Airfares - Can I just say WTHeck?!?!

[roberooski]

We're leaving on the Glory in 4/15/06. Yep, you guessed it...School Vacation Week AND Easter weekend. Double Whammy.

 

We "planned" on flying JetBlue with their great airfares to Orlando, so we didn't use Carnival's airfare (yeah, but I have never done this before either - to save money and have control!). The airfares are OUT OF CONTROL!! We're actually flying in a day early and staying in Orlando.

 

We live in Boston not near Manchester, NH or Providence, RI, so Southwest is out of the question....and the hassle of going that route is not worth saving the money.

 

But still.....PLEASE tell me that the airfares will likely come down. <sigh>

 

:confused:

 

Roberooski

[BlueHerons]

Go to www.ITASoftware.com and search for your airfare. Use the option that lets you pick airports up to 300 miles away.

[tef43]

PLEASE tell me that the airfares will likely come down.

Holiday & school recess = heavy travel. Bottom line: Not likely.

[walkswife]

Sorry, We just paid $441 per person from Green Bay, WI. to Tampa.

 

They just seem to be going up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[serene56]

Do searches..

Look into one way trips too- My Liberty was gonna cost 264 pp if I got round trips but buyin gone way tickets I got my fare down to 123 pp.

 

airfare to Orlando is problay gonna cost a few bucks-- lots of people head that way for easter. (can you cancel and go the following week or the week before?

[BlueHerons]

Doing a search on ITA Software, United Airlines has your flights round trip out of Boston to Tampa on your dates for $239. It will not get any cheaper than that.

[serene56]

I also suggest if this is the only week you can go-- buy airfare soon as it will sell out quickly

[jesseiam2]

We booked a really cheap flight out of Dulles in Washington DC through Independence air for our cruise in January. We booked the flight in October. I checked last week and the return flight home was rescheduled for earlier in the day with no later flights out that same day. We did not want to stay another night in Tampa and so I had to rebook through another airline. It ended up costing an additional $300.00 for us. I was furious. Just because it is cheap, doesn't make it good.

 

--Really Angry Still--

 

Jesse

[CruiseDawg2001]

This is what the airlines have to charge to break even or make a profit nowadays. In the last several years the flying public has gotten accustomed to unrealistically low fares as the airlines tried to undercut each other. SWA, JetBlue, Spirit, and the like have much lower cost structures (note that 'Low Cost Airline' doesn’t refer to the cost to the passenger, rather the costs of doing business) and thusly can offer lower fares; NWA, AA, United and such had to lower their prices below what was necessary to generate a profit in order to keep passengers flying. With the recent high costs of fuel - and the realization that the union contracts that were negotiated during the money wasting 1990s were completely unrealistic - airlines were losing money on their flights because they couldn’t charge passengers what it actually cost to fly them from point A to point B. Now that flying has reached or exceeded pre-9/11 levels, (and most flights at or near capacity), many airlines have simply said 'I've had it', and have started charging people an amount whereas they will be able to recoup some of their losses. Another factor is airlines cutting domestic schedules, reducing capacity in many markets and driving up fares. I would expect these fares to stay as they are for the foreseeable future. In your case however, it has quite a bit to do with going to Mouseland during spring break... those fares have always been high.

[roberooski]

Doing a search on ITA Software, United Airlines has your flights round trip out of Boston to Tampa on your dates for $239. It will not get any cheaper than that.

 

Can you show me (rdemoy@rcn.com) how you found that? Screen print or something and email to me. I NEED that airfare....there's 8 of us total in the party....4 adults, 4 children.

 

Hopefully it'll still work....<crossing my fingers>

 

And can I just say....Cruise Critic members absolutely ROCK!

 

Roberooski

[roberooski]

Doing a search on ITA Software, United Airlines has your flights round trip out of Boston to Tampa on your dates for $239. It will not get any cheaper than that.

