Airfare

Unless there is a reason to book really early (e.g. a high travel time like the holidays or spring break), we usually get serious about checking fares and booking 90-120 days ahead. I've heard many times over the years that it's about that time that the airlines start to actively manage the routes and make adjustments to fares according to seats sold thus far. Fares could go up starting then or they could go down as well but that's when we start watching the air fares.

Unless there is a reason to book really early (e.g. a high travel time like the holidays or spring break), we usually get serious about checking fares and booking 90-120 days ahead. I've heard many times over the years that it's about that time that the airlines start to actively manage the routes and make adjustments to fares according to seats sold thus far. Fares could go up starting then or they could go down as well but that's when we start watching the air fares.

The cruise is during spring break season.

My last cruise I booked through Carnival and believe I got a great deal. But Carnival can’t really quote prices or book airfare until 8-12 months out!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

The cruise is during spring break season.

As we discovered for our most recent cruise during mid-March of this year, the airfares were really high to Florida (if that's where you're thinking of flying to) and never came down. That could have just been our route (PHX-FLL) or it may have been route-wide but I know that just two weeks earlier (late February), the fares were about 30% less. :(

As we discovered for our most recent cruise during mid-March of this year, the airfares were really high to Florida (if that's where you're thinking of flying to) and never came down. That could have just been our route (PHX-FLL) or it may have been route-wide but I know that just two weeks earlier (late February), the fares were about 30% less. :(

I'm looking at flights to Florida as well as Houston. Flying from Chicago/Milwaukee to Houston is $713 for two people. Flying to any of the Florida ports (other than Jacksonville) is over $1100. Might just have to fly to Jacksonville and drive to Port Canaveral. Wouldn't want to drive to Miami or Fll.

My last cruise I booked through Carnival and believe I got a great deal. But Carnival can’t really quote prices or book airfare until 8-12 months out!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I am 9 months out. Is there a way to see Carnival fares online?

When do you typically book airfare? I am trying to decide on a cruise for next year, but airfare is outrageous! I'm talking over half of the cruise fare.

Yes, it is outrageous! I usually book AS SOON AS FLIGHTS OPEN for the best price. I usually email Southwest requesting date mine will open, and then jump on them. My daughter argued that it’s better to wait until just before flying to book, but I proved her wrong this past cruise. I booked in June for my January cruise on the day my dates became available. I got a non stop flight from Buffalo to Ft Lauderdale for $170pp. She waited, and it was astronomical. She decided to drive. I’m now on the lookout for my March 1 flight. It probably won’t be available until end of July or August.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Not sure how you are booking but I always go to Kayak and put dates in there to see what comes up, play around with dates and airports and you can do a fare alert also, which will tell you when fares drop. If you find a fare that you like go directly to the airlines website because I have found it can be a few dollars cheaper! I fly from California to FL and rarely pay more than $250 rt! Oh, and I have discovered that checking different discount websites can be a waste of time since they all usually have the same price!

When do you typically book airfare? I am trying to decide on a cruise for next year, but airfare is outrageous! I'm talking over half of the cruise fare.

we buy one-way tickets only and secure the best price for each leg of our trips.

there's been as much as a 4 week difference between booking our outbound flights and return flights.

best way to see what the lowest fare are for your preferred airline is to use their flight search tool and "see" how many months out from today do their prices change.

i ran a search yesterday for one of my staff that's seeking to travel next March. we discovered that the best fare available is $61 one way which compares to $101 one way for most other flights to same airport. so she now knows that $101 is an average fare and $61 is the best fare.

now she'll book when the fare is less than $101 knowing she did better than average, or wait to see if she can get the $61 fare.

there are zero set rules for airfare pricing. flight prices are algorithmically created based on demand, time of flight, rate of sale/sold seats on a flight, time of year/month/day.

i recently paid $132 one-way, per person to fly from SMF to LGA. and on the return trip, paid $99 per person one-way on jet blue JFK to SMF nonstop. i usually budget $400 per person r/t to get to east coast. this trip example is 57% of budget. that's a good deal to me.

I am 9 months out. Is there a way to see Carnival fares online?

I don’t think so but you can call get a price My PVP always takes care of me. Also you can book the flight and cancel for no fee anytime before final payment.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Not sure how you are booking but I always go to Kayak and put dates in there to see what comes up, play around with dates and airports and you can do a fare alert also, which will tell you when fares drop. If you find a fare that you like go directly to the airlines website because I have found it can be a few dollars cheaper! I fly from California to FL and rarely pay more than $250 rt! Oh, and I have discovered that checking different discount websites can be a waste of time since they all usually have the same price!

