How to battle Soaring price of the ticket

 Over the weekend, one of my colleagues has paid $3.70 for a gallon of regular gas in Los Angeles.

"It could have been worse," she noted. "A station in West Covina, California sent $4.60".

"Despicable," she added. I guess I should be grateful that she did not drop a bomb f of Melissa Leo Oscar speech on me.

Speaking of a scenario "could be worse", imagine that your vehicle is an aircraft. Say it is the massive Airbus A380, which can accommodate more than 800 passengers and a gas tank which holds 80,000 litres.

Devour smaller aircraft refuelled too. To the Southwest, for example, figures that its fleet of 737 s consumed approximately 1.4 billion litres in 2010.

So now that the price of oil has cracked and keeps flirting with the barrier pester inducer of $100 per barrel, which means for us, travellers?

If you have purchased an airline ticket recently, you know already - just, we saw the fifth ticket collecting hike of the year. If you keep the score, see this: in all 2010, there are just four tickets hikes; in 2009, only three; in 2008, there are 15, and it has 17 increases in tickets in 2007.

Notice a pattern here? The pace of recent hikes in domestic air transport reflects the pace of 2007 and early 2008, when the price of oil jumped above $90 per barrel. There is a difference today, although: airlines also have fresh and generalized bag "peak travel day" supplements that add to the passengers of total tickets.

Jet taxi to Airport International in Los Angeles in this photo of file on 21 December 2009, in Los Angeles, CA. Experts predict some of the higher years for summer gas prices. Close

For travel ideas and more new see blog of Rick at farecompare.com

When it comes to the increase in the cost of air transport, Facebook the most recent comments on my Web site full of words such as "scandalous" and "absurd" and course perennially popular "OMG!"

With all of this to consider, the question is whether we should return to bad-old-days of the so-called "travel"? No.. And I would also suggest travellers become oil price day-traders.

However, the shopping sloppy habits will cost you, so instead, be a smart consumer.

Here are some hard figures on average cheaper price of the roundtrip airfare (including the fees and charges) between major US cities (from historical data of FareCompare.com): August, 2007, $262; July, 2008, $319; February 2011, $318.

If you think that it is wrong on flights to the United States, take a look at the transatlantic voyage. Some long-haul flights are also expensive that they have been in a decade. For example, we have supplements fuel right Europe now average roundtrip $360, not to mention the tax on these flights that another $ 120 on average. Bottom line: you will pay $480 for a trip to Europe before adding in the real plane ticket!

What will happen? Airlines will keep testing you, to see how much you are willing to pay, and this means more rides tickets are underway. If the full aircraft stay, excursions will continue until in enough to tell us, "you know, sailing to the sounds of this garden year as vacation perfect." Who will fall rush prices.

And what does mean to you? Be smart.

Here are some things to do and the rules for making purchases of tickets:

Be not attempted to buy too early. In 2008, where the price of the ticket seemed to climb on a daily basis, people bought tickets for Thanksgiving during the summer lock prices, then he looked with horror, as oil crashed and last minute holiday buyers got incredible deals. If your purchases at the start, but not too soon: I expect ticket price-basis points for travel June to mid-March.

Air Fare Deals: How Ticket Game Research Sites

 During the last decade, airlines have shared a completely unofficial motto: "Never be one dollar more or less than its competitors."

If you do not know what that means, you should, because you are responsible for you and everyone who steals. And if you do not understand the motto, you may be insufficient whenever you buy a ticket.

What difference can make a dollar to an airline? Perhaps the difference between solvency and more empty aircraft flights - or at least airplanes are not packaged as their owners like them. Years, this difference of dollar did not matter so much; in fact, a difference in the price of airline tickets for $10, $20 or sometimes even hundreds was not a big problem. You call your favorite airline, or relied on a travel agent who knew what you wanted and paid the asking price. Internet then came along.

For travel ideas and more new see blog of Rick at farecompare.com

Research of ticket sites has helped revolutionize the air transport industry, because you can easily compare prices. Airlines were initially enthusiasm on these new shopping direct-to-consumer channels because it their has helped to reduce the human costs of travel agents of the food chain, but the carriers have not provided an unexpected consequence of price comparison ubiquitous : the death of loyalty. Consumers embraced joyfully comparison prices online and sold themselves to the lowest bidder, miles be damned.

