Do vacation airfares to Mexico and the Caribbean have you freaked out?
Let me introduce you to the ‘New and Improved’ Charter flight……
They are now called Exclusive NonStop Vacation Flights – or ‘ENVF’.
Leave it up to the marketing peeps to put sugar on an old idea and declare their brilliance.
Why consider them?
They can save you big pesos. Like 50% off.
Especially if you’re traveling with your family.
First an explanation of how this works:
Airfares are cyclical.
Prices go up and down based on everything from fuel and staffing costs – to competition.
In the Old World Order when airfares were sky-high, Tour Wholesalers would charter some planes (at a discount) and pass the airfare savings on to the customer.
The good news……Your vacation package price was lower.
But,
if your Tour Wholesaler did not sell out the plane, – they had to eat the seats.
Or sell them at a deep discount to recover their cash.
That is why most Tour Operators who have been stung in the past don’t play the ENVF game.
They sell you a seat on a regularly scheduled airline.
But, when the price of flying is equal to an ounce of gold – customers stop booking and flock to HomeDepot to invest in Tulips.
And most of the new people in power don’t read history books.
How do you find these ENVF’s?
- You have to buy them through a Tour Wholesaler or a Travel Agent.
- You have to live in one of the cities where ENVF’s depart from (see the list below).
- Your travel dates must be flexible. ENVF’s don’t fly every day. Sometimes just on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Which cities have ENVF flights?
The list changes from season to season, but here are the cities:
- Atlanta
- Charlotte
- Chicago – ORD
- Cincinatti
- Cleveland
- Dallas – DFW
- Denver
- Kansas City
- Lansing
- Memphis
- Milwaukee
- Minneapolis
- Nashville
- New Orleans
- Philidelphia
- Pittsburg
- St. Louis
If you live in one of these cities – or can get a short hop to these cities – you can save BIG.
Now for the bad news:
In the past, if your plane has a mechanical problem you could be stuck in your location……for days.
Being stuck on a beach is way better than being stuck in the snow……but pesky things like work, school, and life tend to complicate your situation.
The good news – in this bad news – is that Tour Wholesalers don’t typically charter planes anymore.
They buy 20-30 seats on a regularly scheduled airline (AA, UA, DL, Frontier, etc) at a discount and pay upfront.
So these days your chances of getting stranded are the same as being stranded if you buy your seat yourself at the higher price.
Which is making these flights hot again!
So if this appeals to you – check with your local Travel Agent or Tour Wholesaler.
It can save you Big Bucks.
That is how it looks from the BackSeat!
~Jake
P.S. Pro Bonus Tip!
You can buy ENVF flights without buying a vacation package.
So if you have business in one of the major vacation destinations, you can get a steal of a deal if the dates they fly works for you.
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