I've been using Google Flights, as well as going to individual airline websites. I'll look at Kayak now.

Not sure how you are booking but I always go to Kayak and put dates in there to see what comes up, play around with dates and airports and you can do a fare alert also, which will tell you when fares drop. If you find a fare that you like go directly to the airlines website because I have found it can be a few dollars cheaper! I fly from California to FL and rarely pay more than $250 rt! Oh, and I have discovered that checking different discount websites can be a waste of time since they all usually have the same price!

I went on kayak and found the exact flights I want on Southwest. However, there are no prices, so I'm not sure when to book, I've never flown SW before.

I have no good advice. Just whatever you feel comfortable paying. We are sailing out of San Juan in 2 weeks and the airfare in January was 400 RT, now its 400 just to get home. Unfortunately, I relented to someone else to wait for it to come down and I didn't get in on that "cheap" airfare. I found the going down at 171 in April sometime (which was cheaper than in January) but return has been doing nothing but going up. I finally bit the bullet at 278. Which is good because I just looked today and its 399. Now granted, If I was willing to fly at 2AM I could get good prices, but I am not doing that with kids.

One thing to note, if you use captain kirks website, they will price protect on the exact same route as long as seats are available.

I fly Southwest ALL the time. You can check schedules anywhere, but you can only check Southwest prices on the Southwest site. Some tips for booking Southwest flights:

1) Book as far in advance as possible. Right now Southwest is only booking up through January 9, 2019. THIS IS IMPORTANT!! Southwest will "open up" dates after January at some point in the future - when they do you need to be ready to snatch up the low fares as quickly as possible before they sell out. Spring break fares for next year will probably open up around August or so, Check FREQUENTLY. If you go to Southwest.com and click "Book a flight", you'll see "Now accepting reservations through January 06, 2019" with a note that says "On June 28, 2018, we will open our schedule for sale through March 06, 2019"

2) Look at alternate airports. Coming from Chicago, you'll have Midway. Houston, Hobby and Dallas - Love Field.

3) SW does not serve Miami, but they DO serve Fort Lauderdale.

4) If you're willing to drive a little, you can sometimes save a ton. For instance, if you live around Philadelphia, you can pay a ton of money to fly from Philly or you can often fly at a fraction of the cost if you're willing to drive 90 miles and fly out of Baltimore.

5) Be flexible with travel DATES too. For instance, if you have two people, it can sometimes be cheaper to fly back on Monday than Sunday - so much so that a hotel room may more than pay for itself and extend your vacation a day or two.

6) Southwest will let EACH PERSON check TWO bags for free, up to 50lbs each. Take that into consideration if you pack heavily for your cruise. Other airlines will nickel and dime you on baggage.

7) Watch for sales. Southwest has frequent sales.

Hope this helps someone.

I never ever do this but I already purchased my one way ticket from Detroit to Miami next March 29th 2019. I did this a over month ago and it's a year out. We are flying a family of four during spring break and $171 one way non-stop is a great price to Miami so I snagged it early. It's already gone up $60 per ticket. Our ship leaves from Miami and we disembark from our Panama Canal trip in L.A. Now I'm on the lookout for the return hope but it's high so I'm waiting. Prices seem to change daily, even more than once a day. Case in point, check every day twice a day from the minute flights are posted. I'm finding with the better economy that the prime return flights home at that right time are selling quicker and seats together are harder to be had if you get within 60 days anymore. I'm willing to pay a bit more to get the flight I want instead of hoping it goes down a few dollars until the last minute.

I fly Southwest ALL the time. You can check schedules anywhere, but you can only check Southwest prices on the Southwest site. Some tips for booking Southwest flights:

1) Book as far in advance as possible. Right now Southwest is only booking up through January 9, 2019. THIS IS IMPORTANT!! Southwest will "open up" dates after January at some point in the future - when they do you need to be ready to snatch up the low fares as quickly as possible before they sell out. Spring break fares for next year will probably open up around August or so, Check FREQUENTLY. If you go to Southwest.com and click "Book a flight", you'll see "Now accepting reservations through January 06, 2019" with a note that says "On June 28, 2018, we will open our schedule for sale through March 06, 2019"

2) Look at alternate airports. Coming from Chicago, you'll have Midway. Houston, Hobby and Dallas - Love Field.

3) SW does not serve Miami, but they DO serve Fort Lauderdale.

4) If you're willing to drive a little, you can sometimes save a ton. For instance, if you live around Philadelphia, you can pay a ton of money to fly from Philly or you can often fly at a fraction of the cost if you're willing to drive 90 miles and fly out of Baltimore.

5) Be flexible with travel DATES too. For instance, if you have two people, it can sometimes be cheaper to fly back on Monday than Sunday - so much so that a hotel room may more than pay for itself and extend your vacation a day or two.

