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How to get a cheap plane ticket to Colombia

The first thing to understand is:

Plane ticket prices follow very strange rules.

It's not unusual to find yourself sitting on a plane next to someone who has paid double, or even more than you, for exactly the same flight! This happens all the time.

How can you find cheap tickets?

The main thing is: spend some time looking. If you just take the first price you find, you will probably pay about 25% too much, which means 100s of dollars paid for nothing.

The things that mostly affect ticket prices are:

Where you buy them
When you buy them
The dates and type of ticket
One way or return.

The first thing to decide is one way or return. Officially, tourists visiting Colombia need a return ticket. However, if you plan to fly into Colombia and then travel to, say, Ecuador by bus, you don't want to pay more for a return ticket. And you can often get away with a one way ticket only, see The onward ticket requirement.

Many first time ticket buyers find this hard to believe, but often a return ticket is cheaper than a one way ticket. Why is this? Because return tickets are the standard fare, touristy tickets, where as one way tickets are often for business people. So even if you only need a one way ticket, it is often cheaper to get a return and only use the first half!

Note: Colombians visiting the USA as a tourist also need a return ticket.

Flexibility.

Airlines price their tickets according to demand. If you are a business traveller, and you need a ticket on a specific day and hour, you are prepared to pay a lot more than a tourist who doesn't really care when exactly the plane goes. The basic rule is: the more flexible you are with your dates, the cheaper the ticket. So if you call the travel agent, don't just say: "I want to leave on that date." Try some different dates.

If you are looking for prices on websites, play around with the dates. Try to change your Saturday flight to a Thursday flight. You can often find big differences if you leave a few days earlier or later.

Also, most of the time, if you buy a return ticket it is cheaper if you stay at your destination at least one Saturday. Strange but true.

Getting your money back.

I have flown to New York and back for free, more than once! How is that possible? I'll tell you.

Airlines make more money if the planes are full. If half of the seats are empty, the costs are the same (fuel, pilots, ...), but they make a lot less money. They also know that for most flights, a certain percentage of passengers doesn't show up. So they routinely overbook flights.

However, sometimes everybody does show up, and this means there isn't enough place on the plane for everyone. If you see a flight is going to be almost full, and your travel plans are not too trict, try staying behind!

Usually, if a flight is overbooked, they will ask for volunteers to stay behind. They will usually be able to put you on the next flight the same day, or on the next flight the next day.

To make this worth your while, they will give you vouchers. I have received 500 US$ vouchers (for use with the same airline) when a flight was cancelled and we had wait for the next day, and 200 US$ vouchers when a flight was overbooked and I volunteered to take the next flight.

Where you buy them.

Tickets get sold buy the airline, and also by resellers. These resellers buy a lot of tickets (say 100) cheaply from the airline, and then sell them to people like you and me, for a lot less money. So everyone wins.

Sometimes, airlines have special promotions that are even lower than the resellers prices. So it is worth checking out the airlines and the resellers.

Airsaver would be an interesting start. Compare their rates with the travel agents'.
Cheaptickets is another service providing, eh, cheap tickets. They get so-so reviews on epinions.
Flights.com is another one. I had a good experience there when they were still called TISS.
Airbrokers sells RTW (Round The World) tickets. If you are travelling to more than one country, buying a RTW ticket can save you lots of money. Check them (and others that sell RTW tickets) out.

If you really want to look around, check out these reviews of the various online cheap ticket sellers.

It is usually best to buy your tickets well in advance, because they will be cheaper. However, "last minute tickets" can be even more cheap. The only problem is you won't be sure you can get one. So again, if you have more flexibility, you have more chance for a really cheap ticket.

Extra free flights.

If you buy tickets outside of Colombia for a return flight to Colombia, you can sometimes get a free ticket inside the country with them. If you don't ask you don't get this.

So instead of flying to Bogota (in which case you only get the flight to and from Bogota), try flying to Cartagena. In this case, your plane will still go to Bogota (since almost all planes go to Bogota first), and then you will go to Cartagena.

The clever bit is this: your ticket from Bogota to Cartagena is separate from your ticket from home to Bogota!

This means you can often change the date on the Bogota-Cartagena ticket, without changing the date on the home-Bogota ticket. So you can fly into Bogota, have a few days or weeks there, then fly to Cartagena for free! So you are getting an internal flight for free, since the total cost of your ticket stays the same.

Airport taxes.

Airport taxes have to paid, usually separate from your ticket. If it doesn't say specifically that it is included, remember you will have to pay airport tax for the airport you leave from. (not for airports you just make a stopover on) It is usually something like 20 US$ for international flights.

Round the world tickets.

If you are going to travel to a number of countries, definitely check out round the world tickets. They are often very cheap. Try Airbrokers.

Open tickets.

Another thing to look out for are open tickets. An open ticket allows you to change the return date for about a year (usually). Like this, you have flexibility: you can decide when to come back at any time, and if you really like it you can stay in Colombia a bit longer without having to loose your return ticket. I personally often take open tickets. They are not much more expensive.

