What the hell is up with airfare?

[Meresgi]

So it wasn't even a year ago I flew up to see family back in NY, from Maryland for like maybe $200~ round trip. Now every fight I am looking at with Southwest is $216-$500 one way, and that's not just for the Holiday time either, this is pretty much the standard for every day from now until May/June.

Did I miss something, did airfare just sky rocket in the past year? I don't fly much but goddamn.

[Cream Soda]

hmm 160-200ish is my general air fare (one way) when I fly, but I'm always going from FL to the other side of the country.

Edit: Just checked 1 way tickets around the time I'll be going back to Seattle in March and the lowest I've found (on my first search) is $130 for a ticket.

What day you travel is also important though. Usually get the cheapest tickets tues/wed/thurs as compared to fri-mon

[synistar]

LA to DC and back before tax/fees is going to run me about $140 each trip. Midweek travel day though.

[Meresgi]

LA to DC though is a pretty long flight, BWI to Albany is freaking 45 minutes. Feel like the pricing is just outrageous for that short of flight, I mean sure the drive is around 6-7hrs..but goddamn.

[Moss]

So it wasn't even a year ago I flew up to see family back in NY, from Maryland for like maybe $200~ round trip. Now every fight I am looking at with Southwest is $216-$500 one way, and that's not just for the Holiday time either, this is pretty much the standard for every day from now until May/June.

Did I miss something, did airfare just sky rocket in the past year? I don't fly much but goddamn.

prices are going to fluctuate. buying waaaaaay in advance does not necessarily mean a cheaper fare. so just because the minimum is $216 right now, even looking months ahead, does not mean it will drop further

[Waraji]

They also screw you over if someone has recently purchased a ticket. My ticket to Cali jumped up by $50 after my girl had bought one a few minutes earlier. So it's really about date and quantity of seats filled / frequency of tickets sold in a span of time.

[Meresgi]

Ahh didn't know that, guessing prices are jumped up now since people are probably buying tickets for holiday season causing them to raise across the board? Makes sense, sucks for planning ahead though. I fucking hate driving to NY in the winter, PA is a frozen death trap

[tyven]

Take day of the week into account as well. Weds and Saturday are best days to fly

[Aragon of Odin]

Wish we could get prices like that up here. Over $700 round trip last time my girl flew out to NB from ON(less than 1k miles 1 way), and that was at a discounted price because of a death in the family, regular price was closer to $1000.

I'd love to be able to fly out East instead of drive, but a 16hr drive beats spending almost $4k in airfare. It's actually worth it to drive the 1-1.5hr to Buffalo and have a flight booked out of there, fuck CDN airfares

[Aragon of Odin]

I can fly to Portugal for about $1200 roundtrip, the flight is 2-3x the distance as NB, in fact you fly right over NB, yet it still costs almost the same....... ridiculous..........

[Moss]

They also screw you over if someone has recently purchased a ticket. My ticket to Cali jumped up by $50 after my girl had bought one a few minutes earlier. So it's really about date and quantity of seats filled / frequency of tickets sold in a span of time.

Ahh didn't know that, guessing prices are jumped up now since people are probably buying tickets for holiday season causing them to raise across the board? Makes sense, sucks for planning ahead though. I fucking hate driving to NY in the winter, PA is a frozen death trap

yeah it's algorithms on top of algorithms. Waraji's girl probably got the last ticket in a "set" before they jumped to the next set of prices (for the next 5-10 seats, for example)

[Senji]

I've gotten 7 roundtrip flights from Albany to various places this year for all under $240 except one, which was only 4 days out and like 380 or 430 or something. All weekday flights. A JFK to LA was only $340 for early next year. IDK, clear your cookies or something.

[Tyrath]

Take day of the week into account as well. Weds and Saturday are best days to fly

I always heard Tuesdays were. Sat doesn't even make sense!

[Zeb]

And I heard ordering online just after midnight going into Wednesday is the best because that's when cancellations gets reposted.

[BaneTheBrawler]

i heard ordering while facing the appropriate direction during a full moon and using lots of the appropriate elemental resist equipment is best

[dasva]

LA to DC though is a pretty long flight, BWI to Albany is freaking 45 minutes. Feel like the pricing is just outrageous for that short of flight, I mean sure the drive is around 6-7hrs..but goddamn.

Prices are based on supply/demand of location not distance. That's why things like skiplagged work. The whole day of the week thing sort of works until everyone starts doing it making those days in demand. Red eyes are never popular though so they tend to stay good. Nearby unpopular airports often have better deals too. Basically be as antisocial a flyer as possible lol. Actually once had a situation where I was flying to Guam and flying past it to Japan first then back was cheaper and oddly faster despite almost the same amount of layover time than going directly. And on top of that the more direct one got overbooked and they had to ask people not to board. Free stay in Hawaii for a few days would've been nice though

[Cyn]

I fly for work occasionally and I've noticed that the flights seem pretty expensive lately. Just recently flew from Raleigh, NC to Austin, TX and back and the airfare was around $500. Got Las Vegas, Amsterdam and Maui coming up, can't even imagine what those will cost. (Sadly, I tend to work the entire time I'm out of town, so I won't see much more than the inside of the resort I'm in.)


Good thing I don't have to pay for them lol.

[Meresgi]

i heard ordering while facing the appropriate direction during a full moon and using lots of the appropriate elemental resist equipment is best

Yeah but what type of Air Staff should I have equipped?

[tyven]

I always heard Tuesdays were. Sat doesn't even make sense!

yea Tuesdays too. Saturday is because it's not a business day and leisure travelers usually get where they are going before Saturday and then leave on Sunday/Monday

[Squah]

I booked a flight from Newark to Indianapolis for the first week of January and it was ~$150 round trip