Mike Jacoubowsky

So far all I'd seen have been up, and, and more up for July (peak season) SFO-CDG pricing. But today there was an email from UA Vacations offering up to 15% off their packages.

The problem that isn't really a problem is that you have to book a hotel as well. But here's the thing. You only have to book the hotel for two days of your total time. So you pick the cheapest hotel possible (if you don't plan on actually staying there), and the resulting package price will be a couple hundred dollars cheaper than air fare alone.

This is also the cheapest way to book an upgradeable fare "H" fare (although only slightly).

Examples? July 17-28th. Book a two-day stay at the cheapest hotel, and the total all-in will be $1670. That's bulk-fare V class. If you want to upgrade your return to H (for an upgrade), you're talking $1804.08. And cancellation/change fees are considerably less than a flight alone.

Booking ua.com, the cheapest option is $1833, which is the same flights & fare class as the $1804.08 UA Vacation option. But that remains $130 more than the cheapest UA Vacation option.

Until recently, the lower-priced bulk-fare tickets didn't exist... just normal "published fare" options, which are always higher. But experience in the past has shown me that lower-priced ua.com "published" fares will start to show up after a bit of time.

So for those concerned that prices will only go up, there is some hope!

RS250Racer

Interesting stuff Mike...I think fares will come down a bit, it is clear the recession is here, only thing now is how bad and long it is going to be.