When are airfares going to come down?

[toothy26]

I usually like to book my airfare early but the prices have been crazy. Looking to fly from Philly to Ft Lauderdale March 08. We also want non stop. Has anyone had any luck with airfare?

[Sue L]

They may not go down with all the issues the airlines are having and the cost of fuel, who knows.

 

Try sidestep.com or kayak.com

[pmshirl]

I just checked on Orbitz today for flights from Philly to Mia ( which are usually higher than Ft Lauderdale) and they had prices for 134.00 RT. Thats not a bad price!

[toothy26]

Thanks sue,

I do go on kayak every day. i'll try sidestep.

[toothy26]

pmshirl, that sounds unbelievable! I'll check orbitz. That was for non stop rountrip?

[toothy26]

That wasn't for March 2008 was it? I want to go 3/15-3/22

[pmshirl]

Yes it was non-stop but to MIAMI!

[goodml]

You could also try farecast.com. Similar to kayak but they offer price predictions. I've used it a couple of times and done well.

[PH8]

Thanks sue,

I do go on kayak every day. i'll try sidestep.

You might want to check this out........heard good things about it....... http://www.yapta.com/

 

And dont forget to clear your cookies out..........or else each time ,you check(Kayak,Orbitz,etc) it may be the same price or higher.......when you clear your cookies,its like you have never been to that website before......

 

I heard to do this with for just about any website that you might be researching prices for,

[TRadle]

I found that the airlines’ websites have been having lower fares than the discount sites. We just went to New Orleans and found this to be true for American Airlines. We got really good prices about 5 weeks before we traveled.

[pmshirl]

No it wasn't for 2008, it was for Oct 2007. I would hold off, and maybe AA will open up some more flights. I know I have flights for Oct already, and I got them last Nov. (thinking I got a good deal) but I keep checking and after seeing AA with that price today, I paid 55.00 a ticket more on delta and I wish I would of waited!

[turquoisesea]

I think you may be trying to ticket too far out from your date. I got USAIR PHL to FLL a month ago for our Aug 23rd cruise for $177 RT. Hard to know what's best to do - buy now or wait. It's not like they'll give you a rebate if the fare goes down!! Actually, someone told me they don't drop the fares until Southwest (the competing airline in Phila.) posts their fares - which I think is 3 months out (don't know that for sure.) By the way, on Good Morning America last week they said the best time to buy your tickets is from the airlines on Saturday mornings!

[Host Kewlguy]

We just paid $69.00 one way from Newark to Miami for this December. We choose the earliest flight available and fly in the same day. There are deals to be had. You just need to shop around. We usually use mobissimo.com. Southwest airlines usually has reasonable prices to Fort Lauderdale.

[RocketCity]

You might also try Tom Parson's Bestfares.com . The newsletter today provided some suggestions about airfares. It costs about 25 or maybe 35 dollars to join, but it has proved to be a good investment for us.

 

Good luck! We are watching for one ways from MIA or FLL back to our home area, too! (for Dec)

 

Regards,

RocketCity

[willysgrandma]

You will be flying home the day before Easter - that might be why the fares are so high. That is usually a blackout period.

 

I made the mistake of bookgn a cruise for March 30 - spring break - out of San Diego and I am finding the prices high as well. I am waiting for Jet Blue to put out their fares for March.

 

Try farecast.com too.

[Fam_Cruise]

Hmmm, cheap flights to FL in August (very hot and also start of hurricane season) and October (peak Hurricane season) and December (was that between T'giving and Xmas). But $134 flights in March (Spring Break?)... I don't think so. I would guess around $200 +or - $25 would be a good target. Other posters here on CC who have flown to FL in March should be able to give you an idea of prices during that time period from your destination.

 

Now, with that said, I would pick a target price and buy no later than the end of January, probably earlier. College kids get back to school mid-January and start planning their Spring break trips.

 

Watch for an AA fare sales for the travel during the March period to occur in November and January.

 

Last year one started on November 6 last year and lasted 1 week until November 14 - although that was Caribbean sale for travel between January 1 and March 9, 2007.

 

Another sale was January 20-27 2006 for travel completed by March 31, 2006.

 

AA has a lot of Fall sales, but not too many Spring sales for reasons given above (spring break) along with heavier business travel during that period. I keep all my AA airfare sale emails so I can look back at previous years. I do not know what the other airlines did; but my guess, since the competition is fierce, is that they had similar pricing.

