AirFares??

[Backtotheislands]

What is going on with airfares? With no trip in sight and ever hopeful, I checked air fares from DFW the other day on Matrix ITA. Through late Feb. / early March they were $418 - $488 and then they jumped up to $1200+! Do people really pay that? Can you not buy your air fare 6 - 8 months out and get a reasonable deal anymore?

[loria]

A lot of school vacations are late march... easter is early this year.

typically and because airlines are evil and basically live to suck every last bit of the joy out of travel they raise fares when families like to fly and/or holidays... makes trying to plan a family getaway during a vacation week a real financial problem .

[fromaway74]

I am routinely jealous of any airfares in the $500 range. I've checked airfares for vacation week the day they are released and round trip works out to well over $1k per ticket. I wonder who pays that too! I use miles to supplement otherwise I can't go. Oh well, at least being tied to vacation week is only temporary until the kids are out of school!

[Wanda Creech]

I have been looking for a while for summer and the flights out of Raleigh Durham just keep getting higher and higher. I have never paid more than 525 and now most are 700 and up. the cheaper ones take longer and more stops. I keep checking. Not sure if I need to go ahead or wait.

[equineannie]

Are you looking at Southwest? They now fly to quite a few places, Central American included. You do have to go through Houston, but I have heard that the fares are reasonable.

[inuny]

Southwest doesn't fly to STT. I am always on the lookout for good fares-I track with yapta.com or hipmunk.com or google flights. It has been very tough to get a good fare. If you can come and go during the week, fares can be a bit lower.

[RickG]

For the last four years we've started booking our flights earlier. It used to be that 90-100 days out was earliest. Now, if we are committed to a data, well buy as soon as fares go below $500 - usually 250-270 days out. March is an exception where we have gotten our best fares pretty much as soon as tickets are available.

We're doing a spring break trip this year and we are definitely paying the price. Tickets are 50% more in March than they are in January. Not much to do for it as that is when my youngest is off from university; winter holiday is not an option with the $1,200+ airfare. One nice thing about that time of year, we can avoid the crowds on our boat. Last year we had the BVI Spring Regatta crowd to deal with, but that is later this year.

This is probably our last spring break trip. The crowds have gotten too big. January and April are just as nice and less crowded.

Cheers, RickG

[jmq]

We are also going this year week before Easter and I am a bit apprehensive of the crowds - only other prime time/holiday trip was April 06. Paying $570 air which is about $200 more than usual but cant complain compared to what others cite here, plus got early NS time down and afternoon flight back.

P.S. I am convinced we will continue to have a mild winter because we have this trip planned. Couldn't take last winter having nothing planned to help get us through it...

[shoemak38]

also check doing two one way trips

[jmq]

There is also the “hidden city” trick that this link enables you to see if there is a connection that goes through your city.
http://www.skiplagged.com
There is some risk and a bunch of caveats with this - works best if are carry on only, if you book “multi-city” or one ways, and is even less likely to have ramifications if your ticket happens to use different airlines and if you extend the courtesy of notifying the desk agent or call the 800 number to tell them you won’t be on the connecting leg so they can re-sell your seat to a standby customer. See http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com ... n-airfare/

[watergirl]

Have you tried signing up to airfarewatchdog.com? You plug in your airport and destination and they send you emails when the cheap airfares pop up. The airlines have a very complicated system for determining fares. You book too early and you pay more. Book too late and pay much more! Then its not just which weekday and time you book (Tues & Wed. seem to be the cheapest days to fly) but when you actually do the booking!
When I'm getting ready for a trip, I start trolling the airlines and travel websites about 100 days before. When the fares go down to what I think is the cheapest I buy. I've gotten fares as low as $290 from JFK to STT, but that was a fluke. Usually I pay about $365-$390.
You have to be flexible with your schedule though. If you can't be, you're at the airline's mercy.

[drd434]

I am in the process of planning a trip for July or August of 2016. I keep finding airfare for around $370 R/T which is a decent price out of O'Hare. When I enter two tickets...the price goes up to $444 per person.

Anybody had any experience buying seats one at a time to avoid this? There are two seats shown as reserved on the entire plane...

Thanks,

DRD

[jmq]

Clear your cookies then open 2 different browsers (ex: explorer and chrome) and go for 1 ticket on each. If they both come up at the cheaper price, go through and enter your info into both of them to the screen that is right before last "click to pay" button, then hit both as close as possible to the same time. Then hope that both go thru/approve at the same price.

[Wanda Creech]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will keep trying.

[stjchica]

The northeast seem to get a lot of good deals. I have never gotten a good deal from DFW and noticed in the past year or so that the "high season" rate...was more the normal unfortunately. Off season used to be around $500 but I've only been seeing around $700-$800....so yes, if we wanted to go we would pay that. It sucks though.