Airfare to US & Vice Versa

[Nickleback99]

All, Just wanted to pass along my experience this trip on playing airfare game, esp for international. If you are patient And flexible with dates such that you are willing to wait to Last minute to purchase, appears you can beat them at their own game. I have flown R/T probably 17 times now btwn US and PI, or from MidEast and seems when you buy months in advance, you end up paying top dollar for the prime travel months based on US summer vacations, etc, only to find out you Could have gotten tix last minute for sometimes $300 less. USing Kayak and searching All sites, which led to Expedia, This trip, since we were waiting on visa matters, I bought last minute EVA from Vancouver to MNL (vice from Seattle) and got a decent deal of $700 one way vice the daily quotes of $1000 I was getting And great flt times that got me into Manila by noon vice that killer late night arrival on US carriers/partners. (also had to use Expat site guidance to get a $40 throwaway tix for MNL to HKG to allow me to get past EVA ck in counter. Moreover, the one way fares going back have changed several times a day since I've been back due to passenger cancellations and airlines looking to sell seats last minute....such that I was able to get Delta flt back to Seattle, via Narita for $700 without having to do some 38 hr 3 flt journey Delta was offering me earlier. This cheaper fare came and went several times before I grabbed it. Was also offered via Narita and Portland at one point for cheap and good times. Finally, I will say the EVA Customer service was Superb coming over and they willingly moved me upstairs on 747 to aisle seat to spare me from an older Chinese guy who was spilling over into my seat downstairs and breathing too much garlic and kimchee on me! Plus, the Asian airlines still have Beauty andyouth as a requirement for Flt Attendants, so no battle axe man haters to deal with like US carriers!!....guess I'll get to "enjoy" battle axes on return trip. DId not do EVA going back b/c had a near 9 hr layover in Taipei, otherwise would've in a heartbeat. Anyway, happy travels to all and hope to actually get around and meet some folks in Subic and Angeles next yr when over here...After spend a few months back in Djibouti ("fun"). Cheers, Jay C.

[fmartin_gila]

Playing the Airfare game sure is "fun" ain't it. My Lady's neice is now working at one of the travel agencys so I no longer have to play, I just let her do it for me. Sure takes a lot of stress out of it. Then add the Senior discount and the removal of the VAT cause she is a senior makes it even better.

Fred

[JackySmith01]

What program have you tried guys to get cheap airfare?

[Phil_expat]

Originally Posted by JackySmith01

What program have you tried guys to get cheap airfare?

I buy my tickets at LBC in the USA. LBC has a ticket office located in South San Francisco, California that sells philippine air lines tickets. There prices are great plus I get large discount on shipping to the philippines. I now live in the Philippines and call them on my VoIP phone to purchase my yearly tickets. If I bought it online using my credit card a get a charge because I not in the USA. I do like that it is a direct flight also.

[Gator]

Thanks for this post. I was always thinking that buying tickets months ahead is better. I live in Utah currently and all I have been seeing is $1000.00+ on searches. I am new on here so all this help on this forum is greatly appreciated. I plan on moving to PI sometime this fall. I'm a disabled navy veteran and was in the PI for 6 months off and on in 1986...we had to bring in Marines to help with the Marcos "escape" as I call it.

[Gene and Viol]

Originally Posted by Gator

Thanks for this post. I was always thinking that buying tickets months ahead is better. I live in Utah currently and all I have been seeing is $1000.00+ on searches. I am new on here so all this help on this forum is greatly appreciated. I plan on moving to PI sometime this fall. I'm a disabled navy veteran and was in the PI for 6 months off and on in 1986...we had to bring in Marines to help with the Marcos "escape" as I call it.

Hi Gator, glad to have you with us. What part of Utah do you live in? I've lived in St. George, Salt Lake, Cedar City, and even New Harmony -- between St. George and Cedar. Hmmm now you're making me miss Navajo Lake and Duck Creek on the mountain East of Cedar!!! Sure good trout fishing there and loved staying at the lodge.
Be very sure you really want to live here. Nothing like the pine forests of Utah here. Not even Baguio City can compare.

[Gene and Viol]

Originally Posted by Phil_expat

I buy my tickets at LBC in the USA. LBC has a ticket office located in South San Francisco, California that sells philippine air lines tickets. There prices are great plus I get large discount on shipping to the philippines. I now live in the Philippines and call them on my VoIP phone to purchase my yearly tickets. If I bought it online using my credit card a get a charge because I not in the USA. I do like that it is a direct flight also.

I too use to use only LBC for my ticketing on Philippine Airlines. I know they are on Grand Ave in SFO but I no longer have their 800 toll free number. If you have it, please post it here for all others in the states.


Thanks

Gene

[Nickleback99]

Originally Posted by Gator

Thanks for this post. I was always thinking that buying tickets months ahead is better. I live in Utah currently and all I have been seeing is $1000.00+ on searches. I am new on here so all this help on this forum is greatly appreciated. I plan on moving to PI sometime this fall. I'm a disabled navy veteran and was in the PI for 6 months off and on in 1986...we had to bring in Marines to help with the Marcos "escape" as I call it.

