Pulled The Trigger Too Quickly

Ed S · Post by **Ed S** » Sat Mar 29, 2014 10:36 am

We have been going to St John in early Nov., and more recently, early Dec. for the past 6 years. Having just returned this past Dec. 7-15th, the thought of waiting another year was just too long. We used the excuse to celebrate our 30th anniversary, so we are returning from May 31-June 8 (9 weeks away!!!). Got Gallows Point booked, and then started looking at airfares on United from EWR to STT starting back in early January. We should have booked then for $548, but waited only to see the prices go up to the low $600 range. When it went back down to $572 on 2/13, I decided to pull the trigger. I hate this game. (BTW, I had paid $528 for 12/7-12/15 '13).

Now, why I torture myself I don't know, but I have been rechecking the fares since then. I felt good about $572 since it proceeded to go up a little for the weeks that followed. Then on March 20th it went down to $460!

Of course, since this was~35 days since I booked, I was unable to get a price adj. (credit cert.) due to a $200 change fee! Oh well, lesson learned, I had no idea of airfares that time of year (we hadn't traveled to STT in June since our 20th anniv. in 2004 and before that in June 1984 for our honeymoon).

Yesterday, to my surprise, the fare went down to $405.

I never realized they would go that low, and do not have the guts to wait until 9 weeks out to book flights. Well, I checked again this morning..... drum roll... $371! WTF!!!

I give up. Maybe I should call United now that the fare is $201 lower than I paid and get a $1.00 credit certificate after the $200 change fee!!!

I hope others on this forum are much smarter than I with booking flights. Not that $100 or $200 (X2 tix) is all that important in the grand scheme when you consider the total cost of trips to St John, but this is starting to add up to real $$$'s.

Chris @ Work · Post by **Chris @ Work** » Sat Mar 29, 2014 11:00 am

I always have to smirk when reading NE 'complaints' concerning airfares to USVI. While I am sorry you couldn't get your $371 rate, you should still consider the $571 a savings. I know I would where flights from Houston never seem to be less than $600 and I felt lucky to get ours at $620 for the same times you are traveling. My son waited 4 weeks and will pay $700+.
Either way, we will all be on island very soon and forget about the fares. Have a great trip.

bimmertt · Post by **bimmertt** » Sat Mar 29, 2014 12:09 pm

Happened to me too...booked for $440/ticket and a week later it was $390/ticket. Airline wanted to charge a $50 fee for price adjustment which of course would've wiped away any savings. I stopped checking airfares and marked it as a lesson learned. I am just looking forward to the trip now.

philbetm · Post by **philbetm** » Sat Mar 29, 2014 2:43 pm

I wondered...are any of these ticket prices non-stop for you ? If not, how many stops /plane changes do your flights require? I know we are having to pay high prices out of CLT...but our flights are non-stop . Thinking maybe I wouldn't feel so bad about our flight $$$$ if the others are connecting flights.

Sherry in SC

Ed S · Post by **Ed S** » Sat Mar 29, 2014 3:59 pm

Sherry, per your question..... my flights out of Newark are always non-stop.

SheilaW1 · Post by **SheilaW1** » Sat Mar 29, 2014 4:44 pm

We too are gong in June -7 -15th - and paid 542.... wish I had waited too. We originally were flying out of ABE - but a week after I booked got a notification one of our flights got canceled and they had to rebook us out of Newark and the airfare had gone up to 640 (2 weeks ago) but we still only paid the 542 since airline canceled the flight & route . BTW - I see you are from Long Valley. we are too.

Ed S · Post by **Ed S** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 9:34 am

Sheila, small world!!! June will not come soon enough - we still have a pile of snow in front of our house (we are on the top of Schooley's Mountain at the end of a cul de sac)....... Long winter up here for sure, counting the days til St John. See you on island on June 7th!

RickG · Post by **RickG** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 11:12 am

Airfare roulette.

We try frequent flyer miles 330 days out and get one-way tickets as the dates open up. That works about 1/3 of the time because off-season United does not have many weekday deals or decent connections.

Next we look at paid airfares. High-season I'll buy a ticket if the airfare is below $500 for my dates, low-season $400. Unless it's Spirit Air. This ususally puts us on AA. If we are less than 90 days before travel, I do not expect airfares to go down.

Do we miss occasional deals? Sure. Do we usually do better by booking air early? Yes. We have trips in June and October and the current fares are higher than we paid.

Cheers, RickG

SheilaW1 · Post by **SheilaW1** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 12:41 pm

Hey - it is a small world - we are on Drakestown - our snow is finally a very small mound in front of driveway - like you - June cannot come soon enough for us

...... We arrive off the 2:00 ferry out of RH on Saturday - lucky hubby it is his b'day. We are staying on the Coral Bay side but plan on dinner at Lime Inn Saturday night... perhaps we could meet up for a drink somewhere.... you can pm me if you wish.

KTinTX · Post by **KTinTX** » Mon Mar 31, 2014 1:19 pm

Chris @ Work: I feel your pain! We've been going to St. John for only the last 5 years...always in the 2nd half of June out of Houston. The very first trip I got flights at $450 and it has gotten worse every year. We've flown American 4 out of 5 times and tried Delta out of Hobby Airport one year too.

So this year we were constrained to a single week where we could make our trip. I started watching airfare last July. I was a little impatient, but purchased in November when it came down to $850!!! So being a bit of a gambler and on account of the trip being our 20th anniversary, I bought first class for $950. (For the early AA flt combo arriving in STT by 1 pm. The current rates for that same flt combo are $1028 for coach and $1752 for 1st!! Yes we are traveling on Fridays and Saturdays, it couldn't be helped BUT the cheapest coach for that entire week is still nearly $800 for a reasonable flight schedule.

You would think that a major US city like Houston would have better rates and routes to the Caribbean.

Rant over, we will be there in less than 11 weeks

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