International Flights

[aygov]

So I'm planning a trip to England in May to see a few buddies of mine. I'm fully expecting to pay in the neighborhood of a grand for a ticket over at this time. However what's caught me off guard is how volatile ticket prices seem to be.

For example, initially when this trip was proposed (around the first part of this month) ticket price was about $970 which was good with me. Well we finalized the dates over the weekend and the price had risen to $1060 as of Saturday. I'm thinking damnit, but it's not completely over the top from what I had expected so whatever. I don't buy yet because I need to coordinate travel as far as getting picked up when I fly in and someone dropping me at the airport. Monday morning I get bored at work and check again, price is now $925.... Heck yea I think, but I don't buy as I'm waiting on my buddy to get back to me as to what flight times are convenient as he is commuting to pick me up. He gets back to me that evening and I get ready to buy my ticket only to be greeted with a $1036 price tag... WTF?!? $111 price jump in less than 12 hours... So far it's risen to $1044 but who the heck knows where it'll go from there.

Before anyone asks, yes these are the exact same flights I was looking at over the whole period. My question is, do I just suck it up and buy it now or do I wait and hope that maybe it'll dip back below a grand? I honestly have no frame of reference with this and it feels like I'm playing some weird version of the stock market with absolutely no historical data to go on.

 

[Jklinden]

Rumor is websites track how much you check a flight price and raise according to your interest

 

[Quaker]

I've traveled internationally a lot, and what you're seeing is normal. I typically fly out of Chicago, and there are times a direct flight from Chicago is $200-400 more than using that same flight, but starting in Milwaukee and connecting in Chicago. I've seen prices go up closer to the dare, and i've seen them cone down; no guarantees. I've flown direct from Detroit to California at higher prices than flying direct Detroit to Europe.

Currently wife is daily watching flights for Thailand. That's just what you have to do. She swears they hit their lowest mid week, but I know she's never mapped it out. Don't drive yourself crazy waiting for it to hit that magical one time low you happened to miss. Watch for a week and pull the trigger as soon as its within your mental realm of reasonable.

Once you buy, don't go checking again afterwards and don't ask others seated around you what they paid. On one flight to Shanghai the guy next to me made some comment about how high the price was. We compared, and he had paid $400-500 (25-30%) more than me. Don't let yourself start a trip disgruntled.

 

[Punity]

try scalping them at the airport

Seriously though delete your tracking cookies for those websites. From what ive read online they do influence the price of your fares.

 

[Airplanedoc]

Check aerlingus to Dublin then catch a connection (ryanair) to one of the london airports unless he is close to heathrow. Its a overnight flight nonstop Chicago to Dublin, Last I flew it it was 7 pm to 7 am local times.

may 15 with a return the 21st was $857 RT, tax included

 

[broadbill]

waiting for it to drop again produces more stress than sucking it up, paying the extra $100 and calling it done.

It's $100, drop in the bucket for what you are going to spend on the whole deal.

 

[aygov]

Yeah, the wife is telling me just to suck it up and buy it and tbh I have started to become a little obsessive over this so I might just say screw it and pull the trigger. I definitely won't be looking at prices after I buy though. No good will come of that...

 

[morticus]

Sometimes it's cheaper to buy directly from the airline and skip the ticket sites.

 

[aygov]

I went ahead and bought. It never got back to that uber-cheap price I saw initially but oh well. Better to have it done so I can worry about other stuff rather than agonizing over a price that may or may not go down again.

 

[two_hearted]

I fly to Argentina every year. First year $850, second $1200, third $1600, this year $2300.

 

[Airplanedoc]

Sounds like it should be a fun trip, Drink some pints for us.

 

[bierhaus15]

Check aerlingus to Dublin then catch a connection (ryanair) to one of the london airports unless he is close to heathrow.

This is the way to do it if you want to save money. Aerlingus usually has flights out of NYC/Boston to Dublin for around $300 one way and then its another 25-40 bucks for the Ryanair flight to wherever you want.

Went to Poland a few years ago, cost me 20 bucks to go from Dublin to Krakow. Can't beat that price.

 

[Airplanedoc]

This is the way to do it if you want to save money. Aerlingus usually has flights out of NYC/Boston to Dublin for around $300 one way and then its another 25-40 bucks for the Ryanair flight to wherever you want.

Went to Poland a few years ago, cost me 20 bucks to go from Dublin to Krakow. Can't beat that price.

I think the last weeks email i got from them listed $725 RT, thats not too bad at all.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I fly to Argentina every year. First year $850, second $1200, third $1600, this year $2300.

We go to Malaysia.

I don't even want to think about how much that will cost now with 2 full fair kids. Last time we looked, round trip came in around $9k. Coach class, wtf?