Oil Prices Down why are flights so high?

I've been searching airfare for our flight to Florida in February and wondered why airfare is still so high even though oil prices are down? I don't know whether to book now and pay the going price or hope for the prices to go down. Hoping some of you experienced travelers will have some insight.

Oil has been rising the past couple of weeks

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The answer is in the first line of your post (Florida is a hugely popular destination and February weather here).

In addition to Florida being a hugely popular destination especially in February, the other reason for high flight prices is the airlines don't just pull up to a pump and purchase their fuel. Contracts are signed sometimes years in advance. I remember at time when gas was up to $4.00 per gallon and Southwest Airlines had fares so cheap I could fly from Houston to San Antonio cheaper than I could drive.

In addition to Florida being a hugely popular destination especially in February, the other reason for high flight prices is the airlines don't just pull up to a pump and purchase their fuel. Contracts are signed sometimes years in advance. I remember at time when gas was up to $4.00 per gallon and Southwest Airlines had fares so cheap I could fly from Houston to San Antonio cheaper than I could drive.

This is the same reason why cruise prices don't go down.

I've been searching airfare for our flight to Florida in February and wondered why airfare is still so high even though oil prices are down? I don't know whether to book now and pay the going price or hope for the prices to go down. Hoping some of you experienced travelers will have some insight.

I'm not sure I would wait. Air is almost always cheaper the further out you book it, excluding sales. You can always book now and watch for price drops, swap flights to the same flight at the newer, cheaper price, and get a future air credit. I'm not sure about other airlines, but with Southwest you have a year from your initial booking date to cash in your credit on another flight. Since we normally cruise about once every 8-10 months, this works out well for us.

Supply and demand. I can't remember the last time I flew on a plane with empty seats. As long as an ailne fills their planes there is little incentive to reduce prices.

Actually oil prices are up lately so it is easy to see that it is a volatile situation and airfare does not go up and down tied to oil prices!

Prices go up and down depending on demand.

There has been a lot of consolidation in the airline industry over the last few years. Not as many choices these days and not nearly as many flights so if you want to get where you are going you pay the price or drive.

I hate to drive so i pay the going rate even though I hate paying the high prices.

Bill

You want another reason other than "because they can?" As long as folks keep booking, they'll keep charging!

You know there was a time not too long ago that the airlines were losing a lot of money. And things got even worse from putting new airplanes on hold to canceling orders.

Let them make some money because while things are good for them now, we know that sometimes they are on a roller coaster when it comes to profits.

All it takes is a terrorist event, or a spike in oil or a recession and things go bad for them fast.

How many more bankruptcies can they go through before there is one airline left.

Keith

I've been searching airfare for our flight to Florida in February and wondered why airfare is still so high.

Just curious, how much are they charging?

Just curious, how much are they charging?

If you are really curious, search here:

https://matrix.itasoftware.com/

I've been searching airfare for our flight to Florida in February and wondered why airfare is still so high

Multiple reasons have already been given, so I'll open another line of questioning:

1. What prices are you seeing that you consider high?

2. How strict are the parameters that you've put on your search? In other words, what departure airports have you checked? What arrival airports? Do you have flexibility for either? What about travel dates? What dates are you looking at and can you leave a day earlier or come home a day later if the price difference would cover a hotel room and still allow you to keep money in your pocket? What about travel times? Are you only willing to travel during "banker's hours" or would you consider a crack of dawn flight or a midnight arrival? Are you tied to one particular airline because of their frequent flyer program? Are you open to a connecting flight or are you only looking for nonstop options?

(And I realize you may have considered these things, but perhaps pointing them out will help someone else realize there's often a correlation between flight prices and one's flexibility (or lack thereof) with these various parameters.)

Cedar Falls....yuck. (And I am ONLY referring to flying).

You are in the middle of a big desert of options. DSM has traditionally been a high-fare market, MSP is a DL fortress hub (though with competition from Sun Country to FL), Quad Cities is no bargain and otherwise you may have long travel to get something "good" from ORD, OMA or MCI.

One thing to search is Rochester MN. Sometimes you can get pretty good fares - some have speculated that there is a Mayo Clinic effect. But that's sporadic and who knows what you might find.

