Airline Ticket Price Question

[redtinarn]

I didn't know where on the boards to ask this question, so I'll just ask it here. I can get airline tickets from baton rouge, louisiana to honolulu, hawaii round trip for $763 per person. I haven't been able to find them any cheaper than that. Do y'all think they will get any cheaper? We leave June 30th and come back July 10th. Also does anyone know if I can exchange our airline tickets, once we purchase them, for a different date? We may want to leave July 7th to July 17th. Thanks ahead of time.

[TrentS]

I'd ask in the Cruise Air section... http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=128

 

As for making changes the cost depends on the airline, but for discounted fares they do charge to make changes, and you would have to pay more if the fare on the new dates is higher than the one you booked... Best to make up your mind for sure before purchasing the tickets... As for that fare going down, who knows.

[Venus4NU]

I think it is too soon to buy the airline tickets. I find the best fare is 4-8 weeks before flight. That is when they start looking to fill flights. I always get great deals and the flights I want.

[TrentS]

I think it is too soon to buy the airline tickets. I find the best fare is 4-8 weeks before flight. That is when they start looking to fill flights. I always get great deals and the flights I want.

 

Not necessarily to Hawaii though, flights are limited and summer demand is high.

[Newbie0210]

Ditto about flights to Hawaii. I would never suggest that anyone wait until 4 weeks before going to book a flight.

 

6 years ago when booking flights for my honeymoon just after New Year's (bought them in May), we got tix for $525 each. But the other 5 times we've been there, we've paid between $800 and $1000 apiece.

 

I've been watching rates for July 3-10 next year and am waiting on Continental to drop the rates, but they currently stand at $850-900. OP, if I were you, I'd go with the $763, but you do need to decide which dates or you'll likely pay more later to change.

[blindrid]

I vote on if it's a right price to you, buy them.

 

I typically shop airfare and cruises pretty hard. What you'll find with airfare is that initially there are a few deep discount seats available and when they are gone, the fare increases.

 

For exmaple, I've been keeping an eye on flights from DEN to FLL in November. I typically use two airlines as one of my pet peeves is the baggage charges so my inital choices are Frontier (Classic Fare) and Southwest so I don't have to worry about them.

 

Anyway, for DW and I, Frontier's was $500+ then I saw the flights increase to $1,000+. SW was still around $500, so I jumped on them even though they are not my favorite. I did not feel complelled to see if they would go down (in the last few weeks) for them to fill the plane.

 

Long story short, I was happy with the fare, booked it and got it out of my way - knowing what I paid was a good price. I would find out your firm dates first or be prepared to pay a change fee. Your call.

[lvtotrvl1]

Not necessarily to Hawaii though, flights are limited and summer demand is high.

 

I totally agree...also if you chnage your dates you will pay a change fee plus any additional airfare for the new dates...

[cruiselovincouple]

Same with us, the earlier we book the better price we get. Anytime I travel for business we book last minute and seem to pay through the nose each time.

 

When you book your flights just find out their cancellation policy. I've found that the best rates get you the strictest cancellation/change policy so you may want to firm up your travel dates before booking your flight. Or just make sure you're aware of the change fees if you get a flexible fare.

 

~Lisa :p

[fiftyguy]

Hi

In July I booked tickets to Honolulu (1 stop) from Boston for $718 PP/ RT and I haven't seen anything cheaper since. In fact this flight is now over $900. This is for a trip in late February 2010.

Good luck and safe flying!

[fin]

The fare is about nine cents a mile, which is pretty good.

[S&Dcruising]

DW is from Hawaii, so when we decided on when we were going to go she started looking every night for about 2 months. She has done this many times and knows that if you look often enough you can find cheap fares. but you have diligent. We planned on going the 1st week of Aug. we bought the tickets in April. Our round trip tickets were 434.00 each (great price).

In short, watch prices, book early.

 

! little problem I see with the OP's post is that he's flying from a smaller market. We fly out of charlotte NC, have you tried flying out a major air port? the drive of a hour or 2 might save you hundreds.

 

Good luck

 

BTW Hawaii is truly paradise

[On2CDWrld]

:confused: Not sure about the number of tickets, however the fares out of Houston are about $300 lower than Baton Rouge. Hawaii is wonderful.

[warriorking]

I know I booked my airline tickets from Charleston West Virginia to Barcelona Spain for $736.00 for my upcoming cruise, same flight with NCL providing the flight would cost me $1375.00, and that was having to fly from JFK, so I was looking at another $150.00 to fly from West Virginia to JFK ....I do not see the price getting any better in my case....

[bahamaman]

ok, so i am neither an expert nor a travel agent per se, but i have often suffered the dilemma of making the choice. buy or wait? (to book or..)

a co-worker of mine suggested "book-it and forget it" and i am going to agree: that after six vacations in the last two years, half the time i patted myself on the back for purchasing the flights over ninety days in advance and the other half of the time i cursed the travel gods for not advising me on waiting for the opportune moment to book at a lower price. now i just do what i consider a reasonable amount of research and then just book it.

i read somewhere that the average person checks approximately three travel sites before booking. ok, i will come clean, yes i book it, but then sometimes still check sites for pricing just to torment myself! i compare it to the stock market. sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. good luck!

[deepnite10]

thats not a bad price for those dates..the best i could find was over $800

[redtinarn]

DW is from Hawaii, so when we decided on when we were going to go she started looking every night for about 2 months. She has done this many times and knows that if you look often enough you can find cheap fares. but you have diligent. We planned on going the 1st week of Aug. we bought the tickets in April. Our round trip tickets were 434.00 each (great price).

In short, watch prices, book early.

