SFO to CZM airfare out of sight!

[jayjoans]

I just checked the "new" (old) Continental site now that it has been fully merged with United, and I am shocked and appalled. Searching every month April through October, the best airfare quoted is $718 r/t!

I hate to even joke about this, but for selfish reasons I would appreciate just a touch of a swine flu scare. Those $250 r/t fares were a dream come true.

So much for a Coz trip in the coming months, can't afford over $700 in air.

 

[DandyDon]

Well, those swine flu bargains were artificial. If demand had stayed at those levels, flights would have been cut.

Using this site Matrix - ITA Software I see some dates for less than $700, but not many. Airlines are paying more for fuel too, among other things - and as you know, competition has been reduced.

How about $394 tho...?

 

[azscubadude]

I just checked the "new" (old) Continental site now that it has been fully merged with United, and I am shocked and appalled. Searching every month April through October, the best airfare quoted is $718 r/t! So much for a Coz trip in the coming months, can't afford over $700 in air.

Here is something interesting I just noticed this morning.. here are two screen shots I took this morning checking the new United for a trip to Cozumel. As you can see from the first screen shot they normally have just a couple rows of the BLUE upgradeable "extra charge-extra legroom" seats (usually between $35 and $70.00 per seat), this is the leg from Phoenix to Houston. On the second screen shot, Houston to Cozumel they have increased that to 8 rows to squeeze even more money out of passengers. Of course this is optional, that is unless there aren't many regular seats available.

In all the time I have been checking trips on the same Phoenix to Cozumel (through IAH) I have never seen this before, it popped out like, wow, this looks different.

--

 

[mathauck0814]

Flights have been getting more expensive year-over-year for about the three years now. As someone who flies weekly for work, I have noticed it on nearly every route. I doubt it will change in the near future. The airlines have simply become too good at matching capacity to demand.

 

[DandyDon]

Try SFO, Oakland, and San Jose to CZM for the dates you want to go, then compare those three to CUN. Lots of dates for under $500.

 

[blue steal]

I am in the same position, airfare since last year has increase by close to $300 RT from LAX.
Yes I know fuel has gone up, but double the price.
Most flights either have 2 stops with a very short layover ( 1 hour), or a 1 stop layover greater than 5 hours.
Flying from LAX to Cancun is actually more expensive than Cozumel, go figure.
As much as I want to return to Cozumel, the airfare has just become to much or to inconvenient at this time for me.

 

[mathauck0814]

I am in the same position, airfare since last year has increase by close to $300 RT from LAX.
Yes I know fuel has gone up, but double the price.
Most flights either have 2 stops with a very short layover ( 1 hour), or a 1 stop layover greater than 5 hours.
Flying from LAX to Cancun is actually more expensive than Cozumel, go figure.
As much as I want to return to Cozumel, the airfare has just become to much or to inconvenient at this time for me.

From LAX you can get to a lot of places in the south pacific and spend a week for a lot less (total spend) than you can in Mexico. You need to take an extra day off to account for travel, but there are a LOT better diving destinations out there that are accessible from the west coast.

 

[DandyDon]

I am in the same position, airfare since last year has increase by close to $300 RT from LAX.
Yes I know fuel has gone up, but double the price.
Most flights either have 2 stops with a very short layover ( 1 hour), or a 1 stop layover greater than 5 hours.
Flying from LAX to Cancun is actually more expensive than Cozumel, go figure.
As much as I want to return to Cozumel, the airfare has just become to much or to inconvenient at this time for me.

Well, you won't shop the other LA area airports so that limits you choices. At least you have other airports. I don't, and I pay more than most across the US & Canada.

 

[azscubadude]

Try SFO, Oakland, and San Jose to CZM for the dates you want to go, then compare those three to CUN. Lots of dates for under $500.

Just checked my trip from last March. Left on 3/17 and returned on 3/28. Round trip from Phoenix
with my normal layover in IAH.. Priceless !!

Same trip this year, using same flight times, layover and return for comparison..
Look at the difference between the airfare cost vs. taxes for each trip, only $10.92
difference. $679.00 difference in actual airfare.

 

[scubawife]

Being that we're only about 45 min from EWR, a Continental hub, we've flown them almost exclusively for about 15 yrs now. When we weren't flying CO we were on UA (usually for destinations CO didn't serve, or UA had more choices). We also use CO & UA credit cards for just about everything and between travel and the card we end up with lots of miles. UA has always been mediocre with using the miles, but with CO it used to be that we would buy a cheap fare... like under $300pp rt... and use miles to upgrade. Since the merger the fees to use miles to upgrade are insane to most destinations. When I've checked it seems like the fee can be half or more of the fare. Insane. And of course it's gotten a lot harder to get the saver miles (30K each way for first/business). With the UA "economy plus" being adopted into this new airline it also cut out a good chunk of economy seats on many flights. The upgrade to those seats for the 5" more legroom varies too. I've seen anywhere from $15 to $75, depending on the flights.

Overall, they took everything good from CO and replaced it with everything that stunk from UA. Charges for everything, higher fares, harder to use miles, etc., etc.

Definitely sticker shock fare shopping for CZM or CUN, or anywhere in the Caribbean these days. The occasional times we had to pay $400-425 I used to complain. No it looks like $600+ is going to be the norm. It's going to be a lot of time wasted ticket shopping, playing with dates, times, connections, etc., to get reasonable fares. I'm just glad we usually have some flexibility and aren't held to any specific vacation days. The problem you run into shopping flights though is that if you don't book right when you see it, it might not be there when you go back even 10 minutes later. Ended up spending almost $100 more a person on a trip in Oct that way. Only 20 minutes and it was gone.