What is an Open-jaw Flight Ticket?

People use the online search and booking engines for making flight reservations. These engines are present on all websites that provide online flight ticket booking facility. Visitors to the website are typically required to select whether they want one-way, round-trip or multi-city flights. Thereafter, they have to enter details such as traveling date, number and type of passengers, cabin class of travel and some others before hitting the search button. The multi-city flight search and booking option also includes the open-jaw tickets.

What is an Open-jaw Flight?

If someone leaves from Point A to reach Point B via Point C and returns in either of following ways:

a) from Point D to Point A, or 

b) from Point B to Point A directly by skipping Point C, or 

c) from Point D to Point E, 

then these types of flight are called the open-jaw flights. Basically, the return journey does not happen along the same leg as the departure journey.

So, when people opt for multi-city flights on flight reservation websites, they can enter open-jaw flight patterns of cities and get themselves the reservations. The destination of first leg could or could not be the origin of the next leg. Further, the final return destination might not be the first origin city. This allows booking of open-jaw flight tickets using the multi-city flight booking tab present on websites.

What are the advantages of Open-jaw flights?

The first benefit of this type of flight is that it helps passengers to save time on travelling. If the passengers were to follow the same route back to the origin station, it could involve a lot of travelling on local transport. With open-jaw tickets, this can be avoided and passengers can directly reach the origin station from the current city.

The second benefit is that the passenger get more time to explore the city. By saving on the time of commutation, the same can be utilized more productively by visiting more sightseeing destinations, exploring business and trade opportunities or doing fun-filled activities.

Another important benefit is that it offers the scope of saving money on flight ticket by reducing the intermediate flight connections.

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Military Discount Flights for US International Operations

United States of America is the most powerful country on this planet. The economic strength of the country along with its military might gives it this proud distinction. The presence of US military in different parts of the world, stationed on temporary or permanent basis, gives it a huge leverage over the other countries. Whether it is the army ground bases, naval assets or the air force stations, the US military has worldwide presence.

In order to maintain this power projection across the globe, there is a need for regular deployment and rotation of military personnel. Most often this is done by using the air transport medium. Besides the military air assets, use is also made of private airline companies. The private airline companies in US also willingly contribute in this purpose by offering military discount flights by way of free check in baggage or enhanced baggage allowances.

These commercial airline companies offer international flight reservations at same fares as to the public and these are not discounted in real terms. Rather, they are allowed free baggage allowance for which the general public has to pay about $35 per check in bag. Some airlines might even allow three check-in bags for free.

This leads to a saving of about $105 per flight. But, these are generally offered for the US military active duty personnel. Then there are other requirements to be fulfilled. These include carrying the military ID proof which will make them eligible for all the perks and privileges. It is also expected of them to carry their orders for movement as this might also be required by airline officials at the airport.

Therefore, the conditions of travel of US military personnelon domestic or international routes using the commercial airlines services are not different from those of the general public. The benefits of air travel, whatever these are, do not extend to their family members. Therefore, the aviation is driven on the basis of total commercialization.

If there is a need for emergency movement of passengers at a short notice, the airlines are within their rights to ask some passengers to disembark voluntarily. At times, even special flights are arranged for airlift personnel to the required international destination.

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All You Want To Know About the Red Eye Flights

Red Eye flights is a name given to overnight flights when the passengers do not have sufficient time for sleep and they land on arrival airport with red eyes. These night flights are offered by most of the airlines for all the routes.

Why do people like Red Eye flights?

The main reason for the people to book flight tickets on overnight flights is that these are cheaper as compared to other flights. In fact, this is one of the many ways to save money on flight tickets. However, this might not be true for all times and all routes. Popular routes might not see too much of decline of airfare. However, the other routes can have a considerable lesser price.

Another reason why people love to fly on the overnight flights is that they do not want to waste the morning business hours and want to catch up with their morning meeting, preferring to sleep whatever little they can during the night in the flight.

Are you more likely to find seats on these flights?

When you search cheap airfares on flight booking sites, the night time prices are generally lower than the morning time. How much is the variation would depend on popularity of route. But, is it more likely that airline fly with empty seats at night? This might not be true. Had it been so, the rationale for cutting down the prices might not hold good. Reduction in prices is done to encourage people to book night flights. Again, if the route is not so popular, even reduction in prices will not matter because the demand is poor and not many passengers might be flying on it anyway.

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How Airlines Reduce Weight For Providing Cheap Flights?

It is not just the obese people who find difficulty in moving but also the airplanes. The only difference is that this is not manifested in the airplanes as is done on the body of people. So, why are airplanes so concerned about reducing the weight? The reason lies in consumption of fuel. The efficiency of fuel is best when it is the lightest. But, the airline cannot go without any weight. There has to be certain load factor which is considered at optimal level. The airline baggage policies are aligned in that direction.

Airlines adopt many measures wherever it is possible to reduce the weight of plane. At first, the seats of the airplanes are made from sturdy but light materials, where metal or composites. Secondly, the overhead cabins, cabinets, pantry, cutlery or other items are made from light materials.

Thirdly, the provisions of entertainment provided in flights, which includes all equipment and hardware, have to be chosen judiciously. As an instance, TVs are replaced with iPads which reduces weight considerably. Fourthly, the check-in bags of the passengers are regulated to ensure that this does not add to unnecessary weight. 

Many airlines have already eliminated free check in baggage allowances and most of the passengers are required to pay a fee for taking in even the first check in bag. All this contributes to reduction of weight without compromising on safety of plane. 

These and many other small or big measures which improves fuel efficiency, encourage airlines to reduce their fares to offer cheap flights to people.

While use of light-weight materials is desirable, it is a fact that this can be applied to a limited extent. Perhaps, this might remain limited to just economy or premium economy class seating.

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Ways and Means to Get Cheap Air Tickets

Whenever you have to take a flight, searching for lowest airfares is quite common. Either you have to find these lowest airfares with your own effort or the airlines or agencies will provide in one way or the other. Here are some of the ways in which passengers, airlines or agencies can provide cheapest air tickets:

How You Can Get Cheap Air Tickets?

1.       Look for deals

a)      On airline websites

b)      On agency websites

c)       On deals websites

d)      On fare compare websites

e)      On forum websites

f)       In your email inbox

2.       Use your loyalty reward programs redemption for award flights or upgrades

3.       Make use of phone calls to agents for exclusive deals

4.       Prefer to get bumped out of an overbooked flight for money

5.       Plan travel and book air tickets weeks in advance

How Airlines Can Offer You Cheap Air Tickets?

1.       Special occasion or event deals

2.       Reducing their operational and capital costs

·         Bulk airplane orders with cheap financing

·         Maximizing fuel efficiency

·         Quick turnaround of airplanes for next flights

·         Keeping expenses under check

3.       Least cost tickets for early bookers

4.       Using their mobile application and availing standalone deals on booking on mobile app

5.       By being a frequent flyer and availing benefits and privileges associated with it

How Agencies Can Offer You Cheap Flights?

1.       Subsidize air ticket prices with other travel products, such as hotels

2.       Offers on use of mobile applications for booking tickets

3.       Offering coupons on third-party sites.

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Why New Entrants Give Best Domestic Air Ticket Deals?

Looking for the cheap air tickets is a never ending hunt. And, there is a flood of literature on tips and tricks to get the best fares. Most of these tips are quite common and are followed by the people.

But, I find one tip missing. This is of searching for a new travel company or flight booking company. But, why shall a new company hold a promise for delivery of cheapest airfares as compared to the established fares? The answer to this question is quite simple.

The single most important reason for a new domestic air tickets booking company to offer best discounts or deals on tickets is to penetrate the market which is beholden by the large players. This is the only way it can beat the established players and make a market of self. How will this be possible is another question.

Whether it is due to addition of some distinctive product or service which appeals prospective customers or is due to innovation in technology or any other distinctive feature, the effort shall be made to find the best ways to beat the existing players.

 The disruption in market could also be done by arranging finance over a long period of time and using it for developing sustainable assets that can be used productively to earn profits in medium to long term.

The customer perspective is the opposite and is, therefore, flawed. They like to go with the established players assuming that these will be able to offer the best flight deals. However, this might not be correct always because the new entrants might have all the resources to offer you a better deal. So, if you find a new flight agency on search engines or on social media, then do check for their prices on your plan.

They would be looking for new customers and would be happy to offer you some better offer as compared to competitors.

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Will Solar Powered Planes Just Remain Technology Demonstrators?

Solar Impulse is credited with successful experimentation of the solar-powered planes. Till date, they have developed two prototypes of the solar planes and flown some distance. The plane is a small one with one or two seats and it has flown a remarkable more than 26 hours of intercontinental flight. The plane makes use of the solar panel chips which are used to power it. 

Now, with just single seat, it can be said to be nothing more than a technology demonstrator. The only thing that it has been able to successfully establish is that it is possible to fly using solar energy.

However, while it is a fact that the solar energy can generate a good amount of energy using these solar panels but it is the efficiency of usage of these cells which is the major problem. 

The efficiency with which these panels use solar energy is very less which severely limits the scope of using it. To cite an example, the efficiency level is just 12% which means that if 50000 watts of solar energy is directed on the panels, only about 6000 watts of energy could be created. This needs to be increased significantly and this is nowhere near the desirable mark.

There are two basic ways to generate more power. First is to have more solar panels. Second is to increase the efficiency of these panels. The latter seems a desirable thing to do but is not possible without significant technological improvements. 

The fossil fuels are rather limited and these are also the major cause of pollution. Alternative sources of energy in the form of solar energy can be effective replacements but only on the condition that suitable technology needs to be developed which can enable in efficient harnessing of the solar energy.

So, the question actually is when this technology can be expected to be developed? Will this be developed before certain other alternative fuels which are new and far better than even solar energy? Since man has reached this stage, the next stage can also surely be reached in near future. Aviation is certainly going to change in such a way that the present one will look primitive in future.

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Online Flight Reservations-Easy Steps to Make a Purchase

Travel industry, especially airline ticketing, was the first to embrace ecommerce technology in successful way. At present it provides easy flight searches, airfares and convenient online booking, at a very basic level. For the customers who want to search flight options and then book a flight, doing it online is perhaps the easiest way to book flight tickets.

They no longer have to make calls to agents or visit the reservation offices for flight booking. So, what are the easy steps in which the purchase of tickets can be done online.

Step1. Search

Passengers have to select what type of journey they would want to undertake. Do they want a one-way, round-trip or multi-city journey? After selecting this choice, they have to enter the point of origin and destination, cabin class of travel, number of passengers traveling and the dates of travel, and then the results of flights are shown.

Step2. Select

The next step is to select the most appropriate flight that suits your travel needs. Online flight reservations would be done for the chosen flight.

Step3. Passenger Details

After selecting the flight, you are required to provide the name, address and contact details of passengers. Care shall be taken to separate the infants from adults and children. For international travel, even passport details are to be filled.

Step4. Review of Purchase

Just before making the payments, the airline or agency would make you review the price you would be paying. This review is important as it is the final stage to check for all things to be correct. If all entries are correct, you just have to move to next step which is of payment.

Step5. Payment

In this step, you are given the options to select the different ways in which the payments can be made. Debit or credit cards or net banking are the three most common methods of online payments. There could be some other ones, such as PayPal or any other similar payments methods. You just have to select any one and then enter the details. Thereafter, the payments are deducted from your account.

Step6. Payment and ticket booking confirmation

This is the last step when you get the successful payment confirmation and also the confirmation for ticket booking. The same is also provided to the email ID you have provided earlier on in the booking process.

So, in just a matter of 6 steps and a few minutes, you can have the tickets booked for all passengers who want to fly from one point to another. This is less than the time you would take and special effort you would make to visit the agency or airline office nearest to you for booking the tickets. It saves you time, effort, money and all hassles of moving around.

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Alaska Airlines Grows Sans Joining of Aviation Alliance

Alaska Airlines is not among the four major airline companies of the US but is most certainly the most preferred carrier on routes where it operates. The airline company is based in Alaska and the main objective of its formation was to provide focused and critical connectivity of Alaska region to the rest of contiguous US states. 

This airline, therefore, has a crucial role to play. It can be said without any doubt that this purpose has been served very well by the airline and it has been successful in expanding to different routes in US.

It is not just in the domestic market that this expansion has been seen, but with the help of other airline companies of the world, even the international market has been indirectly tapped. It is notable that the airline is not a member of any of the three major aviation alliances, such as Star Alliance, oneworld or SkyTeam. 

However, it has been able to forge partnerships and agreements with different airlines either by way of codeshare agreements. This has allowed passengers to travel to different destinations across Europe, Middle East, Far East Asia, South East Asia and Australia. Currently, it codeshares with 19 airlines from different countries of the world.

  Alaska airlines flight booking can be done for some of the destinations reached by these airlines from certain cities in US. For the passengers who have been traveling on these routes for some time but have been doing tickets separately, will not be required to do the same separately after codeshare agreements have been put in place. This is a lot of convenience to them.

Now, since Alaska has been able to achieve this expansion in foreign markets without going in for alliances, the question arises whether these alliances are relevant or have they passed their age? We do have many airlines which are members of these alliances but have also been forging out-of-alliance partnerships with other airlines for their own interest.

So, are these alliances really the way forward? Why do airlines feel the need for out-of-alliance agreements? Do these alliances restrict more than promote the cause of all its members? These are some of the questions which lie squarely at the doors of alliances but since these alliances have not dissolved till now signifies that some deeper connections still bind their members. 

These deeper connections are what also make these different from the rather shallower codeshare agreements among the airlines.

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Why Cheap Student Flights Are Worth Providing?

There is a popular English phrase – ‘Catch Them Young’. The meaning of this phrase is that if you make the youth your customers, which is early on in their life, then you can expect to retain them for the longest period of time. Airlines have also embraced this phrase. Youth are one of their target markets. The airline do make all possible efforts to encourage students to travel by flying instead of using the road transportation.

The airlines provide discounts on fares for students. They just have to show their valid IDs as proofs that they are currently the students. Discounts on fares enable them to fly cheap and be within their budget. Sometimes, airlines also provide additional baggage allowances to them. These are the two most common offers which the airline make to the students. However, there could be many other flight deals that could also be offered to them.

Now, why are cheap student flights and special allowances offered? The reason is that students have more energy and willingness to travel. More importantly, they have the time. The only constraint which they might have is that of limited sum of money and constrained budgets to spend on travel. Despite this limitation, they are still an attractive market for the airline because of the potential these hold for the future. The nice memories of flying with a particular airline are etched on the minds and these airlines become the preferred choice for future, as and when the students grow up and begin to earn.

If the airlines do have to retain the students as future customers, it shall be able to match their expectations of after-student life. This requires innovation in product and service offerings that matches the changes that happen as per their life cycle.

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How Solo Travel Packages Help You Meet Challenges of Solo Traveling?

Solo travelers do have quite a heart to go for the adventure all on their own. Whether for exploratory sojourns, business motives or just for leisurely vacations, traveling alone does require a lot of preparation and more than that, a lot of courage to do it alone. 

The requirement of courage is even more if you have the plans to travel to some remote destinations in the world. Whether this is an isolated island in the Pacific or Atlantic oceans, or some inaccessible place is the mountains or in the wilderness of thick forests, or even a journey in a city, solo traveling is all about courage. 

This is even more true for the women solo travelers who have to face many unforeseen challenges in unfamiliar places and among strange cultures.

Solo traveling has many benefits over traveling with a companion. First, you have all the time to spend it the way you want. There are no compromises to be made. Second, all decisions are of your own and the right decisions do give you a lot of confidence. Wrong decisions end up as lessons for future. 

Third, it goes without dispute that due to first-hand learning experiences, the memories of solo traveling are etched for a longer duration of time. Fourth, it helps to improve own organizational skills, develop effective communication skills with people of different cultures. Fifth, it helps you learn immensely about different cultures, their past, present and future. Sixth, solo traveling helps in retaining high energy levels while moving around and exploring the world as you do not have a companion to speak to more often.

Besides these benefits, there are many challenges as well. These are essentially related to concerns of safety and security and communication. In order to resolve these challenges and make the people more confident about traveling single, there are companies which offer solo travel packages. These packages include those destinations which meet your travel requirements and are also time tested for safety and security. 

While you would still be traveling solo after taking these packages, you can be offered selected choices for accommodation, local commuting and places of eating. This considerably reduces the burden of meeting challenges and you can rest assured of an enjoyable travel experience with these packages.

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United Airlines Suspends Flights to India, Enters into Codeshare Agreement with Vistara

United Airlines is one of the four major airlines of United States of America. The airline is a legacy carrier which offers different cabin classes of services. United Airlines operates flights to India, from Newark to Delhi and Mumbai. This service has been suspended for now.

As per the airline, this is because of two reasons. One, the developments in Middle East due to the Iran turmoil where there is a war-like scenario developing. Secondly, the closure of Pakistan airspace due to which the airline had to take a detour to reach its destinations in India.

While the airline has suspended its flight services from Newark to Mumbai and Delhi, United has also entered into a codeshare agreement with the Indian carrier, Vistara. Now the airline will be able to add its code to the Vistara flights. Vistara currently operates domestic flights only as it is barred from operating international flights due to a rather infamous 5/20 rule.

As per this rule, a new airline has to operate domestic flights for 5 years before it launches into the international sector and it must have a fleet of 20 airplanes for flying on international sector. However, a codeshare agreement with UA, will enable the airline to have international passengers from US flying to various destinations it covers.

The agreement will allow passengers who have done United Airlines Reservations to fly to 20 different destinations in India where Vistara flies to. In the wake of another private carrier, Jet Airways, having gone defunct, this agreement will allow people from US to reach to 20 Indian cities with ease. This will be a welcome respite.

People are expecting UA to resume its direct flight service at the earliest possible time.

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