Last week I announced that I found cheap airfares (under $500) from Washington, DC to Europe for the summer. Such fares are typically over $1,000 so this was a phenomenal discovery.
Those fares are no longer available but here is the process I used to find them.
First, I did a standard airfare search:
- Using Orbitz.com, click on the Flights tab along the top.
- Click the “Find low fares for weekends and flexible trips” link
- Enter “WAS” for From and “GVA” for To (you can enter city names, such as Washington or Dulles or Geneva)
- Select Option 3: Flexible Stays (I searched for 12-14 days between July 15 and August 11)
- Click Find button
The least expensive flight was $1,458. Ouch.
Second, here is the secret cheap airfare process:
- Using Orbitz.com, click on the Flights tab along the top.
- Select the “” option
- Select “Spanair” as Preferred Airline 1
- Click the “Find low fares for weekends and flexible trips” link
- Enter “WAS” for From and “GVA” for To
- Select Option 3: Flexible Stays (same options)
- Click Find button
The most expensive flight was just over $1,000 but the cheapest flight was an incredible $527. There were plenty of options for $606 and $631. I found flights under $500 to Brussels. There were similar results with many European destinations.
Why did the first search not find the flights I found in the second search? That is the magic question.
This loophole or quirk (we called them software anomalies when I worked in IT) does not currently work. However, there are currently $700 fares between Washington, DC and Madrid (non-stop on Spanair).
Several lessons can be learned from this example:
- Booking engines (Orbitz, Travelocity, Kayak, etc.) have hidden quirks.
- Finding these quirks can save you tons of money.
- Finding these quirks can be difficult.
- These hidden quirks can go away at any time.
Have you found a secret cheap airfare option?