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Are you delaying those plane ticket purchases in hopes of falling fares?

Dave M

Dave M

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From an article related to Delta's earnings release that will appear in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal:
Though high oil prices continue to hammer the industry, capacity reductions and solid travel demand have enabled domestic airlines to boost fares and profitability.
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That's a theme that has often been discussed on this forum lately and isn't likely to change soon. Waiting for fares to return to lower levels of prior years is likely to be a futile wait.

With reduced capacity and high demand for air travel, the airlines have been able to successfully increase ticket prices by significant amounts on many routes, especially for holiday travel.

Still, there will surely be pockets of slightly lower fares occasionally, such as Southwest's new sale for travel between October 26 and February 13.
 
AA just raised fares $5-$10 on most routes. If the others go along, it will stick, if not, it sure isn't going any lower!

Cheers
 
Pat, I hope you're right. I really don't want to spend $1100 on my United ticket to KOA.

Sue
 
Sue -

I'm not sure we both interpreted Pat's comment in the same way. I interpreted his comment as meaning that fare sales are likely to be less generous (and perhaps less frequent) than in the past. If that was his intent, I agree.
 
I have noticed an increase from Bangor, ME to Orlando. Typically I book my flights for April/May in December/Jan. time frame. Well, I booked them yesterday via Portland because our new carrier, Allegiant Airlines promised $99 flights to and from Orlando. That lasted about a month and now the cheapest ticket is $124 each way. I chose to grab the flights out of Portland on AirTran at the $99 rate figuring they can only really go up from there.
 
Using historical data from canned routes I use for domestic and international mileage runs, I predict fare sale fares to be 10-15% higher on those routes, with international leading the pack.

That said, on some routes, I'm seeing par or even reductions in fares over a year ago, absent sales, likely due to some incursions by LLC's like VX's new service.

Overall, cherry-picking the best fares will be more difficult, IMO.

Pat
 
I miss the good ol' years immediately after 9/11 when airfare was cheap. I certainly don't want another attack here but I do miss those fares.

As some airlines boost their fares, maybe there'll be a bigger pool of travellers for LCCs. Competition always seems to lower prices.
 
On this side of the pond, the European LCC's are still pumping out the great fares. I picked up tickets to Rome a couple of weeks ago on Wizz Air with free air fare, just pay the taxes and fees. Ryanair had one even better, with absolutely free tickets, not even charging for taxes and fees, but the routes and dates were more limited so I did not find anything I could use.
 
Since I use Southwest, I book flights right away. I can always rebook later if the price goes down or there is a DING sale and get a credit for the difference.
 
Carolinian said:
On this side of the pond, the European LCC's are still pumping out the great fares. I picked up tickets to Rome a couple of weeks ago on Wizz Air with free air fare, just pay the taxes and fees. Ryanair had one even better, with absolutely free tickets, not even charging for taxes and fees, but the routes and dates were more limited so I did not find anything I could use.
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Steve, are you now living in Europe?
 
Another rock bottom fare in Europe

I just received an email from Germanwings announcing a special with a fare of zero euros, just pay taxes and fees, and 100,000 seats on offer between October and February at that price. They fly some places that are useful for me, so I will see if I can nab some zero fares I can use.
 
I just booked flights to Mexico (PVR) yesterday for next March. I have watched these prices and others for about three weeks hoping for some sort of discount or price drop. No Luck. I had to pay $665/person RT.

This is way more than originally budgeted. I agree that prices will continue to rise.

This flight was available for 35K miles coach or 60K miles business class if I were a bit more flexible. Makes me believe that as soon as I become an empty nester, my Marriott Rewards Points are going to become more valuable. :D
 
EWR to MCO May 2008

Anyone going to see the mouse in May 2008, Continental has flights from Newark to Orlando for $138 plus taxes, non stop.

Won't find any lower than that.
 
Bruce W said:
Anyone going to see the mouse in May 2008, Continental has flights from Newark to Orlando for $138 plus taxes, non stop.

Won't find any lower than that.
Click to expand...

Oil hit almost 90 a barrel today. The fares will go up big time.
 
I'm seeing new fares with huge dumps that should be loading in the GDS as I write this. Example: SEA-MCO for 104+ (145 all-in); yes, that's round trip from Seattle to Orlando Florida :)

Many other examples abound. We just got done with a round of sub 300.00 HNL fares from many points east and now this. Mileage runner heaven :D

Pat
 
No, I do not wait at all. I purchase my tickets when I feel like it regardless of the price. I purchased our tickets for next April from LAX to Cancun about a month ago. I wanted to make sure that I could get first class on Alaska airlines which I did.
 
Carolinian said:
Yes, I took a position with an NGO in eastern Europe in August.
Click to expand...

Wow, that is ultimately awesome, Carolinian. A bit different from the Research Triangle, huh? Gosh, I would love to do something like that - I really enjoyed my 3 month work exchange to the UK. Werr you required to have language fluency in the native language?
 
I've been looking for a super inexpensive trip just to get a few miles added to my ff account to get over a mileage threshold. I've been checking e-fares, those low last minute flights on weekends to get those miles. I've been seeing $75 each way trips from Manchester to Phila. on US Airways. This morning I was playing around with some options and found $49 fares so I'm doing a quick turnaround in Nov. I don't understand why that fare was so low, but I grabbed it.:D

Gets me my 1K status on United because of their partnership. :banana:

Sue
 
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I decide what I'm willing to pay for a particular trip. Example: I'll pay $200 for DFW-FLL-DFW. If I see it for that price or lower, I buy it. If it never shows up at say $200 - $210, I just cancel the trip and move on to the next one. Rarely happens, but when it does I just add up what I didn't spend for air, car, lodging, parking, etc. I figure this is money in the bank for my next trip. On rare occasions I will lose RCI Exchange fee and value of Points lost or MF of my Week. Bottom line is that I will not pay an airline more than I think a flight is worth.

Last time I had to cancel a trip was Myrtle Beach earlier this year when sum of Airfare and Car Rental exceeded my limit using Charlotte, Myrtle Beach and Raleigh Durham airports. Cost me a $396 MF but I didn't spend aprx $500 for sum of air, car, parking, etc. Maybe next year. Who knows?

GEORGE
 
Bruce W said:
Anyone going to see the mouse in May 2008, Continental has flights from Newark to Orlando for $138 plus taxes, non stop.

Won't find any lower than that.
Click to expand...

YES YOU WILL!!!!!

We are also going to see the mouse in May 2008. But we will be spending a few nights afterwards at my parent's house in Delray Beach, so we will return from Ft. Lauderdale.

This morning I booked EWR to MCO for $89/person and the return flight from FLL for $69/person with Continental.

The entire round trip for my family (4 total) came to $715 including taxes!

Joe
 
It sounds like y'all are in violent agreement.

One way from FL =$69 ($138 RT)= lowest rate (+ taxes and fees)

Since Inbound is $89, RT=$158

Looks like $138 is the lowest!:)
 
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