Airfare for Sunday February 21, 2016 is Crazy

[awinte2]

Was wondering if someone can explain to me why the airfare leaving Ft Lauderdale on Sunday February 21 is double that of any other Sunday. I know it is Daytona 500 day but that would be for people flying in.

We are flying from Ft Lauderdale to Detroit after our cruise on the Regal and compared all airlines and it is so high.

 

We are Canadians that fly out of Detroit. Is this a holiday in the United States or is there something else going on. Hope someone can enlighten me.

 

Thankyou

[capriccio]

Was wondering if someone can explain to me why the airfare leaving Ft Lauderdale on Sunday February 21 is double that of any other Sunday. I know it is Daytona 500 day but that would be for people flying in.

We are flying from Ft Lauderdale to Detroit after our cruise on the Regal and compared all airlines and it is so high.

 

We are Canadians that fly out of Detroit. Is this a holiday in the United States or is there something else going on. Hope someone can enlighten me.

 

Thankyou

 

The only thing I can think of is that is the end of the President's Day week which some public schools in New England and perhaps other states have off. Cruises have lots of families on board that week and they need to get home before school starts on the 22nd. Have you checked to see how many ships are disembarking that day (and the day before since some cruisers spend a post cruise night in FLL instead of rushing to the airport) since that could influence demand and therefore cost? There have been lots of complaints on the Florida Departures Board about the cost of hotels the previous weekend (Sunday is Valentine's Day and the Fort Lauderdale Marathon, Monday is President's Day) but I haven't seen anything about the cost of flights for your weekend.

Edited November 20, 2015 by capriccio

[mmckm]

Its high because they can charge it and get away with it that weekend.

[moki'smommy]

Many private schools take the entire week that includes President's Day as a "winter break." This translates "so our student's families can cruise or ski during this time." Since this is the end of that week (the kids are due back in school on Monday), the flights fill quickly and command a premium fare. To be "only" double at this point is good. We've seen them triple and totally sell out--one year we drove as we couldn't get a flight that week.

 

If you want to cruise that week, book the air now. It will fill and the price will increase.

[fbgd]

You've not included any prices other than to say it's "crazy". Some people here think it's "crazy" paying more than $99 per person to fly transcontinental each way because they paid that in 2002.

[CruiserBruce]

Supply and demand at a peak time. Pretty straight forward.

[CruiserBruce]

You've not included any prices other than to say it's "crazy". Some people here think it's "crazy" paying more than $99 per person to fly transcontinental each way because they paid that in 2002.

 

 

Or those that want a "reasonable" price, only to find their definition of "reasonable" is not even close to common prices.

[slidergirl]

Presidents' Week is a huge deal in the hospitality/travel business. For my hotel, if we did not also have the Sundance Film Festival to deal with, Presidents' Week would be our busiest week of the year (sometimes #2, behind Christmas). Our pricing is at it's highest for those 3 weeks (example, our lowest category room right now is $350/night - that week it will be $1700). I imagine it is the same for the airlines.

If the fares you see are "crazy" for your own particular financial boundaries, you can either suck it up and pay or change your cruise. I honestly cannot see the pricing for a major holiday time going lower.

[MrSchwump]

We found that the Princess We're on the same cruise as the OP. EZAir offered the best deal on airfare. We got nonstop R/T Cincinnati to FLL for $50 each less than any other site.

 

 

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[Northender]

We face the same type of dilemma for April, 2016. It is the return fare that is crazy on April 15. Again, I believe another school break time.

So I have booked a one way fare, so far, to GO to Fort Lauderdale and see what happens to the pricing for April 15th. Princess Air was not good for pricing for this trip.:)

[FlyerTalker]

We face the same type of dilemma for April, 2016. It is the return fare that is crazy on April 15. Again, I believe another school break time.

So I have booked a one way fare, so far, to GO to Fort Lauderdale and see what happens to the pricing for April 15th. Princess Air was not good for pricing for this trip.:)

Thought problem: Just what will you do if that "crazy" price goes to full bore "insane" and jumps, oh say $200??

 

Do you have some special insight or knowledge as to why this "crazy" price will return to a lower number? Do you think this price is because of caprice on the part of the airline or because of strong demand and finite supply?

 

Do you have any strategy other than "hope"? (Which really isn't a strategy at all).

[Keith1010]

Yes, many schools are off the week of President's Holiday so it is a popular time for people from up North to spend time in Florida. So, not a surprise that the airfare will be higher that day.

