California Price Check

[buyerbrad]

Just wondering if anyone has flown to California lately and what they paid? Were are looking to go next August, flying from Detroit. The cheapest roundtrip direct flight is $363. However, the return flight is a red-eye, so that won't work for us and our 1 and 3 year olds. The next cheapest is $403 with great flight times. It is with Delta, so the snacks, wifi and free back of the chair entertainment are a plus with kids. Is this a poor/good/great price? Some airlines have not even posted their schedules yet, so we could also wait longer, but definetly don't want to fly Spirit.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Just wondering if anyone has flown to California lately and what they paid? Were are looking to go next August, flying from Detroit. The cheapest roundtrip direct flight is $363. However, the return flight is a red-eye, so that won't work for us and our 1 and 3 year olds. The next cheapest is $403 with great flight times. It is with Delta, so the snacks, wifi and free back of the chair entertainment are a plus with kids. Is this a poor/good/great price? Some airlines have not even posted their schedules yet, so we could also wait longer, but definetly don't want to fly Spirit.

I can't answer the bulk of your question but i can address the highlighted section with first hand knowledge. We booked our upcoming January trip in early May and went by last winter's schedule for WestJet under the misplaced assumption (you know what that leads to ) and found out indirectly that our flight was cancelled and that they had changed their schedule completely! We were even able to buy tickets for the flight we wanted and when they altered the flights, they simply cancelled our itinerary-- no heads up. When i posted here as a warning to others, several posters discovered they had flights that were changed as well -- and not only thru WestJet. Guess i'm saying don't get married to a plan based on a schedule that's rather iffy yet. It's very early to be booking flights for next August, I'm sure if you wait a seat sale will pop up and might surprise you with both cost and times!

 

[buyerbrad]

We've had good results booking the Basic Economy through Delta in the past, but the seats are limited. I've never seen the Main Cabin seats go below the price they offer for these seats. The one main drawback for Basic Economy at first look is that the seat selection can't be confirmed until day of flight. However, I always just call to book my order, explain we are flying with young kids, and they seat us all together at booking.

I'll try do some more research on what other airlines fly direct and see what price point they are currently being offered at.

 

[sk8jdgca]

I got good prices through Southwest

 

[alohamom]

I use the ita matrix and Hopper to check prices. I am seeing United has flights from Detroit to LAX for 303/usd return but I am not sure of when you want to go and for how long

https://matrix.itasoftware.com/

http://www.hopper.com/

 

[Shumshine]

OP - the flight prices you have are really good for August.
We purchased our flight into LAX Feb 2016 for August/Labour Day 2016 and got Air Canada for $425 (RT)

We opted for the day flight (8am land at 10am) into LA
the way home we did the 11:20am flight lands at 7pm flight.

Honestly, I prefer the red-eyes, as we normally sleep the entire 5 hour flight.
Delta is pretty good - yes you pay for services - but same can be said for AC or WJ.

If I was weary about prices - I'd use the ITA, Hooper or Google flights to monitor.
We regularly travel from Toronto to LA and have only on gotten a flight under $300 during the GFC (Global Financial Crisis of 2008/2009). I'd lock in the price as I've only seen these flights go up from $400.

Good luck flight shopping!

 

[Frozen2014]

OP - the flight prices you have are really good for August.
We purchased our flight into LAX Feb 2016 for August/Labour Day 2016 and got Air Canada for $425 (RT)

We opted for the day flight (8am land at 10am) into LA
the way home we did the 11:20am flight lands at 7pm flight.

Honestly, I prefer the red-eyes, as we normally sleep the entire 5 hour flight.
Delta is pretty good - yes you pay for services - but same can be said for AC or WJ.

If I was weary about prices - I'd use the ITA, Hooper or Google flights to monitor.
We regularly travel from Toronto to LA and have only on gotten a flight under $300 during the GFC (Global Financial Crisis of 2008/2009). I'd lock in the price as I've only seen these flights go up from $400.

Good luck flight shopping!

Wow...$300 for Toronto to LAX? I'm seeing more than double with current pricing.

 

[Shumshine]

Wow...$300 for Toronto to LAX? I'm seeing more than double with current pricing.

That was in 2008/2009 - airlines really suffered during the GFC. Now, about $400 is a WIN

 

[LittleFlounder]

For this past August, YYZ to SNA with United, I payed $581 per ticket....which I realize was not a deal at all! When I booked the trip(in March)it was a spontaneous decision and I didn't shop around or wait for a better price! Oops!

 

[Aladora]

We flew YYJ (Victoria, BC) to SNA on Delta last month and paid $296.00 per person round trip. I'm looking at the same trip in March and the best I can find so far is $385.00 but the actual flight times are better. (Leave YYJ at 8:35 am instead of 5:40am) Getting off the island is expensive, if we flew out of Seattle, I could do it for $116.00 USD each but getting to Seattle is a pain in the rear.

We've flown Alaska, SouthWest, Delta and American and we actually really liked our Delta trip last month. We did just carry-on so no extra cost for checked bags and per-selected our seats with no extra cost. The only negative for us was that there were no outlets at the seats.

 

[buyerbrad]

I booked it

 

[buyerbrad]

Just reserved my rental car for the week. $269 including fees/taxes for an SUV. I'll continue to check for a better deal in the coming months.

 

[lisaviolet]

Have always found some great rates flying into SNA.

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Have a wonderful time.

 

[SaraMc]

Ive found for some strange reason that the direct flight from Air Canada has always been less expensive than the other carriers in Canada. Flying through the states ( now Im coming from Toronto) was about the same price, but three connecting flights.
Usually Tango is about $350 ish one way, Ive also found the farther out you book the cheaper the price with AC