Fast forward to the present time - the generation of air transport costs - where research sites for comparing prices called Vasa (for "online travel agencies") and METAs ("multiple site search") give airlines new headaches. In most cases, sites of research of today give fliers access to the "extras" so dear to the hearts of the airlines, and by extras, I mean the money-makers as more legroom (for a fee) or beginning of boarding (for fee). You get the picture.

But where the dollar difference really matters is in the section of the meat and potatoes of sites of today: the list of the actual airline. I recently watched round-trip nonstop flights from LA to NY and saw lists for Continental, United States, and JetBlue, in that order, for $516. Alaska, with tickets for a buck, made two of the inscriptions. And poor American, only five bucks higher (and it is not much for a ticket which is you cost already more of 500 bucks) appear only on page 5.

It is quite common on a 10-pack display Google search results, most clicks go to elements of the first place, the number two spot - and the number ten. Ten? Yes. It chalk up to human nature. We trust the first two choices, and then we like to scroll to the bottom, after which us bored and click the last on the list.

Can you tell me: would you look after identical tickets page or pages which show tickets for a few dollars more - or would you buy the first ticket see you at the lowest price? Okay, perhaps seek you through a page or two if the carrier with your miles program is registered to see, but beyond that, many of us just do filter causes much.

Now as to why there are so many identical price, he did y no mystery: airlines have a set of markets up or pairs of cities which are their silver key decision makers and they manage the prices of these roads closely. With the lesser routes, airlines want to sell their fair share and that means being in the so-called "competitive balance." in other words, they keep the close appears on the first page of results.

You have the chance? Bet on the price of your airline ticket

 You know what they say in Las Vegas: "what happens here, stays here.

That, of course, is a reference to all kinds of taboo "fun" to be obtained in Sin City, but suppose that some fun includes placing outrageous bets. Well, get ready: this game could go mainstream if an airline based in Vegas has his way.

You see, Allegiant Airlines plans to ask passengers to bet on the price of their tickets.

I know that Saint Patrick's day is this week, but you may need more than the luck of the Irish for a regime Allegiant to work for you.

However, you could win big (and return to a few species). You could lose as much. A better alternative would be to weigh passengers and charged to the book. Yes, we'll get to that, too.

For travel ideas and more new see blog of Rick at farecompare.com

In case you are not familiar with Allegiant Air, it is a discount carrier, whose headquarters are in Las Vegas which focuses on accreditation to destinations in hot weather as Myrtle Beach, s.c., Orlando, Florida and Phoenix. Because he was not well paid for business travellers, there lots of frilly. And as all the airlines concerned This screenshot shows the Allegiant Air Web site. If an airline in Las Vegas gets its way, travellers may one day be able to play on their ticket. In aviation fuel prices soaring, Allegiant Air wants passengers to consider a variable price ticket, where the final price could rise or fall based on fuel costs. Close

For example, is a bet?

The airline suggested (and this has not yet be OK'ed by anyone, and especially the Government) that passengers choose between a "normal" ticket with a fixed price, or bet on a ticket of "variable". With a variable, passengers had to pay a price, but if fuel costs has decreased from the date of departure, the passenger would receive cash back. However, if the price rises, passengers would pay more (up to a certain limit, in any event).

Reminds me a bit of FareLock recent innovation of the Continental, which allows to book a flight and, for a fee from $9, keep this reservation at la fare locked as long as a week. If prices go up, you're golden. If prices fall, you can cancel your abrupt FareLock reservation without having to pay the costs of change (even if lose you nine bucks or what you're paying).

But back to Allegiant: such a plan would force transform us oil price day traders just to score a cheap ticket? And how many of us is really good at the game, anyway?

With regard to the volatile oil market fluctuations, we know that professionals do you always right. In fact sometimes they are tragically wrong.

Remember the summer 2008, when oil was just a whisper away from $150 per barrel? At this time, Goldman Sachs had come out with a report predicting that it could rise to $200.

Prudent passengers bought their way tariff air Thanksgiving and Christmas in advance, only to see oil came crashing and holiday tickets offered at rates of market bin. I can still hear the wailing of "smart" travellers who bought at the beginning, and yet it seemed smart at the time.

I bet that it seemed smart last September when the Business Insider site noted that US Airways was not fuel hedging, which prompted the reporter to ask if the airline "know [s] something, we do not know at the request of fuel in 2011? UH…apparently not.

On the underside, Bloomberg reports that for the single quarter, United has 63% of its needs fuel cover. Delta a 49 per cent and Virgin America has a whopping 80 percent.