 

You are at a US Airways hub, so hopefully someone who tracks US Airways sales may be able to provide you better insight as to when their sales occur.

 

 

GEEZ! That is Easter week. Yes, you are actually going to have more problems with Saturday the 15th as that is the start of holy week and almost all Christian schools will be out that week, and many public schools too, so lots of folks will be traveling Saturday the 15th for Holiday. Actually Saturday the 22 should be the easier day to get seats, but it will be busy too. While everything I said in the previous paragraphs applies to Spring airfare, in your case I would buy now, or soon, as prices will just continue go up IMO.

 

I just booked a ticket to AZ over Xmas and it was $700+ which is very high IMO. I used miles for a free ticket instead, something I rarely do (I usually use miles for upgrades instead).

 

 

Good luck.

[willysgrandma]

I flew this past March to FLL and paid $189 r/t. But Easter was in April, so the prices were low.

 

Next year Easter is very early and that is why you are seeing such high prices in March.

[Fam_Cruise]

AA has $378 PHL-MIA non-stop for your dates (Easter), which will look real good come fall. There is only one AA flight available to get you there (note: Miami) on time and about 25% of the coach seats have already been assigned (32 of 132). Most flights on a non-holiday week this far out would only have a few seats seats assigned. The same flight on Saturday 3/29 only has 12 out of 132 seats assigned. Note: on AA seat maps the front and back rows of seats appear to be occupied, but they are not. They are merely blocked for airport assignment. If you are not AAdvantage elite the exit row seats may also appear to be occupied on the seat map display.

 

US has $511 PHL-FLL non-stop for your dates (Easter). I don't know how to check assigned seats on US.

[yosh12]

Regardless of the price, I'd buy the air now. By the end of the year, there won't be anything left.

[Coralc]

I'm not impressed with Yapta. I have several flights "tagged" and their notification is slower/non-existent rather than finding it on your own. :) We just rebooked with Southwest notification, Yapta did not notify even though it was supposedly "tagged".

[zebra36]

I usually like to book my airfare early but the prices have been crazy. Looking to fly from Philly to Ft Lauderdale March 08. We also want non stop. Has anyone had any luck with airfare?

 

If you can wait until SouthWest opens up their schedule for that time period they generally have good fares. If you do book with them and see a lower fare on their schedule they will let you rebook without any penalty and you will get a credit to apply to your next flight. Good luck with your plans and have a great cruise.

[FreewayFortune]

We usually listen for when the seat sales are on and get our airfare at that time. We've managed to fly from Toronto to Miami and then from Orlando to Toronto for under $500 a person. We thought that was a good deal because Pearson is so expensive.

[goodml]

I'm not impressed with Yapta. I have several flights "tagged" and their notification is slower/non-existent rather than finding it on your own. :) We just rebooked with Southwest notification, Yapta did not notify even though it was supposedly "tagged".

 

I found the same thing with Yapta and the other problem is that it doesn't work for some of the major airlines so you might be missing out on a sale there. I've had really good luck using other sites (like farecast.com) that you can't purchase the flights from because they check prices on many different airlines and they're the prices you get on the airlines' own sites. They actually provide the link to the airline's website on each flight that you have to choose from.

 

For instance on farecast, I've been watching flights from Detroit to Seattle for about 3 weeks now. The price was hovering between $355 and $381 and farecast said to wait because prices were steady or falling. Yesterday Frontier dropped the price to $281 and today Northwest dropped it to $251 and farecast changed the notification to "buy" because prices were going to go up. (It's a computer model -pretty interesting - have to read the site.)

 

I too think it's probably too early for this flight. When we fly from Detroit to FLL (usually in Dec) we find the best prices right around 90 days ahead. For March I'd be booking earlier than that just because of demand. I'd be watching now but not jumping unless I saw a really good price.

[TWELVEOHONE]

I usually like to book my airfare early but the prices have been crazy. Looking to fly from Philly to Ft Lauderdale March 08. We also want non stop. Has anyone had any luck with airfare?

 

 

Last week the Philadelphia Inquirer had a article in the business section how travel agents are cheaper than the internet 95% of the time.

 

Another article saying the same thing was in the New York Times a few weeks ago

 

Find a good travel agent who knows how to use an airline computer system and you might be surprised how much you might save.

 

Airlines have no incentive to reduce prices planes are going our with no empty seat.

[goodml]

The problem with using travel agents for flights is that the airlines no longer pay them a commission so most TA's charge a fee for the booking.