Airfares are soaring!!!

[deakam]

What the heck is going on! We are arriving on February 2 and leaving on the 9th. I had booked our flights down from Chicago for $87 @ one way. The trip back was at $ 245 on Airtran. So I decided to wait to get a ticket back. Yesterday I found a flight back on American Airlines for $117.00.

Seriously, 5 hours later when the other family we are traveling with went online to book her flight they were up to $305.00, one way. I have been diligently searching all airlines since then and can't find a flight at a reasonable hour that is not way over priced. Is there something going on in Chicago that Saturday?

There are 4 people in the party that does not have plane tickets. At $305.00 a person they can rent a car and drive home cheaper.

 

[FlyingBelle]

you're within 6 weeks of travel, so it's typical for prices to go up - they also go up based on availability.

 

[Marionnette]

What the heck is going on! We are arriving on February 2 and leaving on the 9th. I had booked our flights down from Chicago for $87 @ one way. The trip back was at $ 245 on Airtran. So I decided to wait to get a ticket back. Yesterday I found a flight back on American Airlines for $117.00.

Seriously, 5 hours later when the other family we are traveling with went online to book her flight they were up to $305.00, one way. I have been diligently searching all airlines since then and can't find a flight at a reasonable hour that is not way over priced. Is there something going on in Chicago that Saturday?

There are 4 people in the party that does not have plane tickets. At $305.00 a person they can rent a car and drive home cheaper.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday flights into/out of tourist destinations generally run higher than mid-week flights. Part of your problem is that you're traveling on a weekend.

On top of that, there will only be a limited number of seats available for reduced fares, once they are booked, that's it. Your family may have gotten all but the last couple of cheaper seats. When the other family searched for that same fare, they would have only seen it if there were enough available seats for all of them at that rate.

And then there's also what FlyingBelle said. You're very close to your traveling date and fares generally rise as you get closer. There's still a chance that there will be more reduced-fare seats added but once you hit ~45 days prior to take-off, I wouldn't count on it.

 

[GoofItUp]

Have you tried searching for one ticket at a time? There may be one, two or even 3 tickets at the lower price which wouldn't show up if you only search 4.

 

[PatMcDuck]

I assume they are looking at both Chicago airports?

I like Midway, I have flown into there, and had layovers there......

 

[RAPstar]

I had the opposite happen. Wanted to book Southwest, but could only find flights for $400 round trip. Booked American for $259. Looked today and Southwest's flights have gone waaaay down. I was not a happy camper

 

[jetskigrl]

Have you tried searching for one ticket at a time? There may be one, two or even 3 tickets at the lower price which wouldn't show up if you only search 4.

I would suggest this also. I was pricing out our flights for June and one way came up as $199. But when I went to book it, it was $269 each (for 5 people). I discovered that I was researching it with only 1 person. After playing around, I discovered that there was only one seat left at the $199 price. Since it was just one, I just paid the higher fare for all 5 to keep us on a single reservation. If it had been 4 seats at the lower price, I would have considered separate reservations in order to get the 4 seats at the lower price.

 

[daughtersrus]

I've had friends fly into Rockford or Indiana when rates are high into OHare and Midway.

Just a thought.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I would suggest this also. I was pricing out our flights for June and one way came up as $199. But when I went to book it, it was $269 each (for 5 people). I discovered that I was researching it with only 1 person. After playing around, I discovered that there was only one seat left at the $199 price. Since it was just one, I just paid the higher fare for all 5 to keep us on a single reservation. If it had been 4 seats at the lower price, I would have considered separate reservations in order to get the 4 seats at the lower price.

You could have booked separately and then called to link the reservations (put under one PNR).

 

[deakam]

She booked a flight on Southwest for $177 @, which is a lot better than $ 305 @. They will have to be at the airport way earlier than us and they are going to miss lunch at T-Rex on Saturday.

I guess I will have to take lots of photos for her 3 year old son. But they don't have to leave for the airport at 4am to be on a 7am flight. It sure would have been nice for all of us to be traveling together but.....I guess we can suffer.....after all it will be at the end of our trip.

 

[jetskigrl]

You could have booked separately and then called to link the reservations (put under one PNR).

Thanks - that is good to know for future reference. I didn't realize they could be linked that easily.

For this one, we will be doing onboard check-in on DCL and I didn't want to chance anything going wrong since we won't be in control of our check-in process. With my luck, it would have gotten messed up. And if something is going to be messed up, at least we will all be messed up together