Waiting To Book A US Air Flight

[jhaig]

We will be going to WDW next September. With the US Air / American merger not yet official, should we book our flight sooner than later? Are ticket prices expected to increase once the merger is completed in 2014?

 

[Gracie09]

The merger is not finalized. It still has to go through antitrust regulators. If you see a price you like get the tickets. I doubt they will be able to completely merger their systems in less than a year.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

If the merger is eventually approved, it will be years before it will be completed (certainly not by 2014). Don't base your flight booking strategy on this proposed merger.

 

[jhaig]

That's kinda what I was thinking too. I'm hoping to find tickets from Elmira New York through Philly to Orlando for no more than $400 each, but hoping to get them closer to $300.

 

[MrsNick]

Three isn't a way to predict the fares, but typically once mergers are complete, fares rise due to the loss of competition. Flights out of Newark cost more than they used to; once Continental merged with United, they together controlled more than 70% of the domestic market out of EWR, and fares went up.

 

[Letsbgoofy]

That's kinda what I was thinking too. I'm hoping to find tickets from Elmira New York through Philly to Orlando for no more than $400 each, but hoping to get them closer to $300.

United flies out of BGM (Broome County) for $248 often (and September is usually low fares). It's about an hour drive from there to the Elmira airport.