Airline rates on the rise or stable?

[RDYJMJM]

If you are thinking of making reservations with that airline you either need to act when you find the deals or suffer the price increase.

We booked flying out of Boston via US Air for our April 2010 trip. We found a non stop, round trip flight that suited our needs perfectly. Well almost. I guess I can handle getting back to our Jamaican home for a late lunch.

As I look at what we locked in for air fare we paid $338.00 PP round trip for a total of $676.00 plus tax $178.56 making our airline expense $854.56. Not shabby. As I peak at the flights this morning I noticed the price nearly increased $180.00.

Now all I need to hope for now is that they don't dump the flight on me and we are all set.

Anyone else finding any good deals to lock into?

[IsagenixFreak]

Hello... My wife locked our airline prices also for our April 2010 trip... We travel out of San Francisco, with a stop in Miami. Our round trip tix, with tax was just under $900... not the cheapest we've flown to Jamaica, but the price seemed pretty good to us....

[joyceS]

I'm curious which Airline offered the direct flight ?? We fly from Boston either US Air or Continental but always have lay overs. We're flying in to Swept Away in September on US Air for $632.00 total, not bad, stopover in Cleveland where we meet up with friends from Indiana which makes the trip awesome. We'll be back for September 2010. Can't wait !

[jagorham]

Joyce, when did you shift to Cleveland for the stopover?

I know the local (Richmond VA) TV newscast have been saying that the airfares have suddenly gone up, but the detail in the stories seems to focus on the fee side (bag check-in, food service, etc.), not on the fares themselves.

I know our September 2009 flights from RIC-MBJ have jumped drastically the past few weeks, but that might be because some of the competition has backed off their pricing on connecting routes, plus the planes are filling up (primarily because USAirways started using smaller planes for the CLT-MBJ leg).

From here, the pricing seems to be more a function of what the competition (re: AirTran and JetBlue) is doing than anything else. They may not fly to Jamaica (OK, JB just started), but it affects the pricing on the connecting legs out of here, and that helps control the overall price.

I'm not so sure how much they're going up as much as they're going to the higher side of "normal;" I know the flights this year have be far cheaper than in prior years from here to Jamaica, even cheaper sometimes than flying out of the DC area, which is unheard of.

[Margi]

I just checked on Air Jamaica flights out of Baltimore for this October and they were under $300 round trip and non-stop at that. We aren't going until October 2010, so I will be looking next year for the same deal. I keep checking and when I feel it's as low as it will go, I book it! Check on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Rates seem to be lower then.

[RDYJMJM]

joyceS

US Air currently shows flight #831 and #832 as non stop flights from Boston to MBJ and back. We selected a saturday departure and a sunday return. I'm not sure if they stop the non stop service during certain months as I don't find the non stop listed in September.

[dirtleg]

We were surprised to find the prices of our round trip, non-stop from St. Louis to MBJ for next June to be just over $800 for the two of us. Not dirt cheap by any means, but low enough along with the early booking discounts last month to prompt us to take the plunge for next June. This trip will cost us less overall than either of our trips in '06 or '07. And since it will be three years next June since we will have been back to CSA, and our 30th anniversary, we are going back home.

See ya'll at the beach!

[John_NH]

We got our airline tickets (US AIR) in May for travel at the end of February next year. We paid a total of $745 for two RT and the return flight is non stop to Boston. Today I looked at the same flights and it is $1034.

We use to fly out of Manchester NH, and the prices were the same or less than Boston. But the past 2 years the prices have been lower to fly out of Boston, and the flight home is non stop.

Back in Apr/May when I was checking for flights, the prices would change day to day, from a low of $745 to over $1000 the next day.

[RDYJMJM]

Personally I don't mind paying a little extra for non stop service. Leave early in the morning to get us there and leave in the evening to get us back to the states.

It is hard when flight schedules can be a deal maker or breaker when we try to get back to Jamaica.

