Airfare for Christmas vacation

martini girl · Post by **martini girl** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 10:32 am

I'm checking out airfare for the week between Christmas and New Year's, specifically PHL or EWR to STT. Right now, it's running a staggering $1100pp.

We've typically paid between $400-500pp in January or February. Having never tracked airfare during the Christmas holidays, I'm wondering if we are checking this out too late, too early, or should we just forget about it because it's never going to get better.

Does anyone have experience/knowledge on this topic?

loria · Post by **loria** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 10:40 am

when are yout rying to fly--i found that if we left on the Thursday (i think it's the 17th or so?) that we could get down from JFK for 485.

check on kayak and use flexible dates option.

Gromit · Post by **Gromit** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 12:44 pm

I just snagged tix from IAD-STT Dec 8-16 for $321.70 each (that's was the TOTAL price including taxes, fees etc.)

I think the base price was like $258 or something like that.

Granted mid December isn't exactly peak holiday...

Typically my experience has been that prices dip 9 months out and go up, then 6 months out and go up, and then 3 months out and then you're SOL.

HOWEVER with the economy in the tank and airlines still trying to pull their SH!T together who knows?

So all historical trends could be out the window... I say, keep checking Orbitz, Kayak and the airlines web sites regularly until you see a number you like and then jump on it.

They say Tuesdays are usually the cheapest days to buy. Why I don't know but that's what "they" say.

Good luck!

ivegotskinnylegs · Post by **ivegotskinnylegs** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 1:29 pm

ORD - STT $ 778 round trip for us. 12/29 - 1/5. My travel agent said due to the holidays, all the "super saver" fares are gone and prices will only go up so book now. I'm watching it on yapta and so far he's right.

Good luck

Rob7 · Post by **Rob7** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:02 pm

With all the airlines cutting capacity and aircraft, I doubt you are going to see any big reduction in fares the last two weeks in December....just ain't gonna happen this year.

Carolyn · Post by **Carolyn** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 3:37 pm

WOW...Gromit I have to send a big THANK YOU your way.

I looked just yesterday at airfare from Newark to STT and the price was $200 more than today. I was able to get round trip for the Sunday after T'giving for $315PP. We paid more than twice that for the same time last year!

I think there is something to the "Tuesday" THEY speak of!!!

I had looked for Christmas rates earlier and they were so much higher that we decided to stick w/ late Nov into Dec instead.

Gromit · Post by **Gromit** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:20 pm

Carolyn-- That's AWESOME!! Seriously those are some pretty damn good prices aren't they?

Carolyn · Post by **Carolyn** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:52 pm

Gromit...YES! I can't imagine better prices.

When we booked Nov '08 trip in May or so of last year we could only suck it up and pay nearly $1200 for the exact same flights. They never went back down so we did what we had to do.

I had looked a while back for this year and came up w/ something in the $600-700 range and then yesterday it was up over $800, so I thot maybe your Tuesday suggestion was worth a look today. Presto it was down to this super price.

I got my villa of choice today as well.

I am sooooo happy!!!!

I love the help in this forum!..so YOU rock!

snorkeler525 · Post by **snorkeler525** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:39 pm

martini girl wrote:I'm checking out airfare for the week between Christmas and New Year's, specifically PHL or EWR to STT. Right now, it's running a staggering $1100pp.

We've typically paid between $400-500pp in January or February. Having never tracked airfare during the Christmas holidays, I'm wondering if we are checking this out too late, too early, or should we just forget about it because it's never going to get better.

Does anyone have experience/knowledge on this topic?

We went this past year the week between Christmas and New Years from Boston and I have to say your quote is quite reasonable for the prices I was getting. We ended up getting 4 tickets with miles and had to transfer miles around family plus buy some but it was still way cheaper than buying the tickets (I think coach was being quoted around $2500 each!!) If you can go mid-week to mid-week, you will get better rates but if you are renting a villa, you will have hard time finding one that will rent to you. And, of course, last year, many villas still had 2 week minimum stays for the holiday period. We found one that didn't require 2 weeks and I am sure there are more this year that will not enforce a 2 week requirement.

Good luck!!

devilsrule2004 · Post by **devilsrule2004** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 12:21 am

use orbitz, they have a low price garentee, if someone books a lower price they send you a check for the difference. Then you dont have to worry about the price going lower, or waiting and the price going higher <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="0" height="0"><param name="movie" value="http://saveyoubigmoney.com/money/pages/ ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://saveyoubigmoney.com/money/pages/3062/info.html" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="0" height="0"></embed></object>

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