# Cheap /FREE Plane Rides???!



## xBarbie In Bondagex (Jun 21, 2007)

Does anyone know how to get cheap plane tix? Ive heard of some deal where you can carry shit for companies on planes and you get a free ticket, or doing stuff where you sit around in the airport and at some point they have extra seats, does anyone know anything else about either of these methods or any other way to get over seas for very little cash?? Thanks!


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## rocksy (Jun 21, 2007)

Wait till the ice between Alaska and Russia freezes and walk.


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## ryn (Jun 21, 2007)

there is a way to do it for significantly less money. some airlines will set up a deal where you let them know approximately where and when you want to go (say september to western europe). on short notice theyll get ahold of you and tell you when and where you are going. (say sep. 15th to berlin). as long as you can roll with going about where and about when, you wont spend anything like a regular price.


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## iago (Jun 21, 2007)

if youre i think 23 and under you can go to the ticket counter for airtran in the airport and ask for a buddy pass to where ever (inside the US) and it costs $69-$89. and ive heard that some times they will give it to you with out charging but i dont know if this is true. You can find the stand by info on their web site somwhere.


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## xmattx (Jun 22, 2007)

*xBarbie In Bondagex wrote:*


> Ive heard of some deal where you can carry shit for companies on planes and you get a free ticket



you're talking about being an air courier. a bunch of companies buy alot of plane tickets so they can use the checked luggage space for whatever they need to send somewhere. and then to offset the cost they sell the seats for cheaper. theres a book about it in the library in charleston, wv. i photocopied it (including a list of all the companies and where they get tickets to) and i can trade copies of it if anyone is really that interested.


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## Matt Derrick (Jun 28, 2007)

airtech.com is awesome. ive used it twice, and it was a great deal. it's 259 bucks one way from the east coast to a few destinations in europe.

the kicker with most air travel is that to have a good deal, you have to come back within a certain amount of time, i.e. one week, month, etc.

the cool thing about airtech is that your tickets are open-ended so you can return anytime you want (within 1 year).

another plus is that while some country's customs require you to have proof that you're going to leave the country before you come in, your return voucher IS that proof, it just doesn't tell them WHEN you're leaving their country 

technically, it's a 'standby' air service, which means you might not be able to get on the flight you want to, but so far, i haven't had any problems. i just gave them my voucher, and they gave me a ticket, and i was on my way! it's was ridiculously simple, and i highly recommend it.

i would check other flight comparison sites tho too before buying airtech, as sometimes you'll find an even better deal than this (on sites like priceline, orbits, etc).

just my two cents

Post edited by: MattPist, at: 2007/06/28 06:43


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## Mouse (Jul 5, 2007)

a girl told me once abotu a trick she did that involved "lost" luggage and gettign a refund after your trip due to them fucking up stuff.. but I was drunka nd forget the details.


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## rideitlikeyoustoleit (Dec 6, 2007)

I was once reading a Hostel guide for the U.S. and there were a bunch of ads in it for super cheap air tickets. The thing was, they were only to and from a few select big cities in the U.S. and Europe. I'm not sure about much else, but a Hostel guide might be good reading for cheap flights.


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## syphilust (Mar 1, 2009)

ive gotten quite a few free rides as kickdowns by flyin a sign for em at the airport. but then that's in the reginal airports for the north and mainly for fly-in communities where everyone and their dog charters planes, so often they have lots o space, sometimes they give em for a reason and sometimes just because theyre in a good mood or think youd be funny to have around to talk to. i got the idea from a farley mowat book and my first one was a a chartered flight a bunch of geologists were doing over fort mcmurray (aka oil rig-pig central in the canadian prairies)
i dont think the north is what you meant tho...


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## RebeccaSoup (Mar 2, 2009)

I got here on airtran from TX.

130 just booking online.

Ive heard the same shit about airtran buddy passes i just didnt know till i got home.

DO IT


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## Johnny Lightspeed (Apr 9, 2009)

Check out colleges with pilot training programs. The colleges will lend out Cessna's to students in order for them to fulfill their required amount of flight hours to graduate. Usually the students 
get these planes and fly around aimlessly for a few hours and land again but if you can somehow meet one of these students they're usually more than happy to take you where you need to go. I almost got flown home using this method on my last trip but the weather got to intense at the last minute and we couldn't do it. I know Westminster college in SLC has a huge flight training population but I'm not sure about other schools.


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## veggieguy12 (Apr 9, 2009)

Nice!
The student-pilot thing seems obvious and simple enough... why didn't _I_ think of that?


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## wildboy860 (May 20, 2009)

a friend told me that if you order your tix at midnight that it'll be significantly cheaper becuase that's when they change the prices of the tickets or somethin, I
dunno try it out though. I heard it'll save yah a few bucks.


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## pola negri (Jun 21, 2009)

this thread is hella old but i thought i would throw in my .02 cents. most of the above is dubious and i am the fucking queen of getting cheap tickets to wherever...$200 inc. taxes to central america, $600 or less to moscow/china, $60 one way to SF from Seattle...etc. You can try doing what people advise above but that air courier bullshit is a waste of time (i am a member of one of the air courier associations) and you can usually find better legit deals if you just know where to look.

links!!

an old personal fave: ita matrix

ITA Software: Trip Planner

you can search within any 30-day period for any ticket anywhere. kathmandu? lake baikal? burbank? anything. you can't book on their site but you can get an idea of what tickets are ranging.

airfare watchdog & the airfare watchdog blog:

The Airfarewatchdog blog

this site fucking rules. they post weird specials and you can sign up for city alerts to get good deals.

