Airfare Deals

Chaosdreamer

Since we're closing in on that magical (for non-holiday U.S. domestic travel) 3 month mark, I thought it would be good to have a sale (as opposed to "sail!") thread for folks waiting to book their airplane rides...

I'll start with something that was posted on Cruise Critic earlier today:

Virgin America is having a one-day sale (it ends at 11:59pm PDT today, October 15), which includes one-way airfare from SFO or LAX to FLL for $136 on Wednesday 2/19 or Saturday 2/22. The price goes up to $165 for Thursday & Friday. Unfortunately the sale is only good for flights through 2/28 so you may want to wait or look elsewhere for your return flight.

Fizzgig

I turned in points to get rides on Southwest and United. 

Frontier sent me this yesterday:
Plan a Saturday trip using promo code EXPLORE
when booking to automatically apply the 14% discount. Make it a weekend to
remember. Buy by Oct. 17, 2013. Fly Jan. 11 – March 15, 2014.

BrettGlass

Watch out for Frontier. They're starting to charge huge fees for carry-ons.

Kvort_the_Duck

Thanks for the reminder. Just booked direct flights.  

Fizzgig

Frontier baggage info: http://m.flyfrontier.com/m/BaggageInformation

The carry-on fees are for people who don't book directly with Frontier, by the way: http://m.flyfrontier.com/plan-book/fare-options

BrettGlass

Alas, rather than telling people upfront, Frontier has been attempting to extort $100 fees for carry-ons from travelers at the gate simply because they booked through a third party site or a travel agent. Which is absurd, because the booking location has nothing to do with the (nearly zero) cost of allowing a traveler to bring a carry-on bag. I've heard that there are lawsuits brewing, but for the moment travelers should be warned.

Fizzgig

I have to disagree with your statement that people aren't being told, and I have the emails and bookings to prove it.

Frontier is driving traffic to their booking portal.

BrettGlass

Apparently, many travelers have been surprised by it. Hence the lawsuits and complaints.

It also makes them the ultimate in musician-unfriendliness. Most airlines will let you take a guitar on board and stow it in the closet so it remains unsmashed by baggage handlers; not Frontier. Now that carry-ons are a revenue source, they're applying their rules strictly, which means a guitar has to be checked. And as we all know, baggage handlers have a habit of breaking guitars.
 
Speaking of which: Dave Carroll would be a great candidate to perform on the cruise.

Fizzgig

Anyone looking for deals on particular airlines or routes?

Gina

I'm looking for a deal for the DC area (preferably BWI-Baltimore) to Ft. Lauderdale, probably coming in the day before the cruise, or maybe Friday, and leaving the day we come back, or maybe the next day (we disembark Saturday, right?).

Lissa

FYI, the alerts from Kayak are a nice tool to use. I get a daily email letting me know the price and if it has changed at all. They also have an iOS (and possibly Android, etc.) app that will send notifications too, but I prefer the email.

I'm still keeping an eye out for ATL->FLL. I really don't want to pay $300 when it isn't even a holiday. I hope there will be a sale around Black Friday/Christmas/New Year's. We booked our flights for JCCC3 on Oct 1st last year though.

BrettGlass

Now may not be the ideal time to book a flight in or out of FLL. Fares in general seem a bit high right now -- probably a strategy to raise income as folks make holiday plans and the Federal government creaks back into action. (The airlines surely lost bookings due to the shutdown.) The best time to book is likely to be during (US) Thanksgiving if you can wait that long.

Let's hope that American Airlines and USAir aren't allowed to merge, as the consolidation is sure to raise fares.

Fizzgig

Are ya'll looking at flying in to Orlando (MCO) or Miami to price compare?  You could fly in, grab a car, and drive to Port Everglades area.

For my cruise in EIGHT DAYS(!!!), it made financial sense to fly into Orlando, rent a car (ok, I got a minivan, but whatever, man.. full-size cars are running $35/day right now) and drive to Port Everglades the morning of the cruise.  Flying into Orlando lets us do a day at Discovery Cove (less than $250 a person for a day with food, beers, sodas, otters, stingrays, and dolphins included).  After the cruise, we're flying out of Fort Lauderdale to Denver.  Both flights are with Frontier, but I booked them a long while ago on the refundable price and watched for fare drops (Classic Plus fares).

Fizzgig

@Gina: Check out AirTran, flying out Friday night.  You could also try Southwest's direct flights from BWI->FLL.  If the price drops, you would get a credit.

@Lissa: Check out ATL -> PBI.  $228 with Delta. 

Hope that helps!

mikesphar

Just FYI, I had a Hipmunk search watching airfares from CHI to FLL and today they dropped by about half, from roughly $400 to $200 each way per person.

I ended up buying on Southwest instead (who isn't included in the Hipmunk searches) as they had also dropped to about $220 each way per person. (It's just more convenient for us to fly out of Midway rather than O'Hare.)

Just an FYI for people who haven't pulled the trigger on airfare yet, check your current rates, they may have just dropped. Also an FYI if you didn't know about Hipmunk but it's a decent search site and the fare-watching service is useful, though they're certainly not the only ones that do that.

autojim

@Fizzgig: the Orlando to Ft. Lauderdale run is ~250-300 miles. It's non-trivial from a time perspective. The airports that bracket Ft Lauderdale are Palm Beach International (relatively small, doesn't get much traffic) and Miami (LOTS of traffic).

