what just happened to airfare

[njmousefest]

I've been casually tracking airfare from the NYC area for a June - July trip and for 5 tickets it's been about $1700 R/T on Jet blue (a little more on united, but the jet blue was the upgrade with a bag included). Overnight it jumped $100 a ticket...kind of not happy I didn't take the $1700 fare, but thought I could gamble and it should go down being 170 days out.

 

[AngiTN]

I only track Southwest flights but they change all the time. I often wonder why.
I wonder if they use the same type of system that Amazon uses that fluctuates the pricing on some items based on how many times it's viewed

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Flight prices change because the airlines have very sophisticated computer models for pricing which adjusts the price depending on supply and demand. It's all about the profits.

Travel cost for June and July is unlikely to go down. I'd be buying my airline tickets now before prices go higher.

 

[supersnoop]

I've been casually tracking airfare from the NYC area for a June - July trip and for 5 tickets it's been about $1700 R/T on Jet blue (a little more on united, but the jet blue was the upgrade with a bag included). Overnight it jumped $100 a ticket...kind of not happy I didn't take the $1700 fare, but thought I could gamble and it should go down being 170 days out.

Try searching for 1, then 2, then 3, and then 4 tickets. When you search for 5, you get all five in the same fare class. If there are four tickets available for $100 less, you won't get any of those when you search for 5.

 

[rwdavis2]

Flight prices change because the airlines have very sophisticated computer models for pricing which adjusts the price depending on supply and demand. It's all about the profits.

Travel cost for June and July is unlikely to go down. I'd be buying my airline tickets now before prices go higher.

This. I'm sure these pricing algorithms run periodically, if not continuously, through the day.

 

[kj2mom]

Last year I priced Jet Blue out of Boston/Providence/Bradley/Worcester and Manchester every day, sometimes twice a day and kept a running spreadsheet. I couldn't get myself to commit to a time and one day the price almost doubled. I booked immediately in order to avoid paying even more but I am still kind of kicking myself (almost a year later) for not just biting the bullet and purchasing when my total for three would have been $700, I ended up paying $1,200.

I never looked at the prices again because I didn't want to know if I made the right decision or not.

 

[marsh0013]

We used to fly Jetblue a lot from the NYC area (preference to EWR and HPN). This was back when they used to give you a credit if the fare dropped (no restrictions), but almost every time prices would go down as we got closer to the date. Nothing scientific, I didn't keep track of when or how much, but I know we were always getting credits. Now it's a gamble, so I don't know what to tell you.

We've been flying Southwest for free the past 2 years (other than the annual fee on each of the credit cards), and that will continue the next 2. But if SW hadn't added nonstop flights from EWR to MCO, we wouldn't be getting the companion pass coupled with loads of miles from the credit card sign ups and would have most likely been back to Jetblue this year.

 

[AngiTN]

Flight prices change because the airlines have very sophisticated computer models for pricing which adjusts the price depending on supply and demand. It's all about the profits.

Travel cost for June and July is unlikely to go down. I'd be buying my airline tickets now before prices go higher.

We got lucky I guess. Our flights to CA in June last year went down by over $100 after I booked them. We flew to FL for free using that credit this past fall

 

[NYHeel]

Flights now are crazy cheap. Many flights from NYC or PHL to south Florida for $58 one way. I'm going in two weeks from PHL to Orlando for $43 each way on American.

 

[karly05]

Ugh, tell me about it! For months, I've been watching Delta airfares for my April trip go up and down and up and down and up and down... Last week, they were really good, but I just couldn't bring myself to commit. Then early this week, they started inching back up, but not too bad... Then overnight they went up about $40 (making them $75 more than the lowest price last week) Not as bad as the OP's situation, but... OK, so now it has inched back down a little, not as good as it was, but better than yesterday, and still within my target range.

I swear, if the price is decent at all this weekend, I'm just going to do it. I always feel like the plane ticket is the one thing I can't change or cancel without a huge hassle and expense. And yes, I know Southwest is the awesomest awesome thing ever, but they don't have good schedules/options from my airport. Delta has far and away the best schedule options and the prices really have been pretty reasonable.

That's the one thing I don't love about planning a WDW trip, playing the airfare game.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

karly05, The airfare game is not all that tough. I usually watch Google flights. I only check for 1 person and check one way flights. You can check a month at a time and then scroll through the months. We all have our favorite airlines, but you can see what their trends are. I happen to like Sun Country from MSP. I have followed them enough to be fairly confident that, other than holidays, any flight that I want from MSP to MCO will go to $104. My April flights just dropped tonight. I know others may object, but I have found the airlines will follow a pattern. Watch/learn the patterns.... Play the game