Holiday airfare sales?

[Tina]

I generally don't travel by air on holidays, so this is a topic I've never paid much attention to. However, my friends and I have decided to book a Thanksgiving cruise out of Miami. Airfare right now for DC-Miami/Fort Laud is really really high. Generally, I'm used to paying about $150-180 (RT) on JetBlue for Fort Laud or Orlando. Its about $340 per person right now (RT).

So my question is, do airlines usually run sales for holidays like Thanksgiving? Or should I suck it up and pay the high fare? I can actually fly Airtran nonstop out of Baltimore for $169, but that's not my first choice. Baltimore is a 2 hour drive for me and Air Tran is notorious for changing nonstops to layovers. I can't imagine what it would be like trying to layover in Atlanta on the day before Thanksgiving.

 

[Tina]

Bump... anyone?

 

[uva185]

It's not that the airline is not running a "sale" on the holiday. It's the fact that there are more people flying on that date and the airline has already sold all the cheap seats.

For example on any given flight they may sell 10 seats for $50, 15 seats for $100, 25 seats for $200, and so on... So during holiday periods where there are more leisure travelers who tend to book further in advance the lower fares are sold out (even if the airline originally offered the "sale" fare on that date.

EDIT: Why not leave a day or two early and relax on the beach instead of dealing with all the Thanksgiving travel mess.

 

[Tina]

That is not the case on these flights. I've checked. There only about 10 seats sold so far on each flight.

As for leaving early: I wish I could, but I cannot afford the extra time off and we're also traveling with a child that will not be out of school earlier in the week.

 

[Missytara]

I go out of BWI on Airtran the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I booked mine, and got a seat for $102. for that day and the following Saturday at $59.00 returning. I am also about two hours from BWI in DE.

I can tell you I have taken the same flight for years and have never been bumped, changed, etc.

 

[Missytara]

I should say too the last couple of years, BWI has offered 9.00 a day for the ESP parking, instead of $14.00 a day from T-giving weekend until the day after New Year's. Also, if there is not a space in the ESP parking, they will let you park in the daily garage for the same price, and still take you to your airline.

 

[Tina]

I go out of BWI on Airtran the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I booked mine, and got a seat for $102. for that day and the following Saturday at $59.00 returning. I am also about two hours from BWI in DE.

I can tell you I have taken the same flight for years and have never been bumped, changed, etc.

Thanks for the info. When you say you've taken this same flight for years, do you mean the flight into Fort Lauderdale (that I am looking at) or Orlando? Just curious.

Also, I wonder how different your traffic pattern is from DE. 2 hours in your direction may be drastically different from 2 hours around the Beltway from VA on the day before Thanksgiving. I'm thinking that 2 hours may stretch into 4 or more. I know how ugly traffic can be on that day just trying to get home from work.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

That is not the case on these flights. I've checked. There only about 10 seats sold so far on each flight.

You can't know how many seat have been sold just by looking at availability on an airline website.

Airlines don't need sales to fill planes during holiday times. Traditionally airfares will be high and will just get higher closer to the holiday. I would buy the cheapest ticket I could find now.

 

[Missytara]

I have gone from BWI to MCO on the 7:00 am flight going down and the 6:15 pm going back. The flight number has never changed and the flight itself has never changed.

Now, if you are leaving on Wednesday, that is a different story. They say the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the heaviest traveled day all year. On Thanksgiving, everyone pretty much has off the same amount of days. With Christmas, holiday times vary.

My grandparents lived on exit 89 in CT. We traveled on normal heavy summer travel days and it would take us 7-1/2 to 8 hours. We traveled the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and it was about 13 hours.

 

[Tina]

I have gone from BWI to MCO on the 7:00 am flight going down and the 6:15 pm going back. The flight number has never changed and the flight itself has never changed.

Per my original post, I'm not looking at the Orlando flight. I'm flying to Fort Lauderdale.

 

[uva185]

That is not the case on these flights. I've checked. There only about 10 seats sold so far on each flight.

The seat map is not an indicator of flight availability and/or sales.

According to the published Fare Data and Flight Inventory below the lowest published fare flying IAD-FLL on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving on Jet Blue is $138 r/t. But according to the Flight Inventory data it is sold out on the lowest fare classes. Notice the C next to a letter in the Inventory Data. That means "Closed".

For Jet Blue #350 (Y4 SC E4 K4 H4 Q4 B4 L4 VC RC MC OC) This means they sold out of O, M, R, and V fares and the next available fare is a L fare. The number 4 next to a letter means it is selling at least (maybe more) 4 seats at that particular fare.

Fare Data

Flight Inventory

 

[Tina]

Wow. I had no idea this sort of information was available publicly!! And I have no idea how to read these charts!! LOL You just blew my mind WAY too early in the morning... but thank you.

What website is this?

 

[uva185]

Wow. I had no idea this sort of information was available publicly!! And I have no idea how to read these charts!! LOL You just blew my mind WAY too early in the morning... but thank you.

What website is this?

It's www.expertflyer.com

It's actually a paid subscription site ($4.99/month limited access, 9.99/month or $99.99/year). They offer a 5 day trial if you wan't to mess around with it.

Not nearly as good but www.seatcounter.com will give you the Flight Inventory info, just not the Fare Data.

B6 is the "airline code" for Jet Blue