 

Can you show me (rdemoy@rcn.com) how you found that? Screen print or something and email to me. I NEED that airfare....there's 8 of us total in the party....4 adults, 4 children.

 

Hopefully it'll still work....<crossing my fingers>

 

Roberooski

[Narina]

I live in So. Mass 40 mins to Boston or 40 mins to Providence so I am kinda lucky there. But we usually fly into Orlando or Tampa for our cruises and have found that Delta Song is a wonderful airline with great prices out of Boston. Might want to check them out. When we went on the Fanatasy to the Bahamas in Feb last year during winter break we paid 69.00 each way on Delta Song non stop Boston to Orlando it was great

[ozgirl96]

I, too, have spent hours the last couple of days looking for airfare. I'm only paying $550 for my cruise and the airfare right now is running 350!! :-( I'm flying Chicago area to Miami March 25-April 2nd... sure, I guess it's spring break time.. .but ... still. I'm quite sad.

[serene56]

Can you show me (rdemoy@rcn.com) how you found that? Screen print or something and email to me. I NEED that airfare....there's 8 of us total in the party....4 adults, 4 children.

 

Hopefully it'll still work....<crossing my fingers>

 

Roberooski

 

booking 8 people call the airline directly. wont find any online site that will allow you to buy all those tickets at the same time.

[GoinCruisin]

Can you show me (rdemoy@rcn.com) how you found that? Screen print or something and email to me. I NEED that airfare....there's 8 of us total in the party....4 adults, 4 children.

 

Hopefully it'll still work....<crossing my fingers>

 

And can I just say....Cruise Critic members absolutely ROCK!

 

Roberooski

 

I searched ITA as well, but came up with $305... leaving 4/14 (checked 4/15 as well) coming back on the 22nd, or 23rd.

 

Keep checking ITA. $300 isn't a bad fare, but once you add taxes, etc.. it's going to be up there. When I put in 4 adults, 4 kids, it went up to $424 per person... I guess availability is not so good. But you can book individual perhaps. Just keep searching!! Good luck!!

[BlueHerons]

Can you show me (rdemoy@rcn.com) how you found that? Screen print or something and email to me. I NEED that airfare....there's 8 of us total in the party....4 adults, 4 children.

 

Hopefully it'll still work....<crossing my fingers>

 

Roberooski

 

roberooski, go to www.ItSoftware.com and click on Book A Flight and sign in as guest.

 

Put in your information and be as flexible with your dates and arriving airport as possible.

 

Find the airfare then go to that airline and book the flights. Make sure you write down exact flight times and dates.

 

One last thought, what about taking Amtrak to Orlando? You definitely would not be at the mercy of the weather.

[GoinCruisin]

 

One last thought, what about taking Amtrak to Orlando? You definitely would not be at the mercy of the weather.

 

Just my opinion, I would NEVER EVER rely on Amtrak if I were going on a cruise! Once, I got in 10 hours late, the longer trips, the later you can be. Being Spring, it might not be too bad as it might not be too hot... but with trains, you really are at the mercy of the weather. Just not the way I would want to spend the day/night before my cruise. You are looking at all day and night on a train... with kids, that could be a nightmare! LOL!

[Chexmix]

You might want to try the group services with the different airlines. I did this for Continental Airlines. To do this you need to do a little research first. Find out how much the tickets per person are and what flights you are willing to take (times and dates). Here is what I did:

 

Flying from Mobile Alabama to Houston Texas - Departing March 25 -returning April 2 (seven people). Also two of our group will be coming back on different days (one april 5th and the other april 9th. As long as we all left together we got the group rate.

 

There will only be 9 flying in our group. Continental only does groups of ten. So here's the math:

 

Single ticket purchase per person - 308.00 ticket + 14.40 additional fees & taxes = $322.40 per person or $2901.60 for all 9 of us.

 

Group ticket purchase - $240.00 ticket + 32.40 Additional fees = 272.40 per person or $2,724.00 for a group of 10.

