!

To find out more on Getting there: South Africa 2010 and what I did to find my ticket,
Read Spirrs Guy’s Quest to Flying.

 Or, Click below  to visit our Affiliated Websites: