Is there a list for empty airline seats?

[Jayfarmlaw]

We fly to Cozumel at least twice a year and would like to travel more. I'm self employed so I can usually make a decision to be gone for up to a week in a matter of minutes. I have always heard that there is a way to purchase the empty seats on a booked flight at a discount. I heard this again on a surface interval that charter companies will often call and offer 24-48 hours notice for a seat. This person used to be on the list for a particular charter company that had gone out of business. This particular instance was from DFW to Cozumel or Cancun.

My fare from OKC to Cancun is usually around $400 on SW with 2 free bags. I have booked it in the past year for as low as $200 RT each. American is usually slightly cheaper but no free bags.

So...is there some magic list and how do I get on it?

Thanks in advance for your response.

Jay

 

[flyboy08]

Outside of a consolidator, no. The airline would actually prefer to fly that seat empty rather than charge say....45.50......same with a hotel. If the fare is 350.00 and you offer 250.00 minutes before the flight door closes, they'll just say no thanks....

 

[phelana]

no such thing

 

[guruboy]

Sometimes prices drop close to the date (7 days or less). Just have to keep an eye out.

Also, this might work for some of the budget airlines, but you might have to go to the actual ticket counter.

 

[Streydog]

Jay,
When you are down to around $200 RT look at what portion of it is taxes and fees, I don't think they could cut fares much lower. Had a $208 RT last March to CUN, Fare was $92 and Taxes and Fees were $115.

 

[Rred]

The commercial airlines used to have a similar concept. It was called flying "standby". If you were at the airport and a seat opened up, you could fly cheap. Now? They charge you good bucks just to put you on the standby list!

Same way that when you book a regular flight, the seating chart shows "limited availability" and maybe only ten open seats. Nope, odds are there are 20+ still open, they just want to make it look like you're getting the last chance. (And it gets worse, they do set cookies in the browser, and if they say only three seats left at this price, next time you log on they will all be priced HIGHER.)

Airline logic. Now that they have to pay to bump overbooked fliers, a few of them are even considering NOT overbooking their busy flights any more. Empty seats? Yeah, they call that a good reason to charge EXTRA for the last minute opportunity.

Unlike the air charter companies, who still do offer last-minute specials to sell empty seats IF you are a member or on their customer list. (But not to the general hoi polloi.)

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

Jay,
When you are down to around $200 RT look at what portion of it is taxes and fees, I don't think they could cut fares much lower. Had a $208 RT last March to CUN, Fare was $92 and Taxes and Fees were $115.

I'm sure the $200 was a fluke. Since I don't sleep anymore, I check airfares at 2,3,4 am. When I find a great deal, I try to grab it if we can remotely swing the trip. More often than not, it disappears a few hours later back to the normal $400 typical range.

Hope you can make it back to Coz one more time before the Black Friday madness and holiday shopping nightmare begins!!

Jay

 

[JimJam2]

Book SW at the most reasonable fare you'd expect to pay. If you find a better deal cancel and rebook / "bank" the difference. Use the SW low fare calendar.

 

[Maverick17]

This person used to be on the list for a particular charter company that had gone out of business.

Maybe there is some correlation here to having empty seats and being desperate for a few bucks, and subsequently going out of business.

IMHO, there are two different issues at discussion here, and most are only replying to the first - regular flights. Charter flights are a different beast. For regular flights, there are paid services, expertflyer is the best, which will show you the actual number of seats available in particular fare classes. I agree with the above comment, airline seatmaps on their website are a marketing tool and don't show actual availability. But as mentioned above, you cannot get great last minute discounts with regular flights. First of all, there are very few empty seats as airlines have merged and have eliminated a lot of capacity and gotten better algorithms for looking at how much demand there is. The way to get discounts is a) monitor religiously, and b) buy from the guys who buy in bulk, aka the consolidators that were mentioned above. Not every airline nor every route has consolidator fares on it though. And some airports with little competition, such as where I fly from a lot in BOI and SLC, rarely get sales as there is little competition so monitoring the sales is quite slow. OKC is the same, I think. But DFW, IAH, and ORD have amazing fares quite often.

For charters, you might find deals. Recently they had some charters from here in Vietnam to Poland, and when they didn't sell well, they were offering them one way for $100, which is about 66% to 80% off of lowest normal fares. But that brings you back to your question of how to find those and if there is a list. You'd probably have to investigate local travel groups like on facebook, and call local travel agents to ask about charter flights, and go from there.