What is the best rate for airfare in this day and age?

[DisneyRunner2009]

In the past, I've been lucky to get airfare for around $200 round trip. Is today's best fare $300? What is your opinion? What fares have you been finding? Looking at seat availability, depending on the date, some flights are filling up, others not a seat is sold. This is during the summer months.

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

It really depends on where you are flying from and how many flights are originating from your departing region. From the NYC area, there are five airports that are easily accessible (JFK, LGA, EWK, ISP and HPN) and a number of airlines that compete for business (AirTran, Southwest, Delta, American, JetBlue, etc).

We were able to find fares on Southwest for $89 down and $135 back. Considering those prices include 2 bags per person, we felt this was a great deal, equivalent to $100 each way plus baggage.

 

[Missy29]

Flying out of DTW I think I got lucky with $200 rt on Delta, same flight now is over $300. Last week it was over $400.

 

[TandEsMommy]

We are flying from Denver...R/T fares going from $420-$440 pp. Even with military fares, the best we can do is $310-$320 pp. Not at all what I had in mind, but I've been afraid to wait any longer to book since prices have gone up $10-$40 since the schedules opened. Hopefully we will find something lower and be able to re-book, but at this point, I'm pretty resigned to keeping our existing tickets

 

[pinkteacup]

Not sure where you are flying out of, but we fly out of Chicago (O'hare) and for the past several years have paid around $200 for airfare. This year for spring break we paid $160 pp which I though was a great deal. The Kayak app is awesome for tracking airfare, I tracked prices for a while before I purchased. Being flexible with the day of week that you travel helps too

 

[Lilo&Stitch]

Not sure where you are flying out of, but we fly out of Chicago (O'hare) and for the past several years have paid around $200 for airfare. This year for spring break we paid $160 pp which I though was a great deal. The Kayak app is awesome for tracking airfare, I tracked prices for a while before I purchased. Being flexible with the day of week that you travel helps too

You paid 160 RT on which airline and how long ago did you purchase it ? have you checked the fares recently out of Chicago ?

Recently (i'm talking within maybe the last 3 weeks) RT out of Chicago has been around $300 and up no matter what day you fly ! Although last night I did see that Air Tran has $80 fares on certain days, but even Southwest has been $300 and up RT no matter which month or which day you fly

 

[pigletto]

These days, 300-400 roundtrip seems to be about the average whenever I check from Buffalo to MCO.
Since that costs us 1200- 1600 for our family, we decided to try DirectAir after hearing good things. Small no frills airline out of Niagara Falls.
For the four of us, our April trip came to under 700 return and our August trip just over 800. That included bag fees and seat selection. They fly into Lakeland, so we do have to rent a car both trips. But as you can see, that's more than covered by the savings and then we have a car for the entire trip.

Hopefully it's a good experience. It was that or drive this time, since we want to go more than once this year.

 

[RabbitFood]

We fly out of Ohare and primarily use United. We used to be happy with RT fares of $200-$250. Now anything under $300 is considered pretty good.

 

[pinkteacup]

You paid 160 RT on which airline and how long ago did you purchase it ? have you checked the fares recently out of Chicago ?

Recently (i'm talking within maybe the last 3 weeks) RT out of Chicago has been around $300 and up no matter what day you fly ! Although last night I did see that Air Tran has $80 fares on certain days, but even Southwest has been $300 and up RT no matter which month or which day you fly

We are flying American, and I purchased the first week of January. I was flexible with my dates so we are flying midweek.