Sold out flights and crazy high prices, in low season!

[PA Girl]

We tried to pull off a July trip to STJ but airfare was just too high.

However, this has not stopped me from obsessively checking ticket prices. They continued to rise steadly since we decided not to go.

Today USAir from our home airport was over $1,000 pp coach and several of the return options from STT were sold out! I never saw sold out low season flights before.

[mbw1024]

Crazy, right? I don't get it. Someone I know has been looking for a flight for late August and kept hesitating to pull the trigger. I think she finally settled on USAir from PHL for over $650 per person. Crazy.
I keep looking at fares, without even really trying to plan anything, but thinking "I don't know when I'm getting back there". I'm just not paying it.

We also went through this personally for a flight to SJU in January 2013. EWR to SJU was somewhere in the $900 range last I looked (United). I don't want to go to JFK but I am forced to since we were able to get that fare for just over $255 PP.

[Teresa_Rae]

Have you looked at varying days for departure and returning? Depending on the days of the week, from our little airport, you can pay $600 or $1200.

I track prices through Yapta. When planning a trip I'm usually tracking at least 30 or 40 flight options.

I agree though that overall prices are running high right now.

[paulandtracie]

Although it was high season, the same thing happened to us in April...we ended up going to Kauai from Detroit for less than it would have cost to fly into STT. Luckily we fell in love with Kauai! There must be significantly fewer going into STT.

[liamsaunt]

It is crazy this year. We are coming in July and definitely paid way more for airfare than any other STJ trip. I checked different days of the week and it made no difference. I am tracking the flights we booked on Yapta and our itinerary is currently selling for over $1200 per ticket.

[paulandtracie]

Although it was high season, the same thing happened to us in April...we ended up going to Kauai from Detroit for less than it would have cost to fly into STT. Luckily we fell in love with Kauai! There must be significantly fewer going into STT.

[PA Girl]

Have you looked at varying days for departure and returning?

yes and no. Because of the way things fall in our work week, our dates are generally set in stone. We could have gone one day in either direction but it didn't matter for this trip, high every day.

A couple of months ago I was talking to someone in the airline industry and they said every indication was that fare were going to stay high for the foreseeable future.

We are planning our Feb trip and I am ready to take a barely tolerable fare with great times and not look back.

My mom and her husband go to Mexico a couple of times a year and she is very frustrated that she can't find the under $500 fares anymore.

[Randy in MD]

I usually fly American from DCA-MIA-STT and I'm looking at an August trip myself, but the fares are so much higher than in the past and now American has dropped their mid-day departure from MIA-STT, so there are fewer seats on the 2 remaining flights as well...

I remember off-season RT fares as low as $219 just a few years ago, but now the cheapest is around $519...

JetBlue begins flying from DCA-SJU on August 23rd with a connection to STT, and for $410 I may wait until the week before Labor Day and go that route...

[loria]

i see flights out of JFK for under 400 in july (i looked on teh 12th returning th e20th) both AA and jetblue (though the times on jetblue are a bit insane) the AA lfight connects in Miami and doesn't look half bad-- maybe it's worth the drive?

[PA Girl]

i see flights out of JFK for under 400 in july (i looked on teh 12th returning th e20th) both AA and jetblue (though the times on jetblue are a bit insane) the AA lfight connects in Miami and doesn't look half bad-- maybe it's worth the drive?

We are willing to drive but JFK exceeds my limits, probably a 4+ hour drive. We used to drive to PHL all the time but those fares are actually higher than MDT.

[loria]

446 out of newark....... cuts back about an hour and change of driving?

[PA Girl]

446 out of newark....... cuts back about an hour and change of driving?

I wish! For our dates it starts at $900+ and would require overnight at least on the departure. And the midnight return arrival blows the next working day back from vacation.

[kristen1206]

It's out of control. Last May we paid $230 RT!! It seems that the typically pricey destinations though...T&C and the out islands are reasonable this year.

PA Girl..still waiting for that TR!

[PA Girl]

PA Girl..still waiting for that TR!

Ha! You just prompted me to print it off (wrote in months ago) so I can upload pictures tonight at home.

[chrisn]

We fly out of SLC. I paid $634 x 5. Harsh...but it could of been way worse. I jumped on it when I saw that fare. Prices leading up to my booking were giving me heart palpitations.