This series on buying tickets to Ecuador began in yesterday’s article at this site. If you missed part one see it at Buying Tickets to Ecuador.
There are many reasons to buy a ticket to Ecuador… the colorful happy people is one.
Here is what one reader wrote about yesterday’s article:
“Good Morning, Gary, Bravo to Merri for her excellent article on finding low airfares. I have part-time employment with American Airlines as an international reservations agent (for the flight benefits, of course) and she is spot on with her suggestions. Can’t wait to read the next installment. Thank you”
There are many reasons to buy a ticket to Ecuador… including access to good organic food. Many Ecuador farmers use chemicals but most do not. The farmer of this land near Cotacachi has let it grow fallow…
so the milk from these cows is organic.
Nearby are more organic cows that produce milk for this organic Swiss cheese served at our seminars.
There is also an organic vineyard about ten minutes from our hotel.
We serve their wine. Here are delegates at our recent real estate tour visiting a nearby indigenous organic garden sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture and Peace Corp.
Organic herbs, spices and medicinals from here.
There are many reasons to buy a ticket to Ecuador… good health is an important one. Visitors report feeling better and losing weight when they visit in part because there are may wonderful inducements to exercise… like great places to ride bikes and…
horses. Here I am with friend Joe Cox above Cotacachi.
Hiking is great as well. Here I am hiking Lake Quicocha with friends .
Here we continue Merri’s explanation of how to get tickets to Ecuador.
Tickets to Ecuador Part 2
1. OK, now that we know whether we are a loyal frequent flyer or if we are a just looking for a great deal…then let’s look at an easy system.
I’ve used a lot of systems over the years and am hooked on www.kayak.com. It is simple, easy and fast. It gives you the whole picture of flights for an entire month (in case you are flexible) AND all the patterns that there are to choose WITH (and this is all important to us) the Duration of the Flight. This is instant and easy to read. Often it lists flights that the airline itself isn’t listing and also it gives you the total WITH TAXES INCLUDED.
Gosh, do I hate it when I have a great flight, great schedule and then find out that whoa…here comes the taxes. Kayak is consistent!
So, I pull up their website and I use it in the following ways. First, of all I advise you to sign in…(even though you’re probably like me and don’t want to take this step because of what it might lead to…)
Signing in allows you to look at a calendar of the month and see how much that ticket is each day…that is instantly. You can get a lot of information to compare fast and easy.
They show deals from 100+ airlines in seconds.
There are a lot of other systems but kayak for me does it all…it shows me prices from the airline from Hotwire, Expedia, Priceline, Travelocity, etc.
I sign in and then fill out the form…airports are easy…if you don’t know the call signs of your airport, just type in part of the name & the list pops up. Check “Include other airports” just to see what might happen. Click on “Flexible Departure” if this is the case…sometimes a fare can vary hundreds of dollars from just a day’s difference!
In this case, the fare varied $90 per person from day to day. Well, then I hit in the top left hand corner “Modify or Start Search Over” and clicked on Charlotte to Quito…wow, a savings of $295 per person! Same schedule, same #of hours…but this was with AA…which we don’t accumulate miles, etc.
Then I clicked on “Modify or Start Search Over” and clicked on “Include Nearby Airports”…and guess what? I found a price of $302 less per person on DELTA! And this was from Raleigh Durham…now just ask yourself, how can a flight be $300 cheaper from a further distance on the SAME airline…well, of course it is a mini airfare war…RDU (Raleigh Durham, NC is AA’s hub!).
Now, if I were to say to Gary…”hey, how’d you like to save an extra $600 to go to Ecuador next month?”….he’d reply “is it on Delta?”…I’d say yes, then he’d say “is it from Tri Cities?” And I’d say “No”…and he’d say, “buy the higher priced ticket from Tri Cities”.
Why? Well, we are sort of tired out road warriors. We can go (except in the winter when the pass is closed) over the top of Mt. Rogers and drop down to tiny tiny Tri Cities and find ourselves able to double park (yep!) and walk our bags and weary bodies in. (Last month, the lone policemen there even helped us!) Everyone there knows us. They jump to help us…and we can sanely walk through security even with our dog with everyone helping us…and then walk down to the one of only 4 gates and sit in the sun. We can board, take a 25 minute flight to Atlanta and walk (we always walk through all the airports not ride when possible) to the Crown Room…or go directly to Gate E for the International flight.
