Asking anyway

Looking at flights for February - Toronto to Miami or Fll.

I know no one is psychic but do you think I'm best to book now or wait a little?

I hate it because the cruise I don't have to decide on until December but I can't book refundable air.......wish we could.

You think there's any chance prices will go down?

What airline are you looking at that won't sell you refundable tickets?

I take it that by saying you cannot book refundable air fare is based on the cost as more than four times the cost of the basic airfare.

Looking at flights for February - Toronto to Miami or Fll.

 

I know no one is psychic but do you think I'm best to book now or wait a little?

 

I hate it because the cruise I don't have to decide on until December but I can't book refundable air.......wish we could.

 

You think there's any chance prices will go down?

Is there a chance you can fly from Buffalo? Except for the 2/12 weekend, prices are substantially less to Florida.

Another confused as to why you cannot book refundable tickets. The airline would love to take your money for those seats. You're looking at around $2100 return per person on some airlines.

Also, you kind of forgot one important detail if you want people to weigh in with some modicum of a guess about whether or not prices will drop....errr, the price you're seeing.

If you are looking at fully refundable fares they never really go down.

I'm in Windsor and the flights from Detroit used to be a much better deal - even they have gone up so much, plus with the crappy exchange rate it's worse - so the last 3 years it's been cheaper for me to drive to Toronto for my flights.

The vast majority of my $$ goes towards my cruise - I'm not saying I can't "afford" it, but I only have so much.

As for the refundable flights? That's a luxury that I can't afford.

I can usually get my flight for around 500.

This time the cheapest I can find is 700 CAD.

If I was to choose that same flight but as a refundable flight - I'm looking at at least 3x that. It would be over 2000.00 a person.

We just don't have that kind of money.

I could get it a little cheaper but I'm traveling with my 2 elderly parents - I can't put them through plane changes and layovers. It's just too much. It's already an exhausting day with just the international flight - being at the airport 2 hrs early, customs, security, etc.

I take it that by saying you cannot book refundable air fare is based on the cost as more than four times the cost of the basic airfare.

Yes.....[emoji20]

I'm in Windsor and the flights from Detroit used to be a much better deal - even they have gone up so much, plus with the crappy exchange rate it's worse

Let me try to distill your situation. You want to find lower priced air tickets. At the same time, you wish you could have the ability to cancel your tickets.

So, the issue is: I can defer the decision on the February cruise itself until December. (Presumably due to the inclusion of elderly parents) OTOH, if I defer the air decision to the same time, will the ticket prices be lower than they are now.

The answer is that there is no definitive answer. At best there would be an educated guess, which in my case would be that it is significantly less than even money for any kind of significant drop for your specific dates/cities. Perhaps you need to take a hedging strategy. Book the cruise and buy the air when you see a price that you can live with - and when you don't want it to go higher. Get independent travel insurance that will allow you to cancel both the cruise and the air and suffer no financial loss. The hedging "cost" is the price of the travel insurance - the "benefit" is the value of lost airfare if you have to cancel the trip.

Be sure that the policy would cover YOUR situation. Beware of policies sold by the airline or the cruiseline - there may be exclusions that nullify coverage in your situation.

Ultimately, it's a value decision on your part. How likely would it be that you cancel? How does the cost of insuring your purchase fit in with that likelihood? How does insurance today compare to insurance purchased at the time of cruise payment? And finally, how willing are you to have air costs rise while you are waiting between now and December?

Good luck....and be sure to carefully weigh all these factors TO YOU!!!

I'm in Windsor and the flights from Detroit used to be a much better deal - even they have gone up so much, plus with the crappy exchange rate it's worse - so the last 3 years it's been cheaper for me to drive to Toronto for my flights.

 

The vast majority of my $$ goes towards my cruise - I'm not saying I can't "afford" it, but I only have so much.

 

As for the refundable flights? That's a luxury that I can't afford.

 

I can usually get my flight for around 500.

 

This time the cheapest I can find is 700 CAD.

 

If I was to choose that same flight but as a refundable flight - I'm looking at at least 3x that. It would be over 2000.00 a person.

We just don't have that kind of money.

 

I could get it a little cheaper but I'm traveling with my 2 elderly parents - I can't put them through plane changes and layovers. It's just too much. It's already an exhausting day with just the international flight - being at the airport 2 hrs early, customs, security, etc.

What dates are you looking at? I just ran an albeit very general search on ITA Matrix, and I'm getting lots of options in the $200-300 range... Now, not all of these work for your basic 7-day cruise passenger, but there's enough coming up that I would be surprised if we can't find something that will work for you.

Cruise is Feb 20 - so flying in day before (feb 19), and returning day cruise returns - Feb 27.

The problem is your return. You can go into either FLL or MIA on Friday, and your best return is on Saturday night from FLL. Showing at CA$466. Waiting overnight doesn't help...in fact, it's higher. Air Canada Rouge.

One alternative to look at is Porter Airlines. They now fly to Fort Meyers from Toronto - City Centre airport. I have not looked at specific dates.

Two things to keep in mind. Porter has excellent in flight service and a wonderful experience. Second thing to keep in mind they only fly the Dash-8 and that is a very long flight for a Dash-8. They are an airline that will discount quite a bit to fill seats.

I can see US$292 DTW to FLL RT on Delta website if you come back on the Sunday early flight.

One alternative to look at is Porter Airlines. They now fly to Fort Meyers from Toronto - City Centre airport. I have not looked at specific dates.

 

Two things to keep in mind. Porter has excellent in flight service and a wonderful experience. Second thing to keep in mind they only fly the Dash-8 and that is a very long flight for a Dash-8. They are an airline that will discount quite a bit to fill seats.

Love Porter ...fly them all over Canada for work . ..they have flights to Fll now BUT - all with layover and plane changes it turns a 3 hr flight to 8-12 hours :(

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I can see US$292 DTW to FLL RT on Delta website if you come back on the Sunday early flight.

Then that's one more night in miami - plus a 10 hour drive to take my dad home and I have to work Monday.

Thank you all so much for looking. I really appreciate it.

Looks like I'm stuck with AC - Toronto to Miami. Or west jet. West jet a little cheaper but parents arguing if my mom even wants to go now so can't buy airfare til I know who's going!!

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You think there's any chance prices will go down?

Yes. And I also think there's a chance prices will go up. Bottom line: There's no way to know what prices will be on any given date in the future, so asking if there's a chance they'll do this or that is really pointless.

Then that's one more night in miami - plus a 10 hour drive to take my dad home and I have to work Monday.

 

Thank you all so much for looking. I really appreciate it.

 

Looks like I'm stuck with AC - Toronto to Miami. Or west jet. West jet a little cheaper but parents arguing if my mom even wants to go now so can't buy airfare til I know who's going!!

 

 

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Oh I see, your parents live near Toronto and you're in Windsor.