 

Not sure what pricing you are looking at. If very high look at the tradeoff of flying home the next day in line of costs for hotel/food etc.

 

Keith

[awinte2]

Thankyou to the cc members who explained to me why the airfare could be more expensive on Sunday Feb 21, 2016. I was not aware that it was a special holiday for some.

 

As for the cc members who insist on being rude and assume I do not know what a reasonable price for airfare and the other not so nice response I always say if you have nothing nice to say say nothing.

 

I love this site but for the life of me do not understand when people have to talk down to OP questions.

[6rugrats]

We face the same type of dilemma for April, 2016. It is the return fare that is crazy on April 15. Again, I believe another school break time.

So I have booked a one way fare, so far, to GO to Fort Lauderdale and see what happens to the pricing for April 15th. Princess Air was not good for pricing for this trip.:)

 

You are in the same situation as the OP, who wants to fly the last day of midwinter break for many US schools. The end of spring break, for the schools in this part of the country anyway, is April 15th. I'm going to make a crazy prediction that airfare for that date will only go up, not down.

[Budget Queen]

It never fails to amaze me, the claims of "rude" comments in response to very knowledgeable posters, who give clear, factual answers.

 

With the posts stating airfare is "crazy", "high", "not what is was last year" etc etc etc is disclosing, that the posters weren't expecting this. Some may think it's a "mistake", or that it will go down etc.

 

I find the "hope" mention and "what if it goes up" mentions a service, that could bring a realistic solution perhaps.

[SteerageJack]

Was wondering if someone can explain to me why the airfare leaving Ft Lauderdale on Sunday February 21 is double that of any other Sunday. I know it is Daytona 500 day but that would be for people flying in.

We are flying from Ft Lauderdale to Detroit after our cruise on the Regal and compared all airlines and it is so high.

 

We are Canadians that fly out of Detroit. Is this a holiday in the United States or is there something else going on. Hope someone can enlighten me.

 

Thankyou

 

What I have done when airfare is too high or not available is spend an extra night in FLL. On Monday February 22, Southwest has a $214 fare to Detroit available. If two of you are traveling, it is likely that staying the extra day might save $400 or more in airfare. You can probably book a hotel for Sunday the 21st and still save yourself $200 to $300 getting home.

 

Just a thought.

[Jennwick]

I'm flying in for a cruise the next week, and airfare was also outrageous (coming from DC) - I ended up booking a flight into Miami instead and it was much cheaper, even factoring in the Princess transfers I'll be utilizing this time for the 45min drive.

[FlyerTalker]

I'm flying in for a cruise the next week, and airfare was also outrageous (coming from DC)

Nice to see that "crazy" has been medicated down to merely "outrageous".

[slidergirl]

I've been offered the opportunity to spend a week in Tahiti next spring in April for a very cheap price - only the cost of my meals. I started looking at airfares. The prices are obscene!!! I remember 10 years ago getting fares for about $400 r/t from LAX. Now, it's over 3x that much. Should I wait in hopes that the fare will go down to a more normal level or will I have to pay more for the airfare than what the rest of the vacation will cost??? What happened to reasonable prices??? I'm disappointed that SouthWest does not fly to Tahiti...

 

;)

 

Yes, tongue in cheek. I really AM in this situation, but I am fully aware that the airfare will be around $1300-1600….

[bubbadogmom]

Was wondering if someone can explain to me why the airfare leaving Ft Lauderdale on Sunday February 21 is double that of any other Sunday. I know it is Daytona 500 day but that would be for people flying in.

We are flying from Ft Lauderdale to Detroit after our cruise on the Regal and compared all airlines and it is so high.

 

We are Canadians that fly out of Detroit. Is this a holiday in the United States or is there something else going on. Hope someone can enlighten me.

 

Thankyou

 

I spent a lot of time looking at fights very close to that date - our cruise is February 20, so we needed a flight February 19 - I ended up going with Air Canada out of Toronto because it was actually cheaper than Detroit. I'm in the Windsor area, so in the past few years it was always cheaper to fly from Detroit but the last 2 years not so much. I don't like to do layovers, so I pay for that in fare, but that's my choice. It's just not worth losing 3-5 hours in the day to me for a couple hundred dollars.

 

I have never paid more than 450 for a flight out of my last 8 vacations, but I had to for this one. The prices just kept going up and up every day ( I posted about it quite a bit...lol).