The good news....ITA lets you search for airports within various distances from your "main" search. You can select airports at various distances and get them all back to you in one search. Try that and see what you get.

I feel you lol going from SoCal to FL in Feb is a nice sticker shock :) but in the end, I am watching 2 flights right now and so far price is holding steady. What I did was switch my days. I originally was going to fly in the day before but then my hotel was astronomical so I looked at a redeye the day before landing early morning of cruise day (like 6am) and then stay extra night on the end which lowered my hotel cost by at least half... Made no sense LOL

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Same ol reason as like in the baggage charge, it is called GREED.....:mad:

After all their losses and all the bankruptcies, I call it good business sense.

Now if they could figure out how to differentiate themselves with one of them focusing on maybe more quality that would be nice. But, I guess the downfall is that many people have gotten what they wanted which was when you adjust for inflation the ability to travel much cheaper than the 60's and 70's even though it means you have terrible service, no food or in certain classes so so food, and you feel that you are in a bus.

So as they say be careful what you wish for.

Keith

After all their losses and all the bankruptcies, I call it good business sense.

 

Now if they could figure out how to differentiate themselves with one of them focusing on maybe more quality that would be nice. But, I guess the downfall is that many people have gotten what they wanted which was when you adjust for inflation the ability to travel much cheaper than the 60's and 70's even though it means you have terrible service, no food or in certain classes so so food, and you feel that you are in a bus.

 

So as they say be careful what you wish for.

 

Keith

People won't pay for quality. American tried taking a couple rows of seats out to give everyone a couple more inches of room, and add 13 bucks (or whatever nominal fee) to the rest of the seats to cover for it, and people thumbed their noses at it and still went to sardine class, money saving airlines. Airlines try little things to improve the in flight product but no one will pay for it so it ends up being taken away.

DanJ, it's not that no one will pay a little more but right now it's not enough to make it work. And no one has figured it out. Someone might someday. There are a lot of things out there that someone figured out but others stumbled for many years. Just takes innovation, a vision, and money. LOL.

Oh well. Like I said, flying still beats the alternative if you don't have the time to get to one place to another via a less costly solution.

Keith

Has anyone priced the cost of of using the train. The cost of a one way fare . Actually more than flying and takes a lot longer to get there. I'm not including commuter services. Especially the NE Corrider.

Same ol reason as like in the baggage charge, it is called GREED.....:mad:

Before you make that standard old populist allegation, you might read up on how many airlines went deep in debt after 9/11, and how many bankruptcies there were...Many airlines are still recovering.

Before you make that standard old populist allegation, you might read up on how many airlines went deep in debt after 9/11, and how many bankruptcies there were...Many airlines are still recovering.

Hey Raider: How come you make so much money? Is the company you work for so greedy they can pay you more than the guy flipping burgers?

(Just for illustration...one man's greed is another's [fill in the blank])

DanJ, it's not that no one will pay a little more but right now it's not enough to make it work. And no one has figured it out. Someone might someday. There are a lot of things out there that someone figured out but others stumbled for many years. Just takes innovation, a vision, and money. LOL.

Disagree. The American public has determined in its collective mind that air travel is a commodity. They have no interest in brand loyalty or service differentiation - just the lowest bottom line. AA put hundreds of millions into MRTC and walked away learning that lesson.

Yes, there are those who are discerning enough to understand product differences and are willing to pay for those differences. But they are likely to be less than 5% of the total market (and I'd suspect more like 1-2%). That's not enough to build a business model on. It would take massive consumer education PLUS a consumer base that would be willing to learn and change their behavior. Not gonna happen. Zilch, nope, nada, no way Jose.

Take a poll of those here on Cruise Air and I think you'll see what I mean. They want CHEAPEST!!! (And maybe that's not the big concern expressed while dining in Silk Road, but it does reflect the population as a whole)

Thanks for all the replies. Still watching prices....currently the cheapest would be Southwest out of Minneapolis (no baggage fees) for about $450.00 per person. It hasn't changed much over the past couple months. We always fly in a couple days prior and will fly home on a Saturday when the ship comes back to Port. Even if we waited until Monday it still doesn't come down much.