Airfare...WOW!!

[MomWith2Cinderellas]

We have some time to book our airfare, but the prices are double what we paid this past January. Even this time last year when we were looking for airfare prices it was still cheaper than this year at this time! I am worried that if gas prices go up right before the end of the year airline ticket prices will go up too.
I like American, because of the direct flight. We may try Air Tran, but they only have 1 non stop flight a day. That means if we have an ice storm like this past January we will end up on a flight that would not be direct. Southwest does not fly direct. I really hope AA comes down in price. If it was cheaper out of Houston I would do the 4-5 hour drive down to there and take a flight from there. However, than we run the risk of winter weather again and not being able to get back to our home.
Anyone else going in January and finding very high prices?

 

[darcyt]

It isn't just you!

I'm having the same trouble for flights in late October/ early November. I've been watching the DFW fares on AA for a few months, and the flights I want are getting higher and higher. We have a reservation (expires tonight) for flights later than the ones we really want. We are going to go ahead and get them because the prices went up again today. We're paying more than we've ever paid to go to Orlando (even our flights there during the holidays the past few years were much cheaper), so I can't believe we aren't even getting the exact flights we wanted.

We looked at several options (Airtran, Southwest, even flying in and out of Tampa), but the savings would be too small to bother.

I'm running out of time, so I don't want to wait for a sale, but I hope one shows up for you!

 

[derocas]

We just flew AirTran and it was a nightmare. Our original flight was cancelled. We were bumped off another flight we ended up flying out the next day with a stop in Atlanta. We were told that they would reimburse for our hotel since we had to drive to another airport and be there at 4:00 am to catch the 6 am flight. Later on we were told after further review they decided to pay for only 1/2 of the hotel room bill since the original flight was cancelled due to weather conditions. Just be very careful with AirTran. They have great rates but when things go wrong they go REALLY wrong with AirTran. The supervisor at the airport blamed reservations for "overbooking" us and bumped us off the flight. Reservations told us that The supervisor (very rude man named Ray) was wrong for not letting us board since we were booked for that flight. In the end the customer pays the price. I hope AA comes through for you with a lower rate. Good luck.

 

[shelly3girls]

I have to say that I panicked 6 months ago when looking for airfare for our September trip. Within weeks the flights dropped to rediculously low prices. Once SW released their fares there have been sales for good prices almost every week. Of course our airport may be different than yours but I think maybe 5 months out is still early.