Airfare is too high! Miami!

[helene109]

We cruise in May! Already bought it going there out of Ft Lauderdale. We cruise out of Miami. Southwest changed our flight times. But I we have 2 tickets left to buy! The 1050 is Ft Lauderdale the no non stop picture is out of Miami. Yes we have to come home on Sunday as we are coming in a day earlier. Thinking positive it will come down in price!

[firefly333]

I'm booked out of Miami march 2023 and already thinking ... oh no. On airfare and hotels. Spring break. I didnt pick the date. 

 

May should be better than spring break but all the snow birds fly home by mothers day. Good luck. It will probably stay high. Imo. 

[ColeThornton]

Cruise Air Forum:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/77-cruise-air/

[Colorado Cruzer]

Good Luck watching prices. Travel agents have said that Tuesdays are the best days to book because the prices drop on tuesdays for wahtever reason.  May try that?  Or, you can book a different airline too that might be cheaper than SW since you bought one way tickets.

 

SW has a great credit card with a lot of point deals. If you are a new card customer, they give you something like 50K points if you spend and pay off $1000 in the first few months. Might not help you for May but going forward. If you are able and don't already have a cash back card that you use that works better for you, it's great to get one.  We don't pay cash for anything and rack up the points on monthly bills, supplies, gas, etc.

 

Of course, you need to be disciplined to pay that card off every month in order for it to be a good deal.  I haven't paid a dollar in interest in over 8 years and never pay for flights.   

[nwcruiselover]

Have you checked the fares available through Carnival’s Fly2Fun program? I recently booked a flight through there and got a great price.

[teknoge3k]

We cruise in May as well. I bought our airline tickets when they went on sale back in December and am glad we did. They have gone up quite a bit since then. 

[mz-s]

This is utterly unrelated to Carnival, but I do agree that air travel is back and prices are only going to go up. Especially to places like Florida. There is heavy pent-up demand, people are ready to travel and places that are open for business like Florida are going to make out like a bandit this year.

[sid_9169]

I have a cruise from Miami coming up in May, and ended up paying roughly DOUBLE what I normally do for a round trip from ATL... I hated to have to do it, but I definitely am not driving...

[jerseyjjs]

Take a look at what hotels near Port of Miami are looking for per night during the Spring Break weeks in March.

[JT1962]

Southwest is unlikely to get cheaper as they have a limited number of the lowest fares on each flight. You need to book as soon as they open up to get the best fares. Sunday afternoon out of South Florida is usually very popular. Try Spirit, Jet Blue or Allegiant. We have had good luck with the Flight Hopper app as well.

Edited February 20, 2022 by JT1962

[cruisin from vegas]

I’m on the Horizon end of July..  same… airfare and hotels are double what I usually pay.  However my cruise was free through casino…so ok

[jsglow]

14 minutes ago, JT1962 said:

Southwest is unlikely to get cheaper as they have a limited number of the lowest fares on each flight. You need to book as soon as they open up to get the best fares. Sunday afternoon out of South Florida is usually very popular. Try Spirit, Jet Blue or Allegiant. We have had good luck with the Flight Hopper app as well.

Absolutely untrue.  Now while it is accurate that demand drives pricing, SWA tickets are rarely cheapest when the schedule first opens.  Typically the sweet spot is in the 60-90 day range prior to actually flying.  Of course this is load dependent.  The nice thing is one can always reprice downwards as sales happen and put the $ in their Southwest 'bank' good for one year of future travel.

[Earthworm Jim]

I assume, since no one has mentioned it, the 10:50 out of Ft. Lauderdale when the cruise ends in Miami isn't plausible? It would likely work out of Port Everglades, but POM is considerably farther.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Earthworm Jim

[sunshower9]

34 minutes ago, sid_9169 said:

I have a cruise from Miami coming up in May, and ended up paying roughly DOUBLE what I normally do for a round trip from ATL... I hated to have to do it, but I definitely am not driving...

Same, although my cruise is at the end of April, coming back in May.  I wish I had booked my flights a few months ago when I first started looking at prices, because they were about half what they are now.  I ended up doing 2 one way tickets (ATL to FLL and MIA to ATL) because it was cheaper than round trip and the times were better.  On the bright side, I used points from my Chase card to book my flights so I didn't pay anything out of pocket.  But it still hurt to use so many of my points. 😬

[jsglow]

19 minutes ago, Earthworm Jim said:

I assume, since no one has mentioned it, the 10:50 out of Ft. Lauderdale when the cruise ends in Miami isn't plausible? It would likely work out of Port Everglades, but POM is considerably farther.

