Christmas Week Airfare

[johnnyr]

How far in advance would be the best time to start looking for airfare for Christmas week?

 

[jimmaher69]

I bought on Southwest last week when fares were available for December.

I was checking daily and the price from CT/NY was around $500. It only went up or down $50 dollars max.

I read that "they" expect air fare to go up not down for Christmas although conventional wisdom id to buy at 3 months out.

i went with SW because if the fares do go down they will credit you for a future flight.

Good Luck.

Jim

 

[johnnyr]

Thanks. I tried last week for airfare with Southwest, but the web site was having problems. By the time I got through all the errors, all the decent fares were gone. Currently everything is over $500 RT from PHL. They are not budging either. These fares have been this high since the 330 day mark. This is way out of my price range. It would cost me over $2k just for airfare for 4 people. I have traveled for the past 3 or 4 years during Christmas week and never paid more than $250 a ticket. Do they really expect people to actually pay these prices? If the seating charts are accurate, there are plenty of seats not selling.

 

[mhawk4]

I bought tickets for December 22 to December 28 at the end of May and paid about $310 a ticket from Boston on Delta. Now it looks like those dates are going for over $500 and our exact flights are sold out.

 

[ibcnu]

I purchased tickets last week on Southwest for $301. round trip from Philadelphia to Fort Myers (we are bypassing Disney and visiting relatives for the Holidays).

I priced airfare from Philadelphia, Newark, and Atlantic City before the Southwest prices were posted and they were all around $400 round-trip so when the Southwest flights opened up for $100 less, I jumped on it.

I just checked the airfare and it has gone up $20 since last week.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

Last year I purchased my Christmas airfare on June 23, the day SW released them. I got $79 each way, Dec. 25-jan. 1, from Pittsburgh. After that, the fares went up every few weeks. Get them as early as you can!

 

[ibcnu]

we are flying 12/22-12/28. Our return flight just went up $16 today. So far, the round-trip went up a total of $36 each!

 

[Keacc]

Booked our airfare on United from Chicago back in February. Leaving Dec 21st, Returning Dec 29th. Got $223 round trip each.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

I was able to get flights on SW for under $220 per person, round trip. My trip dates were flexible, and playing around with the days just a little bit really saved me $$$. The next cheapest airline was over $550, FWIW.

 

[henderkm]

I'd book them as soon as you can if your dates are not flexible and you have a certain time of day you want to fly.

The Southwest flight we wanted to take out of Houston was sold out a week after reservations opened for that time period. We ended up booking with Continental instead. They will be able to get us there early in the day and the price with luggage fees and insurance was about the same as SW's flight with one stop.

 

[Jestocost]

Thanks. I tried last week for airfare with Southwest, but the web site was having problems. By the time I got through all the errors, all the decent fares were gone. Currently everything is over $500 RT from PHL. They are not budging either. These fares have been this high since the 330 day mark. This is way out of my price range. It would cost me over $2k just for airfare for 4 people. I have traveled for the past 3 or 4 years during Christmas week and never paid more than $250 a ticket. Do they really expect people to actually pay these prices? If the seating charts are accurate, there are plenty of seats not selling.

They do expect people to pay those fares and likely they will be right for the most part. Airlines have shed significant capacity over the last few years and seating availability is now to the point where every seat will be filled at peak travel times (and at many other times too).

My SWA flights from STL to MCO over spring break this year started out at $350 pp RT (which is what I paid on day one) and only went up from there. For this coming Thanksgiving we purchased tickets on the release date for $400 PP and they have gone up $160 each since then. I do not expect them to come down--at least not below what I paid--between now and the travel date.

For a variety of reasons, the seating charts are not accurate and should not be used to assess the number of tickets available on a given flight.

 

[ibcnu]

My flight for Christmas week just went UP $70 round-trip since I booked when the fares came out last month.

 

[verticalchaos]

How far in advance would be the best time to start looking for airfare for Christmas week?

Last month. Seriously. Book now if you want anything remotely "reasonable".

Note: "Reasonable" at holiday time differs from "reasonable" at other times.

 

[johnnyr]

Last month. Seriously. Book now if you want anything remotely "reasonable".

Note: "Reasonable" at holiday time differs from "reasonable" at other times.

Well I finally booked after watching fares for Christmas week since the 330 day mark and not seeing any deals. I had to move my dates by a day both ways, but it saved me over $400.00 for 4 tickets. I was even able to use an award ticket with US Airways by moving the dates by a day. I couldn't use the award ticket with my original dates. The other 3 tickets were the cheapest I saw in months, and I was afraid of the prices going even higher. They already went up $68.00 per ticket on the return flight since I booked two weeks ago. I am not happy with the cost of aifare this year, but the award ticket helped. In all my years of watching fares, I have never had this much trouble finding tickets for Christmas week. It's not that there are none. They are just too darn expensive.