UA summer fares have significantly increased, will that continue into the future?
 

It’s been a month or so since I’ve booked or even looked at flights. Supposed to head to New York from SFO at the end of July/early august and the prices are crazy… over $700 for economy. I’ve never paid even close to that over a month out for a domestic flight. Should I wait to see if more opens up or is this reality now?

It's peak summer travel demand season. Prices will go back down in late August/Fall as summer travel fades and students return to school, but July fares probably won't budge much at this point. See roundtrip fares (7-day stay) for NYC-SFO non-stop flights on UA from Google Flights below.

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You can wait, and perhaps prices will go up. Your call.

It's unlikely to go down as the demand outstrips supply on most routes currently. Many lower priced (discounted) fare buckets have long been sold out, so now you are left with fare options of close to or full economy fares w/o much (or no) discount.

The carriers have been a bit slow to profit from the uptick in demand, but are now catching on. You should assume that rising fares will continue to rise. Holding off in the hope fares for flights within the next two months will drop is likely to prove an expensive mistake.

I was looking at a few flights into Bangor or Portland around the 4th, they're pricing at over $3k in F. Until more planes, pilots, and flight attendants are back expect prices to be high.

In general, if you are flexible, such as the carrier, the time, connections vs. non-stops, there are still deals to be found even in July/August.

UA went and cut and cut and cut from their schedule. This is what's left.

Fly a cheaper airline if you'd like to try the other airlines.

David

Meow!!!!

This is the pent up demand. What's worse is more people are outright buying first class too, even compared to prepandemic. Bad for upgrades and award inventory obviously.

$700 sounds like typical fares to me, especially when it involves p.s.

Years ago, the non-p.s. fare (with stops) was about $300.

I stopped looking at anything before fall. Who needs to go anywhere whenSFO-LAX is $300+.through August. Even ORD at $500+ Through the same time is a deal competitively.

I agree…pent up demand (even if it’s all leisure) with much less supply. On said Days looking at SFO-LAX, there were 4 flights most days. PHX had 3 (I think through August). So there’s a lot less seats available too.

I think biz travel will still continue to be light for a while - I’d dont think that will ramp up probably through early to mid next year at the absolute earliest, so I think the sweet spots for availability/fares will be labor day to thanksgiving, then probably again mid Jan - Memorial Day. Who knows what happens after the leisure high season of summer ‘22, or even during it

I normally have no issues playing the upgrade game, but now I'd rather have as much space as I can get. SEA-MKE was $1200, but I was just floored what the cost to get to BGR or PWM is. I'd be better off taking a Jetblue Mint flight and renting a car from BOS, it would still be cheaper.

Economy ticket with 21 days+ advance purchase period? Even during peak summer season, that's on the high side.

I went back to my past bookings in 2019 around July/August - nonstop flights between EWR and SFO (roundtrip) I paid around $350-$450, whatever the lowest fare bucket then, booking made 1-2 weeks prior to departure.

Economy fares from BOS <> SFO this summer are almost double ($350ish one way) what I usually pay...and it's not even technically PS service right now. And don't get me started on United selling "Business" fares on 737s for $1k+ one way and the fact there's no CPU on this route all things considered. I don't mind voting with my wallet (and continue to) but a little love from United in BOS would be appreciated.

Of course if that doesn't kill you the rental car prices will...

Not sure what the dynamic is (insufficient capacity?), but the BOS fares from the west have been particularly high. Like, "forget about it" high. NYC you can still find deals (I've just done SFO-JFK-PHX in J on AA/DL (all lie flats) for $635 + 43,000 DL miles). But not BOS.