March airfare - WTH?!?!?!

[Snurk71]

I've been watching airfare for our spring break trip at the end of March and it's not going down - it's pushing $600-$800/ticket. What is going on??? We flew 4 times last fall (once to WDW) and were consistently between $200-$300/ticket.

Is March always jacked up like this to hit the spring breakers?? Is it just IL getting the shaft or everyone??

If we hadn't already paid for the cruise I might be reconsidering going at these prices.

 

[Sammie]

I think its due to Spring Break, it seems high everywhere.

 

[disneybride96]

Supply & Demand.

 

[LoveToDisney]

Planes always fill because of Spring Break so they aren't going to discount the tickets.

 

[Sandisw]

We get the same thing from Syracuse to MCO around our February and April breaks.

I paid about $730.00 for my DD and I to fly for our February break and that is only from Monday to Friday--to book Saturday to Saturday, it was going to be close to $2000!!!!!!!

 

[DizGirl20]

So glad you posted this thread b/c I have been watching airfare from Newark to MCO for the last few months. I get daily airfare alerts sent to my inbox (we are looking to fly the week after Easter) and the going rate for a non-stop RT ticket is over $1,000! There are 4 of us so there is no way I am paying $4K to fly to Orlando!

If you look online at the seats that are available the planes are EMPTY. Seriously, the flight I want has only sold 4 seats in coach. I called Continental and all they could say was "wait and see what happens". It is making me VERY NERVOUS. I usually have purchased our tickets by now. Typically we pay $200-$300 for a roundtrip non-stop ticket. UGH it's making me nuts too!!!

 

[minnie74]

I fly to MCO every year during March, and had never paid more than $375 until now. This time I had to pay $471, and now those flights are close to $600. Something is definitely different with the pricing this year.

 

[zeferjen]

We are flying southwest philadelphia to mco for about $200 round trip march 25-31. Do you have them or airtran out of an airport near you?

 

[Snurk71]

Adding...

As another poster mentioned, it doesn't appear to be supply and demand. There are tons of open seats on the planes. So there is still plenty of supply - we're breaking one of the basic rules of econ 101 here.

And we flew from Chicago to Orange County for a DL trip last year for spring break - that was just over $300 (pre-taxes) I think. And going to the west coast is always a more expensive ticket from the midwest.

I just checked going out west for comparison - under $400. So it appears the airlines are just killing the trips to the southeast.

 

[Snurk71]

We are flying southwest philadelphia to mco for about $200 round trip march 25-31. Do you have them or airtran out of an airport near you?

AT is leaving our local regional airport, unfortunately. I think they stop flying at the end of March.

But SW is way high going out of Chicago/Midway too.

 

[DizGirl20]

We are flying southwest philadelphia to mco for about $200 round trip march 25-31. Do you have them or airtran out of an airport near you?

We are seriously considering flying out of Philly if the fares don't drop out of Newark soon! Just stinks b/c for us it's about an hour longer drive vs Newark and we have to pay for parking (when we fly out of Newark my Dad drops us off/picks us up). But we will do it to save ummmm $2,500!

 

[zeferjen]

For what it's worth, Philly parking is only $11/day and even long-term is close to the terminal

 

[4Pluto]

I've been watching airfare for our spring break trip at the end of March and it's not going down - it's pushing $600-$800/ticket. What is going on??? We flew 4 times last fall (once to WDW) and were consistently between $200-$300/ticket.

Is March always jacked up like this to hit the spring breakers?? Is it just IL getting the shaft or everyone??.

I am doing the same math and it looks like we may be driving to WDW for the first time. $800 was the low end when i was looking. Some airlines started at 1500/ticket. The high prices are only on those two weekends; if we traveled on Tuesdays it would be back at the $200 level during those same weeks!

I'm sure it reflects anticipated demand but at the moment we're going with the road trip approach. Maybe we can get a caravan going down from chicago.

 

[Brian Noble]

Airfare everywhere is up, thanks to continued consolidation and capacity reductions. The airlines have figured out that market share doesn't matter if you lose money on every customer you fly. But, spring break weeks out of snow-belt cities to anywhere in Florida are going to cost a good chunk, no matter what. You *might* get lucky and score a good fare, but it's mostly luck, especially now that we're getting close in to the date.

 

[dizfan]

News outlets have been warning of price increases for 2012 for at least a few months.

1) As Brian points out, airlines have been reducing the number of flights.
2) Many travel agencies are reporting the highest level of vacation bookings they have seen since 2006.

For those in Chicago, you may want to look into flights from Milwaukee. We normally fly SW, but their prices have been high this year. We were able to get AirTran direct flights for $100 less than SW this year.

 

[Anal Annie]

I've been watching airfare for our spring break trip at the end of March and it's not going down - it's pushing $600-$800/ticket. What is going on??? We flew 4 times last fall (once to WDW) and were consistently between $200-$300/ticket.

Is March always jacked up like this to hit the spring breakers?? Is it just IL getting the shaft or everyone??

If we hadn't already paid for the cruise I might be reconsidering going at these prices.

I booked our spring break flights for end of March / early April on Jet Blue when they first released their schedule back in September so the flights for spring break have been out for awhile now!! Back then I managed to get 3 round trip tix from Dulles for $628 with taxes...same flights now are running about $1,200. Once they started going up they didn't stop!!

FWIW summer isn't looking so hot right now either. I am tempted to book Jet Blue again but it's already around $790...SW releases the August dates I need on Jan. 22nd so I am trying to hold out for them because I'd rather fly out of BWI if their prices are comparable (easier to get to & MUCH cheaper parking). I will use Air Tran too if in the same ballpark with SWas they're also out of BWI. I have been known to book 1 down & the other one back...long as it's in & out of the same airport.

 

[mjc2003]

last Feb we booked a flight to RSW (fort myers) for 3/23-4/3 and it was $229 per person. Same exact dates right now are approx $700 per person. insane.

 

[Pennyguy23]

Fuel prices are going up so airfare goes up. Our gas is suppost to hit $4.50 a gl this summer

 

[Brian Noble]

In semi-related news, I saw in today's Wall Street Journal that Delta is mulling a purchase of American:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...842920091500.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLETopStories

(That article might be paywalled, but the news has been reported elsewhere as well.)

 

[CarolMN]

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