summer airfare question
 

2 weeks ago I was planing a trip from southern california to upstate NY: Buffalo/Rochester area.

I could find tickets using orbitz for around 200$ (US Air)

Now the cheapest I can find are around 325$-350$ and I need to buy 3.

Is it typical around this time of year for ticket prices to fluctuate this much and can I expect them to drop or might they go up even more if I wait?

Thanks.

Gas prices have gone up, airfare prices are gonna go up...

However, depending on where you are flying from and too (Look at alternate airports as much as possible) they might drop, but I wouldn't count on it.

I'd also look at alternate carriers, that don't show up on Orbitz. Check out www.mobissimo.com - i believe they have all the airlines but Southwest.

Wow, Mal, that's a great site...I'm looking for tickets for Vegas in September and managed to find cheaper tix on there than anywhere else.

That's funny, they have an ad for Southwest at the bottom of thier page, but they don't have any Southwest flights in the searches! Great page though, now I know who I'm going to bug for travel planning help :)

Thanks for the site.

I saw that USAIR was offering the lowest fares on orbitz (around 300$) so I went to USAIR.com and used their GOFares feature and found tickets for $238.

I guess it pays to check the airlines websites. I wonder how often the airline websites have deals that trump orbitz and expedia.

Actually pretty regularly... I know American runs deals on their site quite often, especially if you can book 2 weeks out, and meet their travel requirements (saturday night stay, etc...) They've had unbelievable fares to Europe from the east coast...

If you have a frequent flyer account for that airline as well, you can usually get emailed their weekly fare specials as well

Orbitz and Expedia both SUCK. You can beat their prices on eveything by going direct to the Airline, Hotel group, and rrental car agents. I use them to check flight situations and for planning, then go to the direct sites and do my booking. For my vacation this year, i beat Orbitz airfare by $100.00, the hotel rates by 10-15% and car rental by $6.00 per day. They might have low cost package deals, but i have never used those.

Are you a student? If so, try www.studentuniverse.com; as long as they can verify your status, you're good to go.

If not, try travelocity.com; they've been the lowest price for me, as well as cheaptickets.com

I work for an airline ....so hopefully I can provide a little insight and knowledge to help you out. Generally speaking, airlines prices are based on availability. They essentially begin selling out their lowest fares first, so the closer to the flight, and the more seats sold = higher cost. There is always the exceptions when it comes to seat sales. Seat sales however come far less frequently during the summer as its a peak travel season, and a better chance of selling the flights at regular fares. Always go directly to the airlines website. Orbitz is crap.....they cant offer you anything different then the airlines directly can. Quite often times (with the airline I work for) Orbitz misquotes and offeres the customer a lower price then is actually even available, and the booking therefore cannot be confirmed. Also, try signing up to get notification of seat sales directly from the airlines....I know American Airlines sends these and its quite helpful. Sometimes last minute Net fares are really good too....that is if you are lucky enough to have it placed on your particular market of interest.