Flying...

[glass eye]

How far out do most of you book to get the best price? I’ve been watching flights To Colorado for a few months now and prices aren’t dropping much. Afraid to wait to much longer and they keep going up. 79 days out right now. Sorry if I’m hyjacking your thread @Sytes. If so I’ll start a new one.

Just yesterday I pulled the trigger on flights to Maui for 2 on May 2 to 12, 2022. Itching to get back to hunting axis deer on Lana'i. Total for 2 $580 RT

Whenever I go to NZ I buy my flights on Cyber Monday for travel in May/June.

 

[Gerald Martin]

I made out like a bandit with Alaska airlines and covid. I had to cancel rt flights to Kauai for 6 persons. They gave me credit to use within 10 months, after that it expires. Then 2 weeks later they offered me to exchange the $value to miles at a rate of 100 miles for every $1 and no expiration date.
So now I'm set for about 10 + RT to Alaska

Hey ole buddy ole pal....

 

[Sytes]

total for 2 $580 RT

Whaaa? That's a smokin' deal! Best weather months as well!

 

[Bob-WY]

I've bought last second, way in advance and everywhere in between, only pattern I've seen is the more you check the higher the price

They make no sense, identical routes a few hours apart will ha e radically different prices, its all supply and demand or at least the softwares perceives view of it

 

[cedahm]

Maybe there's some airline guru that can explain...

I was looking to fly to Colorado from Flathead Valley, Montana and it was somewhere around $900, round trip.
However the exact same flight that stops in Colorado to jump on a different flight to go all the way down to cabo San Lucas and back cost only $430 round trip.

Huh?

Because capacity on the FCA-DEN route is low and there is only one airline (United) that serves that city pair consistently (supply is very small). Frontier has started some seasonal flights but as an Ultra-Low-Cost-Carrier they don’t really compete per se with the majors.

So United have an effective monopoly on the Denver route but you have nearly infinite choices for One-stop routes to SJD (Cabo) on a variety of airlines through other hubs so they have to compete against every other airline.

It is ‘possible’ (but against airline fare rules) to simply deplane in DEN but they would cancel the return trip since you would be a no-show for the connection (this is called ‘hidden-city’ ticketing and will get you banned from airlines if you do it a lot)

 

[cedahm]

Late December but my original flight was $355 for my wife and I. So about $700 total. All the good flights are full. You can get the all nighters with extra stops but those tickets are around $1600 each. They raised their rates. I figure best to just eat the $700.

Yeah - last Year they were more or less giving away flights as demand was off by 90+%

And late December (e.g. Xmas/New Years) to tropical locales (especially in the post-pandemic era) is the absolute pinnacle of demand so you are fighting an uphill battle.

Looks like an overnight via LAX is in the 800-900 range if you can be flexible on dates.

If you don’t have to fly on Avianca metal (meaning you can use the ticket on a codeshare with another star alliance partner), you could look into United or even Air Canada

But I would call and see if they will exchange your vouchers for miles like @Glasseye did with Alaska. LifeMiles (Avianca’s Frequent Flyer program) are pretty easy to use (and they have good redemption rates) and you can use them across the Star Alliance carriers

 

[Wallydeuce]

My wife and I flew to St. Croix USVA for Thanksgiving and Talum, Mexico for Easter. Masks were mandatory of course and the paperwork was insane. The one thing that I noticed the most was on both trips, the aircraft were spotless. No boogers stuck to the seat back trays for a change.

I hate flying commercially, and I'm a pilot.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

I have problems with my long legs sitting in the back a supercub...can't wait to get out!

 

[Sytes]

@AlaskaHunter
Great pic! Those colors sure pop!