 

For our dates the cheapest non stop was Delta at 658USD - ended up with Air Canada (not Rouge), for 700 CDN out of Toronto.

 

I forgot about that Presidents day thing too - too late to change my cruise though, and I feel I got a great price too.

[waterbug123]

As for the cc members who insist on being rude and assume I do not know what a reasonable price for airfare and the other not so nice response I always say if you have nothing nice to say say nothing.

 

I love this site but for the life of me do not understand when people have to talk down to OP questions.

 

Many people who post here have very unrealistic expectations. As mentioned, they seemed shocked when an airfare price isn't what it was 10 years ago, or isn't what it was for a completely different time of year, or a nonstop isn't the same price as a routing with 2 connections, or it's the same price as the cruise etc. etc. etc. People tend to throw terms around describing airfare as outrageous or ridiculous or insane or whatever, and frequently it's due to simply having unrealistic expectations.

 

In the end, it might help if you shared more info about the rates you've found... how much are they are why do you consider them too high. Then people could give you a better idea of whether the prices really are unusual or if your expectations are unreasonable. The more info you give, the better answers you'll get, and my guess is that a more informative answer is likely to seem less offensive to you. :)

[TruckerDave]

Was wondering if someone can explain to me why the airfare leaving Ft Lauderdale on Sunday February 21 is double that of any other Sunday. I know it is Daytona 500 day but that would be for people flying in.

We are flying from Ft Lauderdale to Detroit after our cruise on the Regal and compared all airlines and it is so high.

 

We are Canadians that fly out of Detroit. Is this a holiday in the United States or is there something else going on. Hope someone can enlighten me.

 

Thankyou

 

Don't know what the Daytona 500 has to do with anything....it is 250 miles from FLL and folks gong to the race would fly into Orlando, Jax or Daytona itself. :rolleyes:

[TruckerDave]

Presidents' Week is a huge deal in the hospitality/travel business. For my hotel, if we did not also have the Sundance Film Festival to deal with, Presidents' Week would be our busiest week of the year (sometimes #2, behind Christmas). Our pricing is at it's highest for those 3 weeks (example, our lowest category room right now is $350/night - that week it will be $1700). I imagine it is the same for the airlines.

If the fares you see are "crazy" for your own particular financial boundaries, you can either suck it up and pay or change your cruise. I honestly cannot see the pricing for a major holiday time going lower.

 

 

You just outed yourself....now we know where you are. :D

[slidergirl]

You just outed yourself....now we know where you are. :D

 

Yeah. I need to remember to sleep after a shift before I try to contribute ;) But, it IS exactly where I want to be!

[Hawaiidan]

I've been offered the opportunity to spend a week in Tahiti next spring in April for a very cheap price - only the cost of my meals. I started looking at airfares. The prices are obscene!!! I remember 10 years ago getting fares for about $400 r/t from LAX. Now, it's over 3x that much. Should I wait in hopes that the fare will go down to a more normal level or will I have to pay more for the airfare than what the rest of the vacation will cost??? What happened to reasonable prices??? I'm disappointed that SouthWest does not fly to Tahiti...

 

;)

 

Yes, tongue in cheek. I really AM in this situation, but I am fully aware that the airfare will be around $1300-1600….

 

Tahiti is a captive market with only a few airlines Air Tahiti, Air France and Air New Zealand and Hawaiian flying in.... no united, American, delta...and no discount airlines period would ever be allowed. Tahiti wants well moneyed travelers to come an discourages budget ones....Its $$$$$$$$ for everything in Tahiti

That controls price... Your cheapest flight will be Fly to Honolulu on Hawaiian about $250each way in april then Saturdays only Hawaiian flys to Tahiti returning Sunday Morning... that will cost about $650 each way so figure $900 or $1800rt coach...

That is the reality of Tahiti home to the $10 beer and $20 burger... All flights will arrive after 9pm... and depart after 11 pm. There will be no interisland flights till 6 am the next morning or ferry service to Moorea. Ahotel room will cost $150 to $250 for the night there is no lounge in Thaiti airport or AC of food service. Unless your hosts are on Tahiti figure a day or 2 at the airport waiting to depart or arrive to get to any outter island... and you need to add that ot those interisland flights about $100 @ each way to you final transportation cost

So yes... it will cost you more to get there than you wills ave

From long experience in the region its best to visit the islands via a cruise ship with a package airfare/cruise because of the extreme expense of anything in Tahiti..... That's the reality