Keeping Down Spring Airline Costs

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Get a Good Carry-on, Ship the Rest

Even as airlines hike their luggage fees, they are losing more bags than ever before. That’s a double whammy you can avoid by packing smarter and buying better carry-on bags. If you don’t want to spring for the custom-made stuff from artisans like Myron Glaser, you’ll find capacious carry-ons from the better commercial suppliers. And when you must travel with lots of luggage, ship with Fed Ex, U.P.S., or the special services rather than paying for the privilege of using the inefficient airline system.

Work the Premium-Class Pricing System

If you are used to flying up front, especially on longer-haul international trips, don’t assume you have to pay the inflated walk-up retail price. Airlines long ago broke the last taboo about business-class discounting. If you book between three and 60 days before departures, you’ll find discounts of as much as 75 percent. One example: The walk-up business-class price on the crucial New York-to-London route is now more than $10,000 roundtrip. Both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic sell advance-purchase seats for as little as $2,400 roundtrip.

Use Alternate Airports

Most of us are prisoners of the airports we know; the airlines depend on that mental sloppiness and overcharge us for flying into a city’s best-known facility. But you can save dough—and often end up closer to your final destination—if you look at the map. Going to Chicago? Try Midway, which is closer to the Loop than O’Hare, or even Milwaukee, which is convenient to the far northern suburbs of Chicago. Instead of LAX, try Burbank, Long Beach, Orange County, or even Ontario, which serves the so-called Inland Empire east of Los Angeles. The airports in Manchester, New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island, often have less expensive flights and may be closer to your business destination than Logan, Boston’s main airport. This trick works internationally too. If you hate Heathrow, the behemoth in London, try flying into Stansted, Luton, or even the airport in Bristol. Instead of Paris’s choppy and annoying Charles de Gaulle, fly into Orly, which is closer to central Paris.

The Fine Print

Never buy tickets between Friday and Monday morning. Why? Airlines file fare increases on Thursday evenings and watch over the weekend to see if all of their competitors match the price bumps. If they don’t, the carriers roll back prices by Monday afternoon. But you won’t get a refund if you purchased a higher-priced ticket over the weekend.

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