How to ask for what you want—and get it

Fifteen years ago you could utter certain magic words to an airline agent or a hotel clerk and a first-class seat or a room with a view would materialize before your very eyes. Those were the days when "Do you have any empty seats up front? I suffer from claustrophobia" actually produced results. But in this era of airline stinginess and undertrained staffs, it’s tougher to get more than you paid for; you’re lucky if you get what you’re due in the first place. There are still a few choice phrases, however, that can save you money, give you negotiating power, and yield key information. Here is my secret stash, culled over the years from my own experiences on the road as well as from experts I’ve interviewed for this column.

AIRLINES

Buying a Ticket
"What is the lowest fare available on this route on any day of travel?"
Asking an airline reservations agent this question should yield the magic days and times for the cheapest fares. Let’s say the lowest prices are for flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays: You’ll learn that you could save money by switching your four-day Friday-through-Monday trip to a Saturday-through-Tuesday trip.

"Is this a code-share flight?"
When a U.S. airline and its foreign partner each sell seats on the same flight (making it a code share), be sure to ask whose plane is being used and check both carriers’ airfares, since one may be hundreds of dollars cheaper. For business-class seats, the price difference can be staggering. Recently, you might have paid Delta $4,519 for a business-class ticket on a flight from New York to Morocco and ended up on a Royal Air Maroc plane. Had you booked the same trip with Royal Air Maroc, the identical seat on the identical flight would have cost
only $1,545.

"What’s the flight’s on-time performance record?"
Say you’re flying Delta to Atlanta and there are five daily nonstops that you can choose from. All things being equal, you want the one that is most likely to get you there on time. Any reservations agent can tell you what percentage of the time each flight arrives on schedule.

Flying Internationally on a Business-class or Full-fare-coach Ticket
"What’s the one-way fare for the return?"
Airline reservationists may not answer this question, but a good travel agent will. Round-trip unrestricted airfares are often calculated by simply doubling the outbound portion. But the return could cost several hundred dollars less, especially if it’s from a country whose currency is weak against the U.S. dollar. For instance, a full-fare coach seat on a recent Qantas flight from New York to Sydney was $2,847. The return fare was $2,263. Purchasing two one-way tickets would have shaved $584 off the cost of the trip.