Airfare - Looking Ahead

[jake11]

Airfare is really crazy.Just booked a March trip from Allentown PA to Bali for $538 dollars.The flight from Philadelphia to Coz was $590 dollars.

Wow! $538 round trip to Bali! That is a smoking deal!

 

[cvchief]

So, how do you get from there to Cancun in 3½ hours? Non-stop? On SWA?

Yea, now. Non-stop, direct, BWI to CUN. I used to fly Airtran. SW bought them out and took over the routes. You can also do United and now ?Frontier? out of IAD non-stop, direct as well.


First flight for us on SW was September. It was ok. Don't really like the seat fight, but I paid the 12.50 and got on sooner. They split the exit row on the left/port side! Like no real extra leg room, but one row has two seats. The third seat behind in the 'second' exit row had MASSIVE leg room, but it has the tray in the arm which made the seat less wide, or so my tookus told me.

On the way home, got the exit row on the right/starboard. Flight was probably not half full so the missus and I had the WHOLE row.

The one stew told a story of going to a Xmas party with a rowdy Texican farmer. She was old.....

---------- Post added October 16th, 2014 at 09:06 PM ----------

Oh and that Frontier flight looks like $315?? Are they cheapo or something and charge for lots of crap?

 

[Roatan Joe]

You have six months. Have you tried flying on American Airlines air miles? A couple of years ago I got an American AAdvantage Citicard. Actually I got two of them and got a total of 80,000 or 100,000 air miles and later canceled one after I got the miles. Sorry I don't remember the total now since it's been a couple of years. Since then I pay most of my monthly bills and anything else I can with the credit card and pay off the balance each month. I haven't paid for an airline ticket lately and have taken several 5 or 6 trips during the past couple of years.

At the end of this month we are going to Cozumel for a week. I found the right flight schedule which will only cost me 25,000 air miles, round trip. Flying direct DFW to Cozumel and a week later we fly back to DFW from Cancun. We have been wanting to check out Playa Del Carmen anyway, so we are staying overnight at Hotel Cielo (highly recommended here on SB) right on 5th Ave and then we are flying on home the next day.

Anyway, 25,000 airmiles is typically what it costs to fly in the lower 48. When I saw the 25,000 mile deal to Cozumel it was time for another dive trip! Accumulating air miles has turned into one of my many hobbies. There are lots of ways to earn air miles. The credit card also gives me priority boarding, so I get on before most and easily find an overhead compartment that I can stuff my divebag into! When flying in the USA and some international locations I get one free checked bag which is nice too. There's a few other benefits, but I'll just say the air miles hobby has been lots of fun and has allowed me to do quite a bit of flying for cheap! There are webpages dedicated to the air miles hobby.

 

[Mike]

Oh and that Frontier flight looks like $315?? Are they cheapo or something and charge for lots of crap?

Yep, the darling home airline of Denver went to the dark side when they were bought and now everyone hates them, ala cart everything, even charges you $3.00 to choose your seat. They have 6 different tiers to your luggage charges alone. Website only works about 10% of the time so you'll end up calling a rep and being on hold for hours just to finish your booking. (they know their website is broken and announced a total redo of it sometime next year). Really a pity. Denverites loved them and raved about them for years, they had contests to name their animals on the sides of the plane, all sorts of good public pride, all gone now.

Their planes still take off and land like everyone else's, just make sure you carefully add up all the separate fees to get your real rate and you'll be fine, they are as bad as all the rest now, so still another viable alternative.

 

[DandyDon]

Yea, now. Non-stop, direct, BWI to CUN. I used to fly Airtran. SW bought them out and took over the routes. You can also do United and now ?Frontier? out of IAD non-stop, direct as well.

Ok, he/they are originating in Pittsburgh, so big difference. I had to look up where you are since it's not on your SB profile, but you are 63 miles from Baltimore, while he/they are 249 miles from that airport. I could get better flights if I drove to Dallas myself but won't, especially because of the return trip. We drove to Abilene for cheaper flights last summer and that backfired!

Checking all possible airlines on Matrix and all airports within 250 miles of Pittsburgh, it seems he could drive to Toronto, ON for non-stop flights, but that's 317 driving miles. Non-stop from a nearby airport to Cancun would beat connecting flights to Cozumel usually, but not an option in this discussion. Working with his situation rather than yours, I don't see any good non-stops to Cancun. So why did you want to confuse the guy?

Again, good to check SWA separately since they don't play on the usual sites or co-op with other airlines, but they don't off "check nearby airports" on their site either so you just have to know the airports or look them up, then ask SWA one by one if they have non-stop service. Since he whined about getting home at midnight, I doubt he'd want to drive far to catch a plane.

We have been wanting to check out Playa Del Carmen anyway, so we are staying overnight at Hotel Cielo (highly recommended here on SB) right on 5th Ave and then we are flying on home the next day.

Ugh, who told you Cielo was nice. Hated that place.

 

[Roatan Joe]

Ok, he/they are originating in Pittsburgh, so big difference. I had to look up where you are since it's not on your SB profile, but you are 63 miles from Baltimore, while he/they are 249 miles from that airport. I could get better flights if I drove to Dallas myself but won't, especially because of the return trip. We drove to Abilene for cheaper flights last summer and that backfired!

