Just Asking..... Is there a chance holiday flights will go down?

Family of 4 leaving Friday before Christmas. Being that flights are so expensive during that time we've chose to drive a rental to FL and fly back. Not looking forward to the 12 hour drive. One way rentals dropping off in another state is more than what I thought it would be but you gotta do what you gotta do. I'm still looking at flights leaving that Friday and was wondering from anyones experience, do these sometimes go down in pricing the closer it gets to that date. So far I've seen that they have gone up about $20. I have read threads stating that their flight has went down but I don't think it was around a holiday. I'm not a frequent flyer and don't have a lot of knowledge on this.

Nobody here will be able to give you a definite answer. But I would not hold my breath.

Flights for these dates have been for sale about seven months. It is possible many seats in the lower fare classes already sold out. Most of the time prices increase as you approach your travel date.

Think about it this way. You want to travel to a popular vacation spot during the height of the Christmas holiday season. There is a finite number of flights/seats available. Why would the airlines have a sale or lower prices if the seats are being filled? Highly likely prices will only continue to rise, but no one here has a crystal ball.

I predict the flight to sell out before you see any price drop. As others have said why would the airline reduce the price of a hot commodity?

Ever seen Hermes Birkin bags on sale?

If Southwest is in your area, try that one. If it does go down and you rebook, the savings is kept available for you to use on another flight in one years time. Most airlines do not do that.

But, If you are talking about Fri the 22nd of December, that will be one of the most traveled day of the year. Price going down is probably not going to happen.

The date again is what is keeping the rental car so high also. But keep checking prices on the rental, they fluctuate often. Rebook and cancel the higher one.

And how about look at a day or so ahead of time and get a hotel and start your vacation early. Depending how many of you are traveling one extra night in a hotel MIGHT offset the higher airfare.

Usually best fares are about 3-4 months out. But there are certain dates, like the Friday before Christmas, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and Tuesday/Wednesday before Thanksgiving that are typically pretty expensive and you won't see them go down much.

Set up a google flight alert and you will get an email if the prices go down and up. The only airline you won't find with that is Southwest so check them yourself on their website.

I would say that if the flight does go down in price it will be in the next month or so. You can also check on some airlines what seats are open. If there are lots of empty seats chances are prices might go down at some point. If you see most seats are full, its not likely.

Ever seen Hermes Birkin bags on sale?

At the markets in Shanghai? Along with Louis Vuitton.

At the markets in Shanghai? Along with Louis Vuitton.

That would be the Choice Air version of the Birkin :D

Like I said, I don't have airline knowledge. Thanks for the replies.

 

You can also check on some airlines what seats are open. If there are lots of empty seats chances are prices might go down at some point. If you see most seats are full, its not likely.

This is poor advice, looking at a seat map is NO indication of seats available.

Especially on a Friday and before a holiday, not only will the flight be sold, it likely will have an oversold and revenue standby list.

"Advice" is being given purely on hindsight with NO predictability for the future.

You can also check on some airlines what seats are open. /quote]

 

Do NOT go by what shows as "open" on the seat map. There are almost certainly more seats sold than what is indicated on the seat map; not all ticket purchases allow advance seat selection.

Like I said, it likely won't go down. At this point if you really want to wait seeing seats can be an indicator. It also does depend on the airline. If flying Spirit is has absolutely no indication. If flying JetBlue everyone picks a seat or has a standard ticket.

I recently did this with a flight to Las Vegas during a not that popular holiday weekend. All the websites were telling me to buy at $434.00 a ticket. AA showed the flight mostly empty (and this route did not have basic economy yet) Tickets went down to $370.00 r/t 3-months from departure.

Its not an end all be all suggestion, its just a better way to guess and nothing else. That time of the year it will be hard to see tickets go down.

Booking with WN and hoping the price will go down so you can get a voucher for the difference probably won't fly with the OP. The OP doesn't want to pay the going rate for those flights. If the OP were to follow the "buy WN" advice and the price doesn't go down, the OP is stuck with tickets for a price the family did not want in the first place.

WN is not the end-all, be-all that some pretend it is. And, WN frequently does NOT have the lowest prices for flights. My anecdotal experience from my home airport is that WN is always more expensive. And as for Spirit - I would NEVER fly that airline under any circumstances, and especially around a Holiday time.