Are flight prices high right now?

[simpsongal]

I'm trying to buy my mom a plane ticket and the prices seem so high. 

What are your best tips for getting cheap flights?  Her travel days are flexible, but she's flying to Hawaii, which tends to be pricey.  What's the best day to buy tickets, like Tuesday?  Any other tips?

[mpc]

My only advice is to go back in time about 10 years. lol. I've had a terrible time finding deals lately. I think someone posted here a while back about how google flights search is good if you have a lot of flexibility.

[rbp]

We actually did recently find a better price by booking on a Tuesday. It was only ATL-DCA, so nothing like flying to Hawaii, but the flight was $250 on Monday and $200 on Tuesday!

[simpsongal]

Apr 24, 2015 8:08:42 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

If she's not picky on airline or layovers, you could try Priceline.

I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a "best day" to buy. Actually, thinking about it some more, some of the cheapest ways to get to Hawaii in the past have been with package deals that include hotels and sometimes a car. You might look into that.

Good to know but she's visiting my brothers and staying with them for a few weeks.  She goes every year (sometimes a couple times a year).  I'm glad they made lives for themselves across the globe but it's pricey for my folks to visit

I remember buying tickets for $450....those days are long gone.

[v]

I don't think there's a best day to buy. Prices fluctuate a lot so it is extremely common for prices to change -- sometimes drastically -- from one day or the next, but I don't think you could pick with accuracy which day will end up being the winner.

If she isn't flying for a while, I'd just track for a bit and then either jump when the price goes down a bit or buy because the price never fluctuates. Hawaii is a high-demand long-haul destination, so it isn't surprising that prices are generally high.

We paid $1047 pp two years ago for EWR --> HON if that gives you an idea on what is somewhat normal. (My emails to my husband about booking say that I booked when I booked because the price had come down $80 that day. It was a Saturday).

[Deleted]

It seems like flights are just high in general right now. I've search for flights to Seattle, various places in Mexico, and Costa Rica in the last month or so (all from Chicago O'Hare) and none have been under $550 or so. I think the flights from Chicago to Seattle I booked yesterday would have been over $600 each if I didn't use miles.

It's awful.

[gt7301b]

When my dates are flexible I use www.google.com/flights ... explore/get lucky and you can see the price for different dates.

[v]

Apr 24, 2015 8:47:55 GMT -5 @buckybells said:

It seems like flights are just high in general right now. I've search for flights to Seattle, various places in Mexico, and Costa Rica in the last month or so (all from Chicago O'Hare) and none have been under $550 or so. I think the flights from Chicago to Seattle I booked yesterday would have been over $600 each if I didn't use miles.

It's awful.

See, but on the other hand, we're going to book flights to Ireland this weekend and they'll be $700 pp (they'll be paid for with credit points so our out of pocket will be $0, but the number of points needed are tied to retail price).  (Note: this is cheaper than the flights I've recently booked from Newark to Manchester NH and Newark to Detroit.)

So deals can be had if you pick the right destination.

[Deleted]

Apr 24, 2015 8:55:07 GMT -5 v said:

Apr 24, 2015 8:47:55 GMT -5 @buckybells said:

It seems like flights are just high in general right now. I've search for flights to Seattle, various places in Mexico, and Costa Rica in the last month or so (all from Chicago O'Hare) and none have been under $550 or so. I think the flights from Chicago to Seattle I booked yesterday would have been over $600 each if I didn't use miles.

It's awful.

See, but on the other hand, we're going to book flights to Ireland this weekend and they'll be $700 pp (they'll be paid for with credit points so our out of pocket will be $0, but the number of points needed are tied to retail price).  (Note: this is cheaper than the flights I've recently booked from Newark to Manchester NH and Newark to Detroit.)

So deals can be had if you pick the right destination.

Ahh, that is a good deal. I want to go to Ireland!

I looked at flying to Berlin (for a hot minute) last month and it was over $1200 a ticket! Admittedly, I didn't look at flying into another place which may have been cheaper. I was just like, NOPE.

It just seems like it's hard to pick a spot you want to go and find it affordable. I'm sure if you really hunt around for deals, they do exist. 

[EmilieMadison]

It's pretty expensive in general to fly from the mainland to HI.
One tip is to clear all of your cookies in your browser before you search, because (apparently), if the site recognizes that you've searched for flights before, they will sometimes show more expensive flights on subsequent searches. I didn't quite buy this, but I tried it and, sure enough, as soon as I deleted my cookies, the prices were lower for a flight I'd just searched.

I also utilize google flights to check which days prices are lower for the flight I want, and airfarewatchdog as well. 

[simpsongal]

Apr 24, 2015 8:43:32 GMT -5 v said:

I don't think there's a best day to buy. Prices fluctuate a lot so it is extremely common for prices to change -- sometimes drastically -- from one day or the next, but I don't think you could pick with accuracy which day will end up being the winner.

If she isn't flying for a while, I'd just track for a bit and then either jump when the price goes down a bit or buy because the price never fluctuates. Hawaii is a high-demand long-haul destination, so it isn't surprising that prices are generally high.

