airline prices
Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 8:24 am
Have those of you who travel more frequently found that airfares are any less expensive at certain times of the year? I live in the Washington DC/Northern Va area. Thanks
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Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 8:58 am
I think the main thing is to avoid holidays and weekends. We just booked P.R. in January for our next surf trip with mid-week flights out of Boston, about half the price of Sat to Sat. Of course this is difficult until the kids move on!
Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 9:25 am
Airfares are always a bit of a crapshoot. I use three resources:
• hipmunk.com
• yapta.com
• kayak.com
And then I watch the routes a bit obsessively. Actually, if I allocated an hourly wage to my fare-watching, the trips would be outrageously expensive
. I also check alternate airports. Although I live closest to Burlington, VT, I've flown to STT out of JFK, BOS, and for our next trip BDL.
Your question got me to go look at what I paid for my December, 2011 trip, that I purchased back in February, 10 months prior to the trip. We're traveling Dec 10, returning Dec 24, so right before Christmas. We paid $390 RT and the airline is now asking $1,300. Crazy! So, although I'm sure that time of travel does factor into the types of deals that you can find, timing your purchase and what day of the week you fly on can probably make just as much of a difference.
• hipmunk.com
• yapta.com
• kayak.com
And then I watch the routes a bit obsessively. Actually, if I allocated an hourly wage to my fare-watching, the trips would be outrageously expensive
. I also check alternate airports. Although I live closest to Burlington, VT, I've flown to STT out of JFK, BOS, and for our next trip BDL.Your question got me to go look at what I paid for my December, 2011 trip, that I purchased back in February, 10 months prior to the trip. We're traveling Dec 10, returning Dec 24, so right before Christmas. We paid $390 RT and the airline is now asking $1,300. Crazy! So, although I'm sure that time of travel does factor into the types of deals that you can find, timing your purchase and what day of the week you fly on can probably make just as much of a difference.
Posted: Sun May 22, 2011 9:56 am
Lowest I've ever seen from DC to STT was $238 r/t (including taxes) on USAir. I've paid as high as $425 r/t. I think anything below $400 is good, below $350 even better (and a little rarer). Tip - do your search using "WAS" as the airport code - it will pick up fares from DCA, IAD, and BWI so will give you the lowest price. DCA usually has lowest fares because of the competition from Spirit, but sometimes United will drop the fare out of IAD, and that's a direct flight down (even better!).
If you use itasoftware.com, then go to their airfare search, you can look at an entire month of airfares to find the lowest. Also, I've found that travelocity sometimes has fares that are lower than anyone else, even those on the airlines' own websites.
If you use itasoftware.com, then go to their airfare search, you can look at an entire month of airfares to find the lowest. Also, I've found that travelocity sometimes has fares that are lower than anyone else, even those on the airlines' own websites.
Posted: Sun May 22, 2011 10:06 am
As for time of year to fly & book, I've found that flying Tues-Thurs makes a huge difference, the highest prices are Sat-Sat, and I've found the cheaper fares tend to surface about 6-8 months out, and then sometimes there's another dip about 2-3 months out. I haven't noticed a big difference in fares by season, although the holiday weeks seem to always be high (xmas, presidents day, thanksgiving, easter).
Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 12:15 pm
We went a few years after Christmas and over New Years...from DFW ran $1000 per person... 
But it is what it is...Non holiday times are half that..
But it is what it is...Non holiday times are half that..Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 1:51 pm
Wow... I've never heard of this site. It looks like they also have an iPhone app, although I just noticed that the app does not have quite the functionality that the website has. But, this is a really slick site. Thanks Petepie!petepie wrote:If you use itasoftware.com, then go to their airfare search, you can look at an entire month of airfares to find the lowest.
Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 2:50 pm
We just got tickets out of IAD for Febuary next year for $515.00 each; we have paid as much as $865.00 and as low as $335.00. We got United non-stop with departing on a Saturday and leaving STT on a Tuesday with great times also; so I'm happy with that. Sometimes it's worth a little more money for a better flight. Just my opinion...