Is there such thing as cheap plane tickets around Christmas?

Question

I want to fly from Omaha to Portland, Or on the 19th to the 26th. Can someone help me find a good deal? P.S. I don't travel enough to have frequent flyer miles.

Answer 1

You do mean Portland, OR not ME- right? Anyways, right now the cheapest flight is around $400 - not good bc the avg is $220!

The easy answer to your question is - YES!

Here's a tip. Lets say an Airplane has 200 seats. The airline prices each of those seats, there's certain 'fare rules' applicable to each seat. Lets say the airline priced 100 of those seats at their avg rate of $200 in DEC2005. Those seats at that price come with your typical set of restrictions, i.e. you cannot change dates/times without a change fee; non-refundable (someone wanting a fully refundable ticket will pay more regardless of when they purchase their ticket).

Anyways, those 100 seats sell. Now your looking and it's Sept. they appear to all be priced in the $400 range for travel near Xmas. These prices will change!!

Here's a easy way to know when to anticpate price changes. Go to Travelocity.com; select FLIGHTS>>>>LOW FARE ALERT>>> and select OMAHA from the drop down box. This will give you a list of current sales on tickets and how much your saving percentage wise. Now scroll down and select PORTLAND, OR.

This will show you the current sales with various airlines, take a look at the dates. Most airlines are now advertising sale prices through OCT 15 and higher rates for fares through NOV15. Fares listed beyond that arn't really at sale prices, but there they are.

Go ahead and check one of the fares posted for travel through the holidays-this will pull up a calendar of days. It'll give you an idea around the holidays what days will be pricier to travel. Like another answre stated, traveling the day after any holiday will be $$$.

You can expect more sales to be posted, but you have to be good at checking it out!!! If you sign up at Travelocity, you can sign up for "Fare Alerts" If a fare your interested in drops below a certain rates, they will email you asap (select an email address you check frequently, bc they go fast, especially for holiday travel).

Anyways, the airline has sold the 100 seats at discounted rates, for all those people who've planned a year in advance. Lets assume they've sold another 20 seats at higher prices, for people who assume "prices can only get higher". Now they've got 80 seats left (they'll sell more than that, especially during holidays-overbooked flights are fairly common during peak seasons---if everyone actually shows up they'll offer some incentive for someone to wait for the next flight $500 travel voucher or similar). Anyways, not many people will be willing to spend $400--it's a deterant and the airlines know this. They WANT to have every seat filled, so they will post additional sales.

It's a game the airlines play. You need to stay ahead by checking flights frequently or signing up for travel alerts. If you check Travelocity, check Orbitz and Expedia as well.

If AA has the cheapest fare on Travelocity, well thennn go to www.aa.com and it will be cheaper-AA gaurantees it.

Again, the simple answer to your question is YES, there is a such thing as cheap plane tickets around Christmas. A lot of the times it's a matter of getting to the sale tickets before someone else does. To give you an idea, I get postings for sale prices into Houston....the average ticket is $200 from ORD. I've gotten emails in the morning referencing a sale of tickets for $138 (GREAT price for ORD to IAH) If I sign in immediatly I can almost gaurantee getting that fare. If I sit around and mull it over and go in later that day to purchase it, price will be back at $200.

This isn't like a department store sale, where if they put a pink sweater on sale you can expect the green one to be on sale as well. The airlines have the fare rules which distinguishes between the various seats, this is what allows them to sell the guy sitting next to you a $600 ticket for the same flight where you bought your ticket for $200..... Like I said it's a game, if you don't have time to play or cannot chance having to pay higher then the existing rates then by all means purchase now. I can promise that the rates will go lower, but I cannot promise that you get to those rates before they sell out.

Answer 2

Doubtful as it's the peek time for travel. You have to get in extra early to get tickets otherwise it's a real pain to get what you want without the prices being insane. I tried getting tickets over a month ago & even then it was almost too late to get tickets as many were already sold out. The best day to fly would be Christmas Day itself as not many people want to fly then

Answer 3

I found a flight from MCI to SFO on December 24-31st for $218 RT and usually that is the cheapest time to fly around that time. also traveling exactly on the holiday like once I traveled from December 25-January 1 for only $229 RT on delta.

Answer 4

www.bt-store.com

and ask about stand-by. I've also gotten some pretty good deals last minute. You could even look into buses, trains, or just renting a car.

Answer 5

Buy them early. That is your best bet. I've always had the best luck with travel agents. Good luck.

Answer 6

I doubt it - if you don't have to be there at a specific time your best bet is probably to try stand-by.

Answer 7

Get rich and by your own privit jet.

Answer 8

book in advance