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So...we've booked our trip for April, but have never done separate airfare. For all of you who always book separate, when do you usually book you air (besides when you find a good deal?) :) I'm finding prices seem to be going up lately from Michigan. Thanks for all of your help!
When I see a good deal. Seriously, if you see a good deal why would you wait, unless you were waiting on the funds. I've tried the 3 months out on Wednesday thing and it was hit and miss.
I always book airfare separately. I booked our Dec trip in Feb. I started checking about three times a week in search of the best airfare. We have found that booking directly with our selected Airline as being the best. This may not be the case if you live in a larger city. I live in a small state and in a rural setting, so this works best for me...unless I want to drive several hours and spend the night..Which generally is more costly overall.
Leaving mid week does make a difference. Booking early saved me over 300 US per person..compared to what the flight is now. Granted, I am leaving mid December....but April is also spring break for many colleges...so I would definitely start checking now. Hope this helps some. Once you start looking regularly, you will get a feel for the pricing. Try looking at some other dates to get acclimated to the charges. Good luck and enjoy Negril in April!!! One of the few months that I have never been to Negril.
Booger ~ I would buy if I saw a great deal now. LOL I'm only waiting because I haven't yet...
Yetta~ thanks. We are leaving midweek, as our daughter is getting married on Monday the 15th in Negril. I keep looking every week...so far prices are a higher than I want to pay. However, I soon might just have to suck it up and pay.
Thanks guys!
I actually booked our air for our Dec trip back in April, before I booked the hotels. It went down slightly for a bit after, but is way up from what we paid now. Watch for a seat sale and you might get lucky :)
Well not much for choice outa Detroit mostly Delta with a stop in Atlanta, the prices bounce around , when we booked for aug, we were finding the best balance between price and flight times. Seems to be around $600 is as cheap as it gets any more.
Being in NY does have it's advantages I guess. Still can find RT air for ~$325 sometimes. Your best best is like Yetta said. Keep looking often, esp. midweek, try multiple combinations (I use flexible dates option in the search engine) and you will get a feel for the flow of it. Try signing up for an airfare alert service like Airfare Watchdog. http://www.airfarewatchdog.com You put in the parameters and they notify you when a good deal comes along.
Good luck with the search. Congrats to you and your daughter.
No matter where we are headed we always book airfare first. There are a ton of places you can stay for a good price, but normally only one airline you can get a good deal on out of any particular city, and you need to be flixible to get the best prices for airfare.
Regrds,
Bob
Another option is to search for airfare on Bing - if you are within a certain number of months they will give you an indicator if they think the price will go down. Of course it can't predice refinery fires or other factors. I did find it helped my patience when I still have several months to buy airfare.
Kayak.com helped me find price drops for both of my upcoming trips. I signed up for daily email alerts for 2 or 3 departure/return combos. Every night around 11:00 pm I get my price alert for the day. I knew the typical best price to go for as well as the desired flight times, and was able to jump on it immediately. 12-14 hours later, the price had gone up already. I booked in June for both November and April, the price only dropped lower once, not for my exact dates (weekend flights) but for Tuesday or Wednesday departure and return.
The email alert will also show suggested dates when the prices are lower. The email shows the 4 or 5 carriers with the lowest prices and what those prices are as well as how many stops. Major airlines don't fly direct from my city (unfortunately) so it shows 1 stop prices as well as 2 stops (or more). We do have 2 charter airlines with direct flights, unfortunately it doesn't show those but they're also usually the highest price of course.
Good luck, it can be fun sniffing out a good price!
Thanks for all of your help! I will have to look at Kayak and sign up. The reason we had to book the hotel before the airfare is because our daughter is getting married. Otherwise, I would have done it the other way around. :) I could stay anywhere, I'm not picky...but my daughter and her fiance chose the hotel. I had little say in the matter, seems being already married, I don't get the final say in their wedding...sigh. LOL
What about one way flights with different carriers... Has that worked out good for anyone? So far I've seen Delta go up $100 for April & I just don't have the money to book yet!
Booking one ways with different carriers worked out great for us - someone else suggested it on the board (wish I could recall who and give credit) - I figure we saved about $300 each on the round trip booking that way. At that time, each airline had one direction that was cheap and the other that was pretty expense. Made the round-trip price about the same on both airlines, but since one was cheap going down and the other cheap coming back, it was great deal for us.
