When to book flight for June cruise?

[DWH]

The sooner the better or wait 60 days or so before.

 

Also what are the best sites to use?

 

Hotwire

Travelocity

Orbitz

Priceline?

 

TIA

[wrp96]

As people are discovering now when trying to get tickets for Spring Break, or other popular vacation times, don't wait to buy airplane tickets thinking that airfares will go down. They won't and seats on the flights that you want or need will be gone. June is a popular vacation time for families. The cheap fares will go fast, if they aren't already gone. Definitely don't wait until 60 days out.

 

If you find a fare and flights that you can live with, go ahead and book it because there is no guarantee that that fare will even be around the next day. If Southwest flies from your area, then you need to book seats as soon as they come available to get the cheap fares or risk no seats being available when you want. Your other alternative is to sign up for Ding with Southwest and hope a fare sale occurs.

 

I like using an engine like Kayak.com that searches other sites and includes some of the low cost carriers like JetBlue (doesn't include Southwest) and allows you to search by things like alternate airports, arrival time, etc. It shows you what sites it pulled the fares from and then you go directly to those sites to book the fare.

[parody]

This is a common question that, obviously, many people face. To answer it specifically requires much more information, such as where one is coming from and going to, whether additional days are contemplated, how important cost is to the decision, can frequent flier miles be used for air travel, and ones tolerance for uncertainty/waiting. That said, the process to use is fairly straightforward. In particular, if FF miles are an option, one should proceed with this option as soon as possible as airlines are making this a real challenge to use FF miles these days. (At this point it becomes useful to know what a good fare is as it may not be advantageous to use FF miles anyway.)

 

Next, is Southwest Airlines a possibility? If so, their booking horizon is relatively short. Currently, their schedule only goes out to June 9. But, if they are a possibility, it is useful to look at what fare (or range of fares) one may get by using them. Since their change policy is fairly liberal, however, some find it beneficial to book with them and then monitor Ding! specials in case something better comes along.

 

Generally, sites like Priceline and Hotwire are not rated high for cruisers as one may have less control over the choices of flights although if additional days are contemplated, then this may not be an important factor.

 

Is jetBlue Airlines a possibility? If so, don't use Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, or ITAsoftware as that airline is NOT included in the searches performed. Rather, use sites like kayak.com or sidestep.com which does include them. This leads to the next point that some mention, "don't confuse shopping with buying". Generally (and there are always a small number of exceptions), one should use an airline search site for shopping but do the actual buying at the selected airline's website. Finally, to close the loop on your question, when you discover a airline fare option that you like and it meets your criteria, buy it and don't wait any longer.

 

These are only the basic highlights, so when you are done, enjoy your cruise.

[Keith1010]

I'd recommend starting to look at prices now. There seems to no longer be any logic to airline pricing. Used to be booking either very early or very late could find you the best deals but it seems that pricing changes daily and much of the pricing is based on supply and demand and what each competitor is doing.

 

Start off by getting a feel as to whether you have a lot of options to choose from. If you do, then maybe you check every couple of days to see what the prices look like but if you don't then maybe that is a sign that you shouldn't wait just in case all flights are sold our and/or prices begin to go up.

 

Keith

[DWH]

As people are discovering now when trying to get tickets for Spring Break, or other popular vacation times, don't wait to buy airplane tickets thinking that airfares will go down. They won't and seats on the flights that you want or need will be gone. June is a popular vacation time for families. The cheap fares will go fast, if they aren't already gone. Definitely don't wait until 60 days out.

 

If you find a fare and flights that you can live with, go ahead and book it because there is no guarantee that that fare will even be around the next day. If Southwest flies from your area, then you need to book seats as soon as they come available to get the cheap fares or risk no seats being available when you want. Your other alternative is to sign up for Ding with Southwest and hope a fare sale occurs.

 

I like using an engine like Kayak.com that searches other sites and includes some of the low cost carriers like JetBlue (doesn't include Southwest) and allows you to search by things like alternate airports, arrival time, etc. It shows you what sites it pulled the fares from and then you go directly to those sites to book the fare.

 

Thanks

[DWH]

Also leaving from Detroit (DTW) it is the Hub for Northwest. No FF miles for me trip will bascially be Sunday to Sunday leaving detroit June 11th for San Juan for a 10:00 pm departure.

 

I have found a few one ffrom Spirit with one stop for $400 round trip with one stop in Ft Laud, however that leaves at 7:00 am (arriving at 2:00) which means leaving by 5:00 and waking up at 4:30 or so and its the reception for our wedding is the night before:eek:

 

Found another one for $520 from Northwest that leaves at 9:00 am and is straight through.. arriving at 1:30 This may be one time, where paying an extra $240 might just be worth it.

[SWEETNLOW2005]

I am planning the same trip but only in Oct. The flights are still a little on the high end . Although i have been getting alerts for under 300.00 if you are flying around the month of FEB. It's up to you. But i would wait at least another month. My group is willing to pay 350 not more than that. We would like to use spirit .So i will just wait. Try American Airlines also.

