It's All in the Timing---And Not Good So Far

[zdcatc12]

Taking a Christmas Market Cruise in December from Heidelberg-Amsterdam. I'm looking to fly out of SAT on the 6th to FRA and return from AMS on the 17th. Of course between 332-365 days out when Air Canada and Lufthansa were the only two airlines with schedules released that far out, tickets were around $600-700 r/t. Now at the 331 day mark when everyone else has theirs out also, the prices have shot up to $1200-$1300. I expect (I know better than to say that I know) that they will come back down in price, it just seems odd that this happened that way. For the last month or so, I have been checking for prices and they had always been in the $600-$700 range for other dates (331 days or less out) on other airlines, e.g. had I been able to buy tickets for the same itinerary starting a week earlier, they all would have been in the $600-$700 range. Even Delta who had the schedule out one day ahead of the other majors still had the cheaper fare yesterday, but today it shot up. And Air Canada and Lufthansa are now both $1300. Just kind of struck me as weird that now that I can book, they are all of a sudden double in price.

Edited January 22, 2019 by zdcatc12

[alidor]

Why didn't you buy them when they were low?  Did you think they would be lower??

[waterbug123]

I am wondering the same thing.  $600-700 is a darn good price for an round trip, transoceanic itinerary.  I would have jumped on that and never looked back.

[Zach1213]

15 minutes ago, waterbug123 said:

I am wondering the same thing.  $600-700 is a darn good price for an round trip, transoceanic itinerary.  I would have jumped on that and never looked back.

 

No doubt, I would have been all over that price!

[zdcatc12]

21 hours ago, alidor said:

Why didn't you buy them when they were low?  Did you think they would be lower??

No, but my brother is going out of MCO (hoping to get the same connection) and he prefers Delta or American and he wanted to wait (I should make him pay the difference). Of course, when Delta's price was the lower price for the one day they were out ahead of the others, he was on the Epic, so we didn't buy them. He gets back tomorrow. Although his MCO flight has only gone to $850, my SAT one is $1300. Now I'm thinking of just using my AAdvantage Miles at around 2 cents/mile, before they get devalued more, and he can buy a ticket on AA.

Edited January 23, 2019 by zdcatc12

[FlyerTalker]

One more example of the benefit of just making your own arrangements and meeting up at the airport/hotel/ship on the other end.

[hiccups]

Keep checking... you might get lucky and catch a price drop again.

 

Have you priced tickets through the cruise line?  There are some drawbacks to booking through the cruise line, but it's worth checking the price and seeing if you can deal with the restrictions.  We've always gotten the best deal through the cruise line and (knock on wood) haven't ever had any trouble.

[zdcatc12]

On 1/22/2019 at 10:20 PM, hiccups said:

Keep checking... you might get lucky and catch a price drop again.

 

 

Update:  hiccups you were correct, they were only higher for two days then went back down again. I got SAT-FRA-AMS-SAT for $750 and my brother got MCO-FRA-AMS-MCO for $650. This is for regular economy, basic would have even been $100 cheaper. Turns out even though DLH was cheap initially, it didn't include a seat selection or luggage and that would have been $100 each way for just the luggage.

[hiccups]

4 hours ago, zdcatc12 said:

Update:  hiccups you were correct, they were only higher for two days then went back down again. I got SAT-FRA-AMS-SAT for $750 and my brother got MCO-FRA-AMS-MCO for $650. This is for regular economy, basic would have even been $100 cheaper. Turns out even though DLH was cheap initially, it didn't include a seat selection or luggage and that would have been $100 each way for just the luggage.

Glad you got the lower priced seats!  I'm not sure if you mean carry-on luggage being excluded from the basic economy, but regular economy has a fee for checked luggage.

[zdcatc12]

36 minutes ago, hiccups said:

Glad you got the lower priced seats!  I'm not sure if you mean carry-on luggage being excluded from the basic economy, but regular economy has a fee for checked luggage.

I'm not sure what you meant about the baggage fees. Lufthansa would have been $100 each way for checked bag. On Delta I'm Silver and have the CC, so no baggage fee for us even if there was going to be a charge. I didn't realize at the time that the Lufthansa fare had the extra charges.

[hiccups]

3 minutes ago, zdcatc12 said:

I'm not sure what you meant about the baggage fees. Lufthansa would have been $100 each way for checked bag. On Delta I'm Silver and have the CC, so no baggage fee for us even if there was going to be a charge. I didn't realize at the time that the Lufthansa fare had the extra charges.

 

Oh, okay, if you mentioned the Delta CC previously, I missed that.  I can't remember if Delta charges for checked bags on international flights for economy seats.  I just checked this week for our flight to Mexico in a couple weeks and darn it, we have to pay $30 per bag--the price has gone up since the last time we've flown Delta.

[FlyerTalker]

A good play is to have a DL credit card, but don't put any spend on the card.  Have the card for the benefits, not for earning SkyPesos.  Depending on your flight patterns, you can recoup the cost of the card just through waived baggage fees.

 

It's far better to be putting your spend on other cards, as the redemption value of SkyPesos keeps dropping.  You can get much better returns elsewhere.  But the card benefits can be worth the annual fee.

[waterbug123]

8 hours ago, hiccups said:

I can't remember if Delta charges for checked bags on international flights for economy seats.  I just checked this week for our flight to Mexico in a couple weeks and darn it, we have to pay $30 per bag--the price has gone up since the last time we've flown Delta.

 

For some purposes, Mexico (and the Caribbean) are treated as domestic flights on Delta.  Domestic complimentary upgrade policies apply, domestic baggage fees apply, etc.   In these cases, it's more about the relatively short duration of the flight vs. the actual destination.  If you were traveling to Europe in main cabin, you'd get a free checked bag.

