Sept 30 Cruise - When To Buy Airfare???

[seamare]

Airfare right now seems extremely high ($350) for going to Fort Lauderdale from Michigan. I would think it should be $100 less for this time of year. Do I just bite the bullet and get it now, or sit back to see if it goes down. I can't imagine it getting any higher, but I know anything can happen. What is everyone else doing for fall travel?

[missybirchfield]

Airfare right now seems extremely high ($350) for going to Fort Lauderdale from Michigan. I would think it should be $100 less for this time of year. Do I just bite the bullet and get it now, or sit back to see if it goes down. I can't imagine it getting any higher, but I know anything can happen. What is everyone else doing for fall travel?

 

We booked our air through the cruiseline. You can do that and it will lock in a price and you can always cancel the air if you haven't made final payment. They way gas prices are and the prediction that it won't get much lower is not a good sign of airfare coming down much.

 

Missy

[janetz]

You can, as the previous poster said, book with the cruiseline and then look on your own. If you find something cheaper, you have until final payment to cancell your air with the cruiseline. Really though, we live in Mass and at the beginning of September we are paying 340.00 each to fly to Northern Alabama. At this time I don't see that price as being really high. See what the cruiseline's price is. :)

[hdawson]

I would check the fares of the low cost carriers such as AirTran. http://www.airtran.com. I think they are in a sale now. My line of choice.

Remember, fuel costs go up and down. Currently oil is over $73 per barrel. Will it go up to $85 or down to $60? Airlines are paying double for fuel over last year.

[FlyerTalker]

OK folks....here's a tool for your use in deciding if a fare is high/low for a particular market.

 

Go to the Historical Graphs section at Farecompare.com - this particular link takes you to the page for the fares between SEA and LAX. Just put in your own cities from that page and then bookmark it.

 

When you are at the site, you can find out the lowest fares offered in a market, offered by different airlines, for various advance-purchase criteria, over time frames up to 2 years. Lots of stuff to play around with.

 

Now, a couple of BIG DISCLAIMERS for you to remember:

 

1) This researches historical data, which is like looking at a stock market chart. It does not show future information. You have to interpret this with your own judgement.

 

2) It does not explain peaks or valleys - why they happened. So it's up to you to decide if it was a sale period, high demand or whatever.

 

3) It only shows the LOWEST fare offered in a market (given the AP requirement selected). It doesn't show time of day, day of week. length of stay or other restrictions. It doesn't show how many seats were available at that fare. It doesn't mean that the fare would be applicable to your itinerary. It doesn't mean those fares can be bought now for your future trip.

 

On the other hand, it DOES give you a historic look at markets which may prove useful if you temper it with judgement. I cannot emphasize the disclaimers enough - otherwise, you will be frustrated and disappointed that you can't "find the same deal".

 

Go for it.

[Juliadlf]

OK folks....here's a tool for your use in deciding if a fare is high/low for a particular market.

 

Go to the Historical Graphs section at Farecompare.com - this particular link takes you to the page for the fares between SEA and LAX. Just put in your own cities from that page and then bookmark it.

 

When you are at the site, you can find out the lowest fares offered in a market, offered by different airlines, for various advance-purchase criteria, over time frames up to 2 years. Lots of stuff to play around with.

 

Now, a couple of BIG DISCLAIMERS for you to remember:

 

1) This researches historical data, which is like looking at a stock market chart. It does not show future information. You have to interpret this with your own judgement.

 

2) It does not explain peaks or valleys - why they happened. So it's up to you to decide if it was a sale period, high demand or whatever.

 

3) It only shows the LOWEST fare offered in a market (given the AP requirement selected). It doesn't show time of day, day of week. length of stay or other restrictions. It doesn't show how many seats were available at that fare. It doesn't mean that the fare would be applicable to your itinerary. It doesn't mean those fares can be bought now for your future trip.

 

On the other hand, it DOES give you a historic look at markets which may prove useful if you temper it with judgement. I cannot emphasize the disclaimers enough - otherwise, you will be frustrated and disappointed that you can't "find the same deal".

 

Go for it.

 

Does this site do multicity travel, ie depart US to Rome and then return from Venice to US?

Thanks

Julia

[parody]

Does this site do multicity travel

 

I do not believe it does multicity or open jaw flights. In addition, according to their website its (historical) database contains only the last 2 years (ish) of US/CA airfares (emphasis added). Thus, it does not consider the European flights that you mention. However, keep in mind that they do make enhancements over time.

[FlyerTalker]

Just regular old North American round-trips. It's still a large amount of data to be working with.

 

As for open jaws (domestic) - those are almost always 1/2 of the RT fare for each half, added together. For example, if LAX-JFK is $400 and LAX-BOS is $500, an open jaw LAX-JFK and BOS-LAX would be half of $400 plus half of $500 for a total of $450. Now, sometimes a low one-way fare comes into play, but the "half and half" is often the good rule of thumb.

 

One other thing to remember - the open jaw of the triangle has to be the SHORTEST of the three legs. So you can't do something like ORD-LHR and MIA-ORD (say for a transatlantic crossing cruise) because the missing leg (LHR-MIA) is longer than MIA-ORD. It would price out as two one-ways, which is why those kind of routings get pricey.

 

Your example of USA-FCO and VCE-USA would be a legal open jaw, as the distance between FCO and VCE is the shortest leg of the triangle.

[iancal]

We thought it would be too early to book a Dec. flight but we did. SEA-FLL, Dec 1-10. $232. R/T plus tax pp on AA. We like AA service and we always want a DFW connection in the winter vs. Chicago, N.Y., or Denver. I think that this is less than we paid last Feb.

[TheParrotHeads]

I would wait. You are talking about airfare after the holidays, during hurricane season, and a low time for Florida. I would wait until end of June-July to book. Give it the first few good storms and you will see prices come down. When I was living in NY, I did this often since my folks have a second home in Naples. Almost always those fares were high, then as soon as Hurricane season came, FL routes would drop in price.

 

Then again you do have the Iran situation and Oil potentially nearing 100 dollars if things heat up. So, then you might be better off booking. Either way, it isn't going to go any higher so I would wait.