We are taking one of the Med cruises this summer, and I have a few questions about air travel planning. I have been checking nearly every day since we booked this trip and have not found the prices dropping so we will just have to bite the bullet.
Q4: Did you book directly through an airlines website or use a website like Kayak or Priceline? Using my example in Q3, the price of the Virgin Atlantic flight was $400 more per person on their own website compared to what I saw on Kayak for the same flights, same seats (economy).
Any feedback is appreciated!
If I may; I work for a major American airline as a reservation agent and know a few tidbits that might help
Prices rarely (and I mean like .01%) go down. There may be promotions but once a price is set, it usually stays that way. The prices don't go up per say, in the sense of 1 ticket with the price changing, but there are multiple types of tickets all with different restrictions and prices. All tickets start with very low fares with high restrictions. Of course those sell out first because it is the best price. As the flight date gets closer the high restriction (cheaper) tickets are no longer available because 1) You must buy the cheap tickets before so many dates before departure, as per the rules/restrictions and 2) People buy those faster so they may just be sold out.
So, what remains are the higher prices, less restrictive tickets.
To sum up: Buy tickets early, you will get cheaper prices ... unless there is a promotion going on
As for booking through Kayak/Priceline ...
Beware that most online sites have special prices that airlines cannot match and, on some (think the Priceline name your own price ticket), the airline CANNOT TOUCH YOUR TICKET to change. At all. Only the issuing
travel agency can.
If you don't have one of those tickets, just keep in mind that if anything DOES happen to your flight (cancellations, mechanical, delays, wanting to change your flights), can be met with extra fees by the airline if you try to change your flight with them. With cancellations, it's just more of a headache and more time.
Though, I have to agree and understand why people choose the agency companies to book with ... much better on the wallet, but not better for sanity if things go wrong.
Just some info, take how you will! But I do hope it helps you