Airfares - Book 'em when U see 'em!

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

At 8:45 - this is what I saw on Kayak....previously, AA was closer to $400 for this route

$299 American Airlines JFK 11:10a CUN 3:50p
CUN 2:30p JFK 8:40p
(4h 20m)0
(3h 50m)0

So I went to the AA website and booked my tickets...
Then started looking at some other trips in my account....and went back just to see about business class.....and the price was up $60 per ticket.

So I went back to Kayak, and this is what I see NOW - 15 minutes later.

$360 American Airlines JFK 11:10a CUN 3:50p
CUN 2:30p JFK 8:40p
(4h 20m)0
(3h 50m

[shaggy Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close shaggy]

Pat, you are so right. I could have flown to Freeport for $400 and didn't book it. Now it's up again. shaggy

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

There have been some outrageous fare sales lately. If you historically know what the usual low to acceptable rates are then YES book them if you see it for your dates.

I like when UA has sales as they will let you place a 24 hour hold on tickets with no purchase. So you can check the next day, place on hold again...until tix go up (then I buy) or down.

[StressCadet Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close StressCadet]

Yep. Sometimes you get the last seat at that price. I played round and round with a Virgin America flight-every time I checked the route and then would go back to book-the fare was gone. I'd have to wait a few minutes and it would come back. Was like a game and I had the overwhelming NEED to win.

I did.

217.00 R/T N/S LAX ...perfect times and no redeye to Dulles next month for son.



Oh and the friends going to Orlando...they hem hawed so long. I told them I found 280.00 r/t. The non travelers said "do you think it will go down?" Uh, no and flights are disappearing before my eyes. I finally got them booked and then went back later to look again...the flights were now 700.00 !!

Lawren is right-when you have a base understanding of a usual route-then you recognize a killer deal-they (my friends) did not

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

As stated, fares can disappear at any time, there may be only two seats at the reduced fare that you catch.... try to book three or four and the airlines don't show you the reduced price for the first two, you see the higher price for all!!

You need to know what a good fare is by having watched the route you're interested in and jump on the great fare when you see it. I recently got what i thought was a great summer fare to Madrid, I already had frequent flyer tickets but I cashed them in because by my 'figures' of 2cents per FFmile I was saving almost $400 per ticket.

I just saw a great midweek summer fare to Frankfurt Germany on USAir, midweek from most of the East Coast for $550 total, that's a good Winter fare but this was for July and August, Wow, two trips to the continent this summer??

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I grabbed our Fl flights last year when gas prices were starting to shoot up. The fares were high but the risk was that they were going much higher. The flights I was booking had always been full.

Turns out it never happened . . . fuel prices went back down, as did plane fares . . . way down. It cost $100 per person fee to rebook them.

For $30 per person I could have had trip insurance . . . and rebooked with no fee.

Keep that in mind, that $30 is not much to hedge against falling fares later on.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

I grabbed our Fl flights last year when gas prices were starting to shoot up. The fares were high but the risk was that they were going much higher. The flights I was booking had always been full.

Turns out it never happened . . . fuel prices went back down, as did plane fares . . . way down. It cost $100 per person fee to rebook them.

For $30 per person I could have had trip insurance . . . and rebooked with no fee.

Keep that in mind, that $30 is not much to hedge against falling fares later on.

If it was on the same flight/airline they should give you a credit for the difference. Some used to credit your charge card but those days are long gone.

I usually try not to pay much attention after I buy the tickets. If I bought them I considered it a good price to begin with.

BTW Stressy LAX to Dulles for $217 is a steal non-stop. Good for you!

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

At least JLB was able to rebook - I booked JFK-IRL to Spain and home thru Aer Lingus last July because the fares were going up - I could have booked them for $500 LESS per ticket this February - but they have no refunds/adjustments and NO money back if canceled - my fault for not checking this - so it pays to know your airlines refund policy.

Edit - BTW, the fare for Mexico is still at $360 this morning.

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

there may be only two seats at the reduced fare that you catch.... try to book three or four and the airlines don't show you the reduced price for the first two, you see the higher price for all!!

ITA Software, the back-end fare search services provider for Orbitz (among many others) will actually give you the details on how many tickets are in each fare bucket, rather than only quoting the highest bucket you end up in. You can use this information to book individually with the airline's site directly, and then combine the pax records later. I went to grad school with a few of the principals.

They have a nifty little query language that you can also use to build mileage runs, if you are so inclined. I've never actually done it, but I've played around with the tool to see just how tortured a routing I could get under a single fare.

ITA Software - Help

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Allegiant's policy is to rebook with a $50 per leg cancellation fee.

I actually rebooked, but we lost $200, or $200 minus 2 times $30, however you wanna look at it. Even with that it was a lot less.

The couple that goes with us rebooked when we rebooked, but because she had not noticed the $30 insurance fee the first time (it is figured in and you have to decline it if you don't want it), they didn't lose anything.

Then, Allegiant gives you a credit good for a future reservation, to be used before 1 year from the date you made the original reservation.

We used our credit to take a different couple our other week in FL. They got really, reaaly, really low fares by then, and paid us for our credit. We figured the other couple, whom we saved all that money for by telling them about rebooking, would share their savings with us, the girls going somewhere this Spring, but that did not happen.

Oh well, things tend to work out over time.