Well, this is where you have to choose…what do you want? We want peace and quiet and a very easy entrance to the world and also a very very cheap daily rate at the airport for our car. We like quiet, non events as opposed to people shouting at us to hurry and clear security, etc.
We’ve left our car, checked in at a gate with 4 people manning the desks and maybe two other passengers there, cleared security and are at the gate in less than 15 minutes or maybe 10…with no stress.
All top importance to us, but maybe not to you…this is why I mention to pick the airport where you begin for its appeal to you…that’s why we are loyal to Tri Cities and Tampa (in the winter).
OK…so all it takes is a few minutes to click on Kayak figure out ALL your possibilities and all your data.
My advice is to once again choose what is important to you…and that is whether you value money or time. I scroll down a number of times and watch these rates for a few days or weeks (if I have the time) and pick THE BEST RATE FOR US WITH THE LOWEST DURATION OF HOURS. These are equally important to us. Kayak lets you click on “Details” for the stops in between and other information and then once you decide which flight pattern (sometimes they offer 5 or 6 pages of these all in price order) then click on that. Kayak then sends you directly to the listing agent. You don’t have to figure out a single thing but the flight you like.
If you are trying to stick with just one airline, then click on the list at your left and it will eliminate the others.
We don’t usually like to fly to one country through stops in other countries and that prevents us from using Taca, Lacsa and Copa…who stop and change flights in Panama and Costa Rica. We find this heightens the chance of lost luggage and further wears us out.
We do like LAN Ecuador, which we have flown from Miami many, many times. A great airline (parent is LAN Chile with a very good safety record) with courteous, gentle service (Ecuadorian!) and a non hassle check in! That’s a winning combination for sure! This helps.
We now have a choice of Aero Galapagos, which is a regional Ecuadorian Airline that is flying from Miami to Ecuador. We respect its young female CEO and our only complaint for this is that it is non stop to Guayaquil with an overnight then go up to Quito. However, she has applied for rights to fly non stop Miami/Manta! That should be a winner for sure. So, let’s watch out for this application to be approved…but of course immigration and customs must be added to the excellent Manta Airport first.
Right now, there are 19 pages of 15 schedules each (that’s 285 flights!) from Miami to Quito. This could be bewildering. Let Kayak do your work by sorting them out and presenting them in just seconds to you!
The tips above can be used to get great airplane ticket deals anywhere. Tomorrow’s message “Tickets to Ecuador Part 3″ looks at some suggestions for Ecuador.
Merri
Join us at an upcoming Ecuador or North Carolina conference or tour.
There are many reasons to buy a ticket to Ecuador… like the wonderful shopping in places like the leather district of Cotacachi.
June 12-14 Shamanic Mingo Tour
June 16-17 Imbabura Real Estate Tour
June 18-21 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour
July 4-8 Ecuador Export Tour
July 8-9 Imbabura Real Estate Tour
July 10-13 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour
There are many reasons to buy a ticket to Ecuador… including business opportunity by exporting jewelry… textiles… crafts and much more.
July 24-26 IBEZ North Carolina
Sept. 17-21 Ecuador Spanish Course
Sept. 23-24 Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Sept. 25-28 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour
There are many reasons to buy a ticket to Ecuador…like real estate bargains. These condos offer 1,200 square foot units for under $49,000.
Oct. 9-11 IBEZ North Carolina
Oct. 21-24 Ecuador Import Export Expedition
Nov. 6-8 IBEZ Ecuador
Nov. 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Nov. 11-14 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour
There are many reasons to buy a ticket to Ecuador… luxury accommodations at budget rates… like this Bahia resort at $150 a night is another.
Attend any two Ecuador courses or tours in a calendar month…$949 for one. $1,349 for two.
Attend any three Ecuador courses or tours in a calendar month…$1,199 for one. $1,799 for two.
There are many reasons to buy a ticket to Ecuador… like fresh seafood direct from the fisherman’s boat to your table.
