Budget for airfare???

[Camno's Mama]

I've been kind of looking at the airlines' websites to see what the tickets are priced at right now, but as we aren't going until April, I'm not really sure what they'll end up being.

So, what did you pay for your tickets? Did anyone find good prices anywhere? What was your strategy...did you look everyday or on certain days?

Thanks!

 

[Vijoge]

We're flying from MDW in Feb. I paid $159 each way on the 21st. $1017 r/t for the three of us on SWA.

 

[SDFgirl]

We're flying Southwest, and paid $204 per person round trip.

There's no telling how or when to get the best fare, it's so unpredictible.

Just keep checking and when you find anything halfway decent, pounce on it. If it's anywhere within your desired price range, go ahead and purchase. You can always wait for the fares to go lower, and they might, but chances are, they'll go up.

You can also download DING from Southwest if they fly out of your city. Some websites (Travelocity I think) will save your preferred routes and email you when prices go below a certain price point.

Also you can try www.kayak.com. They search over 140 travel sites to find the very best fare, and it's free.

Good luck!

 

[rockonthemoon]

A really good travel site that I use is www.kayak.com . They check not only places like expedia, and hot wire, but they check the airline's websites too. We managed to get awesome fares $280 round trip, from Chicago to New York. Impressive considering that they were around $400.00 everywhere else.

 

[raven69david]

Our December trip cost us $139 each (including taxes) R/T from San Antonio to Orlando. That price is about $15.00 higher than last year so we were very happy with that. I don't expect SWA to raise prices that much, but if you're going doing peak travel season you've gotta expect it to be slightly higher than usual. Book early. As the seats start to sell, their class rating increases. As class rates go higher or change, so does the price. I learned this from my travel agent. If you use a TA, have her teach you what the letter codes mean when you get a chance that way you can call in and see how full the flight is getting.

We leave today for WDW and we got tickets at $9.00 each way from Spirit. Total price came out to $153.00 for all 3 of each roundtrip. The taxes/fees came out to $99 so taxes were more expensive than the flight. LOL I don't care though for that price which is the reason that we bought our first set of AP's this year. If flying's gonna be this cheap, we can go more often. Yesterday I booked 10/3-10/6 for $147.00 roundtrip so we'll be getting our moneys worth out of our AP's. Check out spiritair.com and see if you can get cheap flights too. I'll post a review on how this airline does as i'm very curious to see how they perform. They do charge for everything though so you gotta be careful with what you take. They charge for seats assignments purchased in advance, luggage, no free beverages/snacks, nothing!

 

[imthatgirl]

we're flying southwest out of providence and paying $204 round trip each person.
we spent a lot of time looking for airfare and werent finding anyhting we wanted. so i signed up for southwestding. the minute they released airfare for our dates i was on their site and they had $204 rt. so i took it(i bought 8 tickets). when i was done i went back on just out of curiosity and the same flight was up to $274rt. so iw as glad i got them.

basically i think it all comes down to be in the right place at the right time.

 

[tinkerlisa]

we're flying southwest out of providence and paying $204 round trip each person.
we spent a lot of time looking for airfare and werent finding anyhting we wanted. so i signed up for southwestding. the minute they released airfare for our dates i was on their site and they had $204 rt. so i took it(i bought 8 tickets). when i was done i went back on just out of curiosity and the same flight was up to $274rt. so iw as glad i got them.

basically i think it all comes down to be in the right place at the right time.

We flew southwest out of PVD last April! I couldn't believe how great their prices were!! We paid a total of $800 for all of us to fly(4 and a baby). We went with American Airlines before and they were very pricy. So I think we will do Southwest again next time!

 

[Vijoge]

We managed to get awesome fares $280 round trip, from Chicago to New York. Impressive considering that they were around $400.00 everywhere else.

I got a Ding! from SWA today MDW - ISP $55 one way! With taxes etc it's $131 R/T

There are deals out there

 

[richmond282]

I got a GREAT deal from Allegiant Air (which I booked as soon as it was posted). We paid $49 each way X 3 people. After fees and things it was around $400 for 3 r/t tickets. I'm glad I booked 6 mos. in advance, because the prices did go up.

 

[lmillercrew]

If you fly from Tues to Tues the fares are cheaper. And register at airfarewatchdog.com and they will notify you, up to 7 days a week, of the cheapest airfare from the airports of your choice. We live in Toledo so I check out Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland airports. Flights out of Detroit are usually cheaper than Chicago. Wednesday nights, late, are supposed to be a good time to look. But, I found great fares on Spirit on a Sunday morning, just random. Just keep checking. Got flights to Honolulu last year out of Cleveland for $460/pp and that included taxes and fees!

 

[Colinsmom]

We also fly out of the Chicago area (live in the south burbs). We are going mid-October, and couldn't get there on Southwest (or anyone else) for less than $300pp. We ended up booking AirTran out of Indianpolis for about $180pp with taxes, which is okay with us - it's only about 1.5hrs further than the Chicago airports, parking is much cheaper than Chicago (offsets gas costs) and I used to live in Indianapolis, so I'm comfortable with the city and the airport. We also liked the flight times, and they are direct flights.

We considered going on a cruise as a family in late March and found a great rate on the cruise, but airfare was going to cost $450pp (based on what I found at that time), almost as much as the week-long cruise, so we canned that idea. I suspect that airfare in April will also be pretty steep, unless you are traveling at the end of the month (away from Easter weekend).

Flying mid-week (Tues or Wed) tends to be cheapest.