Help with flight choices..

[stjchica]

Have you found it to be cheaper flying weekday to weekday vs weekend to weekend? That is what I am finding right now, and just wondering if that hold true most the time, before I book our villa..Thanks in advance for any info~

[toes in the sand]

I have found that for most destinations it is cheaper to fly between tuesdays and thursdays. Monday and Fridays are busy business travel days and weekends for pleasure travellers. Always check on Sunday and Monday nights after midnight eastern for best seat selections and sometimes best prices. Ticket turn-ins are put back in to the system then. Or at least so says the urban legend.

[deejayjay]

I personally have never noticed a difference in price,(from the Midwest). However, not arriving in STT or leaving STT on a weekend is PRICELESS.

[byado18]

WE just found a cheaper flight flying on a Saturday than when we were going to go on a Wednesday! (Peoria -Atlanta -STT)

[ArkieLovesSTJ]

We have typically found cheaper flights to and from STT on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. We love it when we can use the "excuse" of cheaper flights to go down on Tuesday and come home on Thursday...

It is also seems to be a lot easier to book Rachel during the week. During our May trip this year, we flew down on Thursday and we had fiends (first trip) fly in on Saturday. We were Rachel's only airport pick up on Thursday, but she had so many groups booked on Saturday that she asked if she could arrange for someone else to shuttle our friends to the ferry.

[stjchica]

~~~UPDATED: 2nd part of question~~~
Ok...so summer airfare is running what winter used to run..around $800pp instead of $500pp...
Can get it down some by adding additional stops which I HATE...I prefer nonstop but that is next to impossible anymore so usually we go from DFW-MIA-STT.....Now we would have to add another stop...
What are your feelings about having to stop more than once on your way to and from the islands? (In regards to time, inconvenience, safety, etc..) Needing some help deciding. May scrap the trip at this rate..

[toes in the sand]

Adding more than one stop never dropped the cost from STL. Our lowest fare is almost always STL - MIA - STT.
I have been hoping and praying that since Southwest now has an affiliate that flies into San Juan that we would be able to build a cheaper route, but that just hasn't happened.

[KTinTX]

stjchica,
Flying out of Houston is no better. Airfares for June were so high we splurged on first class as they were practically the same price.

I've never seen a non-stop from houston or Dallas to STT. At least in the last 5 years. We have flown AA thru MIA four times and once we flew Delta thru ATL. have not noticed price differences for day of week changes of any real significance. We are generally weekend flyers, but have done Fridays and Mondays. Non weekends are less busy on the return flights.

My opinion is the extra stop would have to save me a pretty large amount. One company I worked for had a rule that each stop could not increase your travel time by more than 2 hours AND the savings for an extra stop had to be at least $200 for an international itinerary. My threshold would be higher than that for personal travel since the risk (missed connection, lost luggage, delays, etc) goes up by a large amount when you add a stop.

Just my thoughts

[stjchica]

Yeah I think I would rather pay the extra than add a leg to the trip..DFW to MIA to ORD to STT...that's just craziness..Especially with all the family. Unfortunately fares are running like $750+ per person in June so it's probably not gonna happen unless fares drop..