 

I just added an additional person to our flight (grandson) that is not going. Sure the seat may be empty but at least it saved ME $159.60 over booking individual tickets. Any money saved is more I can spend while on our cruise.

 

Also if you check your roll call board you might find someone else in your area that is traveling that still needs a ticket that you could add to the group.

 

Just a thought. Hope it helps

[Chexmix]

Oh yea, one more place to look for airline tickets is Kayak.com.

[parody]

Go to www.ITASoftware.com and search for your airfare. Use the option that lets you pick airports up to 300 miles away.

 

Until recently, this was my preferred site for conducting searches. However, it does NOT include jetBlue. But, they are included in kayak.com and they use ITA software to conduct their searches. Thus, if jetBlue is an option, Kayak is the site to use. One bonus feature--that I don't believe is available any place else--is that it will "save" the parameters of your search so that with only one click you can conduct the identical search the following day (say) without the need to re-input all your data. ITA is still handy if one want to look at "nearby" airports up to 300 miles away. Kayak uses about a 70 mile rule. However, if seems like you already know that Manchester and Providence are your 2 second best options. Providence is probably just over an hour to get to from Boston and personally, I would not rule them out unless you think you might have snow. Potentially, in a couple of years, commuter rail will go from Boston to PVD and that should increase its attractiveness. Lastly, in terms of using Song, I would keep a close eye on financial difficulties of Delta Air Lines. And, if you do opt to book flights with jetblue.com, you can do it for 8 people.

[wrp96]

We booked a really cheap flight out of Dulles in Washington DC through Independence air for our cruise in January. We booked the flight in October. I checked last week and the return flight home was rescheduled for earlier in the day with no later flights out that same day. We did not want to stay another night in Tampa and so I had to rebook through another airline. It ended up costing an additional $300.00 for us. I was furious. Just because it is cheap, doesn't make it good.

 

--Really Angry Still--

 

Jesse

 

You are probably better off. Somebody posted on another thread that Independence will likely be shutting down completely somewhere between Jan 7th and 21st. They've already warned their unions of the possibility.

[jcanino]

We're leaving on the Glory in 4/15/06. Yep, you guessed it...School Vacation Week AND Easter weekend. Double Whammy.

 

Southwest is out of the question....and the hassle of going that route is not worth saving the money.

 

But still.....PLEASE tell me that the airfares will likely come down.

 

Sorry to say it but airfares for that time period will not come down as there are very few seats left.

 

Even if you would drive to Manchester or Providence, Southwest will not be cheap either.

 

I am cruising Carnival out of San Juan that weekend letting Carnival arrange my flights. When I booked the cruise, airfare on decent flights the day prior and the day the cruise ends were in the $800 range. Now, if you try to book that cruise with air from Hartford, they tell you the closest airport with availability is Syracuse.

 

Since most of New England has the same weeks off, parents wait for the school calendar to be released and book February vacation in March and April vacation in May.

[ISLABONITA]

If you are flexible with the departure date... the 13th looks better than the 14th. Boston to Tampa... don't know if this helps.???

http://www.kayak.com/s/bookit.jsp?code=0-0L92T6CiGF4ts$5fZyEn.wCNc6chnu$P0HekAcX9Y.13-bMjgifWmm2prHKguQUr_.F.UA.27980.0&sr=1&resultid=769b18e2f4f9232f8c55401f1e0dfabe

[ISLABONITA]

I just found a smaller airport near Orlando- Sanford that flies with Allegiant Air out of Worcester.... here is the link

http://www.allegiantair.com/

[jcanino]

I just found a smaller airport near Orlando- Sanford that flies with Allegiant Air out of Worcester

 

Flying the 14th and the 23rd, the price is $435 per person. The return flight is at 7:40 in the morning. There is no flight on the 22nd so now you have two nights hotel. You are flying into an airport that is about 30 miles north of the highway that takes you East to the coast. Personally, I don't see it as a great option.