If your ticket is over $700 to get to Colombia

pablo says on Jul 30, 2004, 21:54:

Airfare Peter,

It's your site and you can delete what you want but with all due respect, I disagree with you about deleting Bill's post. This is not a business or a commercial venture nor is he getting rich over this. I used his services before and saved a substantial amount on airfare. With the high price that the airlines are charging for airfare I viewed his post as a way to help other travelers going to Colombia to save money, much like a tip on a good place to stay or restaurant to eat at.

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Bill1243 says on Aug 2, 2004, 16:22:

note to Peter
Dear Peter,

This is Bill1243. I see where you cancelled my post on miles. Which is your right as the leader of the forum. I sent you the following message in an email, but was told you don't answer your mail so I will post it here too.

Just wanted you to know that even though it might have looked like an ad, it wasn't. I started helping people get cheaper tickets to Colombia by selling miles to them and they really appreciate it. Colombia is one of the more expensive places to go to in northern South America and if people can save money over regular tickets, they love it.

I post on your forum, and I have about 1,200 posts on the Gringo Forum. I am an expert in South American travel, having made a ton of trips and spending almost two years there.

Even a guy that posts as Pablo has benefited from buying miles from me. As have several others who post here.

Trust me, I am making very little from this, and can't afford to advertise. In fact, the selling of miles is discouraged by the airlines, and I am risking a little in doing so. But both myself and a lot of my friends have extra miles and if we can get people down to Colombia for less money than a regular or bulk ticket I think that is a great service.

For instance, people are normally paying $900 for tickets from the northwest U.S. to Colombia. With miles they can go for about $550 !!

A great example is a post someone put on yesterday. He wanted to stay 180 days. Some guy gave incorrect advice and I straightened it out with my post. The truth is that a 180 day ticket, when purchased the regular way, would cost sometimes as much as $2,000, depending on what state they are traveling from. If they use miles, they can go for $550, and have all the changes they want for free! If that isn't great advice I don't know what is!!

Here was the thread:

http://poorbuthappy.com/colombia/node/view/4048?PHPSESSID=ef2804def61777d7c40809d761b60674

Anyway, hope this helps to explain it. If I am not allowed to post information on using miles, then people will be paying a heck of a lot more than they need to for travel to Colombia. It takes a lot of work on my part to locate the miles. And I have saved people a ton of money. And they can't do this themselves, because they usually don't have their own miles, nor do they know how to get them.

Thank you.

Bill1243
bill1243 at yahoo.com

P.S. This is not my business. My business is in selling property. I only do this to help out people going to South America, almost exclusively people going to Colombia. I do this because this is where I travel to and to which I have traveled to for years. I am also an avid poster on many issues.

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vicshere says on Aug 2, 2004, 18:15:

Profit Bill your selling your air miles and making a profit even if your selling your air miles at a great discount. Therefore it is a business. Its a very simple case, you are here to help yourself sell your additional air miles plain and simple.

listo
"con mucho gusto"
Vic

listo

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Mr. Hollywood says on Aug 2, 2004, 19:33:

$550 no great favor Have to agree with Peter. If you're selling tickets for $550, you're really giving people only a marginal break from the normal $600-700 price for a RT ticket from the West Coast. Friends of mine even recently got $580 from SFO to BOG through Atlanta.

If you want to do a big public service with your miles, find a poor NGO doing a nice project in Colombia and give them free air tickets for their staff to fly down. The money saved can go into the project.

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Peter (Moderator) says on Aug 3, 2004, 01:39:

Advertising Hi Bill,
I do actually answer my email, it's just spam protected so it will ask you to answer a question when you first email. Try petervandijck.net (the contact page). Anyways, thanks for your feedback!

I don't really mind postings now and then that are small business-like (like yours or the guy selling funny t-shirts), as long as they're Colombia related. But I noticed you were repeating the same posting regularly.

Why not add a link(you can add links in posts) to one of the older ticket posts in each message (in your signature) you write saying something like "tips for cheap tickets" or something. That way, you are still pointing people to your old post every time you write here, and you're not posting the same thing again and again.

Poor but snappy

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latino says on Mar 19, 2005, 19:17:

cheap flights to Colombia Always check different sites online to make sure you get the best price.

One site that I use is an online agent ABS Travel.

Latino...

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miamimike says on Mar 19, 2005, 19:33:

Skyauction.com Posters may want to check this site also-I have seen some pretty good deals==for example --Miami to Bogota(round trip) $270(not including taxes)--many times they are last minute deals so you have to be packed and ready to go. Registration is fast and free, but you can view the auctions without preregistering.

My Avatar-- Sarah Palin Says " "You know the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom?? Lipstick!" Now on a Short Verbal Tether by the Honorable John McCain

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Bill1243 says on Apr 15, 2005, 18:34:

Miles still the best in most cases First, $500 from Ft. Lauderdale to Bogota is a high price...rarely are regularly published fares that high.

As for the posts by Vic and Hollywood, I can agree...to a point. But flying on frequent flyer miles is still the lowest cost way to fly to Colombia. Flying from the north, including my city, normally costs a bit over $800 for a regular fare. Also, flying from Class B airports oftentimes yield higher fares. Finally, if you are flying for over 60 days the price of a regular ticket skyrockets. Don't use them flying from Miami, or if some super sale is on from the city you are flying from.

So to get the 35,000 miles you need to get from the U.S. or Canada to Colombia is a good deal if you can get them for $550 I feel. Personally, I don't care where you get the miles... I am just saying I have them if anyone needs them. If anyone has questions on this, feel free to ask me at bill1243 at yahoo.com

Again, if you can get them from your family, go for it. Use me as a last resort.

Hopefully that info took it away from being an ad and more as a public service announcement!

