USVI-On-Line

What is going on with airline ticket prices? They seem to go up every single day. I'm looking for tickets for our February 2011 trip and they are outrageous. Do any of you have any advice/do you think prices may come down or should I bite the bullet and buy now? What do you all do in cases like this?

Thank you.

Others will chime in...but here are a couple tips...Check prices on Tuesdays after midnight, and also be sure to clear your cookies when you recheck prices or it will mess with your pricing..
What types of prices are you getting and where are you flying from? I fly from DFW and prices don't fluctuate too much...off season is usually around $500 RT and December runs around $1000 RT..

To: bnsilly:

We fly out of Dulles (IAD) and right now the cheapest/worst flight is $469.00 (others start at $512.00); and that cheaper flight is to fly UP to Chicago from Dulles then down to STT; we refuse to fly up to Chicago in February; that is just plain crazy.

OK here's the deal. There are algorithms out there that can help you get a visual on the pricing cycle. They aren't 100% but they do help.

Based on my 10 plus years of bying airfare to the VI the spikes come at 12, 9, 6 and 3 months out from your date of travel. Right after the spike, the price will usually drop significantly and then start to rise from that point steadily until it hits the next spike. Within three months of travel it's a crap shoot. Prices could be ridiculous or dirt cheap.

Tricks are to check on Tuesday early AM. I'll usually start checking on monday night before I go to bed. Any time around 1 am on Tuesday should work. If that's too late for you, just check first thing Tuesday. There is an explanation of why this works but I don't feel like getting into the details. Google it if you want to know more.

Also, search various sites and only put in that you are looking for ONE ticket, not two or three or however many you need.

It helps to be a bit obsessive. Start with the consolidators: orbitz, travelocity, expedia. Then check Kayak. Then go to the individual airlines. Sometimes you see flight options on one site but not another. It pays to look around and be flexible.

Of course, you also have to be fee savvy these days. what looks like a great deal may actually cost you more than another deal when you factor in baggage fees or other costs that you will need to pay to get you from point A to point B.

Good luck.

Use Bing Travel's price predictor. It will tell you (usually with 80-90%) certainty, if you should buy now or wait.

http://www.bing.com/travel/flights

It has yet to let me down. PS - I just did IAD-STT for 2/12-2/19 and it said WAIT, with 80% confidence.

Thank you both Gromit and alw1977; I appreciate your time very much.

I just bought my airline tickets for July!!! Round trip $344 from JFK to St Thomas. I thought that was pretty good. news on right now, just said airline tickets are going up!!!!

I bought our tickets for Feb 2011 July 1 - I only waited that long to get non-stop - I bought them the day they were posted - $422 non-stop BOS to STT.

@KMA- I assume that you're looking at tix from IAD and DCA.

Just for perspective, the cheapest I've ever paid was around $240 most was around $550.

You shouldn't be paying more than that from either of these airports even in high season.

Delta, AA and USAIR are your best bets for scheduling. Delta thru ATL to STT; AA thru SJU or MIA to STT and USAIR thru Charlotte or Philly to STT are the main routes.

Timing-wise we generally perfer AA thru Miami (MIA). Breaks the trip up nicely, give us time for lunch before connecting and we don't end up on one of those puddle jumper planes like you get when you fly thru San Juan (SJU).

AA also seems to offer the cheapest fares out of IAD and DCA IMHO.

Good luck!

Flying from DFW sucks. I have never seen $240 Oh well...

I got this year's tix from IAD in Dec. for $242. American Airlines.

Last week my daughter and her boyfriend bought roundtrip DCA-STT tickets on Spirit Airlines through www.CheapOair.com for $282 each. They're traveling in mid January.

Apparently the price fluctuated quite a bit, even at this site, so it's a matter of checking and rechecking.

TM

search under departure airport "was" -- that captures IAD, DCA, and BWI. Also, USAir was running $238 r/t including taxes recently. Try moving your departure dates a few days forward and backward to find good deals.