Airfare help!

[Jenn]

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

[garysteph1018]

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!

[CherryNorth49]

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.

[iameless]

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!

[Jenn]

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.

[iameless]

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.

[Rumghoul]

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

[gregandkelly63]

Do you think flight prices will come down since the price of gas is dropping?

[Jenn]

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

[Lola]

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!!!

If you book Airtran with AMEX card you get 5% back or something like that.