[DWH]

The other cruise we may do leaves from Miami and we can get that from Detroit on Spirit for 269 round trip

[zqvol]

I am planning the same trip but only in Oct. The flights are still a little on the high end . Although i have been getting alerts for under 300.00 if you are flying around the month of FEB. It's up to you. But i would wait at least another month. My group is willing to pay 350 not more than that. We would like to use spirit .So i will just wait. Try American Airlines also.

I would not wait. With fuel prices going up you can only expect air fares to rise.

[parody]

With fuel prices going up

 

While air fares may go up over time for various reasons, it's not likely to be due to fuel prices. Before hurricane Katrina, the average spot price of a gallon of jet fuel was about $1.70 a gallon. After peaking at over $2.00 a gallon, they have retreated as of Nov. 18, 2005 to a level of $1.6965 a gallon in New York and $1.6620 a gallon in Rotterdam.

[kenandlaura06]

 

I have found a few one ffrom Spirit with one stop for $400 round trip with one stop in Ft Laud, however that leaves at 7:00 am (arriving at 2:00) which means leaving by 5:00 and waking up at 4:30 or so and its the reception for our wedding is the night before:eek:

 

 

Even though it will mean getting up early after the reception, you really should plan on taking out the earliest flight possible in case there are any delays--most people here would recommend flying out the day before the cruise and obviously that isn't possible with your reception the night before, but flying out as early as possible is really essential.

[greatam]

While air fares may go up over time for various reasons, it's not likely to be due to fuel prices. Before hurricane Katrina, the average spot price of a gallon of jet fuel was about $1.70 a gallon. After peaking at over $2.00 a gallon, they have retreated as of Nov. 18, 2005 to a level of $1.6965 a gallon in New York and $1.6620 a gallon in Rotterdam.

 

While the prices you quote may be correct, FUEL PRICES are the main reason airlines are quoting in quarterly reports for loosing money (and the need to increase fares). This from AA's quarterly filing. All other legacy airlines posted similar quarterly filings.

 

AMR CORPORATION REPORTS A FOURTH QUARTER LOSS

OF $604 MILLION, AS COMPARED TO A $387 MILLION LOSS IN 2004

 

High Fuel Prices And Competitors With Lower Costs Continued To Impact American's Financial Performance

 

 

Higher fuel prices are also what is being reported to DOT when requests for "fuel surcharges" are instituted. Fuel surcharges on freight carried on passenger planes (next plane out) are now an additional 18% of total cost, up from 12% two months ago. Because airlines do not have to get approval to change passenger fares, the additional cost of fuel is NOT specified in rate increases. Some airlines have even instituted " fuel surcharges" on passenger tickets, but the fees are hidden in all the rest of the government fees and taxes.

 

Fuel is the MAIN reason for the current fare increases. Other problems the legacy airlines face-pensions, unions, etc.-are much more long term and permanent in nature and cannot be dealt with only by increasing fares.

[parody]

Fuel is the MAIN reason for the current (emphasis added) fare increases.

 

This is so true and it shows how things can change rapidly, even from my post of a few weeks ago. A crystal ball would be good here.

 

In my post I gave jet fuel prices for Nov. 2005 and showed how they retreated from the highs reached during hurricane Katrina. Thus, any airline AT THAT TIME who states that (future) fares would need to increase because of fuel prices (which represent about 20% of operating costs) was not really leveling with the traveling public. Unfortunately, given developments in Iran, recent jet fuel prices in Rotterdam have jumped significantly to $1.8023 per gallon as of 1/18/06. Some commentators have stated that even this will look "cheap" in the coming months. This is where a crystal ball would be helpful.

[wrp96]

Also leaving from Detroit (DTW) it is the Hub for Northwest. No FF miles for me trip will bascially be Sunday to Sunday leaving detroit June 11th for San Juan for a 10:00 pm departure.

 

I have found a few one ffrom Spirit with one stop for $400 round trip with one stop in Ft Laud, however that leaves at 7:00 am (arriving at 2:00) which means leaving by 5:00 and waking up at 4:30 or so and its the reception for our wedding is the night before:eek:

 

Found another one for $520 from Northwest that leaves at 9:00 am and is straight through.. arriving at 1:30 This may be one time, where paying an extra $240 might just be worth it.

 

Since you are traveling the same day, take the one that gets there the earliest. If you are traveling on the same day of the cruise, you need to be concerned with what happens if your flight is delayed. Which one gives you the most leeway to make other plans if there is a delay or cancellation? Which airline has more flights to your destination? A really cheap fare may be great but if something goes wrong, do they have other options to get you to your destination.

[CleoPat]

We have done our own air with the flight arriving 4 hours before cruise departure. However, we are using the cruise's transfers, so they know our flight info to pick us up. If the flight is delayed, will they wait? We cannot go one day earlier. Is four hours enough leeway time?

 

Since you are traveling the same day, take the one that gets there the earliest. If you are traveling on the same day of the cruise, you need to be concerned with what happens if your flight is delayed. Which one gives you the most leeway to make other plans if there is a delay or cancellation? Which airline has more flights to your destination? A really cheap fare may be great but if something goes wrong, do they have other options to get you to your destination.