Thread: High cost of flying home

I thought I may pass this along for others. You may have noticed booking a flight home from FLL or MIA over a weekend when ships arrive are very costly after 9am. Airlines know 1000s of pax are getting off ships and price accordantly.

I just booked a cruise to the Caribbean out of FLL and was able to get a decent airfare to FLL, but pricy cost back home ($362+ $50 luggage = $412 for 2).
Instead I reserved a chevy Impala from Alamo, pickup @ FLL & drop off @ Raleigh, NC airport for a total cost of $86 (no luggage fees, lol). During the winter car rental agencies have plenty of cars dropped off in Fl. and glad to get them back to other parts of the country. If the airlines drop the price for me to get home, I can always cancel the car w/o a fee.

Paul

Smart

You couldn't fly Southwest home? With that airline, you avoid all baggage fees and probably pay less for your ticket. Plus if you don't wait too long to check in you can choose your seat on the plane. Whenever possible, I fly Southwest for these reasons. The only times I can't fly Southwest are when I go to small regional airports.

Alternately, wait till after the weekend by extending your trip a day or two. The difference in air fare can easily pay for the hotel stay.

I have a 8 pm flight out, arriving in DFW at 10 pm. .. and Im paying to check luggage on spirit. regretting my airline choice, but its done.

I got the other one on american later in the fall with a bit better times.

Im on Oasis twice this fall, so flying into Ft. lauderdale, not once ... but twice

About ten years ago, we were on a Caribbean cruise out of Miami (my second one), but we decided to extend our trip by a week (considering we were flying more than 3,000 miles, I believe) and spend a few days in Miami (and visit with my hubby's uncle), a few days in the Keys, and an additional day in Miami, pre-flight. And I had booked the cruise, round trip flight out of LAX, five hotels (including the pre-cruise one), and rental car all within one weekend, just eight days before the cruise.

The flight wasn't the cheapest -- I had told hubby that if we went a couple of weeks later, we would probably be able to save. But he really wanted to get out of town at that time, so that's what we did. And the only glitches was with the rental car company (think of a Texas landmark) which didn't seem to have enough vehicles for the reservations they made (think of the Seinfeld episode) and with the hotel that gave us a room on the smoking floor (even though I was meticulous when I had contacted each hotel) and even the second room they gave us was stinky, even though that one was on a non-smoking floor.

Patty, you lucked out. Most airlines would charge you a change fee, a rebooking fee, and the differential cost of the ticket. So a $150 discount fare could vanish very quickly and change into a $500 charge ($75 change fee, so it is easier to just toss the old ticket, $500 ticket price for a ticket purchased within a 3 day window of the flight) Even Southwest who doesn't have a charge for changing tickets will still charge you the difference between a anytime and a full fare ticket.

We oftentimes book a cruise far enough out to be able to take advantage of airfare sales as they become avaiable. Southwest is a big carrier from here, and with no baggage fees plus frequent sales, we oftentimes will use those routes to determine a cruise departure port. The main problem is purchasing travel insurance. It's my undersanding that you have to ipurchase airfare before making final payment on the cruise, in order to get coverage for both forms of travel. Then, it's harder to take advantage of airfare sales without penalty. On Southwest, we were given a future credit instead of a refund.

I sometimes envy those who are close enough to a port and are able to take advantage of last minute cruise fares.

That was the big deciding factor in our next cruise. Air fare is only $240 instead of the usual $500.

Originally Posted by nealberk

That was the big deciding factor in our next cruise. Air fare is only $240 instead of the usual $500.

What in the world are you talking about, Neal?

What I have found by looking for flight tickets is if you go where there are mulltiple airports nearby, one will be cheaper (or less expensive, if you want to call it that) than another one. This happened when I went to California last month. Instead of round-trip San Francisco my family flew into San Jose and out of Oakland. We also played around with different dates to figure out when prices were lowest in mid-Jone. You can also do this in Chicago, the nation's capital, New York, and Los Angeles, among other placces. I have fllown to 29 airports so far and Jacksonville, Florida will be #30 next year, but I can't wait to fly for a cruise!