USVI-On-Line

I was checking out fares on th USAir site to see if my flight went down. We are flying from PHL to STT, leaving 11/23 returning 12/2. I had booked the flight the day it opened up for booking (330 days out) becuase it was there and cheaper than we paid last year. So I just booked it. Can't recall the exact fare but it was under $400 per person.

I just looked at the same itinerary and the fare is $1168 PER PERSON - COACH. What the heck is going on there???????

USAir has some crazy pricing going on right now. I'm seeing the same kind of fares for Denver. They may be having a bigger melt down than just PHL. It's messing with my Great American Beer Festival planning!

Cheers, Rick

craziness

This is a big problem with this industry in my opinion. I always grabbed anything under $400 to or from the VI - yes, you may get better, but then you can also get stuck. They probably have this flight sold to a certain point already, and now they are going to squeeze anyone they can at that ridiculous rate until they are full or near full, and then cut prices again before the departure date at some point depending on how many seats are left (I am sure there is a very complex algorithm that runs the whole process). That is the way they work - it is awesome if you are the "retailer" - but looks horrible to the informed consumer. Imagine if clothes or cars or hamburgers were sold like this (hey this burger is fresh but we have 1,000 of them and it is 10:00 AM - okay, I will take one for $1. Hey - it is lunch time, everyone is starving, there are only 5 burgers left - $10 each. Closing time, 1 cold burger - $1) ? The airlines can do more and more of this stuff with the sophisticated computer systems they have. Personally I think it is borderline criminal.

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I looked for reasonable fares when I first started contemplating this trip and by far the best combination of price, itinerary, and convenience had me flying from FLL to SJU to STT, for $211 per person.

I finally convinced my wife that we needed a trip (she still doesn't know where we're going) and when I went to reserve flights the next morning the SAME ones had increased to $445 pp.

I stewed for a couple of days and couldn't decide whether to wait it out or go ahead and buy them. I finally decided that by buying them I'd at least be somewhat guaranteed to get to STJ the day I planned to (and had the villa rented for!) so I bought.

A couple weeks later and they dropped to $375. Yesterday I saw that there are now flights on the same day out of MIA for $366. The kicker is, the flight out of FLL leaves at 7:40AM, meaning we'll have to spend the night before in a hotel near the airport, and has a 3.5 hour layover in SJU before arriving at STT around 2:00PM. The Miami flight is direct, leaving at 12:30PM or so, so we could have just drove down that morning, and it arrives on STT only an hour or so after our flight.

The way I have decided to look at it:

We get to start our vacation a little earlier as we'll have a night alone in a hotel together before we fly to the islands.

We will get to STJ an hour earlier than we would have if we were on that other flight.

We get to fly in and out of FLL, rather than MIA, so the traffic in and around the airport will be less stressful!

I remember booking our flights last year way in advance, but I did make sure that if they dropped, we were able to get a voucher. It isn't like getting your money back, per se, but if you travel often or at least think that you could use it - you can benefit from it. Just a thought for those of you who are looking to book a future flight...just check with the airline and see if they offer the vouchers.

Just booked a flight from New Haven, CT to STT via Phila. and it was only $278 round trip. It's for March into Apr. Decided not to use frequent flyer miles as this rate is so inexpensive.

Augie,


We had to spend the night in FLL once before a cruise, and I want to suggest staying at the Comfort Inn close to the airport. They had a GREAT breakfast buffet included, with made to order omelets, out by the pool - it was nice! 3 years ago it was like $100/night, AND they had free shuttle to/from airport.

Update: I called American Airlines, they were able to cancel my original flights and put the fare towards the new flights that I liked better. Even after the change fee (I suppose it was imposed because they were non-refundable), there was a little left over that they will be sending me in the form of vouchers!

So...no getting up at the crack of dawn to catch the plane, no connecting flights, no needing to stay in a hotel the night before, and no 3.5 hour layovers in San Juan!