Um what to do? (booking flight question)

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

alright- so we (4 of us) are flying DFW to MCO 8/8/11 and flying back after our cruises 8/25/11.

The prices kept going up and down when I was looking a few weeks ago and then I finally worked out where we were staying, transportation (originally thought I'd drive, but if flight cost was down it wouldn't be worth me driving my vehicle aka gas guzzler LOL) and all that- I booked it for us 4.

Now DH is flying in 8/14 (evening) so he can spend one day in the parks with us before our cruises (this is due to the amount of vacation time he can get off in one year and we're really crunching it close since we're taking two b2b cruises this year) and back on 8/25. always planned for us to take the same flight home. This is how we do it even if DH can't go as early as us.

But after I booked us 4.... stuff changed again. The prices went up DOUBLE and it's been a few days and doesn't look like it's going back down. It's scaring me. I don't want to book it and pay double.... but I NEED him to fly on those dates and it's really not an option for us to fly home seperately either (we need to all get there at the same time and drive home in our vehicle parked at the airport. We don't want to have part of us waiting longer at MCO before our flight and the other waiting for hours at DFW for the rest of us to get there. The flights are really far apart- we're talking many hours. If it was close in time I might relent on that issue, but it's not)

The flights kept bumping up and down in cost when I was originally looking before I booked us 4.... think the price might bump down again before August? Should I wait and keep watching?

I checked the flight- practically every seat on both flights (that DH would take there, that we'd all take on the way home- both flights) is open/available. (except the return flight DOES show our seats taken, the ones I'd chosen for us four, plus a few others. I mean like maybe 10 seats not available on the airplane) I can't for the life of me figure out why the price skyrocketed.

Are those seating charts really accurate?

The reason I ask is because for our flights in April/may (us flying in 4/22/11 to LAX, DH flying in 4/25/11 to LAX) I booked DH first, then booked us 4... and when I was choosing seats- it still showed DH's seat as "available" even though I had booked it for him. Only a few days had passed between the time I'd booked him then us. Does it take awhile for them to update that? And what in the world happens if someone else chooses the same seat we chose?

I know this is a lot of questions. I appreciate your thoughts though!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

No one knows the answer to any of these questions?

haz a sad. LOL

 

[kaytieeldr]

We can guess, but we don't know (on the August fare). What about a different airline for your husband coming back?

For your April flight, a couple of suggestions: if you paid for seat selection, call the airline. If you didn't have to pay, simply reselect the seat.

 

[phred52]

I wish we had crystal balls to know exactly when to book flights.

I've been in a similar situation, needing to add one more person to join the rest of the gang, but the price had gone up considerably. In our case, even with the added cost of the one flight .....the benefits of all flying together outweighed the hit on the budget.

You have over 6 months yet, and you say the price has been fluctuating ...
IMHO you have time to watch the price closely. You also have time to think outside the box and check out other airlines that have similar flight times.

Sending pixie dust your way

 

[PixieDustandEeyore]

Here are some guesses...
1) They are expecting high volume of people going to book as more people are getting their summer vacation hours confirmed at work
2) August can be busy with lots of last minute travel before school starts etc
3) They just fluctuate ALOT it can depend on day, time of day, hour, if its a weekend, if someone sneezed and is cranky etc etc etc they just fluctuate as you know
4) Competing with other airline prices
5) More people are booked on the flight than you know they just havent selected seats etc
6) They are holding seats for third party sellers like Expedia, travelocity, priceline, orbits etc etc etc
there could be sooooooooooo many factors ya never know!
Good luck with them going down
I like the suggestion of your husband flying another airlines and arriving within a reasonable hour. Try using expedia to get an idea of what lands at a similar time though I recommend booking directly through the airline!
Good luck!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

^^ wow I had not thought of all those.... although the only one in your list that doesn't fit is the last one since it's AA and they no longer use expedia, orbitz, etc. I'm sure you're right about one or more of the other things you listed though.

We can guess, but we don't know (on the August fare). What about a different airline for your husband coming back?

For your April flight, a couple of suggestions: if you paid for seat selection, call the airline. If you didn't have to pay, simply reselect the seat.

We did select seats then paid.
maybe it just takes awhile for the seats to show up though because on the August flight- since there was more time in between booking ourselves and now DH- our seats are showing taken. It probably just has a delay.

DH taking another flight/different airline on the way back is something I really really don't want to do. Not only would I rather we fly back together but other airlines don't have flight times close enough and we have to all come back to the same vehicle meaning someone is gonna wait- either he leaves earlier and I wait with the kids till our flight and then he arrives earlier and waits on us, or vice versa.

Thank you all for your replies. And phred52- "the benefits of all flying together outweighed the hit on the budget." I took that to heart. I've been watching and watching and the price for exactly what I wanted (fly out 8/14 evening, fly back on same flight with us on 8/25) kept going higher and higher or sometimes when I looked at it- at the last page it would say either the price changed (even higher) or was no longer available on the return flight. It was freaking me out. So since what you said is really true about us too- when today the flight came up slightly less- I grabbed it. I mean I wanted what we consider a deal flying to MCO ($221 like we paid- when usually it's around $350 every time) but I decided it wasn't worth worrying and possibly not flying back together. The price had gone as high as $495 but lingered most of the time at $447 or more .... today I finally saw it at $347 and bit the bullet and took it.

Now watch- it'll drop down to $221 again but whatever. That's just my luck. haha

Thank you all for helping.