I normally used Expedia and Fly.com to check on prices in general and to see what airlines/routes are available to my destination (its almost never a direct flight for us), but once we had picked our dates, I started checking with the 2 contender airlines directly, looking at round trips and one ways. When we got into a realistic window for buying the tickets, I was checking the flights a couple of times a week when I thought of it and had a moment to spare. I had a price in mind and when the price dropped below that threshold, I pushed the button. That was mid-August for our trip the end of November.
I also really like using http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ for researching flights and prices.
I've been searching every few days for months - and have yet to see anything out of Michigan! Was hoping for a drop this week as we finally hit the six months out point.
Air Trans posted their new fares and they are at least $464 now.
We fortunately still have the luxury of purchasing just airfare or a package deal. And I like to try out new places every trip!
We got engaged at Riu Tropical Bay and were married on the beach at Negril Gardens (now Grand Pineapple).
Been trying to book a surprise 10 year anniversary trip for the same week you will be there!
We're looking forward to the trip, for sure! Are you staying at RPTB this trip? If so, make sure you say hello! :) We'll be the loud group! Be careful with AirTran. Spoke to them recently, and their merger with Southwest is happening April 13, 2013 (or so they said). I was really hoping to fly with AirTran, but their only options are Detroit, and I'm trying to avoid Metro. They have flights to Mo Bay from where I am, but no returning flights. Their answer for that? They fly empty planes all the time...just not back to Bishop with people on them. Oh well...We found Delta flights for about 550. I'm going to have to soon just decide to do it.
I really liked staying on Bloody Bay - the water there is perfect. I got up in the morning, would grab a few rolls and would stand out in waist high water and feed the fish! You don't get that along 7 Mile!
We haven't done AI since we got married - but was really leaning towards the Grand Pineapple since that's where we got married. But there are so many other places that I would love to try out!
I hadn't even heard about the SW merger - it would happen right in the middle of our trip! Maybe we would get stuck there! Thanks for that info.
We are in Charlevoix - and Bishop would bo so much nicer than DTW, but have never tried it. I'm from Grand Rapids so we sometimes fly out of there too. Right now all of our/my options are open.
Jenn - not sure where you are in MI, but we fly out of Flint. Booked our tix for Feb only $20 more than we paid last year which is a good deal the way flights have gone up! The last couple years Flint has had very comparable fares (sometimes even cheaper) than Detroit.D
Do you think flight prices will come down since the price of gas is dropping?
Rumghoul~ I'm only a stone's throw from Bishop. :) It would be WAY nicer to fly from there...we've always flown Detroit. I grew up near GR too! I keep thinking the prices SHOULD come down, yet they have been bouncing around up and down (not far) and up again... I'm about to just push the button!
iameless ~ we've stayed AI and not...I didn't pick this, but I'm sure we'll have fun. I could have fun in a cardboard box. LOL
I have been booking one-way trips for more than 3 years... better options on the flight times and yes, sometimes using different airlines each way.
Airtran is my preferred airline but I always check Orbitz (or one of the others but the prices all seem to be the same at the same time) in case another airline has a better price. I always book on the airline's website, unless I need hotel too and the deal is good enough.
One (of the many) thing I like about Airtran is it only takes 4) A+ Rewards to get a business class upgrade (on both flights) and 2 free bags. They recently (or currently?) had a promotion to get double A+ rewards for flights in a certain date range.
Don't know what will happen with the SWA merger, but I have noticed no flights available after a certain date. I hope that isn't permanent!
Folks still looking for tickets to JM before the end of the year, check this Airtran Discount info posted by Gail Jackson http://negril.com/forum/showthread.p...hlight=airtran Awww man, I forgot to use it myself when I bought a ticket a few days ago!!! :mad:
If you book Airtran with AMEX card you get 5% back or something like that.
kayak.com is a good choice to search airfare and have email updates sent. Currently AA is the least expensive out of STL by far. Had I booked the Thanksgiving trip one day earlier it would have been $421 instead of $496. It didn't look like that $421 fare for the flights I wanted would come around again due to ticket sale volume, so I pulled the trigger.
Same with Yapta, they send a current price weekly or when the price changes. I look for promo codes before I book and search for the best day to fly in the month I'm wanting to travel. every little bit helps. Airtran I find have the better prices out of Kansas City, I like Delta due to shorter flights. I check their websites directly better deals. Search hotel sites (promo codes), good deals will even out the cost of flights is the way I look at it.