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Travel in Feb 2019

mrsmcfoy
Explorer C

Hello, I am trying to find flights for 5 people on 2/24 from Florida to New York. The flights are extremely high ($400 - $500 one way). Can you tell me why the flights are so high? It's looking like we will have to re-schedule our vacation if the cost doesn't go down. I can understand flights being a little higher because students may be coming off of break, but $400 - $500 in one direction is completely outrageous. Can anything be done to help?

3 REPLIES 3

Re: Travel in Feb 2019

dfwskier
Aviator A

You didn't say your Florida departure city or your New York arrival city. I checked Ft. Lauderdale to

Newark, and the lowest flight on 2/24 I saw was $500. No wanna get away fares were available. That means the airline thinks it's a prime travel day and that it thinks it can sell the seats for $500.

 

When I run into this situation, I ask myself if I really must travel on that day. Perhaps you should too as traveling the next day lets you buy a ticket for as little as $228, or travel on Tuesday the 26th for as little as $103. You can find these fares by trying to book your original itinerary, and then clicking on "low fare calendar" to see what fares on other days would be.

 

As I said, in these situations I ask myself how flexible I want to be. I think you need to ask yourself that question.

 

Being flexible might also equate to flying into a different airport. In the example I cited, flights from Ft Lauderdale to Laguardia are about $100 cheaper for flights on the 24th.

 

Remember that Southwest allows you to change or cancel a flight and then use your credit within one year of the original purchase date for a second flight. So another option woulkd be to just buy your tickets and then watch. If Southwest isn't able to sell it's $500  tickets on the 24th, it'll likely drop prices on some flights - nothing guaranteed, but it has happened in the past. If the fare drops, you could change to the lower fare, and have a travel credit for future use.

Re: Travel in Feb 2019

basslaw2010
Frequent Flyer B

Additionally, Sundays are one of the more expensive days to travel because people are going home from their weekend getaway to get to work the next day and Florida is a very popular destination in the colder months.

Re: Travel in Feb 2019

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@mrsmcfoy wrote:

Hello, I am trying to find flights for 5 people on 2/24 from Florida to New York. The flights are extremely high ($400 - $500 one way). Can you tell me why the flights are so high? It's looking like we will have to re-schedule our vacation if the cost doesn't go down. I can understand flights being a little higher because students may be coming off of break, but $400 - $500 in one direction is completely outrageous. Can anything be done to help?


I like @dfwskier 's suggestions, but also try booking for 4 people, then 3, 2 - if your group size takes up all of the remaining tickets allocated to a cost bucket, the quote will be for all tickets in the higher one. So you may find some savings by booking 1, 2, 3, or 4 tickets and then the remaining tickets at the higher rate.

 

Obviously if you are looking at the same flight and even 1 ticket is BS only, then it's a tough travel day.

 

If that's still too high, then alternate airports or dates will be needed. 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.