Please Help With Airfare

[Tinkerbell58]

I need some airfare advice. I found a good rate thorugh expedia.com, but didn't buy. Now that I'm ready to purchase my tickets, I checked back with expedia.com and the price went up over $40. I know, I know....I should have bought last week.

Anyway, what's the likelihood of the price doing back down? My planned departure date is not until November 26.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[mad4themouse]

It looks like 11/26 is the day after Thanksgiving. That could make it difficult to get good airfare. Keep a look out and spend a few "late nights" browsing the airline's websites. Expedia, Orbitz, etc. are not always the best place to look for great airfares. For some reason, I seem to do better in the hours just after midnight when I go to USAir and Southwest.

Also, being flexible with your times will also help a lot. Can you fly out the evening of 11/25? Can you wait until evening on 11/26 or the morning of 11/27? Is a non-stop flight important to you?

As far as rates going down again before 11/26, your guess is as good as mine. Finding good airfare has always been kind of luck-of-the-draw.

 

[ladydancer]

I will go to travelocity or expedia and check there prices for certain days. Then which ever airline had the best rate I will go directly to the airline website and check there prices. Usually it will be cheaper.

 

[AllyBri]

Not sure what price you were quoted, but Delta-Song has a price of $145. out of LaGuardia. Try your local airports and see what you come up with. More times then not you will get a lower fare with the Airline website.

 

[earldale97]

We are flying out the 26th from IND. Was able to get $59 each way through Southwest. NON STOP!

Try looking directly at the airlines that fly from your airport. ATA, JetBlue, SpiritAir, AirTran are all good. There is usually a list of carriers if you go to your airports web page.

I like ATA as they always have a great sale-but ended up using Southwest who had a comparable sale.

Good luck and be patient, get a list of favorite sites who offer sales and check back on them daily till you find the rate you can live with. I was watching for about 1 month and finally landed a great rate!

 

[ckoncurat]

I'm flying from maryland on South West, same dates as you, and I got $79 going out and $59 coming back. I started at $99 for each leg, but have been monitering SW and rebooking every time the fares went down. You can't get your money back, but SW will give you a credit good on future flights, and they have NO PENALTY for re-booking.

 

[MichDISer]

If you sign up with Orbitz.com (for free), you can have them notify you by e-mail if your flight/destination goes down to whatever price you are looking for.

 

[bexareaglecheryl]

We are visiting WDW Nov. 17-26 but that was not our original dates. We changed them because we could get a better deal on Nov. 26 than the 27th. We just bought our airline tickets about 3 weeks ago after checking prices since Jan. (You northern folks get a lot better airfare deals than us Texans!). I too had been checking around midnight every night. Well, my Dad got on one night about 8:45-9:00 pm and the best prices popped up then. However, the price can change from one search to another within a few minutes. We booked thru Orbitz. Strange thing was some airlines required you to get the paper tickets and we were forced to pay the Fed Ex 2 day fee (even though our trip was 4 months away), while my sisters who booked on a different airline (same day) were able to get the paper tickets for free. Recently Orbitz sent us an email about a slight time change in our flights. I have never had that happen before even when booking thru the airline's website itself. That was a pleasant surprise.

I would not wait too too long. it seems as if flights are selling pretty quickly and they have few seats at the good prices.

Cheryl

 

[TeresaNJ]

AirTran has a sale going on right now, you must book by Sunday, Aug 22nd, and it is good for travel through Dec 15th. The prices I saw quoted were $79 going one-way and $69 coming back one-way. Hope this helps.

 

[mbb]

www.sidestep.com Excellent search engine

HTH!!

 

[lkohawaii]

A friend of mine had her fare dissapear on travelocity or expedia or one of those. She was so bummed. A few hours later though it reappeared. So, keep checking they may have to go buy more seats.

 

[Tinkerbell58]

I booked my airfare last night through the airline's website. After checking fares this week on expedia, travelocity, priceline, etc., the airfare went up to over $250 for the same flight I paid $236 through the airline's website.

I wished I grabbed it last week at only $197 through expedia. Oh well, live and learn.

 

[bexareaglecheryl]

I'm glad that you found something that was reasonable. This time of year was not my first choice for a trip, but I'm traveling with 12 others and they didn't want to take their kids out of school. I think you probably will be glad that you did it. I know that about a week after we purchased our airfare, flights were up and down but no good times seem to be attached to the lower price flights so I'm happy with what I got. You'll be relieved too to finally have it done. It will free up a lot of time too. I know I looked at Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz every day from January to July. And I also feel like when I actually get my airline tickets it all becomes very real and I get even more excited about the trip. have a great time.

 

[Taja]

I agree that you just have to be ready to jump on the airfare that looks good when it appears!

I fly Southwest a great deal, as they allow you to change and cancel without charging a fee. However, I also opt for non-refundable fares, which means I have to complete travel on unused tickets within 12 months from the date the flight was booked. They occasionally will refund written requests for extraordinary circumstances (my mother went into congestive heart failure 2 days before our last scheduled trip--they were very good about refunding that).

PHX to MCO flights usually are about $220 to $230 including taxes and fees. I snagged RT for $180 in August 2003 for travel in December 2004. Didn't fare as well this year--it's $222.50.


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Taja