The Truth Commission

With all of the negative PR the airlines have been receiving due to recent cancellations, does anyone expect we'll be seeing any sort of major sales coming up to try to win back any disgruntled passengers?

I need to book a SEA-east coast trip this summer and stupidly passed up a chance for three SEA-BWI tickets on DL for $222 a/i this week. Wasn't sure about the dates of travel (they would have worked now that I look back) and now the fares are in the $400-$500 range. Looks like I might have to fly AirTran unless NW, DL, CO, or Alaska lowers fares quickly.

mahasamatman

No, because that will just result in more airlines going belly-up.

Ocn Vw 1K

I think that we will see more limited-time sales for shorter ticketing windows and possibly for limited destinations. For example (just hypothetically) book by April 15 for travel between May 4 - 25, to specific destinations. At the same time, we'll see increases in fares that don't warp demand excessively and we'll see some markets that might be low in price to compete with a low cost leader, while others markets will be higher than last year at this time so long as demand is adequate

TheCrackedJack

Wouldn't fares increase to most regions, since it's the high season in many areas?

SingaporeDon

I just saw some special deals to Europe advertised in the local papers valid for travel from now until October 2008

thegeneral

There is more demand in the summer, so why would they put on sales? You don't have to fly ATA in either case. $400 for 5k miles of flying in the prime season is hardly expensive. Fares do vary though and the airlines don't really have much incentive to make them cheaper far out from the departure date right now. In the end, that's not a bad price for how far you're going. You could also search for a neighboring city and get the train.

MisterNice

Most planes are flying 85%-100% full so why do airlines need a sale to sell even more tickets. Look into flying SEA-BWI on southwest.com for about $300 RT on a few days I checked. Flying SEA-PHL may be even cheaper. Good luck.

MisterNice

melynn44

I am sure this is a topic that has been exhausted to death, but with the recent happenings of the past week or so, I was not sure if anyone has any ideas on what the state of flights will be.

My family and I are not frequent flyers, but we do fly when we travel. Normally, we book our flight with no thought at all, and that is that. But, with all the airline news lately, we are definitely second guessing things. Flight prices are skyrocketing, a lot of airlines are going under, all these cancellations, and safety concerns.

Does anyone know something to look for when considering how prices on flights will be the next few months? With all of the negatives I mentioned above surrounding the flight industr, I would think we would be seeing a dip in prices, but from my observation, it looks like it has done the opposite. I know fuel prices are astronomical, but I cannot imagine that they dictate everything.

We are traveling to New Orleans in July and Florida in December. We are afraid to book flights too soon, because prices could go down. We are afraid to wait too long, because prices could continue to rise. Hopefully, all the cancellation stuff will resolve itself before we travel, but it could be just the tip of a massive iceberg. How will the impending Delta-Northwest merger affect things, if at all?

There just seems to be so much going on with the airline industry right now, we just really do not know what to think.

SuperFlyBoy

Local SIN or USA?

ewick12

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry 8830: Opera/9.50 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.0.9751/298; U; en))

I would book your flights now, at least the one to New Orleans. I fly routinely between MSY and DTW and I have yet to see a decrease in the fare as time progresses. If you're flying from a major city with a lot of competition (especially LCCs like JetBlue) then I guess it's possible that you could see some decreases.

melynn44

Thanks for the advice. I just don't know. We prefer to fly Northwest; always have in recent history. We actually prefer the mid-market guys over airlines like Delta and United. No real reason; we just do. But Northwest's prices lately have skyrocketed majorly, and I think by my comparisons, Northwest is the most expensive to fly right now.

For example, for our trip, to fly to New Orleans in July, through Northwest it is $615; through AirTran it is $190. Though our loyalty is to Northwest, it is really hard to pass up AirTran. But, then we wonder, what about bankruptcies? What about safety?

For Florida, I am wondering if it is a little too soon to be scheduling. Again, with Northwest, right now, it is about $500. With Southwest, they do not schedule out that far, they are only scheduling through August currently. But, generally speaking, a flight from our airport to Orlando is running about $200 most weeks.

Has anyone tried FareCompare.com? It has trend graphs that you can look at for your particular route for 2007. Now, for the NO trip, the major dip was in the beginning of June; For Florida, the major dip was in October. If 2008 reflects 2007, it would make sense to hold out a little while. But 2008 seems to be a really rough year for the airline industry so far. Again, it would make sense for fares to drop to reel in those customers that are concerned about flying, much like they did after 9/11. But the prices have actually jumped quite a bit in just the last week or so. So I really do not know what to think.

And, that is just the financial part of it. We are still concerned that all these cancellations are not an end result, but rather the beginning of a massive overhaul of the airline industry that could lead to more cancellations, longer delays, bankruptcies, the further use of inexperienced pilots, etc etc.

MarqFlyer

Just a guess, but I suspect there might be a short-term downward trend (as the new Delta tries to retain both airlines' customer bases, and tries to show regulators that the merger really is good for consumers). In the long run, however, I suspect prices will go back up -- both because less competition does tend to drive up prices, and because the airlines nowadays have little choice given the high fuel prices.

But then I could be completely wrong....

The Truth Commission

OP here...

While I didn't jump on the tickets when they were $222 all-in, I managed to snag three of them this weekend from SEA-BWI for $275 apiece.

Lesson learned: check every day, sometimes multiple times a day if you can...they went from $222 to $400 to $275 in the course of about a week.

Also, book from the airlines themselves...two of my DL flights are code-shares (so I'll be flying on NW through MSP), and didn't show up on FareCompare or Expedia when I was looking there.

Finally, Southwest or AirTran isn't always the cheapest option. Explore all options and be flexible.

ewick12

Yeah Northwest is ridiculous on this route (MSY-DTW). I was looking for a one way ticket and they wanted over $800 for the direct flight. They provide the only non-stop flight on this route. I always book with AA as their fares are only slightly more than AirTran and I can get into the Admirals Clubs. Without consideration to frequent flyer programs, I found NW inferior to AirTran from MSY-DTW.

If you want miles, you might want to look into flying Continental as their fares should be more reasonable.

SingaporeDon

Local SIN.
As a matter of fact, TG announced some good J Class fares to USA and Europe for outbound travel until 31 August, 6 months ticket validity.