[CruiserBruce]

58 minutes ago, waterbug123 said:

 

For some purposes, Mexico (and the Caribbean) are treated as domestic flights on Delta.  Domestic complimentary upgrade policies apply, domestic baggage fees apply, etc.   In these cases, it's more about the relatively short duration of the flight vs. the actual destination.  If you were traveling to Europe in main cabin, you'd get a free checked bag.

 

I think this is true on most US airlines. I know it is true on United as well.

[Globaliser]

10 hours ago, zdcatc12 said:

I'm not sure what you meant about the baggage fees. Lufthansa would have been $100 each way for checked bag. On Delta I'm Silver and have the CC, so no baggage fee for us even if there was going to be a charge. I didn't realize at the time that the Lufthansa fare had the extra charges.

 

I'm not sure what you mean about baggage fees, either.

 

As far as I can see, there would be no fee for the first checked bag on either Delta or Lufthansa, given that this is a trans-Atlantic trip.

 

There would be an exception if you were to choose a Basic Economy / Economy Light fare, which comes with no inclusive baggage allowance, so that you'd have to pay for the first bag. But if you know you have to bring a checked bag, then deliberately buying a fare which is designed for those who have no checked bags to bring seems a bit counter-intuitive.

[sumiandkage]

12 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

A good play is to have a DL credit card, but don't put any spend on the card.  Have the card for the benefits, not for earning SkyPesos.  Depending on your flight patterns, you can recoup the cost of the card just through waived baggage fees.

 

It's far better to be putting your spend on other cards, as the redemption value of SkyPesos keeps dropping.  You can get much better returns elsewhere.  But the card benefits can be worth the annual fee.

There are occasional sweet spots with SkyMile redemption that can be very useful indeed. I'm currently getting props from my extended family for finding four round trip tickets for PIT-VPS for 18K standard economy/23K C+  for them to come visit us during peak tourism season when it would have been about $500 per ticket cash price.  (If your local airport does less than 2 million passengers a year, going with the dominant carrier there gives you the best fighting chance at low level redemption from a sheer inventory standpoint. I'm currently sitting on six figures of United miles that are very difficult to use because it's so hard to find even one saver award seat with a reasonable departure time on that first Barbie Jet hop to Houston ) 

[hiccups]

9 hours ago, waterbug123 said:

 

For some purposes, Mexico (and the Caribbean) are treated as domestic flights on Delta.  Domestic complimentary upgrade policies apply, domestic baggage fees apply, etc.   In these cases, it's more about the relatively short duration of the flight vs. the actual destination.  If you were traveling to Europe in main cabin, you'd get a free checked bag.

Yes, I knew that Mexico and the Caribbean were charged the baggage fee, but we haven't flown coach to Europe in quite a few years so I couldn't remember if we had paid for bags back.  Then again, even if we didn't pay back then, it doesn't mean it's the same now, with the way airlines find new methods to generate revenue.  My husband usually has his golf bag so I think even with free bags, depending on the airline, sometimes he had to pay a fee for an overweight bag.

[waterbug123]

15 hours ago, hiccups said:

 we haven't flown coach to Europe in quite a few years so I couldn't remember if we had paid for bags back.  Then again, even if we didn't pay back then, it doesn't mean it's the same now...My husband usually has his golf bag so I think even with free bags, depending on the airline, sometimes he had to pay a fee for an overweight bag.

 

Flying Delta in main cabin (coach), from the US to Europe:

You will each be able to check 1 bag for free, up to 50 lbs.   Golf bags are permitted as checked bags, and the oversized bag rule is waived as long as the total bag dimensions don't exceed 115 linear inches (the normal for bags is 62 linear inches.). The overweight bag rule DOES apply, so even though he can check his golf bag for free, it must be 50lbs. or under to avoid overweight charges.  (I don't golf, so I have no idea what a typical golf bag checked case would weigh.)  If he is checking a regular suitcase along with his golf bag, he still only gets one free checked bag to Europe, so in that case yes, he'll pay a checked bag fee for one or the other no matter what.  Perhaps between the two of you, you can fit enough clothes into one bag that you check, he can check his golf bag, and then either or both can also bring a carry-on sized suitcase for the rest of your clothing to avoid checked bag fees.

[hiccups]

10 hours ago, waterbug123 said:

 

Flying Delta in main cabin (coach), from the US to Europe:

You will each be able to check 1 bag for free, up to 50 lbs.   Golf bags are permitted as checked bags, and the oversized bag rule is waived as long as the total bag dimensions don't exceed 115 linear inches (the normal for bags is 62 linear inches.). The overweight bag rule DOES apply, so even though he can check his golf bag for free, it must be 50lbs. or under to avoid overweight charges.  (I don't golf, so I have no idea what a typical golf bag checked case would weigh.)  If he is checking a regular suitcase along with his golf bag, he still only gets one free checked bag to Europe, so in that case yes, he'll pay a checked bag fee for one or the other no matter what.  Perhaps between the two of you, you can fit enough clothes into one bag that you check, he can check his golf bag, and then either or both can also bring a carry-on sized suitcase for the rest of your clothing to avoid checked bag fees.

We don't fly coach for international flights anymore, so we don't worry too much about the luggage now!  LOL.

The weight of golf clubs varies depends on everything from your type of clubs, bag and the travel cover.  My husband has a hard case travel cover so it's a little heavy--the first time he checked it I think we took his shoes and a couple other things out and put in his suitcase and made weight.  I bought him a lighter weight club bag and no problems since then.