Cheap Flights, Airline Tickets, Cheap Airfare & Discount Travel Deals - Kayak.com

this search engine has a nice flexible trip option. not always the cheapest, but usually. clicking on the 'deals' or 'buzz' section has scored me some cheap flights.


also, join frequent flier programs...they have gotten me upgrades and free tickets and membership is free. depends on how much you travel but if you leave the country at least once a year that shit is not hard to accumulate.


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## Mouse (Jun 22, 2009)

cool tips. thanks! I want to escape over seas some day and I'll def keep this stuff in mind


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## dänny (Jun 22, 2009)

came across this on craigslist, dont know how legit it is but its a clinical study where they send you to guatemala to test a vaccine patch for montezuma's revenge... haha. they pay your airfare and hotel and 200 bucks extra though...
$Expenses Paid To Guatemala...


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## Loaf (Jul 9, 2009)

If you aren't into flying you can always hitch a boat over to Europe it is pretty easy normally and there are a few sites. i am not going to post them because you might know them already but.. if anyone wants 'em just say.


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## eachandeveryhighway (Jul 15, 2009)

Can you send me some info on those boats/barges? Is this truly legit?

Thanks!!

E


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## RnJ (Jul 17, 2009)

I met a guy in the Philippines who had been hitching private freight/cargo planes from one island to the other. He researched the schedules and showed up one or two hours early to talk the pilot into allowing him onto the plane. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't go over so well in a Western country. And maybe he was using his B of A in psychology to work his wonders.


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## Loaf (Jul 17, 2009)

Well if you want to hitch on sailboats and work boats try using 7knots.com or findacrew.net both have crew wanted sections. Also like RnJ said turn up at ports once you get the schedules and ask around. These days it is hard post 9/11 and shit. It is no longer up to the captain of the barges, anything commercial must be cleared by the company and the port master etc..Best luck is definitely the websites though if leaving form the states.


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## nitepeepole (Sep 30, 2009)

flying can be so cheap
i use sky scanner.net it will let you know pretty much(but not entirely) all the flights from anywhere to anywhere else. it tells you which places have direct connections to other places. so you know better what to look for on the cheap. and all the prices are live...so you can watch them change...they change almost like gasoline prices...anywhere from monthly..daily..to hourly. also..it gives you an idea of regional air carriers. things you wouldn't know to look for. for instance...tiger airways operates out of singapore and serves all of oceania..even india...hubbing out of singapore. it's dirt cheap. like ryanair for south east asia

and also travelzoo
it gives weekly superbargain updates. and you can search each region of the worlds own particular version of it just by changing the area you're saying you're viewing from. thats how i got a $28 flight out of tasmania versus a $62 one, which was the cheapest i could find on expedia.

flights are cheap...just gotta do your homework.

that aircourier shit almost never happens anymore...fed ex has a ton of planes.
that student pilot shit sounds bomb.


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## wildboy860 (Jan 8, 2010)

I just looked up a bunch of these sites and airtran.com seems to be the best overall.


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## BelCh (Jan 23, 2010)

you could maybe hang out at the gates
and keep an eye out for people who aren't
persay keeping there tickets in safe places

if you can get your hands on it , your on the plane ! 

the poor person who wasn't paying attention , then has to go present there ID
and get on a later plane ...

In theory ! 
I've heard of it happening ...


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## wildboy860 (Mar 12, 2010)

I just found this huge list of cheap plane tickets on tribe.net http://cheapairfare.tribe.net/thread/01ec66ed-8c52-4faf-9110-73ccd21a77c2 . it some of the one listed on here and then many more.


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## menu (Jul 23, 2010)

BelCh said:


> you could maybe hang out at the gates
> and keep an eye out for people who aren't
> persay keeping there tickets in safe places
> 
> ...


 
ehh. dont you usually have to show your ID and ticket to even get to a gate then dont you also have to show it again at the gate


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## Shark (Jul 23, 2010)

I've never tried this before but it might work. When looking at prices online awhile ago I saw heavily traveled destinations like NYC ect. were very cheap. At the time it was gonna cost 300 bucks for me to fly from VA to PA but it was only like 80 bucks for me to fly from VA to NYC. The catch here is the the NYC had a transfer in PA. So all I would of have to do was booked a flight to NYC and just never got on my second flight and i'd be at my destination for 80 bucks. Think it would actually worked/get what i'm saying?


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## wildboy860 (Jul 23, 2010)

Shark said:


> I've never tried this before but it might work. When looking at prices online awhile ago I saw heavily traveled destinations like NYC ect. were very cheap. At the time it was gonna cost 300 bucks for me to fly from VA to PA but it was only like 80 bucks for me to fly from VA to NYC. The catch here is the the NYC had a transfer in PA. So all I would of have to do was booked a flight to NYC and just never got on my second flight and i'd be at my destination for 80 bucks. Think it would actually worked/get what i'm saying?


 

what a great fuckin idea!!!


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## shwillyhaaa (Jul 23, 2010)

this is a really helpful thread... its inspiring me to leave the us soon


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## Mouse (Jul 23, 2010)

lol yeah I forogt about this thread. I need to save the link so I have this info on hand. I need to go back to CA soon and find a cheaper way


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## nickstoddard (Sep 15, 2010)

i gotta get to my family in ukraine for christmas. really wish that water WOULD freeze between alaska and russia. so far away... and costs so much money.


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## mandapocalypse (Sep 17, 2010)

Minneapolis... to... ANYWHERE.... (preferably Europe)........

Help?


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## Brand0nRagged (Oct 28, 2010)

I just tried craigslist rideshare and got a response from a lady with her own plane and her fuel cost quote was the same as people with cars. except it'll be way faster and cooler, haha. im stoked.
..this is the plane


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