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Mountaineer0313
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you should at least be keeping track now. Then being familiar with what's available, it will be apparent if fares drop.

 

Of course, nobody knows, all the "reports" are hindsight. Book when the rates are acceptable for you.

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I already bought our tickets for August. I started by pricing out fares for June & July. The August fares were about the same. I don't think they are going to come down since it is summer. I am betting that they may go up. It's always a crap shoot. Besides, you have your pick of seats now.

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I would start checking out all the options now. That way you will know what is available and have a baseline for pricing. So, as you watch it, you will know when/if prices drop. When available, I also always check what actual seats are available on the flights I may potentially book so I can see how many/few seats are still available.

Good luck, and enjoy your trip!

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When does everyone start looking into airfare? Our cruise is August 2018, flying out of Pittsburgh or nearby, into Vancouver, and flying out of Anchorage.

 

Ours is the same as your except replace Pittsburgh with Boston and going in June.

 

I found flight up to Vancouver to be relatively cheap and under $200. On the ANC to BOS return, it was a different story. At first, I saw $350 afternoon flights and $425 red-eyes. We waited until we knew what we wanted to do on our last day before finalizing and booking. Even though red eyes cost a little more, they save on hotel rooms on your final day. When we decided on a weekend in Seward, ending in the 6pm to 10:15 pm domed scenic train from Seward to Anchorage, the overnight red eye option was sealed. I started following AA's 1:10 am red eye. When I saw a price drop from $425 to $367 (there are four of us), I jumped on it. Glad I did because price on that one is now close to $500.

 

Lessons learned - Inside passage is probably costing us about $150 more per person in air fare than if we had done Seattle to Seattle outside passage. I have no regrets as two extra days in Alaska (and a stop in Hoonah which is not available on outside passage) is worth it to us.

 

Sorry for my long response, but I suppose my advice after going through this, is to figure out your plans for your last day before booking your return flight, while at the same time looking at the price of flights in advance of making those plans.

 

This is one of the toughest cruises we have planned. It makes Europe look easy.

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Unfortunately, with owning our business and summer being peak time, we will not have time to come much earlier before or stay after. I think we’ll fly into Vancouver the day before and fly out of anchorage the day after. I’d love to do a complete land trip, but owning a landscaping company makes summer vacations nearly impossible. I’m surprised my my husband didn’t make a bigger stink than he did. But thanks for all advice, I’ll start looking now!

 

 

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It seems some think they have to book one-way fares to and from Alaska. While this will work, it is often more efficient and economical to book via the

 

Multi-cities tab

 

that is available on most airline websites.

 

This will return what is usually referred to as 'open-jaw' fares.

 

A good site to monitor for airfare is http://matrix.itasoftware.com . You cannot book a flight on this site, it is a powerful search engine that shows routing and fares only.

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When does everyone start looking into airfare? Our cruise is August 2018, flying out of Pittsburgh or nearby, into Vancouver, and flying out of Anchorage.

 

We book as soon as they are available, but when going to AK, we are usually using points.

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I booked our June airfare exactly nine months out (in Sept.) when prices dipped and I snagged a great price. The prices have only gone up since then. However, Delta also just cancelled our original home flight (from Anchorage to San Fran) and put us on a later flight. This new flight gives us only a 59 minute layover at SeaTac and we land at SFO at almost midnight. Not thrilled, but that's part of the risk of booking far out. At least we got first class for a steal.

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Prices are best 3-4 months out. If you book too early you risk them changing the schedule and then you might not get a flight that arrives when you want it to.

 

 

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there is no "best". Every purchase is totally unique, then you talk about it later! Has nothing to do with the future. You can't turn back the clock and repeat it. All information is hindsight, and my crystal ball isn't working right now. :)

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there is no "best". Every purchase is totally unique, then you talk about it later! Has nothing to do with the future. You can't turn back the clock and repeat it. All information is hindsight, and my crystal ball isn't working right now. :)

 

 

 

As someone who has worked in the airline industry for 26 years this has been my experience.

 

 

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As someone who has worked in the airline industry for 26 years this has been my experience.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

Were you in marketing? Revenue management? Stating your current job title would be supportive.

 

I still think it a disservice to make a "best" claim since it isn't - always. When you are at the 3-4 month mark, time is starting to run out, and the previous lower fares are long gone.

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Husband works for the airlines so we are lucky that way. Fly standby .Although with the cruise we purchased tickets with our southwest rewards and fly in a day prior to be safe

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

I nonrev as well. I extremely rarely, purchase tickets. I fly multiple times every month. It's a never ending revision for routes. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I booked our airfare as soon as I could for July of 2018. i was curious about the current pricing, so I checked what the prices were last week; for the same exact flights, they were $400 more per person!

 

Judy

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  • 4 weeks later...
When does everyone start looking into airfare? Our cruise is August 2018, flying out of Pittsburgh or nearby, into Vancouver, and flying out of Anchorage.

 

Most airlines have their rates out 330 days out. I have booked mine thru Delta for my July cruise. I used points for our Louisville to Vancouver, then I used point for Hubby's ticket from Anchorage to Louisville then I just had to pay for my ticket. Thank goodness for my Skymiles....Total paid for the two of us for all flights was $417.00.

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We have booked ours through Princess EZAir for our July 2018 cruise back in October. The flexible fare actually was the lowest I had found. Since then, I was able to drop it another $150 total for the three of us. I had been waiting for Southwest and JetBlue to open their schedules, but so far neither can compete with our total. For three tickets we are at $1368 round trip from Richmond to Seattle. I am happy with that so far, but that doesn't stop me from checking every day :)

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