We paid $1047 pp two years ago for EWR --> HON if that gives you an idea on what is somewhat normal. (My emails to my husband about booking say that I booked when I booked because the price had come down $80 that day. It was a Saturday).

  She's flying EWR to HNL - the highest I've ever paid is $750 (direct).  I'm not finding anything under $800 though.  Sigh.  I set up FF miles for her and I don't think she ever registered them.  Double sigh.

Interesting Emilie re: the cookies.  How sneaky!

[LoveTrains]

Yeah I mean I just paid $600 per person on southwest to fly to Portland, OR in August which I thought was highway robbery.

[audette]

It could be that we are approaching summer travel season, and that has driven up prices. The tickets for our summer vacation were nutty. $700+ pp from the Midwest to Alberta. I used points, instead.

[ESF]

In general, I have noticed better deals on flights on Tuesday. Not always, but enough that I keep it in mind when booking.

But yes, flight prices have been insane lately. Which makes no sense because gas prices have been going down.

I don't know what Hawaiian airlines and Alaskan airlines options are from the east coast. But when we've gone to Hawaii, those airlines have had much better rates than the bigger ones.

[karinothing]

They are super expensive right now. The news actually said they dropped $1 from last year, but the average price is something like $450 or whatever. I am mad because DH's BFF is getting married in June adn tickets to TX are like $430. It is TX in JUNE! So annoying.

[hbomdiggity]

I tend to notice slightly better pricing on Tues or Wednesday. And also avoid flying fri, sun or mon.

but the reality is now there are the really the big 3, so there just isn't the competition to force lower prices.

[cheezer]

I have not had any luck with flight prices lately. I was excited to get a flight to Europe over Christmas for only $1200 since I'm flying into a small airport. I feel it would have been $800 not long ago.

[babsbunny]

I have noticed multiple times that some flight prices go up on Friday (like DFW-LAS). That's not to say that they'll go back down on Tuesday, but I think it's more likely to go down versus go up (unless you cross into booking less than 21-days in advance).

The big 3 will compete, but you can't predict the destination that will be on sale (like today, you can get DEN-NRT for $700 on AA, a.k.a attacking United's hub). I've also noticed that Southwest sales do help keep prices down on other airlines, and Southwest usually goes on sale on Tuesdays.

I think Hawaii fares this spring (at least from DFW) have been cheaper than last spring, so hopefully you find something that fits. Flying domestically on Wed and Sat is almost always cheaper than other days of the week.

[v]

Apr 24, 2015 10:49:53 GMT -5 ESF said:

In general, I have noticed better deals on flights on Tuesday. Not always, but enough that I keep it in mind when booking.

But yes, flight prices have been insane lately. Which makes no sense because gas prices have been going down.

I don't know what Hawaiian airlines and Alaskan airlines options are from the east coast. But when we've gone to Hawaii, those airlines have had much better rates than the bigger ones.

Hawaiian flies direct to Honolulu from New York (I think from JFK?).  When we were booking 2 years ago, Hawaiian was considerably more expensive than United or else you better believe I would have gone on Hawaiian.  (In retrospect, we should have paid more for Hawaiian -- stupid United cancelled our flight home which was a fiasco and required us dealing with many very nasty United customer service people, and they don't give you even a packet of peanuts on the 10+ hour flight.  Hawaiian is much more humane.)

Hawaiian is definitely one to look into though. 

[simpsongal]

Apr 24, 2015 12:46:52 GMT -5 v said:

Apr 24, 2015 10:49:53 GMT -5 ESF said:

In general, I have noticed better deals on flights on Tuesday. Not always, but enough that I keep it in mind when booking.

But yes, flight prices have been insane lately. Which makes no sense because gas prices have been going down.

I don't know what Hawaiian airlines and Alaskan airlines options are from the east coast. But when we've gone to Hawaii, those airlines have had much better rates than the bigger ones.

Hawaiian flies direct to Honolulu from New York (I think from JFK?).  When we were booking 2 years ago, Hawaiian was considerably more expensive than United or else you better believe I would have gone on Hawaiian.  (In retrospect, we should have paid more for Hawaiian -- stupid United cancelled our flight home which was a fiasco and required us dealing with many very nasty United customer service people, and they don't give you even a packet of peanuts on the 10+ hour flight.  Hawaiian is much more humane.)

Hawaiian is definitely one to look into though. 

It's such a better airline. Unfortunately, my folks live in South Jersey, so it's Newark or Philly for them. Generally, the nonstop United out of Newark (on Tuesday or Wednesday) is usually the best deal.

Thanks for all the tips folks!

[leeba25]

I've signed up for price alerts from kayak.com, and I'm getting nightly emails about the prices (whether they're the same or have increased or decreased). It's my first time using kayak though, so I'm not sure if the "delete your cookies" thing applies.

[rbp]

Apr 24, 2015 8:43:32 GMT -5 v said:

I don't think there's a best day to buy.

Ok, but my friends who work for Delta disagree.

[alleinesein]

Have you priced it as 2 separate plane tickets? Alaska and Hawaiian fly to Hawaii out of SAN (Kona, Honolulu and Lihue) and there are a ton of flights out of LAX.

Hawaii is always expensive. My parents typically pay $800 per person to fly there and they buy their tickets 11 months out.