I book arrival and departure flights separately and I guess it helps dampen the shock. I spend what I think is reasonable per flight. For my upcoming trip I booked nonstop for less than a one stop and paid less. For that I'll pay a little more than last year rather than waiting to see if ether will go down!
ETA: anyone who can afford to chose Delta is richer than me! I was forced to fly them this past summer and it HURT! Very very nice flight and in flight experience but honestly, they want almost 4 times as much as JetBlue for my same flight! Ridiculous!
