Alaska Southbound in August from Memphis

[katfer]

Morning....feeling overwhelmed looking at airfares and connections to Anchorage. Anyone have any tips as for easier connections airports...best ways to find shorter layovers...best search engines...is it better to have one stop or two? As I search this site I understand to buy when price looks good..so far has been no real change. We recently signed up for AAAdvantage to hopefully accrue miles...any tips on that? Sorry for all the questions...but have learned so much here on boards....Thank you so much.

[CruiserBruce]

Commonly recommended on this board is ita.matrix and Google Flights.

[FlyerTalker]

Let's hit this one by one:

Morning....feeling overwhelmed looking at airfares and connections to Anchorage. Anyone have any tips as for easier connections airports

In general, coming from MEM I would suggest that you look to avoid ORD and LAX as a connection point. MSP, SFO and IAH are reasonable connecting airports and SEA, PDX and SLC are excellent in my experience. The big dog in connections to ANC is SEA. Many flights on several airlines.

best ways to find shorter layovers

Use ITA Matrix and click on the "time bars" setting for your display. Gives a graphic view of your flight options rather than just listing times and flight data. You can easily see the close and long connections (the gray area between the colored flight bars). I highly suggest that you do not get into the "I want the shortest connection" mindset. Especially if there are few alternatives, you don't want to put yourself in a bad place if your first flight is delayed.

 

As a hypothetical - you are flying into Houston and there is one flight a day to ANC. You have a 45 minute connection, but you miss it because your inbound is delayed. There's no other non-stop that day and you may or not be able to be rerouted through other multiple connections. Better to put in enough padding to cover those situations. OTOH, if there are a number of later flights that you might be rerouted onto, the shorter connect may be OK. And depending on the airport, it may be a quite delightful break from what will be two long domestic flights.

best search engines

I'm gonna bet that by "best" you mean "which finds the cheapest price". First, know that "cheapest" doesn't mean that you are getting a better value. Many of the "cheap ticket" locations are resellers of bulk/consolidator tickets that may leave you in the lurch if there are irops (irregular operations). You may save a few bucks but don't buy on price alone. Much written here and elsewhere about the pros and cons of consolidator tickets. I suggest you look to ITA Matrix. Excellent powerful tool for research. You cannot buy tickets from that site - use it to research and then buy from the airline directly.

is it better to have one stop or two?

One stop gives one less chance for delay or misconnect vs a two stop itinerary. OTOH, do you need/want to break up your time in the aluminum (or composite) tube? Is the advantage of aircraft or carrier worth the time differential? Is there a cost advantage that is worth the time differential? Personally, I would never want to book a flight in a regional jet that is over 2 hours if I can help it. I've gone out of my way to get out of the Canadian Torture Chamber (aka Flying Ski-Do, aka CRJ) by using mainline jets. Note, this does NOT apply to the Embraer E-series (E-170/175/190) which are wider and usually have bigger seats than Boeing mainline jets.

As I search this site I understand to buy when price looks good..so far has been no real change. We recently signed up for AAAdvantage to hopefully accrue miles...any tips on that?

AAdvantage is for your flights on AA or AS. If on another carrier, look to their own FF program. Tips? There are dozens of websites out there on the FF game, and I and others here could rattle on for pages and pages. Best to do your own reading for now and pose questions.

Sorry for all the questions...but have learned so much here on boards....Thank you so much.

No problem. Glad to assist. In the future, specific dates always help in getting suggestions.

[katfer]

thanks Flyertalker...going to matrix now. Will probably have a few more questions if that's ok.

[cruisequeen4ever]

I recommend flying Alaska Airlines if possible. It's a partner of American, so you can opt to earn AA miles instead, but you'll have access to the plethora of flights to/from Anchorage on Alaska. Seattle routing is best because the flights run almost every half hour. If something goes wrong, you have plenty of backups.

 

 

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