What's Up With the Darn Airfares?!?!?!

[CuteAsMinnie]

What is UP with the darn airfares!?!?! (except the ridiculous prices!). We always fly Southwest but Geez Louise! They are insane!

Is here any hope in sight?

[tundramom]

I'm with you! We've been checking daily, Airtran is now nearly double what we paid a few years ago (Thanks Southwest!) and they raised their bag fees! I feel horrible because a friend of DD's is joining us and when I quoted some prices for her parents (before they committed) I was way low on the airfare component, I kinda feel bad saying " oops it's nearly double what we anticipated". An article I read somewhere said expect it to get worse not better.

[BrerGnat]

Here's the deal.

Don't book early. The airlines have turned to offering some of their highest fares way out in advance of a flight, in order to get as many people to "bite" as possible at the higher fares. As time goes by, and flights get closer to departure, you will see "sales" pop up, offering significant discounts on unsold seats.

I see you are going this summer. It is WAY too early to be booking that. Wait another 4 months or so.

Southwest, in particular, is notorious for offering "sales" every week. Just keep an eye on your flight, and book it when the price is right for you.

Or, if you travel Southwest frequently enough, just book at the higher price and then adjust your booking as the price comes down, thus getting a credit for future travel.

Honestly, it doesn't pay to book early anymore. The ONLY airline that I know of that consistently starts with their lowest fares and only goes UP is Jet Blue. Even then, though, they offer sale fares when they are having trouble selling flights.

Problem is, Orlando is a high demand destination. Prices are reflective of supply and demand.

Can you tweak your travel dates to fall on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursdays? Those are traditionally the lowest cost days to fly.

[MNNHFLTX]

Don't book early. The airlines have turned to offering some of their highest fares way out in advance of a flight, in order to get as many people to "bite" as possible at the higher fares. As time goes by, and flights get closer to departure, you will see "sales" pop up, offering significant discounts on unsold seats.

i agree, Natalie. My last two flights to Orlando were booked down to the wire, just three weeks before the departure date. And my flight for an upcoming trip to LAX (Disneyland!) was booked less than two months in advance.It's a little nerve-wracking but the prices do eventually come down. I would suggest checking airfares frequently, especially on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when airfare wars seem to start. And doesn't Southwest have that Ding feature to notify customers of special deals (as you can tell, I don't fly Southwest).

[vicster]

Southwest just had a one day sale Friday for certain dates in February but we're mainly for weekdays 81.00 each way. Obviously the planes weren't not filled.

[roses]

We fly Southwest as well. When we were booking for our Oct vacation - we waited and finally recieved an email for a deal and got all of our tickets (3) for a total of $570! That didn't even come out until the end of June, and we also moved our vacation date up 2 weeks to get the deal (which we lucked out and Disney offered free dining a month later for that same date). Also, we flew out on a Monday. Good luck! Sign up for the all the emails you can receive!

[bmj721]

We booked with Southwest on Oct 9, 2012 for February trip. We paid $134 each round trip. Sounds great. However, we will be flying to Orlando by way of Minnesota. DH has concerns about the weather. So do I. So, I am looking for possible nonstop for way down that doesn't break my budget.

[Lindsey310]

Here's the deal.

Don't book early. The airlines have turned to offering some of their highest fares way out in advance of a flight, in order to get as many people to "bite" as possible at the higher fares. As time goes by, and flights get closer to departure, you will see "sales" pop up, offering significant discounts on unsold seats.

I see you are going this summer. It is WAY too early to be booking that. Wait another 4 months or so.

Southwest, in particular, is notorious for offering "sales" every week. Just keep an eye on your flight, and book it when the price is right for you.

Or, if you travel Southwest frequently enough, just book at the higher price and then adjust your booking as the price comes down, thus getting a credit for future travel.

Honestly, it doesn't pay to book early anymore. The ONLY airline that I know of that consistently starts with their lowest fares and only goes UP is Jet Blue. Even then, though, they offer sale fares when they are having trouble selling flights.

Problem is, Orlando is a high demand destination. Prices are reflective of supply and demand.

Can you tweak your travel dates to fall on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursdays? Those are traditionally the lowest cost days to fly.

Agreed. We booked Friday for a 2/26 departure and it was $69 going down and $95 coming back. Keep checking---hopefully they will come down like ours did.
By the way, we tweaked our dates to a tues-tues.

[emerzmom]

Southwest doesn't always have the lowest fares anymore. I have found that United often has a lower fare than Southwest. If you can carry on your luggage it might want to check out a few other airlines.
Good Luck.

Julie

[MNNHFLTX]

Southwest doesn't always have the lowest fares anymore. I have found that United often has a lower fare than Southwest. If you can carry on your luggage it might want to check out a few other airlines.
Good Luck.

Julie

Interesting....my experience is that United has pretty high fares to Orlando since they merged with Continental. I don't think they have a whole lot of competition now, especially for people like me who live in the NW suburbs and don't want to fly out of Hobby. I wished there was a regional competitor, like JetBlue, to help drive down the prices.

[vamaggie]

WE are going at Thanksgiving and United is the lowest of all the airlines that have flights out now (by like >$200 in some cases). I know the holidays are prime travel time and chances are rates will not go down a lot. My question, for those who have traveled in this time period (Weds b4 T'giving and return Sunday--yes us and the re r est of the universe!) DO you think it is best to book now or wait til the Southwest rates come out?

We traveled to Tampa this past Christmas and we booked about this time and the rates never went down so I am a little leary of waiting.

Thanks for any info.

[Gator]

I find it makes me feel better when I blame it on the current administration, whoever that might be. Doesn't fix the prices, but it makes you feel better.

[MargaretMessler]

Think about lesser desirable flight times/days when you have a choice, also check out other area airports and see if you would make out better even with the increased distance.

We're flying Southwest non stop to Orlando from Hartford, leaving early morning on a Wednesday, returning late night on a Wednesday, less than $400 for two roundtrip. I thought that was pretty **** good, and booked 6 months out too.

[DizneyRox]

Yep, just book our summer cruise airfare and this year is the cheapest flights we've gotten in a while.

No complaints from me about flights..

[Trev&Ev Mom]

I found that Southwest changes their prices as often as the wind changes direction. Check every day. From Islip (Long Island, NY) we got $109 down to Orlando and $140 back during Presidents Week school break. I was pretty pleased with that! I'he days of $60 flights from NY are over I guess

[E-OR]

I have been watching several times every day. Booked going down in March through Southwest. I am not pleased with the price, $295.00, but it was the lowest at the time. I continue to watch in case it goes down. Coming back I have not found anything yet. Hoping to find something under $200.00. We have already booked our flight going down in September for around $300.00. (round trip) When we saw this we booked. Figured that even if it goes down it won't by much and better to have them then be in the position I'm in now.

[Tigger68]

Just keep checking daily if you can and book when you feel the price is right. We usually fly Southwest but they were higher than the others this time around. I booked United for the flight to Florida and AirTran for our return trip. Even paying the baggage fees they were cheaper than Southwest. Ticket prices doubled two days after I purchased them. Airfare is no longer very affordable!