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British Paisa says on Apr 16, 2005, 13:05:

If you are one of the following: full time student, under 25 or a teacher you can usually get a good deal at statravel.com

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Sonny says on Apr 16, 2005, 19:10:

Peter It is true that Bill may be looked at as advertising of sort but so is giving information as to hotels, places to eat, places to go, what cabs to use, what schools to teach in, Visa information, giving out names and addresses of people that can help assist one in almost anything on this site encluding an Attorney offering their services. I have used him twice and both time got the best price I found anywhere. I understand the issue of advertising but maybe the fact that he has helped many of us save a lot of money by giving very good advice which he gave me would lend to some understanding that he is helping people get to COLOMBIA at a better then fair price. The type of ticket I got from him cost me $585.00 without restrictions and changeable. Price them out anywhere and see that there was a saving of well over $2000.00. That is helping COLOMBIA and us. It was appreciated and good advice. Make some exception for someone that is trying to help others. Even you PETER asked for help by advertising the need for people to send this site money to help with the cost. Maybe by doing this someone can save enough to help put some money in your site pocket. He has help a lot of people so give Bill a break on this one.

Maybe Bill could change the way he words his offer like yours Peter, LIKE " Why I decided to help others get to COLOMBIA" OR, " How to save money going to COLOMBIA"
It is just my comment but open your eyes to this one Peter.

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toknight50 says on Apr 16, 2005, 21:48:

Cheap Tickets I have found out that if you fly on one of the cheapie airlines round trip to Miami and then buy a ticket on one of the South American airlines you can save a bit of money. As an example from Pittsburgh to Bogota roundtrip is around $800.00 with 2 weeks notice but I can catch a Airtran or Jetblue or one of the other cheapies for under $200.00 roundtrip to Miami and then catch one of the South American airlines to Bogota for $332.00 taxes included roundtrip. This is saving me around $270.00 which I can use to pay for my B&B while in Bogota for 10 days in July.
William

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Sonny says on Apr 17, 2005, 08:26:

toknight50/ or anyone Just some homework. Check the price of a round trip ticket from Dallas to Cali unrestricted. If you can beat $580.00 for an unrestricted ticket let me know I will buy it today. By unrestricted I mean a ticket that you can use up to one year, change the dates and so forth/

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Bill1243 says on Apr 17, 2005, 15:35:

To toknight50 Toknight50... you are right, in that you can do what you suggested, but their are downsides to your way. First, you have to go and retrieve your baggage and then re-check it and put up with the security hassles again. Also, and most importantly, if you ever want to change your flying dates you have to pay not one, but TWO change fees...one for each airline.

To get a ticket with miles for about the same price, which is very low, you get one small change fee if needed, no luggage or additional security hassles, and the ticket is good for a whole year if need be.

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Jack Smith says on Apr 20, 2005, 13:08:

Bill is a good Joe! I know Bill from the gringo Forum and he is a good Joe....! Good dude i mean!

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Crazy4Cali says on Apr 20, 2005, 13:32:

Frequent Flier Tickets... I don't know Bill from Jack, but I've been to Colombia a couple of times now and used a frequent flier ticket (my own) one of those times and I'm not convinced I saved much....

first, on any given flight, there are only a few seats saved for frequent flier users. Consequently, you have to reserve your ticket WAYYYYYYyyyyy in advance (2 to 4 months or more depending on the season and your flexibility).

Second, because of the limited seating, you can end up on some pretty interesting routes....Rarely the shortest for an international flight.

Third, it seems the domestic seats go faster than the international ones, so in many attempts to use my F.F. tickets, I've been unable to get a flight from my home to one of the cities with a flight out of the country. If you already live on one of those cities: e.g. Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, etc. Then they might be of more utility to you, but then again, you can probably get a cheap ticket the old-fashioned way from one of those cities already.

So, in my experience, F.F. tickets are nice when they work (and I've had some decent experiences within the U.S. so I'm not totally slamming them) but you can't really count on them.

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caslug says on Apr 20, 2005, 15:41:

FF tickets are.. great if you have a flexible schedule, Crazy is right regarding lack of available dates sometimes ESPECIALLY around holidays. But outside of holidays, no problem. I've flown to COL twice for 30k and 35k, i've flown to Peru for 25K. As bill stated the best thing about the tickets are changing dates are NO PROBLEM as long as seats are available. As for getting routed, it depends on your orignal city and the airline.

I'm in CA and use AA, ALL AA flights to COL go out of Miami so so AA usually route me to DFW then MIA. While Peru & Argentina are routed thru DFW AND MIA so there's alittle more flexiblity in those destination.

Overall i recommend anyone that can use FF miles do so, because Airlines so slowly but surely "depreciating" those miles by limiting the avialable seats, adding fees, etc.,

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caslug says on Apr 20, 2005, 15:45:

AA reduce mileage ticket... If you have a GOLD Citibank AA Credit card, you can go to Medellin AND Cali for 25K miles instead of 30 or 35K. Plus you can get BOOK your ticket at 25K, then CHANGE the dates to any dates available and still be locked at 25K. You can fly into Cali AND leave from Medellin.

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Bill1243 says on Apr 24, 2005, 14:56:

to Crazy4 Cali Crazy is right to a point... The amount you save depends on your city you are flying from. If you are from the north (most cities anyway), or if you fly from a Class B airport, you will save a lot with a miles ticket.

As far as getting a seat, booking in advance is best, but it is not always necessary. It is the domestic flights that are toughest to get. With some airlines, you can waitlist and wait for a seat to open up. I myself do just the opposite...I book a day or two before the flight...when they have freed up the seats. Costs another fee of $50, but it works!

As far as routing, I always get the route I want.

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