Is it more expensive to buy airline tickets together than separate?
I'm looking for tickets in despegar.com (a travel website for the American continent) and found out that a flight for just one person was about USD $350 incluiding all taxes, and I did the exact same search but instead of 1 person I chose 2 and the price for both tickets was USD $1200 (USD $600 each).
I thought this could be an error in the website, so I tried diferent dates and destinations getting the similar results.
Therefore I'm wondering if it is cheaper to buy airline tickets separately?
PS: The market price for the ticket I mentioned in the above example is about USD $600, so I'd love to take advantage of the USD $350 deal, but I'm afraid I might not find another ticket for my partner in the same flight.
Best Answer
Short answer: Sometimes.
Long answer: it depends on a LOT of factors - the airline, their policy, whether it's over international or continental borders, whether you're using an agency or website that has access to certain TYPES of tickets (even in economy class there are several categories that they sell). It's frustrating.
When I'm searching, I open up three windows on kayak and start searching as such:
- Return flights from A to B, using flexible search
- One way flights from A to B, using flexible search
- One way flights back from B to A, using flexible search
and then compare and contrast the results to see what benefits I get.
If it's long-haul, I'll sometimes expand to 6 or 9 windows, and use different intermediate points, eg from London to Auckland, I could try searching flights starting in London and ending in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Dubai or Singapore, and then flights from those to Auckland.
Messy, isn't it? ;) But I've saved sooo much using this strategy.
EDIT
As for your worry about whether your partner will get on the same flight, kayak shows you how many seats remain at that price, so that shouldn't be a problem...
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Answer 2
I beg to differ. I truly believe the servers at airlines, trains, even buses, have algorithms that follow your IP address and your search patterns. They also see if you are checking the same flight, so they increase the price on each search, to make you panic. (This should be illegal, but it is not). I militantly check flight prices and found when I see 2 tickets at a higher price do the following:
1) Shut Down and restart the machine. 2) Shut your modem for 2 minutes so a new IP is issued 3) In your browser: Clear all cookies, clear all scripts. Clear all cache. 4) Now search for 1 TICKET (The lower price) - BUY IT. Make sure you make no mistakes. 5) Then try to purchase a second ticket. 8 times out of ten their systems recognize you are trying now to buy a second ticket, so they try to jack you for the higher price. If the price is higher.....start with #1-#5 again.
If the price is still high. Wait a day and buy the second ticket. Its long enough to clear their systems, and you are seen to the computer as a new buyer. I've saved thousands of dollars this way.
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