6) Southwest will let EACH PERSON check TWO bags for free, up to 50lbs each. Take that into consideration if you pack heavily for your cruise. Other airlines will nickel and dime you on baggage.

7) Watch for sales. Southwest has frequent sales.

 

Hope this helps someone.

Thanks so much! I am in an hour drive of MKE, ORD, and Midway! I really do have a lot of options. We are heavy packers, but not THAT heavy (About 1 checked bag for 2 people).

I never ever do this but I already purchased my one way ticket from Detroit to Miami next March 29th 2019. I did this a over month ago and it's a year out. We are flying a family of four during spring break and $171 one way non-stop is a great price to Miami so I snagged it early. It's already gone up $60 per ticket. Our ship leaves from Miami and we disembark from our Panama Canal trip in L.A. Now I'm on the lookout for the return hope but it's high so I'm waiting. Prices seem to change daily, even more than once a day. Case in point, check every day twice a day from the minute flights are posted. I'm finding with the better economy that the prime return flights home at that right time are selling quicker and seats together are harder to be had if you get within 60 days anymore. I'm willing to pay a bit more to get the flight I want instead of hoping it goes down a few dollars until the last minute.

Watch Southwest when they open up March fares. Fares from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale start at $92 each way.

I never ever do this but I already purchased my one way ticket from Detroit to Miami next March 29th 2019. I did this a over month ago and it's a year out. We are flying a family of four during spring break and $171 one way non-stop is a great price to Miami so I snagged it early. It's already gone up $60 per ticket. Our ship leaves from Miami and we disembark from our Panama Canal trip in L.A. Now I'm on the lookout for the return hope but it's high so I'm waiting. Prices seem to change daily, even more than once a day. Case in point, check every day twice a day from the minute flights are posted. I'm finding with the better economy that the prime return flights home at that right time are selling quicker and seats together are harder to be had if you get within 60 days anymore. I'm willing to pay a bit more to get the flight I want instead of hoping it goes down a few dollars until the last minute.

That's a great price! I love the early morning flights (I am up at 4:15 every morning so getting up at 3 isn't a big deal for me).

I went on kayak and found the exact flights I want on Southwest. However, there are no prices, so I'm not sure when to book, I've never flown SW before.

Southwest Airlines currently has their schedule open through January 6th. And they just opened up that schedule about a week ago. On June 28, 2018 they anticipate opening their schedule for sale through March 6, 2019. They usually publish their fares/schedule later than other airlines.

I always do one way flights, almost always on different airlines. I’ve got my flight home booked for my upcoming cruise in September but have still to book my flight to the cruise. Keeping my eye on a few different flights. In addition to checking the individual airline websites, I also use the Google flights price tracker which notifies me if there is a price drop or increase.

Not sure how you are booking but I always go to Kayak and put dates in there to see what comes up, play around with dates and airports and you can do a fare alert also, which will tell you when fares drop. If you find a fare that you like go directly to the airlines website because I have found it can be a few dollars cheaper! I fly from California to FL and rarely pay more than $250 rt! Oh, and I have discovered that checking different discount websites can be a waste of time since they all usually have the same price!

I found the same thing—that all those discounted sites offer the same rate. Problem is, I will only book a non stop flight, and most airlines and discount sites won’t even offer them for me to fly out of Buffalo, NY—only SW and Jet Blue do. I’ve been screwed by weather issues too many times, and missed connections, to ever book anything but non stop going in to Florida from Buffalo.

I’ve done well with Southwest too booking as soon as the flights are posted but lately I’ve done well with Frontier Airlines too. You have to check their site directly like Southwest and I think they’re only booking through the beginning of November right now but they’re worth giving them a check too.

I found the same thing—that all those discounted sites offer the same rate. Problem is, I will only book a non stop flight, and most airlines and discount sites won’t even offer them for me to fly out of Buffalo, NY—only SW and Jet Blue do. I’ve been screwed by weather issues too many times, and missed connections, to ever book anything but non stop going in to Florida from Buffalo.

The only time (Knock on wood) I have had trouble with connecting flights was on a trip to Cancun in 2014 with United. EVERY flight of four was delayed, one was cancelled, and we missed a connection which was the last flight that day. I will never fly United again, especially if it involves connecting flights. I am lucky enough be near a major airport that I can get to many places nonstop (for a fee of course).

Some flight routes are just always high. Have you tried searching for other airports near you?

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Some flight routes are just always high. Have you tried searching for other airports near you?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I have looked at Milwaukee (my preferred-also a large Southwest hub), Chicago, and also Midway.