Checking all possible airlines on Matrix and all airports within 250 miles of Pittsburgh, it seems he could drive to Toronto, ON for non-stop flights, but that's 317 driving miles. Non-stop from a nearby airport to Cancun would beat connecting flights to Cozumel usually, but not an option in this discussion. Working with his situation rather than yours, I don't see any good non-stops to Cancun. So why did you want to confuse the guy?

Again, good to check SWA separately since they don't play on the usual sites or co-op with other airlines, but they don't off "check nearby airports" on their site either so you just have to know the airports or look them up, then ask SWA one by one if they have non-stop service. Since he whined about getting home at midnight, I doubt he'd want to drive far to catch a plane.


Ugh, who told you Cielo was nice. Hated that place.

Mainly someone named lthomas132 , but you once said it was "interesting"... Actually several in that thread said it was nice after you said "interesting". YOU officially owe me a beer if the place sucks!

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/mexico/373036-hotels-5th-ave-pdc.html

Next time say it SUCKS, if it sucks!! Oh well it's only one night and I'll probably be intoxicated by the time I'm finished with my 5th Avenue Pub Crawl, so I probably won't notice..

 

[cvchief]

Ok, he/they are originating in Pittsburgh, so big difference.

You asked me how I do it. And we were talking about under what conditions flying to CUN makes sense. Just fooling with dates not his, I think I can get to CUN for like 386 on US and around 6 hr flights. or 650 to CZM on Delta and only 30 minutes more for the same dates. It is all about what you want and what is available. I was just sick of flying all the way to Texas (no offense) to fly all the way back. Now for the right price and schedule, I might like Delta IAD to Atlanta to CZM. I have done that, but right now my December dates are like 620 with Delta.

And it is only 62.6 miles to BWI, stalker!

---------- Post added October 16th, 2014 at 11:28 PM ----------

Looks like PIT to CUN in December on SW might go less the 400 if you pick the right days and that includes bags. Some flights only around 6 hours travel, 1 stop.

 

[mstevens]

Even from Boston a nonstop flight to CUN takes just under 4 1/2 hours. The problem is I first have to get to Boston, then I have to get to Cozumel from Cancún. Those are going to add enough time versus going to a nearer airport and flying to Cozumel that even though nonstops to Cozumel from this part of the world don't exist, my total travel time remains very nearly the same, and if I land in Cozumel my property manager can have our car waiting right outside.

 

[DandyDon]

Mainly someone named lthomas132 , but you once said it was "interesting"... Actually several in that thread said it was nice after you said "interesting". YOU officially owe me a beer if the place sucks!

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/mexico/373036-hotels-5th-ave-pdc.html

Next time say it SUCKS, if it sucks!! Oh well it's only one night and I'll probably be intoxicated by the time I'm finished with my 5th Avenue Pub Crawl, so I probably won't notice..

Maybe "sucks" is unfair. I did not like it at all, but is had local culture, clean rooms, ok beds if you didn't mind your head so close to the window to the hallway. "Interesting" It is convenient to 5th ave. I am really not a PDC fan so I guess my views are slanted.

Funny experience I had there, in a way: I nicked a vein on my leg climbing out of the last cenote and bled all over the dock. We washed it off. I think that vein got stretched when I had the DVT, or maybe it's something else. Anyway, once back in PDC, we humped our dive bags a few blocks in the heat from the shop to the hotel and then it started bleeding again. I rushed to the room to grab a clean, wet cloth to get it to stop and scattered blood marks thru the lobby, up the stairs, down the hall, across the room. Minor irritation, but unsightly - and the guy at the desk didn't have a key to cleaning supplies.

The manager finally showed up and was worried about a medical emergency, walked in on me cleaning the floor with my wash cloth. Never did get anything better. I think they charged me a few bucks for the cloth. Similar quality goes for 4/$1 here, but PDC is pricey.

 

[jake11]

We scrimped and saved and finally got enough miles to fly to Cabo San Lucas with Frontier Airlines. 5 weeks away from our trip they sent an email and after being on hold for HOURS we were informed that they cancelled both flights coming and going. They could have gotten us there 2 days before and home 3 days later as that is the only thing that worked . They offered us NOTHING to help out with anything. We now have tickets to the tune of $1477.52 total for both on United. So much for Free flights! Needless to say, we are not happy campers with Frontier. I think I can recite there whole on hold message as I have listened to it now about 1000 times!! Sigh!

Yep, the darling home airline of Denver went to the dark side when they were bought and now everyone hates them, ala cart everything, even charges you $3.00 to choose your seat. They have 6 different tiers to your luggage charges alone. Website only works about 10% of the time so you'll end up calling a rep and being on hold for hours just to finish your booking. (they know their website is broken and announced a total redo of it sometime next year). Really a pity. Denverites loved them and raved about them for years, they had contests to name their animals on the sides of the plane, all sorts of good public pride, all gone now.

Their planes still take off and land like everyone else's, just make sure you carefully add up all the separate fees to get your real rate and you'll be fine, they are as bad as all the rest now, so still another viable alternative.