Purchase airfare now or wait?

[rob6465]

Wife and I will be cruising on the breeze from Miami in December. This will be the first time we fly to take a cruise. We are staying at a Downtown miami hotel and leaving from Houston. I know the December schedule on southwest is not out yet but I put in October and from Houston it is expensive. Right now I can book one way on American from Houston(NON-STOP)to miami airport for $332.40

 

Should i wait for southwest to release their december schedule? Southwest goes to Fort Lauderdale so i would have to take a cab from FLL to hotel.Wondering what kind of prices Southwest will release for december. Wife and I are afraid that there won't be enough flights on Southwest or expensive.

[Tapi]

Southwest schedules come out May 14th. Wait a few weeks and then decide.

 

If you were sailing closer to Christmas, I'd tell you to secure flights ASAP. But the week of December 5th is a very dead season. For that time frame, prices tend to go down rather than up.

Edited April 25, 2015 by Tapi

[karessamom]

Probably--this is the time to start shopping around for airfare and if you find a good price take it. On May 14th they will release the schedule thru Jan 4th for Southwest. Usually you'll find better fares with SW and there's no baggage fees. but again that's your call to make. Good luck. we're flying out of SLC to Houston in Aug. and we got really good airfare with SW. Good luck oh by the way here's the link for the schedules https://www.southwest.com/html/travel-tools/index.html if anyone needs that.

[rob6465]

Southwest schedules come out May 14th. Wait a few weeks and then decide.

 

If you were sailing closer to Christmas, I'd tell you to secure flights ASAP. But the week of December 5th is a very dead season. For that time frame, prices tend to go down rather than up.

 

Gracias. Never been to Miami and excited on cruising to san juan port(born there). Last time there was 1998.:D:D

[picomullet]

We flew home on Southwest out of FLL. Our ship came into Miami. They had an excursion we booked on the ship that included an airboat ride to see alligators, etc and transfer to FLL. We totally enjoyed that excursion and then being dropped off at FLL.

 

Enjoy your Breeze cruise!!

[campdaan]

Check into the FLL-MIA shuttle services. It can be cheaper than a taxi.

[Sparky2]

Wife and I will be cruising on the breeze from Miami in December. This will be the first time we fly to take a cruise. We are staying at a Downtown miami hotel and leaving from Houston. I know the December schedule on southwest is not out yet but I put in October and from Houston it is expensive. Right now I can book one way on American from Houston(NON-STOP)to miami airport for $332.40

 

Should i wait for southwest to release their december schedule? Southwest goes to Fort Lauderdale so i would have to take a cab from FLL to hotel.Wondering what kind of prices Southwest will release for december. Wife and I are afraid that there won't be enough flights on Southwest or expensive.

 

Just an FYI - Airfare from FLL to MIA is very, very expensive - over $70 each way. There are transportation services, ie SAS that will be less expenive if you do fly into FLL.

[phabric]

Any idea, what time Southwest releases the new fare May 14, midnight, 8am, noon, 3pm? Looking for Dec 24-Jan2.

Edited April 26, 2015 by phabric

[CHEZMARYLOU]

I don't know what time they are released, if I need to book a flight I usually look around 7:00AM and they are there. What I have noticed is the day they are released prices are usually very high. Waiting a day or 2 results in lower fares and we've always been able to book the flight we want.

[Globaliser]

Any idea, what time Southwest releases the new fare May 14, midnight, 8am, noon, 3pm? Looking for Dec 24-Jan2.

There's a sticky on this very topic at the top of this forum.

[fbgd]

Usually you'll find better fares with SW

 

Just curious as to how you came to this conclusion.

[greatam]

Just curious as to how you came to this conclusion.

 

Thank you for bringing this up.

 

As most who frequent this forum regularly know, cheaper fares, INCLUDING any added baggage fees, are usually available 3 months BEFORE Southwest opens their schedule and posts fares.

 

We keep extensive spreadsheets going back a couple of years because we often have to package hotels, flights and freight for our customers to some of the many, many food shows they participate in. Some SWEAR Southwest is cheaper, ALWAYS. They want us to book on Southwest. Then we pull out the spread sheets. Most are very surprised.

 

To places off the beaten path, Southwest will win out sometimes. But to major areas like Florida, Las Vegas, New York City. Los Angeles, etc. etc, the legacy airlines beat Southwest most of the time THREE MONTHS before you can even purchase a WN ticket. Waiting for Southwest to open their schedule usually costs you more money.

 

The Southwest business model-sell the CHEAPEST ticket on the DAY THEY OPEN THE SCHEDULE. The gotcha in their business model-other airlines have been selling cheaper fares for 3 MONTHS.

 

Just keep drinking that Kool Aid!!!!

[TruckerDave]

Just curious as to how you came to this conclusion.

 

Especially from Houston. I find fares on UA cheaper (and many times, by over $100) than Southwest on a regular basis. United flies to both MIA and FLL (more choices to FLL) and with AA's multiple flights to MIA you are really not going to get that big of a deal going on the blue and orange. (especially when you add in transportation costs from FLL to downtown Miami)

[bigenna]

We are using Princess' Easyair this fall, first time we have ever used a cruiseline flights. We booked our flights, Air France Sept 25, YVR-BCN AND Oct 17,

AA, FLL-YVR , as soon as we saw they were available. We paid $1049 per person including all taxes, now several months later they would cost us $300-$400 more each. I keep checking and they have bounced around a little, but never come even close to what we paid and usually with much worse connections and extremely long durations.

So far we are very happy that we booked early.

[bigenna]

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack this post. Read through again and saw it was not a general post about cruiseline air as the topic implied, but about Florida flights.

Just excited about my first experience.

[sunlover5]

Just purchased our tickets tonight for our cruise over Thanksgiving week. We decided not to wait on Southwest for a few different reasons. The 3 cities we fly from the times/layovers are terrible to Fort Lauderdale. About 2-3 months ago could kick ourselves for not buying a 400.00 flight/nonstop both ways from Ohio to Miami. That flight is now 752.00 and still going up. We did get a flight for a price we can live with and have a nonstop going home. Flying home the weekend after Thanksgiving the prices are really high!!

Good Luck in finding a ticket!!