USVI-On-Line

Hey all you frequent STJ travelers, how far in advance do you usually purchase your airline tickets?

The window for using our frequent flyer miles for next June is about to open but fares from Chicago are running over $1K. We don't have enough miles for all our tickets so we have to buy one, but also don't want to miss out on the few frequent flyer seats.

I'm also worried about flights we pick so far in advance being cancelled and having the airline put us on some screwy intinerary. Any advice??

Flights are loaded into the system 331 out so if you're needing next June now the time to do it. I'm dealing with that right now myself.

I was just thinking of asking the same question. I have seen as low at $500 from Chicago next June, but I was hoping that they might go lower. That is with 2 stops too.

I've started checking flights for June 09 and earlier this week a 2 stop flight on continental was $800. Today its $390. No direct or 1-stops are online yet. I think they will be coming soon, but I just keep checking. If I see something under $400 I grab it. If its a 1-stop, or nonstop.

I think with the gas prices and changes in the airlines it is going to be a total crapshoot.

Only problem with buying them this early is what if the airline stops flying there, such as AA? I would buy now for next May, but am hesitant simply because of airlines dropping off or even new ones adding flights to STT. I think the next couple months will indicate who may or may not be flying to STT.

Do you usually book the villa first or the flight? I think that I have always done the villa first.

We usually pick a villa, then check the airfares for different dates, then book the villa and airline tickets the same day.

We do the villa first, then the flights. We book so far in advance that I have plenty of time to obsess over flights.

We are traveling next May. We gambled that the prices for the non-stop Continental flight out of Newark wasn't going to drop. So far our gamble has paid off.

We bought our PHL-SJU direct tickets really early this time, I think we got them in May or June for a late Feb 09 trip.

I can't remember the exact price but for 3, it was right around $1,000 total so that is about $333 or so per person on AA.

I feel like we are gambling a bit because I am worried the direct AA flights will get cancelled and we will get put of flights with crappy times.

I wanted to hold out for a USAir drop in price but was overruled by the majority.

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We have gone to STJ for the past 6 summers and flown out of O’Hare every time. This past trip we bought our tickets the October before the trip and that was by far the furthest in advance we’d ever bought tickets (so we bought tickets in October of ’07 for a late June ’08 trip). We usually buy our tickets around late January or February for a June, July, or August trip and we still get the best price. We have flown Delta a couple times but usually fly United.

The most we ever paid for one ticket was around $450, and that was on Delta when the other ticket was bought with frequent flier miles. I remember the United flight for the same dates being less than $400, but our Delta miles were going to expire so we needed to use them or lose them.

This year we paid $436 on United, which was the most we’ve ever paid. The least we’ve ever paid was also on United a few years ago at $375 each.

I booked the NS out of Newark for $438 per person when our travel dates became available. It has been staying steady at that price although mysteriously it will bump up to $478 for one day and then drop down to $438 again. What's up with that?

Macdomzal, if you booking FF miles for anything before June 26th you need to book and hold the outbound today and then book and ticket the return (if after June 26th) when it comes into the system. Ask the agent what day that would be. FF miles are getting harder and harder to use with the number of flights being cut back so drastically. He who hesitates is lost when it comes to using FF miles.

The other problem with frequent flyer miles is that you are tied into a certain airline. I can find much cheaper airfair listed on Orbitz but it uses different airlines for different legs and I can't do that.....I'm tied into United.