So, I've spent some frustrating hours perusing my options for summer travel. Typically, we do some runs northeast from my home base of IAD/DCA to BOS, NYC, and then if we can a cross country run (this year's preferred destination would be SEA).

Across the board, prices are gi--normous. Sky high. Literally. Given recent reports of excellent load factors (as much as 80%) and oil at $70+, is there ANY hope for relief this summer? Will those late-August $596 IAD-SEA round trips come down at all?

Anyone have thoughts/predictions?

Looks like we may be all packed up...with nowhere to go!

There have been some sporadic deals out there, but the best I've come up with this summer is a trip to Asia with hotel packaged in from Northwest WorldVacations. It's far, far less than just buying the straight ticket for the same itinerary.

So, is everybody just too depressed to respond? No lights at the end of the tunnel?

It does seem like there are very sporadic deals out there, but they are few and far between.

I am also based in the Was area and am having poor luck trying to arrange travel for the month of July. I need EQM on NW/CO and UA. I have seen a few deals on AA but I already have purchased my annual quota of travel on them for this year. Let's keep looking.

It's like the perfect storm. Fuel is sky high and the economy is booming(unemployment down, stockmarket up etc).

The cost per passenger is up for the airlines and people have money, so they take it. When people stop buying the tix the price will come down, but allof my flights are full

I would say my average fare for transcons has more than doubled, and is currently trending toward 300% of last year's peak season average.

I guess it's not just me. I've been looking for airfare from LGA/PHL/BWI to Cancun for under $400 all in. No luck so far.

Keep trying is all I can say!

Well, i seem to remember a few weeks of really really low fares around the end of July last year. I know they aren't going to get THAT low this year, but maybe there will be some relief and you can grab a $250 transcon or something.

There will be a point of diminishing return here. We have to bank on somebody being weak and starting a fare war. So STOP BUYING people!

Well, I've done more looking for less booking this year than in some time. OTOH, if you get a good deal (like the NW ATL-HNL at $296+ RT back in January) you can do multiple trips and try to get a lot of elite miles that way.

I think it very much depends on market and level of competition. In ATL, for example, BHM is now more reliable for affordable RTs to Florida and $200 transcons *if* you can get seats, whereas in ATL even an AirTran sale is closer to $300 transcon than $200. And BNA gets much better domestic fares now than ATL. Seems the flavor of the year in ATL is the Caribbean and Latin America (lots of $200 RT deals that would have been unheard of before) and spot specials on limited time windows to Japan.

I think it really pays to be flexible on your desired destination and go where the deals are or, failing that, to be ready to drive to alternate airports.

And it's probably hard to argue that a $200 transcon of 7 years ago probably should be more like $300 now, but I admit to being like many FTers and wanting someone ELSE to pay the higher fares to keep the airlines solvent, no matter how logical those fares might be. But nowadays even the lowest LCC sale fares to many places are above what I have been used to paying, so it's a matter of checking the short-lived spot specials and pouncing on them.

It takes a little more planning. I noticed for my trips, NW is notorious for zeroing out the cheapest fares more than a month or two in advance. What you need to do is know the fares published in the market, AND the corresponding inventory. If the cheapest "published" fares are expensive, you're screwed. If everything below H is just zeroed out, then you can take a chance and wait for availability to open up.