Airfares to the Caribbean

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leadweight

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I have been checking airfares to the Caribbean from Houston. I can't believe how much they are. It's the same distance from Houston to Belize or Chicago, but Chicago is $290 and Beize City is $650. Some of that might be taxes and fees, but if they taxes and fees are than high, then they are trying to kill off tourism. Coz is about $500 (a very short flight) and Grand Cayman is also about $650.

By comparison, I am going to Lisbon next month for $880, and that is about 5 times as far as the Western Caribbean.
 
Unfortunately it has nothing to do with distance and everything to do with location. Combine that with airlines changing prices depending on how many tickets are left and the demand for those tickets, things only get worse. I had to do a lot of searching to get my tickets from the U.S. to Bali for $1300. If I had waited 3 more days to fly out I would have paid $2300. It's all about timing I guess. I usually fly to Costa Rica every year from Utah (right around this time of year as well) and almost always have a connecting flight in Houston. My flights have always been really close in price to what you are being quoted.
 
It's called Yield Management.

How high can they raise the fare on a particular flight before people choose to fly on a competitors airline (if available) or not fly at all.

If I have a plane scheduled for a particular flight and I can successfully fill the seats at $800 why would I sell tickets at $500?

Sucks for us..... I paid $367 R/T on my last trip to BZE. I looked last week: $754.
 
Actually, it's called what ever the market will bear.

As for Bali, there is great diving there and $1300 is a deal.
 
I actually had to change my club trip at the last minute. We were trying to go to Roatan this July. Price was $800+. None of us could afford that. So I found something in Cozumel. Flights were $450-$500. That's were all 10 of us will be. I wrote 2 resorts one in Roatan and the other in Utila and told them why we would not be there....air was tooooo expensive.
 
I actually had to change my club trip at the last minute. We were trying to go to Roatan this July. Price was $800+. None of us could afford that. So I found something in Cozumel. Flights were $450-$500. That's were all 10 of us will be. I wrote 2 resorts one in Roatan and the other in Utila and told them why we would not be there....air was tooooo expensive.

Roatan is so high that for $300 more round trip I can do first class and have access to the crown clubs (and free luggage) so I did!
 
I actually had to change my club trip at the last minute. We were trying to go to Roatan this July. Price was $800+. None of us could afford that. So I found something in Cozumel. Flights were $450-$500. That's were all 10 of us will be. I wrote 2 resorts one in Roatan and the other in Utila and told them why we would not be there....air was tooooo expensive.

Have they replied to your objection of the reason of you not going to Honduras?
 
Welcome to the effects of unlimited airline mergers. The reason Chicago is cheaper than Belize is because you probably have a dozen airlines to choose from and enough empty seats to make one of those airlines hungry enough to lower their fare...which causes all the others to follow suit. When you have only maybe 2 airlines serving a particular route and there aren't alot of seats going unsold, they have no incentive at all to reduce the fares. What happens with destinations like the Caribbean is that people wait as long as they can looking for the cheap fare and then eventually break down and buy a ticket anyway. So the seats get sold and the airline doesn't have to lower their prices. When enough people stop going as is happening with Roatan, eventually either the Ministry of Tourism will step in and offer credits to airlines to get them to drop fares or the airlines will do it themselves to get the seats sold.
 
Roatan is so high that for $300 more round trip I can do first class and have access to the crown clubs (and free luggage) so I did!

Thanks for pointing that out. Roatan may be our next dive trip and I like to fly first class if it's a cheap upgrade or someone else is paying for the ticket.:wink:

Which airline did you take and what was the route?
 
Thanks for pointing that out. Roatan may be our next dive trip and I like to fly first class if it's a cheap upgrade or someone else is paying for the ticket.:wink:

Which airline did you take and what was the route?

Delta through Atlanta.
Delta's schedule works better for me even though I like Continental better as a Company.


Cattle car section was about $965 and First Class was $1,240
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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