 

! little problem I see with the OP's post is that he's flying from a smaller market. We fly out of charlotte NC, have you tried flying out a major air port? the drive of a hour or 2 might save you hundreds.

 

 

We thought about flying from New Orleans, but IMO after such LONG flights, we don't want to ride in a car another 1 1/2-2 hours! I just noticed that the price was not including the taxes and fees, so it is a little more. Now we're planning on disembarking in Kauai and flying home from there. So now I know it will cost a little more. Thanks for all of the advice everyone!!!

[redtinarn]

DW is from Hawaii, so when we decided on when we were going to go she started looking every night for about 2 months. She has done this many times and knows that if you look often enough you can find cheap fares. but you have diligent. We planned on going the 1st week of Aug. we bought the tickets in April. Our round trip tickets were 434.00 each (great price).

In short, watch prices, book early.

 

! little problem I see with the OP's post is that he's flying from a smaller market. We fly out of charlotte NC, have you tried flying out a major air port? the drive of a hour or 2 might save you hundreds.

 

 

We thought about flying from New Orleans, but IMO after such LONG flights, we don't want to ride in a car another 1 1/2-2 hours! I just noticed that the price was not including the taxes and fees, so it is a little more. Now we're planning on disembarking in Kauai and flying home from there. So now I know it will cost a little more. Thanks for all of the advice everyone!!!

[garycarla]

Price out New Orleans and Dallas. But, there might not be much difference. Do not even think there is anything sensible or logical enough to price per mile. That is a worthless figure in the air pricing game. There are way too many variables due to loads, competition, etc.

 

I surely would not wait for that route until 4-8 weeks, but booking this early might not make sense either, unless it is refundable, which it probably is not. Keep checking every now and then using any of the big booking engines. Remember that some airlines do not list on other booking sites, like Southwest. They would only get you to another city with the 48 states, not Hawaii though.

 

And, I would surely go at least one day early in case their are flight problems, especially since you will probably have at least two connections.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

I fly to and from Hawaii several times a year. Back when Aloha Airlines and ATA were in business I could find RT flights on Continental from Cleveland for about 450-500 bucks. Now about 700 is more in the range.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

Also I'd like to add to the people above that Hawaii is one place you do not want to wait till a few weeks before booking. I've had to pay 1300 once for a one way ticket because of this before. Don't risk it.

[rickechambers1@aol.com]

I would book sooner than later...you may save $100 by waiting or it could jump $200 tomorrow...the analogy of the stock market was a good one; but you'll spend far more time than money that you would be saving while you wait and search, search, search. Just book and have peace of mind and it really is a pretty good price. We went in June and the tickets were about $600 a person, but some air fare is going to increase as fuel prices are edging up. But, since you're booking so far out, make sure that you check a few times with the carrier as there WILL be multiple flight schedule changes until your actual flights. Might just be a few minutes here or there, but could be more drastic.

[smrtypnts]

We thought about flying from New Orleans, but IMO after such LONG flights, we don't want to ride in a car another 1 1/2-2 hours! I just noticed that the price was not including the taxes and fees, so it is a little more. Now we're planning on disembarking in Kauai and flying home from there. So now I know it will cost a little more. Thanks for all of the advice everyone!!!

It seems such a shame you will miss one of the highlights of taking the PoA; seeing the Napali Coast. Consider your decision carefully. Maybe flying into Kauai and spending a few days on the front end would be a better choice?

[fin]

Price out New Orleans and Dallas. But, there might not be much difference. Do not even think there is anything sensible or logical enough to price per mile. That is a worthless figure in the air pricing game. -snip-

 

And, I would surely go at least one day early in case their are flight problems, especially since you will probably have at least two connections.

 

This comment from someone I respect is puzzling. I have flown commercially over two thousand times (on 74 different airlines) and I have habitually used cost per mile as an objective measure to determine the best value for any given trip.

 

In fact I use it to determine whether to use my own plane or car vs commercial for some trips. The numbers have fallen between four cents and 35 cents per mile over the decades. It surprised me to find that it cost more to fly from Anchorage to Barrow and back than it cost to fly from Newark to Anchorage and back--- total dollars as well as cost per mile.

 

The old JFK-Honolulu Continental Flight 15 was the all-time bargain that I remember however—under three hundred bucks round trip, TAX INCLUDED. In fact it was such a bargain that I did it three times in one year, taking my son on one of those trips.

 

 

 

Many of the internet airfares look great till you learn taxes and “fees” can add another two hundred or more bucks per person to a deceptively low-priced fare. So my puzzlement over the declaration that the figure is "meaningless".

[garycarla]

This comment from someone I respect is puzzling. I have flown commercially over two thousand times (on 74 different airlines) and I have habitually used cost per mile as an objective measure to determine the best value for any given trip....

 

Well thank you. You make me blush.

 

Price per mile is a fair measurement on a PARTICULAR route, but as you point out, different routes have different norms. For a novice to mess with a per mile price, I think it just adds to the confusion. I might have a thousand (maybe two) or so flights, but only on a handful of airlines. In my past life I flew almost weekly, sometimes hitting 4-5 cities in one week. Certain legs were super cheap, and others very expensive. And, as you point out, sometimes the longer flights cost less than the short ones. The airline business has the wackiest pricing of just about anything. And it can change very rapidly. While on the phone checking for a hotel or cruise, you go back and the flight cost just doubled.

[fin]

All excellent points, and respect definitely justified. It is possible to sit on an airliner and have 15 or more different prices paid by occupants of adjacent rows of seats.

 

The internet has certainly changed the playing field however, as "ordinary pipple" can compare many fares for city pairs and even bid of them sometimes. One of my very best friends is a travel agent, and yet nine times out of ten, I am able to make my arrangements from my living room, including seat assignments and paying for them without writing a check.