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Buying airline tickets for december cruise


rob6465
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Wife and I live in Houston and we are booked for a December cruise from Miami. When is the best time to purchase airline tickets? Right now they are so high. Waiting for Southwest to release their dec prices.

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On southwest or JetBlue it is. Unless I am flying on a on a peak December day, I can get a RT to New England airports less than $300 from Orlando or Tampa

Just because you can get $X price for city pair A to B which is a similar distance as city pair C to B has no bearing on cost of flights on the other routes. Flights are priced based on demand and popularity of a route.
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When is the best time to purchase airline tickets? Right now they are so high.
The best time is when they are cheap.

 

How do you know when they are cheap? You need to have a good grasp of pricing history on your desired route(s), and the state of the market. There really are no shortcuts.

 

If you don't have that knowledge of the market, then you need to set yourself a price which you are comfortable with paying. When you can get tickets at that price, then you will find it comfortable to pay for them. If it was comfortable to pay that price, then it does not matter whether the price then goes up or down - you paid a price that you were happy to pay.

 

If what you want to do is to buy tickets at the lowest possible price for which tickets on your desired flights can ever be bought, then to be frank that is an unrealistic aspiration. You can only get that by pure luck. And you can't know whether you've succeeded until the moment that the aircraft door shuts and the aircraft pushes back.

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On southwest or JetBlue it is. Unless I am flying on a on a peak December day, I can get a RT to New England airports less than $300 from Orlando or Tampa

 

 

Apples and oranges. The OP is trying to go to MIA is December. We don't know the exact dates, but if it's near Christmas then it would indeed be peak dates. And in general, there is far more demand for flights to Miami in the winter than there is to New England so one would expect those flights to be more expensive.

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Apples and oranges. The OP is trying to go to MIA is December. We don't know the exact dates, but if it's near Christmas then it would indeed be peak dates. And in general, there is far more demand for flights to Miami in the winter than there is to New England so one would expect those flights to be more expensive.

 

 

Sorry but my comparison is fair, I just wrote it backwards. (Regardless we are talking about RT fares here so people who come south eventually got to get back north). I often buy tickets for DD and the GKs to come in December from Boston . Up until about 12/20 midweek fares are reasonable. After that it can be very expensive. Timing is everything.

 

 

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Southwest will not release their late December schedule (or prices) until May 31. If your cruise air is going to be during the pre or post holiday rush, booking sooner (rather then later) is usually a good idea.

 

Hank

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Regardless we are talking about RT fares here so people who come south eventually got to get back north).

 

RT fares do not mean you'll find the exact same prices depending on whether you fly BOS-MIA and then back again, or MIA-BOS and then back again. Ticket prices to go to MIA on a given day could be very different from ticket prices on the same day to go to BOS, for any number of reasons, and the same would hold true for the corresponding return flights on a subsequent day.

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Sorry but my comparison is fair, I just wrote it backwards. (Regardless we are talking about RT fares here so people who come south eventually got to get back north). I often buy tickets for DD and the GKs to come in December from Boston . Up until about 12/20 midweek fares are reasonable. After that it can be very expensive. Timing is everything.

 

 

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No need for you to apologize. Your post was in response to someone who was comparing his airfare from Washington to FLL/MIA to the original posters HOU/FLL.

 

Neither his comparison or yours has any relation to the original poster, based on geography, but for some reason you are getting criticized and no one has mentioned his needless comment. It is clear that your post was in reference to his and not the op.:D

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No need for you to apologize. Your post was in response to someone who was comparing his airfare from Washington to FLL/MIA to the original posters HOU/FLL.

 

Neither his comparison or yours has any relation to the original poster, based on geography, but for some reason you are getting criticized and no one has mentioned his needless comment. It is clear that your post was in reference to his and not the op.:D

 

Could that be because there is NO post in this thread talking about ticket prices from Washington (either DC or state) to SoFla?

 

I've reread this entire thread three times looking for it....please tell me the post # so I can check it out for myself.

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I agree with other comments in this thread that state you need to have a feel for the prices and what ranges can be expected. I'm in Google Flights frequently which provides a list of options, price ranges, etc. which I use for comparison purposes. It won't show Southwest but, armed with the typical range, you can easily decide if WN is right for you.

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Sorry but my comparison is fair, I just wrote it backwards. (Regardless we are talking about RT fares here so people who come south eventually got to get back north). I often buy tickets for DD and the GKs to come in December from Boston . Up until about 12/20 midweek fares are reasonable. After that it can be very expensive. Timing is everything.

 

 

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And this has what to do with Houston to MIA of FLL?

 

Hank

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It has to do with providing context. Travel costs in December are heavily dependent on when you want to travel. And I have some experience with Southwest and what they charge for a RT ticket covering 2500 miles both early in December and right at Christmas/New Years. So yes I there was a possibility the OP could do better than $400. However the OP did not initially give specific dates that were shopping.

 

Don’t worry I am out of this discussion. [emoji849]

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From my experience with Southwest, the cheapest fares are when the flights first go on sale. I have only ever seen prices go up as the date of travel nears. Especially since the Wanna Fly Away rates are limited, and sell out first. Airfares will only go down if flights are not selling. And in the economy that we are in now, airlines rarely have a problem selling out flights.

 

 

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