Airport Avenger: Tips and Top Secrets for Airlines, Airfares, Fees, Security and Cancelations

Many airlines use Twitter and Facebook to promote fare sales they don't announce anywhere else. Start following them. The sales don't happen every day, they come and go quickly, and aren't necessarily to places you want to go to. But you never know. Usually an airline tweets a sale with a promotional code you use to get the reduced fare when you book the flight on its web site.

Sign up for email or text alerts on the websites of the airlines you fly the most. They'll let you know when they post a sale. Some may even send news of special deals only to people on their alert lists. They're usually for flights they're trying to fill (off-hours, less popular routes), but there might be something that works for you.

If you like flying Southwest, download its Ding! software. It sits on your desk top or smartphone and alerts you to fare sales that aren't publicized—often not even on the Southwest web site.

Remember that not every promotional fare may be the absolute cheapest available. Other airlines may still have better fares or more convenient flights, so check around before you book.

You may be able to get a cheaper one-way fare with a strategy called "hidden city ticketing." If you fly from a smaller airport, or one dominated by one airline, your ticket could be much higher, to the same destination, than flying from airports with more airlines and more competition.

For example a cross-country flight between busy airports could be cheaper than some shorter flights. You can use this quirk of fare pricing to your advantage.

Let's say you want to fly from Burlington, VT, to Chicago on United Continental. A recent check showed a $606 one-way economy fare. Continental also flies from Burlington to Denver, with one stop in Chicago. That one-way fare was $344. Our intrepid traveler books the one-stop itinerary, gets off in Chicago instead of flying on to Denver and saves a neat $262.

Flights with one or more stops can be cheaper than nonstops. They also can be considerably longer than nonstop flights, and your chances of being delayed or of losing checked baggage rise accordingly.

Last-Minute Deals:

Don’t give up hope for a fare deal once you get to the gate. If the flight is overbooked and you’re flexible, you could get cash or a voucher good for future travel. See "What Do They Owe You?"

Even if the flight isn’t overbooked, you could get upgraded to a business-class seat from the economy seat you booked for considerably less than the full business-class price.

Most airlines say you can't do this in their "Contract of Carriage," which spells out what they'll do for you and what they expect from you. But there really isn't much they can do about it, except perhaps ban you from flying with them in the future. That of course smacks of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. Better a partial fare than none at all, you'd think.

This trick works best for one-way trips in many cases. The round-trip, nonstop fare between Burlington and Chicago was cheaper ($488) when we checked than booking two one-way fares with the hidden city plan.

Another thing to remember: Don't check luggage. It will be sent on to the final destination, Denver in this example.

Some travel websites help you book flights through various cities, on your way to somewhere else. Kayak.com is one.

Your Airfare Dollars at Work
What's a "Passenger Facility Charge?"

It's a fee the FAA allows airports to charge passengers for improvements. Rather than set up toll booths at the terminal doors, airline tickets to and from airports that have been approved by the FAA for this program have the fee tacked on to them--up to $4.50 per trip--so you can be facilitated.

• Over 300 airports, including most of the top 100, take the maximum $4.50 charge out of your ticket.
• Top projects include runways, terminals, soundproofing, road and rail access.
• Total collected from 1992 to 2009: $30 billion.
• Amount expected to be collected in 2010 and 2011: About $5.6 billion.
• Some airports have approval to collect the fee for 20 years or more; including Phoenix (about $2.5 billion over 26 years), Miami (around $2.4 billion over 34 years) and Chicago O'hare (approximately $3.3 billion over 22 years).

More tips and top secrets about airfares:

Flying Somewhere?

Don't Get Jumpy

Weekend Airfare Wonders

Tracking Traffic

Airlines and Airports on Twitter