[Bruce]

Prices seem to be all over the place. We got ours last month for next April for about $660 total. (That's not as cheap as we flew in 2008, but the cheapest I've ever seen them 10 months out.) I just checked, and prices have shot up to $1220. You just never know, so when you see that "magic number" you have to jump on them.

[airbell96]

We were surprised to find the prices of our round trip, non-stop from St. Louis to MBJ for next June to be just over $800 for the two of us. Not dirt cheap by any means, but low enough along with the early booking discounts last month to prompt us to take the plunge for next June. This trip will cost us less overall than either of our trips in '06 or '07. And since it will be three years next June since we will have been back to CSA, and our 30th anniversary, we are going back home.

See ya'll at the beach!

Who are you flying thru? We are from STL area also. If it's USA 3000, we actually opted to skip the nonstop flight there as it wont get us to the resort until the evening. Curious to see if you guys found something better! Our airfare is already taken care of this Sept. Still looking at flights for our May 2010 trip.

[Amy]

For our April 2010 trip from Houston on Continental we have found over the past few trips that while prices are pretty good now (started at $370 then jumped to $400) they have been dropping to $225 in February. We're going to take our chances this year and hold out. Keeping our fingers crossed!

[Jrlorio]

Look for online tools to find the trend of the prices from your departure airport.

[Showmecpl]

Look for online tools to find the trend of the prices from your departure airport.

What kind of tools might you be referring to?

[Inthesun]

Go to www.kayak.com. After you have done a fare search, you can pick a menu item that allows you to look at the fare trends. This gives you a good idea of whether they are going up or down. From Buffalo, we booked for March 2010 at $441 per person including tax. That seemed relatively low to me and the gradiant at kayak seems to agree. I have to say, there was something to be said for having it "locked in" so I know that I won't do any worse than that, and I can't imagine a deal coming along that would allow me to save more than $100 more.

[claire7676]

Inthesun, thanks for the tip! I didn't realize such tools were out there. How are you guys getting such great deals?! Out of Raleigh-Durham 4/08, it cost us about $1K, and we just booked on US Air out of Charlotte for 5/10 at $1008 including tax (not bag fees though). I don't know how to get the flights any cheaper (and I just checked...the flights we booked have already gone up in price).

[jagorham]

Airfares are always funny things. They seem to go all over the place. The best thing I can suggest is to keep an eye on the flight pairings and dates you have in mind, keep checking on it to get a feel for what "normal" is for those dates. And, yes, that means checking it a few times a week. If you see it drop, grab it.

There are a couple of good websites to check prices. My personal favorite is the ITASoftware site: http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch

You'll have to set up an "account," but it's free and you don't have to give too much info to set one up. I believe it's the same software that Orbitz and some of the others use, but this way you get direct access to the software.

The beauty of this website is that it'll include taxes and such (though obviously not bag fees or similar airline-specific charges). Once I find a price that "works," I'll compare it against the airline's web page to see how it plays out.

There is some websites with some good basic tips on looking for cheaper airfare: http://airfare.michaelbluejay.com/ and at http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/travel-deals/312271

One other thing that I'd suggest - keep an ear out for when some of the budget airlines (JetBlue, Southwest, AirTran) have big sales, like happened earlier this year. Yes, they may not go to MoBay; but if you aren't flying nonstop, likely it'll affect the price of the domestic leg to your hub airport because the legacy carriers will want to match the price of that leg.

[amymarieky]

I purchased two non-stop flights from Atlanta to MB for $800 - right now they are only around $700. I wish I would have waited, but I started getting nervous that the flights would all fill up!

Oh well, we're going, and that's all that matters!

[Cathy_Joe]

We just got 2 tickets, non-stop on Air Jamaica for around $700 RT from Philly.
AJ was having a $104 each way air special but of course it was higher the days we were flying. We did have to move from a Saturday departure to Friday and we did get the $104 down but the flight back was higher.
It is always a gamble. Now we are hoping Air Jamaica doen't leave us stranded. We do not go until November.