Question About Airline Tickets

• Nate

  Trying to find tickets from CLE to TPA (Tampa) leaving on May 23rd and back on May 29th.
  Need two tickets. Right now, it's about $300 per person round trip w/ no stops.
  
  We have watched the prices keep going up and up. Is there any chance more flights will be added or the prices dropping?
  
  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
  
  Thanks
• iclfan2

  

  I would assume they are just going to go up more. I looked for flights to Celveland from gboro, NC and Monday they were in the $400's, when I bought yesturday they were $980.
• thavoice

  Yeah, typically they go up. Look for some that are not non stop.
• MrPoke

  

  They will go up but will randomly go down for a day and then back up.
  I watched tickets from DC to Miami from 6 weeks out and found the best deal within 2 weeks out.
  Checkout the travel feature on Bing.com
• Automatik

  

  Just check Bing....from my experience their price forecasting is legit.
• Nate

  The only problem w/ not non-stop is our 1 year old. The less travel time, the better.
• Nate

  Automatik;725318 wrote:Just check Bing....from my experience their price forecasting is legit.

  We were following that and it said prices would drop and they actually went up. Now, they are still saying they will go down but I'm not too confident in it.
• Automatik

  

  Was the confidence high? I've noticed prices have been shitty lately. I just bought a flight to NY from Pitts 6 weeks from now and it was almost double the norm.
  
  Also kayak.com and momondo.com
• Bio-Hazzzzard

  

  Air Tran has non-stop tickets available on those dates for $124 each way per person. It is out of Canton/Akron instead of Cleveland.
• Cat Food Flambe'

  

  With all the airline mergers (Northwest-Delta, Continental-United, and soon AirTrans-Southwest), there are only about five major players in the airline business, and they all now serve the same markets. I don't think think ticket prices are going to decline for a long time.
• thavoice

  iclfan2;725312 wrote:I would assume they are just going to go up more. I looked for flights to Celveland from gboro, NC and Monday they were in the $400's, when I bought yesturday they were $980.

  
  DId ya check outta Charlotte? Flew Charlotte to Dayton very cheap in december.
• Nate

  Confidence on Bing was like 90% last night.
• iclfan2

  

  thavoice;725350 wrote:DId ya check outta Charlotte? Flew Charlotte to Dayton very cheap in december.

  
  Yea, I actually fly from Greensboro to Charlotte, I could literally almost drive as quick as it is going to take to get to Charlotte. However, the ticket is being paid by work, so I am not dealing with driving and stuff if I don't have to. If I had to pay $1000 bucks myself to get to Cleveland I would probably just drive the 8 hours.
• thavoice

  iclfan2;725369 wrote:Yea, I actually fly from Greensboro to Charlotte, I could literally almost drive as quick as it is going to take to get to Charlotte. However, the ticket is being paid by work, so I am not dealing with driving and stuff if I don't have to. If I had to pay $1000 bucks myself to get to Cleveland I would probably just drive the 8 hours.

  
  Makes sense. I knew we looked a tfew places from Fayeteville, Greensboro and Charlotte and Charlotte was by far the cheapest.
• oberhaus

  

  Can you be flexible on the airport you depart from? Try Canton/Akron instead of Cleveland. Or even Columbus? I tried multiple departure locations when my wife went to Hawaii.
• Nate

  We're about 2hrs from Columbus and would rather not fly out of there because that's another hour adding on to the toddler. I've looked at Akron but most aren't non-stop out of there. I think I'm going to spend most of my day tomorrow trying to finalize this damn thing.
• Pick6

  

  From what I remember (could be wrong) when I was looking to fly to LA, the tickets would get more expensive the closer it was to the flight date. Also believe that having a straight flight was more expensive than one with a layover. Also checked those sites like expedia and I believe thats what we ended up doing because they were a little cheaper there. I can't remember if it was just the tickets or a ticket/hotel combination though
• oberhaus

  

  Nate;725385 wrote:We're about 2hrs from Columbus and would rather not fly out of there because that's another hour adding on to the toddler. I've looked at Akron but most aren't non-stop out of there. I think I'm going to spend most of my day tomorrow trying to finalize this damn thing.

  
  How long are the layovers? My wife and 5 year old son went to Hawaii and had a couple layovers that were less then an hour? That isnt managable with your child? I mean if one stop can save you $100 a ticket...isnt it worth it?
• oberhaus

  

  Im looking on priceline and they have a flight out of CLE with a 45 minute layover in Charlotte for 283 after taxes. Only non stop is 325 after taxes. 45 minute layover is nothing since you have to change planes. Your time will be spent walking to new gate.
• slingshot4ever

  I have been researching for my 2012 trip to to London and non-stop flights out of Detroit have gone down from about 1.5K to 1K per person.
• Automatik

  

  slingshot4ever;725513 wrote:I have been researching for my 2012 trip to to London and non-stop flights out of Detroit have gone down from about 1.5K to 1K per person.

  
  That seems like a lot for so far in advance.....but direct flight is really nice. A girl at my work just booked a flight for August for $900....leaving from La Guardia.
• Manhattan Buckeye

  oberhaus;725501 wrote:Im looking on priceline and they have a flight out of CLE with a 45 minute layover in Charlotte for 283 after taxes. Only non stop is 325 after taxes. 45 minute layover is nothing since you have to change planes. Your time will be spent walking to new gate.

  
  Or worrying whether you'll make the connection, if there is any weather in either location a 45 minute layover can turn into a 3-4 hour layover if you miss your connection (or if the connection is really tight your luggage might not make it). Unless the price is egregiously more expensive, always take the non-stop.
• Timber

  ^^^^ This... the least amount of layover issues the better.. if at all possible. Can you/are you purchasing a lap ticket for your child?
• iclfan2

  

  So the $950 ticket I booked Friday is now down to $627. Pretty much BS that airlines can just raise and lower price on the same ticket whenever they want.
• HitsRus

  

  $300 round trip to Tampa is not bad...not great but not bad. The other thing to consider is baggage fees which can differ greatly between airlines. Another thing that can lower fares is to be flexible on travel dates...for instance, it may be considerably cheaper to fly on a Tues. versus a Monday.