Airfare Post Christmas OMG

[mnfun2bme]

ERL -

[PA Girl]

Here's the strange thing... Our flights between MSP and ATL (both ways) are first class!?! (Unfortunately not first class for the STT flights). $200 CHEAPER per ticket than if we were coach for all flights.
I don't understand that at all - but I'll take it!

I have run across this as well for USAir flights and my mom and husband are flying legs of an upcoming trip to Mexico in first because the cost was a few dollars more than coach. (by few, I mean less than $20) Problem is, it spoils you!

[waterguy]

ON kayak I found a 750.00 fare out of ORD on your dates

[carron]

Tickets always are $$$$ more than 6 months out. Wait a few more months and rates will go down. We have found this to be true on many trips.

[Marcia (Mrs. Pete)]

Booked our flights yesterday. Prices haven't gone down and available tickets at the "low" rates were becoming limited. We are going out of ORD (to "save" money) and it's still $1075.00 per ticket, $6450.00 for all six of us. Of course this doesn't include seat selection (I know that's optional so I won't bitch about that too much but it was $940 to get seats together that were not in the limited recline area or the last two rows) and checked bags (again, sort of optional but not realistic for this crew to do all carry on $25.00x6x2=$300) and you've got quite the expense.

I've registered on Yapta so if the flights go down by more than $150.00 per ticket we could see some kind of refund. Fingers crossed.

But, now that the tickets have been purchased we can simply start looking forward to our trip.

[toes in the sand]

December prices are insane but January prices are unreal. Booked in Jan for $275 rt

[MN_Bhoy]

I just checked the Delta non-rev system which lists flight loads/available seats. There are four flights between Atlanta and St Thomas on the two days following XMAS (2 flights/day). Three of the four flights are already oversold in coach and booking into the "no-show" factor. It's been a while since I've seen this many flights booked up FIVE months in advance. I wouldn't expect any price reductions if loads like this are system-wide.

Here's a printout of Flight 571 that leaves Atlanta at 10am on Dec 26. It is showing 156 seat capacity in coach and only 1 seat is left. They are still allowed to sell 16 seats due to the no-show factor. They have also sold 13 of the 24 1st class seats!

Flight 677 is oversold in coach by 3 seats but they can still sell 17. These aren't always 100% accurate, but they're pretty close.

0571 ATL STT 26Dec 10:00AM 26Dec 02:44PM DL 757 13/13(24) 0/0(0) 1/16(156)
0677 ATL STT 26Dec 12:05PM 26Dec 04:35PM DL 757 9/9(24) 0/0(0) -3/17(156)

[sailorgirl]

We changed our minds about coming down over Easter 2014 after trying to book flights. Our dates were not flexible and from NY they wanted over $800 each. Just can't justify it. Like Knollmon last trip I paid less than $300.

[ToonMann]

On March 15th, we booked January flights from DC to STT on American for $475.

If we were to purchase them today, these flights would be $912.

TM

[PA Girl]

Anymore, I think anything around $500 from the Northeast is a relative bargain. When we were shopping for our February trip, I wasn't seeing anything under $700. With five people, we didn't want to risk waiting.

Friends of ours were on the fence about their February tickets and when he said it would be something like $490 each (mid week) I nearly screamed at him to go home immediately and book them. He really wanted to wait for a lower price.

We are going to Cozumel in November and those ticket prices have only gone up and the planes are getting full.

[dhanc1]

Miss Marcia
You can fly out of Chicago in January to San Juan for $200-$300 per ticket. I have never done this but it might be an option. I have no idea what costs would be from San Juan to St Thomas but may be worth a try

[News of St. John]

Seaborne is usually about $83 one way from SJU to STT. Cape Air is about $110-$129 depending on flight times.

[dhanc1]

Forgot to mention, that is on Southwest Airlines