USVI-On-Line

I would love to bring my kids down for an "island trip" but the price of airfare for 5 of us is crazy..I have tried different times of year, like March, end of May, June, etc..and it is still high.
Any advice from any of you that bring more than just you and your spouse? Any tips/etc to get good airfare prices or how to make this happen? Guess I am going to make a big "island trip" jar and we are going to have to do some heavy duty saving. Really would love for them to come see what mom and dad love so much...

Kayak.com is a great search engine. You can actually see a whole month and how the price varies each day. If you are flexible, and willing to check often for several days, you will most likely find a good deal. Also, you can sign up for alerts so that you are automatically emailed anytime the price you name become available.

I would think that by flying out of DFW, you would have lots of options.

About ten days after we bought our condo in STX last Feb.....We flew down 15 of our kids & grandkids over & 18 day period. Even though they all flew from Boston ...the cheaper flights are with long layovers in San Juan, and the day of the week you pick makes a huge difference in price. An easy way to ck flights is on Priceline.com We just used it for the first time, booking in Aug. for Oct. It will allow you to put in open dates....worked for us!

PS Once you get there, don't forget you have to feed, water & transport the kiddos, they'll love every second of it! GOOD LUCK

I guess it's all relative and what you consider "high". I have learned not to get excited when I see airfare specials advertised as they usually do not pertain to Logan or convenient times for us to fly. My first stop is always YAPTA. It gives a great overview of what to expect as far as pricing and available flights. Their lowest priced flight was only available through Orbitz.

I used Orbitz and was happy with the price I got. They seem to be able to put together unconventional flights ie: an overnight flight that is not truly a "connecting flight". For us, it works. We book a hotel for a night in that city which costs significantly less than a hotel in Boston would. We get into STT earlier the next day than we would, if we had a same day flight out of Boston. Also, because of our location and the traffic nightmare getting in and out of Boston, if we take a morning flight, we would have to book a hotel anyway. We always look for the free breakfast included and shuttle. So long story short, look for unconventional flight combinations.

A great trick is to get a no annual fees credit card that gives you points. If you use it for everything, you will be surprised how quickly the points add up. The caveat is you need to pay it off at the end of the month. It's not hard to do if you realize rather than paying your bills out of your checkbook individually, you are writing just one check to one company at the end of the month. I've gotten looks from people in the grocery store but when I tell them my purchase put me X miles closer to the Caribbean, they usually ask me about the programs my card offers.

Off season helps. When my kids were small, we travelled in early December. Prices were less than 1/2 of what a vacation costs during traditional school vacation weeks now. For us, it made the holidays so much more enjoyable. We had a week to decompress and put things in perspective. I am looking forward to doing that again when the kids are in college. With the savings of 2 less people and the off season prices, DH and I can go for a looooong trip!

Well good luck with that "once they are in college" thing lol...Because unless they are completely financially independent you will be forking out some money..
For now I am stuck with conventional school trip times as I have 2 in regular school and 1 in college, so I am trying to book around their schedules.
I will keep looking and saving more $$ in the meantime.. At this point it is looking like the lowest price I've seen is about $3000 for all of us to fly...

bnsilly wrote:Well good luck with that "once they are in college" thing lol...Because unless they are completely financially independent you will be forking out some money..
For now I am stuck with conventional school trip times as I have 2 in regular school and 1 in college, so I am trying to book around their schedules.
I will keep looking and saving more $$ in the meantime.. At this point it is looking like the lowest price I've seen is about $3000 for all of us to fly...

Hey, I figure just the savings from not having to feed them and their friends will cover our vacation costs.

Airfare is a bummer. I am kicking myself as we found direct flights earlier in the year for what we are paying for flights with stops. It sounds like prices from DFW are around the same as what we pay out of Logan. I guess that's another suggestion- if you find a great fare grab it!

Good luck and happy travels.

I go along with greenskeeper, if see a decent fare, grab it !! Most airlines have a policy, that if fares go down, you get credit/refund for the diff.

We saw terrific fares when we booked our cottage, but though we had time to book. A month late when checked again, they had gone up over $100 pp! So we booked asap ! But could kick ourselves for not doing so the 1st time. Since then fares have more then doubled for the same flts..... We're going in April after Easter & spring breaks, it's considered off/low season in STJ and still airfares keep rising.

Also in the local paper here @ week ago, was an article that ALL airlines would be raising fares in 2010. So take that into consideration too.

Good luck and enjoy your trip.