Oboewan

For those flying from DC this is what I booked for Rachel Riley and Lena Freund:

DCA - FLL  2/22

Jet Blue  1479   1:43-4:45      Cost was $111 Seats 21 ABC

FLL-DCA  3/1

Delta    1288 to ATL   4:45-6:43     Seats 36 ABC

Delta     1738 to DCA  7:20-9:12     Cost was $113   Seats 34 ABC

Looks like there are plenty of seats left for other DC Sea Monkeys who'd care to travel with us!  (Prices not guaranteed)

Updated with (hopefully) the CORRECT flight info from ATL

auddess

Just had my flight prices drop (finally!) for SFO->FLL on Virgin America

Fizzgig

Frontier coupon for 20% off: SALUTE
Buy by 11/14, Fly 1/6-3/5/14.

Hope that helps someone!

@autojim: 216 miles, actually.  3 hour-ish drive on a toll road primarily: https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=MCO&daddr=Port+Everglades,+Fort+Lauderdale,+FL&hl=en&sll=39.688835,-104.686834&sspn=0.296426,0.676346&geocode=FRfVsQEdglUn-yFt4RGUNrlKrSnzkrTGJ2PniDFt4RGUNrlKrQ%3BFYYKjgEdqok5-ym5NFYDDADZiDEu1vSK9-OBcw&oq=Port+Evergla&mra=ls&t=m&z=8

Granted, every.single.mile of that ride involved me wiggling like I was about to come out of my skin because I was so excited... but it wasn't the distance you stated.  We also dropped by a CVS the night before to get the transponder box (with sticky cups) to pay the tolls automagically.  You can find a CVS basically every mile, if not more... they're about like Starbucks.  You want the removable box and then you sign up online (or buy a card at CVS for tolls and sign up online).  Mom is going to reuse the box we bought on her fancy motorcycle.

I think we left about 9 am to get to the port from Orlando...  we got there about 12:30-1 pm--we were delayed due to a cursed Dunkin Donuts stop.

Oh, and if you rent from Hertz, MAKE SURE you rent from the Port Everglades Hertz!!!  DO NOT rent from the Fort Lauderdale airport Hertz.  Otherwise, you get to add in taxi fare.

autojim

Good to know, @Fizzgig. I haven't made the Orlando - Ft. Lauderdale run in several years, so was going from memory.

I'm not renting a car this time: bringing Leviathan again.

chetman

How long will you be on the road?

n_plus_one

Does anyone have hints on flights from BOS to FLL? Travelocity is seriously annoying me. Thanks.

BrettGlass

Southwest from PVD to FLL is a very good deal if you're willing to take a rather short (under 1 hour) drive. Low fares, two free checked bags. Can't book this through a third party site like Travelocity, though.

autojim

@chetman: It's about 1200 driving miles. Either two full days that don't leave much time for frivolity (less desirable) or 2.5 days with stops for nice meals at good restaurants, good nights' sleep, and arriving at the JoCoTel on Saturday (no later than early afternoon, barring incident) relaxed and ready to have fun with the Sea Monkeys. I'm still sorting out departure time on Thursday to hit two of our restaurant stops (one in Baton Rouge, one in Pensacola Beach) either on the same day, or dinner at the 1st and lunch next day at the 2nd.

We'll be doing our new tradition: spot the tackiest roadside/regional souvenir. Gonna have to dig deep to top last year's baby-shark-inna-jar.

The return run may be solo, depending on @kimpromp2's work schedule, and if so, will probably be more of a sprint.

hendusoone

@BrettGlass Thank you so much for the reminder that PVD exists. I just got a $316 round trip nonstop flight. The best I could do from BOS was around $500, with one stop.

For those without a car/ride to PVD: Amtrak has $11 rail service from Boston South Station to Providence (Northeast Regional line saver fare, or you could take the MBTA, but that's much slower/more stops). After that, it's a 15 min bus ride from the Providence train station to the airport.

Lissa

We broke down and booked the $300 flights from ATL.  

Over the weekend, the price finally dropped on Delta to $218 - if we were willing to gamble on the flight back (9:45am at the latest) or hang out at the airport (4:45pm at the earliest). All the "post-cruise primetime" flights in between stayed at $300. Meanwhile, the equivalent flights on Airtran/Southwest jumped by $100+. We figured that was a bad sign that the flights we wanted simply weren't going to get any cheaper. We debated it a good deal, but when it comes down to it, waiting in an airport isn't for us. No matter how much fun we've had, by the end of a trip we just want to go home asap. We also looked into flying out of PBI instead, but it would add more hassle with only a small savings and with FLL "right there," we didn't want to deal with it.

Unfortunately, due to medical reasons, driving was never an option.

MatMontgomery

My wife and I are first timers flying out from Phoenix! $343 a person roundtrip with a stop in Charlotte on the way over and Houston on the way back.  

Thanks to @mikesphar for mentioning Hipmunk, which I was unaware of. The little aviator goggles on the mascot are the best.

Kayak does say that prices are supposed to go back up, so now is probably the time.

And with that, the flights are booked, the hotel is reserved, and the cruise is paid! 

Let's go now.

arenson9

Minor tip -- since it's possible for sites to remember what you've searched in the past and provide discriminatory pricing -- giving you higher prices if you've searched the same itinerary before, consider using one browser to do all of your searching for fares, but a separate browser to actually book flights.

BrettGlass

Yes, I've seen this. In some cases, the price goes up; in others, options mysteriously vanish. Is the goal to frustrate those who shop around for good prices? Not sure, but blocking cookies and clearing your browser's caches (Ctrl-Shift-Del) is a good idea.

rhaje

I got an update that Southwest now allows gate-to-gate operation of portable electronic devices, and many flights offer gate-to-gate wifi, so you can get on your tablet/smartphone as soon as you sit down and not have to put it away again until you arrive.

Technically, not even then, but I think that trying to continue to use a device while getting off of a plane may violate Wheaton's Law.

Sparky1961

Got $217 with Southwest from ATL not including early boarding fee. FYI..do not think ATL will get much cheaper.