HomerGuy

Just wanted to say thank you for all of the airfare tips. I learned a few interesting tidbits about booking airfare that I did not know. Delta did eliminate some of the flights on our preferred dates, which as other posters alluded to, was likely the reason for the insanely high pricing on a few of the flight options. In the end, unfortunately we had to cancel the cruise. While the price of airfare is still very high, the final nail in the coffin was my wife sustaining an injury just before Thanksgiving. She spent a week in the hospital, has been discharged, and will have a slow recovery at home. Because of all the missed time at work, she will end up burning through all of her PTO, which unfortunately doesn't leave enough for the cruise. Thankfully all of this happened before our 90 day final payment date, and we were able to cancel with minimal monetary loss. I guess this trip was just not meant to be. But we look forward to cruising again!

Yes there are definitely cheaper options on those dates (still very expensive though compared to pre-covid) and I would totally book a different time to save $1600. We're also considering driving 4 hours to another airport to save some $$$. Honestly if Port Miami wasn't a 21 hour drive with two kids I would road trip it and avoid air travel altogether. Those screenshots were direct from the Delta.com website. I posted them because you seemed incredulous that airfare could be that high, and wanted to show that I wasn't making things up. I am aware there are cheaper options on those dates. I posted those as an example of how absurd airfares can be in this current environment. I'm casting a wide net, considering driving to airports other than DTW, with the goal of trying to find direct flights sub-$500, including a couple of checked bags. We monitor prices every day. Like MSUJohn said, airfare from MI to FL used to be a bargain, so even spending $500 is more than we anticipated. Times have certainly changed. If it was just my wife and I traveling, we would deal with crappy flight times and connections, but with a couple of kids in tow, it changes the dynamic. We are trying to be flexible to find the best deal, but also need to be realistic too.

Oh I know. I can't believe it myself either. Here are some screenshots. One is $1,682 PP and the other is $1,252. Now I will admit there are some cheaper times on these days, but my gosh someone must be buying at this price because the prices keep going up.

We've flown into FLL and MIA, but it's been so long that I really don't remember anything about either one. Good to hear that FLL is nice option. Haha no, we are actually close to Fenton. This is good advice, and something that we've looked into for the first time ever with the current flight prices being what they are. We actually found a decent option on Southwest CMH -> FLL that saves a significant amount, but my wife is concerned that a 4 hour drive followed by a 2.5 hour flight might be pushing our luck with a 1.5 year old in tow, which is a concern I can appreciate. As luck would have it, we are scheduled to take the baby on her first flight next week. We will see how the baby does on that flight, and if good, I can see us giving the CMH option a better look. If it is a disaster, I think the CMH option will be out. This is a helpful decision tree. For us, the answers are: 1. No, I'm not willing to pay even more for airfare if prices rise. 2. Yes, we are willing to cancel the cruise. 3. No, not willing and able to pay the current price, which means we will likely cancel the cruise. We'll wait till we get closer to the final payment date before we cancel just to see what happens, but I don't have high hopes. I know I sound like a broken record here, but I am just flabbergasted by airfare prices. Are people really paying $1500 to fly from DTW to FLL, which is today's current price on Delta? I guess so, or they wouldn't be priced that way. Hopefully prices come down eventually, or we will be doing a lot more road trip vacations going forward.

I'm in the same predicament. Trying to get from DTW to Port Miami for a cruise in early March, and flights are just insane. DTW-MIA is nuts ($1150). We've been focused on DTW-FLL, which saves a few bucks, but even the crappy flight times are $800+. We used to get flights in the $300 range pre-covid, so major sticker shock. We can save some money on airfare by staying a few days after the cruise, but that savings gets eaten up pretty quickly by post-cruise hotel and activities. We have until just after Thanksgiving to make a decision. Fingers crossed that airfare prices come down. But I have a feeling we are going to end up cancelling the cruise. We'll lose $400, which is unfortunate, but spending a couple extra thousand is just not worth it to us. The value just isn't there at that price, and we'd rather pivot and put the money towards a different vacation option. This is the first time we have booked a cruise so far in advance that airfare wasn't available at the time of booking, and I think it will be our last. Or if we do book super far in advance, only book with ports that are within driving distance. Lesson learned.

Domestic. And with two kids, the non-stop is much preferred. Historically, Delta was always a little bit of a premium, but the number of non-stop time options made it worth it. Times have changed for sure. We have been watching the prices regularly, waiting for a fall. Fingers crossed it happens. The airfare prices are currently at a level that we would likely reschedule the cruise (and pay the penalty) or drive to the port. It just gets to a point where the cost simply isn't justifiable for us, and while we would be disappointed, we are also ok with that. Totally understand that there is no correlation between airfare and cruise fare. This is the first time we have ever booked a cruise so far out that airfare was not available to book at the time. Usually we look at cruise fare and airfare in conjunction with one another. Unfortunately we did not this time and it kind of came back to bite us. Good to know about the seat maps, I will not use that metric any more. Point taken! I've definitely started to broaden my airfare search, now looking at airports within a 2-4 hour drive that might offer alternative options. We've been so spoiled by living near a Delta hub that I've never once considered doing such a thing.

Airfare is just crazy right now. Our closest airport is a major Delta hub, and we therefore tend to fly Delta nearly all of the time because they fly direct to nearly every destination. We have been looking at domestic airfare for a cruise that departs about 160 days from now, and the prices are just nuts. More than we paid for the cruise fare. We booked the cruise well before the the airfare booking window even opened, and we've been tracking prices since the Delta schedules were released. Prices are high and haven't budged. We are currently waiting it out, hoping that airfare comes down as we get closer. The prices are not high because of demand. Look at a seat map and the entire plane is empty. We are long term planners and early purchasers, so not having airfare booked already is stressing us out a little. It is just not what we are used to.