Delta price trends

[peel]

I'm all too familiar with sitting in front of the computer for SW dates to open up and Dings to pop up, but I have a question about Delta.

Do they ever decrease their prices or do they just steadily rise as the date gets closer? I've been watching Delta fares for my trip in May and because I'm so skeptical about the "deals" that are going to be made available through SW I was contemplating going with Delta instead of waiting in agony for the 2nd half of May to be released by SW. The Delta fare was $248 rt and now it has jumped to $258 rt. Will I just see it keep going up now?

Oh, also, are they one of the airlines who is notorious for changing departure times? One of the reasons I was looking at this flight instead of our normal SW flight is because the time schedule was a little more appealing.

 

[debster812]

Let's see......I have kind of a Love/Hate relationship with Delta.

We fly to FL every year for February School vacation from MA. It can be WICKED expensive. So, for the flight down, I generally book the Delta flight the very day it is released (331 days in advance). I do this knowing full well that the times WILL change, and I will probably have to reconfirm a few times to get our seat assignments back.

This year, the flight home, was over $300 for a one way, the very minute they were released, we waited. When it dropped to $185 for the one way, I jumped on it.

We're paying just around $300 for a round trip, non stop both ways this year, and I'm pretty pleased with that.

I know about a month ago, the flights I'm on dropped in price for about 3 days, and now they're back up, and climbing.

The time changes have not been too bad. 10-15 minutes in either direction. Virtually ALL the major and legacy carriers have time changes, SWA is pretty much the only one who's schedule is written in stone, once it's published.

Hope this helps a little bit

 

[peel]

It does help, thank you. I do like SW, but the fact that they only release schedules up to a 6 months ahead of time really drives me crazy because it always seems that our dates fall either between the last available date (i.e. I can book my departure flight but have to wait months to book my return flight) or right after the cutoff, which is what happened this time around. I really don't like waiting so long to book.

 

[OKW Lover]

Price trends for any airline (not just Delta) and almost impossible to anticipate. What airlines do these days is they monitor the booking levels for each flight each day. If it looks to them like a flight isn't selling well, considering how far out it is, they will reduce the price to attract people. OTOH, if the flight is selling well, the price might go up.

So, your best bet is to monitor the price on the flights you want for a few weeks so you get an idea of what prices are currently. If you see what you consider a good price, go ahead and buy it then.

 

[Cowboysfan]

Seeing that you're from CT, unless SW comes out with a good fare, Delta has a pretty decent rate from Bradley. Not knowing where in CT you are from, i would suggest checking out rates for some other airports, for instance JFK has an even better rate (usually) for Delta, but Newark has an awesome rate for Continental, in fact it's darn near hard to beat ($400+ savings for a family of 4). I know it's off topic, but i figured i'd just throw that info out there for you.