I travel for work here and there and don’t pay much mind to prices. Often I’m booking short notice anyway. but I’m looking at prices to fly 6 people on spring break and I dont know how people do it regularly. Also Austin seems more expensive than IAH or the like. im looking at close to $3k on domestic flights to the east coast. I’m sure folks have tricks or whatnot. So teach me please. Lol.
Always look for two one way tickets. It is cheaper than buying round trip. Change your days +/- 3. Check SkyScanner they give you all the prices in one place. If you have time on your hands take a flight with a connection. Or fly into cheaper airport close to your destination. Always buy Spirit Airlines tickets at the airport they are usually much cheaper than their online price. Spirit just started out of Austin they have deals available now. They will be flying to Cancun out of Austin as well. And yes Austin is a smaller airport so naturally tickets are more expensive in and out of there. If you have to fly out of IAH do that. You can get tickets for everyone for around $1500 or less maybe. If you are saving $1500 then it is totally worth to drive 2.5 hours and fly out of IAH. These are the tricks of the trade. FYI I just booked tickets from IAH - ATL roundtrip for 2 cents. 1 cent deals are quite common for Spirit. The tickets online were about $85 but at the airport they were about $66 because 1 cent fare with tax is $33 for one way. So I saved nearly $20. I know its not much for one ticket but I have 4 passengers and it adds up.
Flights.google.com has price alerts. I'm sure other services do too, but most airline companies also report to Google flights.
This is all very helpful. That said, I just spent some time at the Spirit website... and this is not just a spirit thing, but I can't underestimate how hard it is to travel (or do anything!!! lol) with a family of 6, including 4 kids under 17. For one, on the Spirit website, absent signing up for a username, etc. everytime I go to check flights, I have to re-enter all my kids birthdays. Everytime. For two, flights aren't that available for 6 people, or are more expensive, or require multiple stops for 10-14 hour hauls. All things that "go away" when traveling solo or with just 2 people... heck probably even easier for a family of 4. Sure, buying tickets at the airport sounds nice, but again, not something you can really do with four kids coming along. After much searching, I can find Houston-Philadelphia for $2,200 bucks.. but would need to spend another $500 bucks if I want the option of picking seats, carrying on a bag and checking a bag per person. Still too much - as we don't "really" need to go, just was going to be a vacation to visit friends and Philly/DC/NYC area for a week... especially when I could just load them up in a car, do a extra full long 15 hour day to scottsdale, and spend a week there (at 1k miles away and call it $0.55 cents for car gas and wear and tear, that's $1,100 - but of course only the gas "really" comes out of pocket). I'll keep playing around on skyscanner and the like, and keep my eyes open for deals. I save the $3k+ ticket stuff for bigger trips...
Yeah man, everyone gets you on Spring Break. I've used spirit and it wasn't bad at all. I bought online but I also enrolled and paid the $$ to get on their $9 fare club and it's saved me money. I've been told to look on Tuesdays, but that's hit or miss on my opinion... If you travel often, maybe a combo of miles and $$ is the way to go. I've used kayak and it usually gives the cheapest route (sans SWA, which usually is competitive. I've also used AMEX rewards travel and they've been good and used them to go to Cancun last year. Good luck!
You're going to be hard pressed to find good deals over spring break, especially now because: Economy is great More people are flying now than ever before in the history of aviation This spring break is expected to be the busiest ever People are just willing to spend the money now Demand is high, supply is limited as airlines capacity control is an absolute science. Consolidation to 4 major players, with 3 niche players limits options, especially out of capacity limited or hub focused cities. The cattle car Spirits, Frontiers are going to be your best bet when it comes to flights, just please READ ALL THE RULES AND RESTRICTIONS before booking. Source: I work in the airlines industry and we (airline business as a whole) are printing money for the first time in the history of the business.