I lived there 89-92, including Pinatubodoing "other"stuff for gov.hope tloretire there in 4 yrs. The Lbc coonection sounds good. Online Kayak.com is excellent bc allows u to ck multiple sites and icredible some of differences in pricing on each, plus not all tie into same airlines. There was even one way cheap fare if Id wanted 38hr journeywith overnightstay in hawaii key is to literally check daily y wife flies to Seattle next wkend and diff flying on Sun vice Sat is whopping 700$!!

[Gator]

Originally Posted by Gene and Viol

Hi Gator, glad to have you with us. What part of Utah do you live in? I've lived in St. George, Salt Lake, Cedar City, and even New Harmony -- between St. George and Cedar. Hmmm now you're making me miss Navajo Lake and Duck Creek on the mountain East of Cedar!!! Sure good trout fishing there and loved staying at the lodge.
Be very sure you really want to live here. Nothing like the pine forests of Utah here. Not even Baguio City can compare.

LOL I live in Vernal, Utah which is in the NE corner of Utah. I am originally from WV. raised Southern Baptist. Yes I am a hillbilly at heart... banjo's n all! lol The house we live in here in Utah was inherited by my wife. I do love the trout fishing here and the first time I went fishing here close by at Steinaker Resevoir I landed a 30" Rainbow. I took it home and fried it up with some of my wife's Filipino veggies with white rice and bago ong ( I love that stinky stuff!). I met my wife in Long Beach ,Ca. Married her 24 yrs ago before I was Released from Active Duty in 1988 and she is from Queson City. I was stationed in Long Beach on the USS Mobile from 85-88. I wound up later on getting injured by a line that was attached to a 40 ton Mike Boat we had in the air while doing ops at sea. It hit me and I was knocked back about 10 ft. into a mooring bit which has a lip around it and that lip jammed in between my L4-5. Needless to say I have 3 large pieces of steel in my back and neck and bad arthritis through me. I can still walk and shake a leg but only one leg at a time! haha The massages by pretty women and cheaper medical/dental treatment plus cold beer and Dinuguan sound too good for me now plus I need to lose weight... hoping the heat will do that there. I'm 6'3 and my girlish figure is now sort of round at 350lbs. After my surgeries, being laid up for a long time, I went from 230 to 380lbs from the required VA meds which I want to stop taking. I might get homesick at times while there but the weather here is also killing me. I will enjoy it there way more.

[Gene and Viol]

Originally Posted by Gator

LOL I live in Vernal, Utah which is in the NE corner of Utah. I am originally from WV. raised Southern Baptist. Yes I am a hillbilly at heart... banjo's n all! lol The house we live in here in Utah was inherited by my wife. I do love the trout fishing here and the first time I went fishing here close by at Steinaker Resevoir I landed a 30" Rainbow. I took it home and fried it up with some of my wife's Filipino veggies with white rice and bago ong ( I love that stinky stuff!). I met my wife in Long Beach ,Ca. Married her 24 yrs ago before I was Released from Active Duty in 1988 and she is from Queson City. I was stationed in Long Beach on the USS Mobile from 85-88. I wound up later on getting injured by a line that was attached to a 40 ton Mike Boat we had in the air while doing ops at sea. It hit me and I was knocked back about 10 ft. into a mooring bit which has a lip around it and that lip jammed in between my L4-5. Needless to say I have 3 large pieces of steel in my back and neck and bad arthritis through me. I can still walk and shake a leg but only one leg at a time! haha The massages by pretty women and cheaper medical/dental treatment plus cold beer and Dinuguan sound too good for me now plus I need to lose weight... hoping the heat will do that there. I'm 6'3 and my girlish figure is now sort of round at 350lbs. After my surgeries, being laid up for a long time, I went from 230 to 380lbs from the required VA meds which I want to stop taking. I might get homesick at times while there but the weather here is also killing me. I will enjoy it there way more.

Really is a small world! I know Long Beach but not well. I grew up in N. Hollywood and my dad worked for and retired from Technicolor at Universal there.
Well, all I can say is you're gonna miss the mountains and maybe even the snow.
On the more serious side, yea, the warmer, humid air here will help you a lot. The downside is the medical care here. Risky business trusting doctors or hospitals. I can't stress that strong enough. If you are gonna be in the Angeles area, I'll recommend a good ( my doctor) internal medicine Dr by private message later. It's a good place to start anyway. Be sure to bring a full copy of all your medical records with you as Dr's here will not request them as they do there. Military Tri-care insurance is used here and there is a VA clinic in Manila. Be sure to contact the VFW Post in Angeles when you get here for getting a PO post box if you need to mail things to and from the states as well as good food and loads of important info. The VFW site is here.
For traveling here, if it's easier for you both, there are now flights into Clark in Angeles so that there is no need to go to Manila and travel up this way by bus. Draw back is that those flights take longer as you would have to transfer planes in Seoul, Hong Kong, or somewhere else.
Anyway, enjoy reading a lot of the posts by the members here and I'm sure you'll pick up some good intel along the way.
Do stay in touch,


Gene