Airfares -- low or high?

[HeatherC]

IMO it depends when you want to fly. We are in the Northeast and can fly from either Hartford, Boston or Providence. For summer fares I have seen $49 specials on Southwest.

But...I am trying to book for President's Week and a direct flight out of Boston is $475 per person. Last year I booked in April for the next Feb. and paid $170 round trip per person for a direct flight. So...I have not been able to figure out any rhyme or reason to the rates. Just keeping my eyes open.

HeatherC

 

[Disneyjosh229]

Travellers in the US have much cheaper flights than those of us from Canada. Coach fares are ranging between $700 -$1000 return right now for our October trip. With the prices so high, we decided to book first class for $1500 return. Last year at this time we paid $450 return each.

True, but the taxes both the US and Canada charge as far as leaving and entering the country are absolutly crazy. Your looking at alone, in taxes, on that flight somewhere between $150-$200 Canandian....

 

[MadToad]

We typically pay between $150 to $200 per person ($300 to $400 total) round trip from Newark on Continental. This year we're looking at airfare in the high $800 to low $900 (total) range which is flat out insane. We may be forced to fly Jet Blue this year as their fare is 1/3 the cost.

Both my wife and I fly for business often and can attest to the fact that the flights are routinely full or over-booked.

 

[georgina]

I agree the rates are all over the place. Now that southwest has come to Pittsburgh, i am delighted to have my family of 5 flying for a total of $685.50 round trip! That's $137 per person, and much less than I have ever paid before (usually around $200) on US Air.

 

[Mousema]

We are within 50 miles of 3 airports. For our September trip I checked all three. Continental from CLE was $289, Air-Tran from CAK was $247 and DL from PIT was $158. Needless to say, we're going from PIT.

 

[NJDad18]

Rates are definately higher. This year we are flying into TPA b/c we could not get a flight from PHL for under $225, so we were able to get a rate of $175 into TPA. We normally rent a car so the savings for 4 tickets will contribute to the rental car.

We're planning on going in December and I think that I'll wait for the SWA rates to come out for that trip. We normally fly US Air because we all have a fair amount of FF miles with them.

I could fly out of EWR but the prices are even higher there.

 

[all4fun]

We live in the Portland area on the West coast. We used to be able to find a fare of $250 round trip and feel like we got a sweet deal when we landed a trip for $199 round trip. (Including all taxes and fees for both).

Now $308 is the norm, and you feel darn lucky if you can get it for $250.

It doesn't stop us from taking any trips, but we feel less free with our money when we get there.

 

[DonnaL]

We live within two miles of a regional airport which is served only by legacy carriers, so we make the trek to PHL in order to fly SW. I can honestly say our last three trips have been the best allround flights we've had .....SW has the BEST customer service, prices, and flight times, at least for our family.
We drive two hours to PHL and have a 2hr20min NS flight and still make it to MCO in less time than from our local airport with airport transfers. As far as prices go, I would say yes, they currently are quite a bit higher than this time last year, but, by checking the low cost carriers websites faithfully it's still possible to get lower prices .....I think the main thing consumers must realize is that it's not possible for everyone who's flying to get a good price on the first flight out going to MCO and the last flight of the day going out of MCO. I've found by flying late morning/early afternoon to MCO and mid afternoon out of MCO I manage to get some pretty good prices. Our last three (1/05, 5/05, and 12/05) have been $130/$137 rd trp PHL/MCO on SW which I consider very good compared to other carriers which at that time were running about $225/$230 rd trp if not more.
I'm currently booked on SW PHL/MCO 10/14 thru 10/20 at $241.10 rd trp, but, keeping my fingers crossed for a sale which should be happening soon, at which time I'll change my ressie's to the lower fare (even if it means changing my flight times somewhat) and then have a credit with SW which I can use during the next year for a future flight. I just checked the airlines which service my local airport and their prices are running about $275 to $325 or higher rd trp for my timeframe. The big difference is they are not NS flights and that's probably the lowest fare will drop. From PHL I probably could get a NS flight with a somewhat better price, but, again that price is the lowest the fare will go and once I purchase it at that price the legacy airlines will not even consider a credit for the difference if by some chance the fare should drop. So, for my money, my family is sticking with SW....again...mainly for their prices and customer service.