Important: Wikitravel is exploring a license upgrade to CC by-sa 3.0, please give your consent or refusal here.

Talk:Cheap airline travel in North America

From Wikitravel

Jump to: navigation, search

Agree with removal of comparision sites. One in particular keeps gettting re-posted - by the owner of the site is my guess. Same IP address.

We should remove those price comparison sites - violation of extlink policy. If we include them, we slide down the slippery slope of web directory and having to provide links to similar sites of all kinds (travel agencies, etc etc etc). -- Nils 01:23, 23 Jul 2004 (EDT)

Nils, can you provide a primary source link directly into airline reservation systems like Amadeus or Sabre? I'll answer myself: no, of course you can't, because they don't allow the general public free access. And that's why the only way to comparison shop is to use a third party, who is paying for the license. And no, this is not a slippery slope: Limit the price comparison sites to the three or four biggest (rank by Alexa if you insist) and that's it.
You know full well that the external link policy is disputed right now, so go dispute it and leave borderline links alone for now. Jpatokal 02:36, 23 Jul 2004 (EDT)
The primary source in this case would be the airline itself, most of which will have online reservation systems. And if you paid any attention, you will note I *AM* leaving borderline cases alone. Just drawing attention to them. Get a grip. -- Nils 06:51, 23 Jul 2004 (EDT)
The whole point of using a price comparison site is to avoid individually checking 17 different airline engines, many of which don't offer discounted fares in the first place. And until now you've certainly displayed a habit of deleting links before any discussion takes place... Jpatokal 14:54, 23 Jul 2004 (EDT)

[edit] Removed secondary links

These links were removed from the main article. It might not be a bad idea for someonen to go through them and see if there are any facts or primary links that should be incorporated into Wikitravel.

[edit] More comparison engines

I had these in my notes; if anyone has tried them and found them useful and not entirely obsoleted by the existing links, these should be added to the article page. -- Beland 20:14, 24 Oct 2004 (EDT)

  • ITASoftware.com - Comprehensive listings (except for Southwest), but does not sell tickets.
  • SideStep.com - You install this as a browser plugin.
  • Mobissimo.com - Another browser plugin, perhaps more comprehensive.

[edit] Keeping fares low

Should we add a section in this article about how to keep fares low in the future? Some airlines give a variety of things passengers can do for prices to stay as low as possible. --Jr traveller 12:05, 22 December 2006 (EST)

[edit] Foreign comparison sites

I've nuked the following list as it's a total spam magnet and I find the claim dubious and the utility questionable. Jpatokal 07:57, 10 June 2008 (EDT)

Many foreign comparison sites also list domestic US flights. Sometimes they find cheaper fares than American sites.

[edit] U.S. Airways - A discount airline?

It is claimed that US Airways is a discount airline. Is there any evidence that their fares are systematically lower than other airlines? In my experience, they are not. America West was a discount airline, until it combined with USAir and raised the fares and diminished the service. They are members of the Star Alliance and, to my knowledge, are not systematically cheaper than their allies. --MidwestGeek 08:20, 17 August 2008 (EDT)

Don't they have a low-cost brand somewhere in that sprawling corporation? Otherwise, I agree, they're not a "budget" company. --Peter Talk 18:44, 17 August 2008 (EDT)
Retrieved from "http://wikitravel.org/en/Talk:Cheap_airline_travel_in_North_America"