BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi,

I'm new to BootsnAll Travel and have a question regarding a flight to CA. We are planning on leaving either the 22nd or 25th of Dec. 08 and returning around Jan 25, (these were the cheap flight days) from Portland, or to San Salvador. A couple of days ago the flight price was an awesome $435 round trip, but today the same flight is now at $640.

Any experience with this? Does it have a possibility of going back down, or will it just keep climbing? And is this something that always happens this far in advance or is it maybe related to oil prices?

Thanks all,

I am no mind reader. YOu're not travelling in the high season, and yet, the prices SEEM high. My ticket to the states from europe just jacked up 300 euros in three weeks because the cheap tickets were all snapped up. I coould have gotten the same flights farther on in the month for far less, had I firmed my plans at that time.

Its in june,so its the start of the high season.

July and august they go through the roof.

My experience is this..the cheapest flights are the special deals that get offered once in a while, like the Spirit air flights to Guatemala. They pop in, and then they pop out.I got lucky last time on a BA flight from and to europe, and now, well, I'm not lucky,. I need to get home by a certain date and that is that. I need to SET this return date so to make plans IN this area.

So you either risk it, risk the fact that oil prices can probably only go up, and fuel surcharges will probably only go up, and wait for special deal about a month or two before september, or firm the price now,and make set and firm plans around that date. Often the second course gives you a better way to plan it.

I don't know what your budget is, and if that 200 dollars is a huge difference in time abroad or not. When you average it out on a long 3 month trip, the price certainly seems better.

If you're only there for 4 weeks, it can be the price of one week of travel.

See whatI mean?

This is just the way airlines work. The price will probably go back down close to what you saw but don't bet on it. It will also go up higher. Once you have your dates set, search constantly with Kayak, Bookingbuddy, etc. When the price dips enough to your liking, book it immediately. Some Airlines give you a 24 hour window to cancel but be careful with that feature. Once the deed is done, the web site "Yapta" will track the price of that flight and notify you if it dips below what you paid. You can then demand the lower price from the airline. But again beware, some airlines charge for any modification to your ticket, even if they must do it by law. Good luck!

Kayak has a nice feature where it will graph out the fluctuations in prices for some routes over the past month. It has to be one that lots of people have searched for - so LA to Paris will have more data available than, say, Kinshasa to Dubuque.

It might be worth checking in the night when you get the chance. A travel agent recently told me that when people "hold" flights but don't pay (because they changed their minds or missed the deadline), the flights tumble back into the system between 11 and midnight (not sure which timezone, though) and are available until some opportunistic person such as yourself snaps them up.

I did something similar to what Louisghiker suggests, and I called the airline when the price dropped $150 after my tix purchase. After paying the $75 modification penalty, I rebooked the same seat and saved $75.

Thanks everyone, a lot of really good input. I guess since I have quite a bit of time between now and then, I'll wait to see if the price goes back down. I think I'll grab it if it gets anywhere near that price again, with the oil prices and all these other airlines going bankrupt and all.

I had a question about the Kayak feature Michael mentioned, how do I access that feature, I wasn't able to find it yesterday.

Also, Louisghiker, you mentioned Yapta and how it tracks your flight, how do I find out if a particular airline will give me the lower price at a later time? It's going to most likely be Mexicana, maybe United...the cheap ones.
Thank again everyone.

When you're looking on Kayak.com at the list of possible flights with prices, look above for the "List", "Matrix", and "Chart" options. Happy hunting!

Yapta will daily track the going price of the flight that you booked. It will email you the moment that flight can be had for less and tell you how to get the rebate. Yapta does not do comparisons of flights or airlines.