Don't travel during spring break is the trick. Seriously though, just look on kayak and find the best prices. Sometimes shifting the day you leave and come back by a day will save you a few hundred bucks per ticket. You can also fly frontier from Austin to some destinations. They have kids under 12 fly free on certain days. You will have to pay extra for carry on and check in baggage but it's definitely cheaper. I fly to DC all the time from austin and the difference between prices from frontier versus SW or American is about 800 bucks per ticket.
Wow, this ones great, thanks. Based off this I was able to get the price down about $500. I can get it down further if I don't want to have the option to select seats - like another $350. So question for you... or anyone... If I don't have the seat selection option, how likely/unlikely will I be able to get blocks of 3 seats together, and more ideally two rows back to back with blocks of 3 in each row? Can I book, then just call and ask them to assign me those? For airlines where seats are assigned? For example in the flights I'm looking at, there are plenty of these options available if I pay the extra $71 per ticket to choose my own seats. But if I don't pay that, could I just call afterwards and ask them to rearrange for me?
Im no expert but have booked tickets like this for int'l work travel with no seat selection up front. I had to wait until check in to choose a seat.
There's a lot of tricks to this - but if you want to fly when everyone else wants to fly, it's just going to be expensive. There's not a lot of ways around that. That said, mileage tickets can help, and if your kids are willing to miss a couple of days of school can help. It's too late to help you this year (unless you already have miles), but for example: Tue Mar 17 - on Southwest or other airlines, you can fly AUS-PHI for about $160/person. for 6 people, that's $960. Tue Mar 24 - on American, you can fly PHI-AUS for 6,000 miles + $5. So that's 36,000 miles + $30 for 6 people. Ordinarily, 36,000 miles is hard to get by flying. But the Barclays Aviator Red Credit Card comes with a bonus of 60,000 miles after spending $1, plus paying a $99 annual fee. You also get a $99 companion ticket. The problem here is this takes a couple of months - so it would only have worked if you planned this a few months ago. But if you had it already, you could fly 6 people round trip AUS/PHI for a total of $1090 - plus you'd have 24k miles leftover for future tickets (4 potential webfare tickets), and a $99 companion pass. The downside would be that you'd go Tues-Tues and miss 2 days of school. But if you can travel off-peak times, there are ways to do it.
Nice! Which airline? Weekend dates as well? I love me some San Diego, the weather, the beautiful women, rooftop bars...I remember offering my seat to a woman and she was so appreciative, which assumes most of the guys there are d-bags...Southern charm should work in your favor... I agree with this, and if you can split it up like this, do it. It's funny, I've always compared and have never been able to pull the trigger on my AA miles. They always seem to have a cheap flight that I pay vs. using miles... Also, with regards to the assigned seats, I've booked Basic Economy on both united and AA, and have gone with my son and so, and both times, they sat us together, as they see me booking both tickets, but that's 2 (and not during SB), not 6. worst case, you could ask when you get there or ask people to switch, but that is a risk...
I just got back from my ATL trip on Spirit. I had four people on my reservation. On the way there we were given 4 seats in a row together. On the way back we were given 3 seats together and one separate. Most of the time if you book all seats together at the same time they try their best to give you seats next to each other. If not one or a couple of seats might be separate. The best option is to check in as early as possible because that is when seats are assigned. I definitely would save money and not try to choose my seats. Also another option would be to ask the gate agent or agent at the counter to try to give you closer seats. But you have to get to airport earlier for that. I am not sure calling them would do any good.
Booked this trip at the Spirit ticket counter at IAH last week IAH - LAS VEGAS Wed March 11 2 cents round trip with tax $33.41 SAN DIEGO - IAH Tues March 17 $2.00 round trip with tax $34.40 Allegiant Airlines will start service from HOU (Hobby) in the end of May and early Jun to 4 destinations. They have specials going on currently if you fly out of their new destinations. I booked two roundtrip tickets on their web site from HOU to VPS (Destin- Fort Walton Beach Airport) departing Mon Jun 22 and return Fri Jun 26 for $2.24 with tax $132. Make sure to add bags when making the reservation because they are only $25 at that time. If you add bags later they jump up to like $50. Happy Hunting!
