Shopping for Air Fares

Here's a short article on how to shop for good air fares -- by people who help to set the fares...  

1. Book early-ish. Hardly an exact metric, Brunger concedes, but it means not waiting too long, hoping that an airline will have too many empty seats on the flight you want three to four weeks before departure and get desperate to sell them. (That’s exceedingly rare, and means something went wrong for the revenue manager.) The closer you get to the advance-purchase deadlines, the more clarity airlines usually have on their pricing forecasts. When it works as planned, revenue management means an airline has sold exactly the number of seats at each fare level that it had intended—closer to departure, the seats that are left cost far more.

2. Book at a price satisfactory to you. If you can live with the cost and it seems decent, take the plunge. “If the fare feels like a fairly good fare, I would buy,” Nason said.

Read more here:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-24/the-best-way-to-find-a-cheap-airplane-ticket-according-to-two-guys-who-set-fares#r=rss

Eleven Common Grammar Errors

With school back in gear, we thought this article was appropriate:



You might consider grammar an annoying technicality, a minuscule detail of speech and writing not worth much effort.

But a study last year from the Society for Human Resources and Management shows that 45% of employers plan to increase training for grammar and other language skills (meaning they're unhappy with the levels now). 

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/11-common-grammatical-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them-2013-9#ixzz2fGBxRKXR

Powerball and Lottery Math

The Powerball jackpot has reached $400 million.  At this level, does it make sense to buy Powerball tickets??!  When the jackpots for lotteries get up to certain levels, some people think that it makes sense to buy tickets.  However, the math in this article shows that taxes and the odds of multiple winners makes the expected value iffy -- on buying Powerball lottery tickets -- even at these levels.  Good luck!







Source: W. Hickey


Read more here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-when-math-says-you-should-start-to-care-about-powerball-2013-9