Airline Price Shock.

[Ron from Michigan]

So we are planning for our annual Food & Wine festival trip from Oct. 11-19 and I can't get over the price of Airline tickets this year. We fly out of Grand Rapids and the cheapest ticket I have found is over $500. We have never paid more than $ 250-300 for a ticket. We do have a free ticket so that will help some. I just can't get over how high they are this year.

 

[lilkitty819]

I feel your pain!!! We are flying out of Baltimore 10/18 and right now the cheapest we can get is $320. We usually pay about $200. I can fly to Mexico cheaper then Orlando...Keep looking hopefully the prices will drop a little more!!

 

[OKW Lover]

Go to www.kayak.com and set up a price alert for the dates you want to travel. You'll get a daily email with the latest prices by airline. When you see something good, grab it!

 

[Redarrow5150]

I live outside of Grand Rapids as well and feel your pain. I do believe the prices will go down but you're going to need to stalk the websites. Also US Air is now flying out of Grand Rapids so I'm expecting to see this have an impact on prices as time goes on.

So we are planning for our annual Food & Wine festival trip from Oct. 11-19 and I can't get over the price of Airline tickets this year. We fly out of Grand Rapids and the cheapest ticket I have found is over $500. We have never paid more than $ 250-300 for a ticket. We do have a free ticket so that will help some. I just can't get over how high they are this year.

 

[kristenrice]

We wanted to fly out of Grand Rapids for our October 19-24 trip, but there were no non-stops and the prices were over $300. We are using SWA points so Delta and United were off the table. The closest airport with nonstops was Flint and I was pleasantly surprised to find the prices were $210. I was able to book all 4 of our tickets on points plus I had enough Marriott points to cover a hotel the night before.

Our next flight isn't until May and I will again be jumping on airfare right away since it seems to be the cheapest within a few days of release. We live 10 minutes away from the GR airport but we rarely fly out of there as a family because it's usually $100-$200 cheaper per person to fly out of Detroit or Flint.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Flights from New York t Orlando are insanely high, we usually pay $180-$220 for non stop flights at the times we prefer. Now I can't find anything less than $360 for our November trip and that is at the furthest airport, with a stopover and at horrible times.

Thanks to the OKW Lover poster above, I just set a Kayak alert up for our dates. Hopefully that will help us out.

 

[maxiesmom]

I'm flying from Grand Rapids too, October 21-27. I purchased my tickets over a month ago for $297 each. Once Southwest released their flights, and the rates were high and the non stops were gone, I jumped on the tickets that worked for my time frame and were at an acceptable rate. But on Delta.

If you are willing to drive a little, Flint has significantly cheaper rates. I have done that before! But as there are only 2 of us on this trip it didn't make any sense to make the 90 minute trek to Flint.

 

[kydisneyfans]

The flight prices to Orlando in Oct are high from Louisville too. The best I could find was around $375 each, that was leaving a day later and coming home a day earlier than we wanted.

It's $398 to fly to LA, so this Oct is our first trip to Disneyland.

 

[DianeV]

We are going in August and Flint isn't any cheaper than DTW

 

[hockeyprincess25]

I can't believe the costs from Upstate NY either...I am traveling alone with my son so we don't have a lot of flexibility like we would if I had DH with me. I was expecting $200 tops for the flights...so far I am looking at $417...

 

[Pumbas]

This is interesting... I was thinking Southwest was changing their pricing strategies. Prices from New England seem to be running over $100 more per ticket & direct flight have been reduced.

 

[maxiesmom]

We are going in August and Flint isn't any cheaper than DTW

What dates are you going? Putting in just random dates Flint came up $40 bucks cheaper one way out of Flint than Detroit.

 

[waltsdouble]

I bought 5 round trip tickets, Boston to Orlando, for this October when jetBlue tickets went on sale. the same seats are now $1300.00 more.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Go to www.kayak.com and set up a price alert for the dates you want to travel. You'll get a daily email with the latest prices by airline. When you see something good, grab it!

I have already done this but thanks for the tip.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

We wanted to fly out of Grand Rapids for our October 19-24 trip, but there were no non-stops and the prices were over $300. We are using SWA points so Delta and United were off the table. The closest airport with nonstops was Flint and I was pleasantly surprised to find the prices were $210. I was able to book all 4 of our tickets on points plus I had enough Marriott points to cover a hotel the night before.

Our next flight isn't until May and I will again be jumping on airfare right away since it seems to be the cheapest within a few days of release. We live 10 minutes away from the GR airport but we rarely fly out of there as a family because it's usually $100-$200 cheaper per person to fly out of Detroit or Flint.

I am looking at fFlint & Detroit too. We will be traveling from Oct. 11-19. I checked again just now and the lowest price was $498 on United. I just can't get over how expensive it is for Oct. We flew Southwest direct last year and it was great, this year they do not have any direct flights and a very limited number of flights at that. We'll I will keep watching.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

I'm flying from Grand Rapids too, October 21-27. I purchased my tickets over a month ago for $297 each. Once Southwest released their flights, and the rates were high and the non stops were gone, I jumped on the tickets that worked for my time frame and were at an acceptable rate. But on Delta.

If you are willing to drive a little, Flint has significantly cheaper rates. I have done that before! But as there are only 2 of us on this trip it didn't make any sense to make the 90 minute trek to Flint.

I wonder why Southwest has stopped flying non-stop to Orlando. We flew them last Oct. and it was great. Not enough people flying to make it worthwhile?

 

[Redarrow5150]

They haven't. I just checked out some flights last night and they do have one that's later than what they've done in the past out of Grand Rapids.

I wonder why Southwest has stopped flying non-stop to Orlando. We flew them last Oct. and it was great. Not enough people flying to make it worthwhile?

 

[jimandami]

SW is having their fall sale right now so you guys might want to recheck some rates today!

 

[DebbieB]

They haven't. I just checked out some flights last night and they do have one that's later than what they've done in the past out of Grand Rapids.

It might depend on the dates. I just checked Oct 21 & Oct 27 that the other poster mentioned and no non-stops are showing.

 

[shannonstar]

Because my dates are around T-Day, none of the SWA discounts apply. I did save 180/person returning via JAX. The rental will cost 130 (12-14 seat van), but it will be worth it. Also, the flight isn't until 7:15, so we will still get to do things on departure day (a first for us).