Expensive Flights

[sailored]

Holy cow, why are flights SO expensive in March? We had to move our September trip to March due to COVID-19. For two adults, we paid $630 round trip when we initially booked our flights for September in January. Now, for March, it’s about $680 round trip for ONE adult on American. Delta is $1300!! I know no one has a crystal ball, but do you think these prices will be coming down? That’s so much for just one adult.

 

[macraven]

I use delta and find their prices are better once I am at the 4 month out date if I have not booked my flights months earlier

 

[spiders]

March is spring break. The airlines must be optimistic for a decent month.

 

[davidcyndi]

Above nailed it.

 

[LadybugsMum]

Is SW an option for you? I've got decent prices from my home airport to MCO for late March on non stop flights.

 

[sam_gordon]

March = Spring Break
September = School time pretty much across the country.

 

[Befferk]

Granted, we're flying at Christmas time, but we're paying $750-ish per person for the 4 of us 12/25-1/3. But even dates anywhere near that weren't much better. I'm sure Delta is viewing spring break the same as "holiday" time. People are traveling more, so clearly they want to make up for lost revenue.

 

[siren0119]

I'm finding the same for February vacation out of Boston. Flights are crazy expensive, to the point that we're strongly considering driving down instead of flying. I've been able to snag Delta flights for under $500 for four of us round trip - I am seeing even SW at $1700 for four round trips for that week.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Delta has right sized their operations in/out of MCO (and pretty much everywhere) in a way that has kept prices pretty high in a lot of cases. Might just be my particular booking timing, but I’ve paid more for two MCO flights in the last few months than I ever have, on average, before. Between the flights and car rentals, I haven’t had much luck with good travel deals!

 

[tiggerx3]

Try SW if it’s an option. We got flights thanksgiving weekend for 45 pp.

 

[spiders]

Delta has right sized their operations in/out of MCO (and pretty much everywhere) in a way that has kept prices pretty high in a lot of cases. Might just be my particular booking timing, but I’ve paid more for two MCO flights in the last few months than I ever have, on average, before. Between the flights and car rentals, I haven’t had much luck with good travel deals!

Delta isn’t as quick to match all fares to begin with. They tend to try to wait out for the better prize. They don’t necessarily want to match a fare on a MCO-ATL flight because they might still be hoping for a more lucrative international connection. You can’t sell a seat to Johannesburg if you already gave up the seat to ATL for $59.

 

[sponica]

Orlando is a vacation destination and I think right now the airlines are operating on the (possibly correct) theory that there are two groups of people: those that want to travel and those that don't, and if the former group has already decided to travel they can charge as much as they want/need.
I'd also be interested in seeing if Delta's booking algorithm is blocking off middle seats for airfare purchased in March. Last I heard they were committed to it through January.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Spring break and trying to make up for hemorrhaging money all year.

 

[BobbyDukes]

I would probably guess we all have to get used to expensive airline tickets for a while. Airlines take into account a lot cultural, political and seasonal conditions when posting their prices.

 

[Darthbane2007]

I want to say I paid around $50 from RDU to MCO on March 3rd this year. Of course I flew out at like 5:45 AM and arrived at like 7:00 AM

 

[gatour]

Delta isn’t as quick to match all fares to begin with. They tend to try to wait out for the better prize. They don’t necessarily want to match a fare on a MCO-ATL flight because they might still be hoping for a more lucrative international connection. You can’t sell a seat to Johannesburg if you already gave up the seat to ATL for $59.

In general airlines charge more for a ticket that starts or ends at one of their hubs.

 

[spiders]

In general airlines charge more for a ticket that starts or ends at one of their hubs.

I understand but Delta doesn’t seem to consistently care what other airlines do on its non-stops from ATL. Southwest still has a decent network out of ATL from its acquisition of AirTran.

You used to be able to get on a wide body to just about anywhere to Florida. All that changed when AirTran started eating their lunch. Delta really began its international expansion then because they needed those 767’s to start flying to markets where AirTran couldn’t follow.

 

[Tormania]

We booked too early for our upcoming trip and missed out on big savings. Our r/t flight for 3 on SWA was around $1000 (booked back in May) but this summer that same flight was only $700 for 3. Ugh! We could get credit for the difference but we don't have any flights planned before May 2021 so it would be wasted anyway. Oh well.

 

[EACarlson]

We booked too early for our upcoming trip and missed out on big savings. Our r/t flight for 3 on SWA was around $1000 (booked back in May) but this summer that same flight was only $700 for 3. Ugh! We could get credit for the difference but we don't have any flights planned before May 2021 so it would be wasted anyway. Oh well.

Had you made the changes to your itinerary prior to Sep 7 you would have been able to convert the savings into RR points which do not expire. There have been isolated reports of people creating new TFs that have the expiration date required to make the conversion.

 

[Tormania]

Had you made the changes to your itinerary prior to Sep 7 you would have been able to convert the savings into RR points which do not expire. There have been isolated reports of people creating new TFs that have the expiration date required to make the conversion.

Didn't think about that, but our last flight on SWA was 3 years ago for our previous trip to WDW so it would take almost a lifetime to earn enough points for a flight. We just don't fly very much, prefer driving for our usual vacation destinations.