Airlines and stopovers.

Most flights from Colombia to the USA go from Bogota to Miami. You will probably find that, if you are flying from Colombia to somewhere in the US, you will go through Miami.

It is sometimes cheaper to buy the Bogota - Miami part of your flight separately, and then just get the cheapest flight from Miami to where you need to go, from a different airline, since there are only a few airlines that fly to Colombia, but lots and lots that fly Miami - anywhere else.

If you are flying from Europe, it is almost always cheaper to get a flight to Miami and from there a flight to Bogota, than a flight directly to Bogota. American Airlines flies Bogota Miami a lot. Check their website for prices.

How cheap is worth it?

When looking for cheap tickets, be careful not to be blinded by price alone: keep the other factors in mind.

Some cheap tickets have stopovers in other countries. If your flight is 20US$ cheaper but it will take 8 hours longer, that's probably not worth it....

Sometimes an open ticket (where you can change the return date) will cost only 30$ more, the added flexibility that gives you may well be worth it.

Sometimes the cheapest flight leaves from some obscure airport and it will cost you 50$ just to get to that airport. Sometimes the cheapest flight arrives at 2.00AM and you will have to prebook a hotel or sleep on the airport.

And so on: decide what is important for you and keep those factors in mind.

Conclusion.

Make your reservation early, unless you are very flexible in your dates and destinations. Many discount fares require that you make a reservation 7, 14 or 21 days before your trip depending on the fare.
Flying on a weekday usually costs less. Flights on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday usually offer the lowest fares.
Shop around with dates, airlines and resellers.
Check if flying over Miami is cheaper.
Keep other factors than price in mind.
Most low fares require that you stay over at least one Saturday night before your return flight. However, some fares may only require you to stay a minimum of 3 or 4 days.
If you don't at first succeed, try an earlier or later flight.
To get the lowest roundtrip fare, that fare must be available on both the departing and return flights you select. If the fare is sold out on either of these, the price you end up with will be much higher. Try an earlier or later flight if you can't find the fare you want; or, if possible, consider flying on another day.

By Peter (Moderator) (Trustee board) (Dev team) on Nov 22, 2001, 10:52 in Friendly Talkzone.

Peter (Moderator) (Trustee board) (Dev team) (☼Travelguide writer) says on Nov 11, 2003, 10:54:

Skyauction.com By Jim 2002-02-21
I have found very cheap tickets at www.skyauction.com. Often they are included with resort hotel packages, but you can always take the flight and stay elsewhere. I met someone in Baja California that bought a vacation package trip to Cabo San Lucas for $1 because no one else bid on the package.

Poor but snappy

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Peter (Moderator) (Trustee board) (Dev team) (☼Travelguide writer) says on Jan 16, 2004, 11:48:

i want to buy cheap plane ticket I want to buy plane tickets to cancun, mexico from hammond indiana. I really dont have that much money and me and my 4 friedns want to go. Can you help us? There are five of us total. Write me back at lilcharlie24 at yahoo.com with your respond

Thanks Alot
From Us!!!!!!

Poor but snappy

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sustainablesara says on May 30, 2004, 07:39:

Bogata to Medellin cheap tickets Greetings!
My friend and I will be in Columbia in 1 month. The first few weeks we are going to be in Bogata. We really want to go to Medellin and Cartagena..but where do we find cheap plane tickets for these trips.
Any suggestions?
Thanks

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toknight50 says on Mar 16, 2005, 19:55:

Tickets I found out that from Pittsburgh ,Pa I can catch a plane on one of the discount airlines for around $150.00 or less round trip to Miami and then catch a plane to Colombia on one of the South American Airlines for around $325.00 round trip with less then 3 weeks notice. If I take the plane out of Pittsburgh it can be $775.00 or more so with a little checking around I am saving $300.00 on my trip.

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latino says on Mar 19, 2005, 19:02:

cheap tickets to Colombia I've found a travel agent online ABS Travel, based in Miami.
They sell tickets from all over the US & Europe to Colombia (Latin America, etc.) I've bought some tickets for myself, and also for family, coming from Latin America to the US!

Just a satisfied customer, not associated with them.

Always check with different online sites, to make sure you get a good deal. Doesn't hurt.

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Anne Barr says on Jun 4, 2006, 18:32:

Flying to/from Caracas Venezuela and taking the bus to/from Col Has anyone used the Venezuelan airline Santa Barabara? It's supposed to be VERY cheap to fly to Europe and US.
I would like to hear from you if you have.

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gatzdon says on Aug 17, 2006, 08:07:

www.aeropostal.com The venezuelan airline www.aeropostal.com has provided me with an extremely cheap ticket from miami to bogota this christmas. I assume this is due to the price-fixed fuel costs in venezuela.

Hope this helps someone.

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bobs1130 says on Nov 2, 2006, 16:45:

need cheap R/T ticket from Cleveland to Barranquilla I will be traveling 12/14 to 12/24. thank you.

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