It's tight but on a weekend using first thing self disembark........ I've easily been at the airport in time.  But you're right, no cushion whatsoever.

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, jerseyjjs said:

Take a look at what hotels near Port of Miami are looking for per night during the Spring Break weeks in March.

Galveston is no better for spring break. Add a extra $100 to already crazy high. .. 

 

March 2023 my friends wife's birthday is the week he planned. ... hard to argue with that lol. 

 

Book early,, 

 

I booked a hotel up in houston for next month and booked parking last oct. There are no good choices!!

 

Close your eyes and do the best you can. Spring break just is going to be high wherever people go for the beach. March 2023 looms in front of me .. even the cruise costs more then. 

[TrqoisWtrs]

1 hour ago, sunshower9 said:

On the bright side, I used points from my Chase card to book my flights so I didn't pay anything out of pocket.  But it still hurt to use so many of my points. 😬

Is this your Southwest card with Chase?  You probably already know this, but you can keep checking your flight to see if the points needed goes down, then you can just pretend to 'change' your ticket and get the points refunded.  Love how they make it so simple.

[medianeh]

I booked my southwest flights in October for my cruise in April. Non stop going down and back - decent enough price. 
 

Just last week southwest changed both my flights. I now have a 4 hour layover in Chicago on my flight going down, and now my flight coming home had to be ch aged to the next day as the flight times were too early. 
 

it’s hit & miss in southwest. Not happy with them this time. 

[Illbcruzn4life]

11 minutes ago, medianeh said:

I booked my southwest flights in October for my cruise in April. Non stop going down and back - decent enough price. 
 

Just last week southwest changed both my flights. I now have a 4 hour layover in Chicago on my flight going down, and now my flight coming home had to be ch aged to the next day as the flight times were too early. 
 

it’s hit & miss in southwest. Not happy with them this time. 

not happy with them either. Out of our big airport not a single direct flight to FLL. Before they bought Airtran there used to be a lot of direct flights. Oh well I guess that's progress for ya.

[phoneman69]

Cruising in May out of Cape Canaveral and flying into MCO. Cost all over the board and finally locked in a fare threw AA to only find out the flight is operated by Jet Blue in conjunction with AA. Ok rate but who knew

[a4ofspades]

I am blessed to live in FL close to 3 ports BUT I am always helping family with airfare to visit us. Recently the best has been Spirit. We prefer Southwest due the the luggage freedom but my step-son is here now and although the ticket down was best with Southwest, his trip home tomorrow was astronomical with anyone but Spirit, even with the luggage add on. 

 

Edited February 20, 2022 by a4ofspades

[FlyerTalker]

5 hours ago, Colorado Cruzer said:

Good Luck watching prices. Travel agents have said that Tuesdays are the best days to book because the prices drop on tuesdays for wahtever reason. 

 

Reason: Demand for air travel is lowest on Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

Econ 101

[FlyerTalker]

3 hours ago, jsglow said:

The nice thing is one can always reprice downwards as sales happen and put the $ in their Southwest 'bank' good for one year of future travel.

 

Travel must be completed within one year of the original purchase date.  And buying and cancelling another flight does not extend the clock.

[mbarker10]

We booked our march cruise last year and been watching airfare prices off and on. Prices are outrageous. Memphis to MCO is literally $1600 for two tickets. The drive is 13 hrs but we cannot pay that for airfare. 

[Oldsweets]

Yep, these examples are just what I was talking about. We had a courtesy hold for New Orleans in June we let expire because of pricing and flight options.  We are going to acquire the Southwest card for Companion Pass in order to better manage airfare options this year.  We had historically had great luck in combining flights from different airlines but that doesn’t seem to be working so well now.  Mostly because of reduced flights mean Sprit, Breeze, etc have flights to early or so late or flights so long as to be non-starters.  We are investing the time needed to be as smart as possible on our best options and will figure out a workable model given staying home simply isn’t an answer.  Great feedback THANKS