Airline Rates?

[mello]

What's your experience with how they fluctuate?

Yesterday the price on the flights I'm looking at (WA state to MCO in late Sept) were around $300 per person. Today they're around $400 pp.

Based on your past experiences, should the rates continue to fluctuate, or will they only go up from here?

We have 5 people, so I think that waiting for last minute deals might be very risky.

What to do?

Thanks for any advice you might offer!
: ) melinda

 

[Donalds_best_pal]

More then likely they will only go up. The airline sells a certain amount of each fare code and the the reach the highest fare code which is most exspensive and least restricted. Unless a special occurs for your routes then they should more then likely go up. Let me know your cities to and from your flying from and what dates and I can look in a program I have that gives me direct acess to airlines computers. Should tell me likely hood of price going up or down.

Matt

 

[Captain Blue Sky]

Air fares have a lot to do with dates of travel. When are you flying? Something to consider is that EVERY airline stratifies their cabin into different fare structures. Meaning, there will be only a few seats at the lowest fare, more seats at a moderate fare, and a few seats at the highest fare. However, in this day-and-age of very complex automated pricing systems, you could have as many as 20 to 30 different fare bases in any given aircraft, depending on how many seats are to be sold. Consequently, there is no hard-and-fast rule of thumb. The $300 round trip fares, from WA to MCO sounded very good to me. But, the old addage, "When you snooze, you loose" seems to apply to your situation, as when you went back a week later you found that the air fares had risen 25% higher than when you first checked. What you may want to do, as a solution (particularly if you do not fly often) is to consult a travel agent about low-cost air fares for your region and see what they offer as advice...

 

[mello]

We're looking at flying from GEG (Spokane) to MCO on Sept 21 and returning Oct 4.

Thank you!!!
melinda

More then likely they will only go up. The airline sells a certain amount of each fare code and the the reach the highest fare code which is most exspensive and least restricted. Unless a special occurs for your routes then they should more then likely go up. Let me know your cities to and from your flying from and what dates and I can look in a program I have that gives me direct acess to airlines computers. Should tell me likely hood of price going up or down.

Matt

 

[GoingtoSeeRella]

Let me know your cities to and from your flying from and what dates and I can look in a program I have that gives me direct acess to airlines computers. Should tell me likely hood of price going up or down.

Matt

Matt, I'm wondering if maybe you could help me too...I've been playing cat and mouse for a few weeks now. We're extremely locked into dates for April 2006 because DH is a teacher. We need to travel PHL to MCO on 4/8/2006 and return on 4/13/2006. We have 3 small children, so I of course want nonstop And just like most people, I'd like early departure and later return. I know I'm gunning for the most popular flights, during the most popular time of year (Easter break). Unfortunately, we're very limited out of PHL for nonstop.

Last year we got $220 per person roundtrip, and I was hoping to do as well this year. I've seen it as high as $550 on USAir's site, $360 on travelocity, and it's down to about $280 now. I've seen it consistently go down so far, so I'm wondering how long I should play the game. And if I should wait for Southwest to open up.

Thanks for any insight!!

 

[bunny]

We are flying from PIT on August 28 and returning on Sept. 5. Right now the air fare excluding taxes is $158. I have gone to WDW 6X in the past few years and never paid that much. I was thinking of booking yesterday but when I checked the seats available the planes were empty. Any advice? My friend just went in May and paid $98 nonstop on Airtran but US Air had the same deal. I am wondering if I should wait. We went last year at the same time and paid $135. Thanks.

 

[Captain Blue Sky]

You paid $138 last year, and you're unsure whether to pay the $158 this year, round trip????

By all means, you are free to do what ever you like, but if you think you're going to get anything less than that, I would consider you extremely lucky!

Of course, there are specials run all the time, but the public does not know of them in advance . Consequently, you need to continually check for specials in order to obtain a special, and then, there may not even be seats available at that fare once it becomes widely known (as people are purchasing them around you).

So if you want to wait and see if you can do better than $158, by all means do so, but keep in mind...

If you snooze, you loose!

 

[long4disney]

Recently there was a report on the news that air travel is at an all time high, and the rates will be much higher this year. The cost of fuel is up a lot also, so that makes a difference. Last summer we only paid $200 round trip for a ticket on United to Kiawah Island (Charleston S.C.) and this summer we are going again and the rate for like 6 months has been $400 round trip. We couldn't believe that it doubled. We had to buy 4 tickets so it was a very expensive trip. I kept waiting, since the seats were not full, and the price went up again. We just booked at $405 round trip and guess what, a few days later it went down to $386. I couldn't believe it since I have been checking daily for 6 months. It is now back up to over $400, so to save myself from aggravation I am not checking back anymore. I would be sick if it went way down.

If they have round trips to MCO under $200 I would definately book it now!