So frustrated trying to find decent airfare

Pat H · Jul 10, 2016

I consider myself to be pretty savvy when it comes to booking airfare. I have not been able to find decently priced airfare to Liberia, Costa Rica even though I started looking the day fares/FF seats became available. We can fly from any of 4 airports within a 3 hr drive. I've even looked at low cost carriers to NY and then flying from there. The lowest fare is in the mid $500's. That price has not moved since I started looking 3 mos ago. I have alerts on several sites. I've tried the airlines, travelocity, expedia, orbitz, yapta, travelzoo etc. Anyone have a secret site I might have missed?

PStreet1 · Jul 10, 2016

did you try www.kayak.com/explore

You can set a price and then see anywhere in the world you can get to for that price.

Pat H · Jul 10, 2016

PStreet1 said:
did you try www.kayak.com/explore

You can set a price and then see anywhere in the world you can get to for that price.

I booked a timeshare and don't want to lose my fees. I do have kayak set up with alerts.

tschwa2 · Jul 10, 2016

I am not familiar with the market. Is that much higher than you have found other years? Are you looking during holiday times?

Pat H · Jul 10, 2016

tschwa2 said:
I am not familiar with the market. Is that much higher than you have found other years? Are you looking during holiday times?

Mid $400's is more like it. In March but not during any holidays.

Timeshare Von · Jul 10, 2016

As a somewhat frequent business traveler, I'm finding airfares to be at least 25% higher than in past years. It used to be I could get flights Milw to Vegas for around $250. This year, my flight for a work trip was $355!

rhonda · Jul 10, 2016

We were frustrated by airfare to Costa Rica when traveling during fixed dates in Feb 2014. We found GREAT rates posted over the Thanksgiving weekend 2013. Phew! That was super late booking in my mind ... but the fare deals were spectacular. If I recall, I booked the flights on Thanksgiving day??

Hopefully you have a major "sale" window coming up ...

Pat H · Jul 10, 2016

And now that USAir is gone, there is less competition.

PStreet1 · Jul 10, 2016

Pat H said:
I booked a timeshare and don't want to lose my fees. I do have kayak set up with alerts.

The explore site works differently and often has things that don't come up on alerts.

falmouth3 · Jul 10, 2016

I hear you, Pat. Airfares to Grand Cayman for travel right now are great. For travel in a few months - pretty high. Also, the Hopper app says to buy now so I don't think they'll be heading downward by too much.

kwelty · Jul 10, 2016

You may want to keep an eye on Seret Flying http://www.secretflying.com/usa-deals/
They currently have a $259 RT fare from L.A. (which of course won't help you) and new deals come up often.
--------------------LOS ANGELES TO COSTA RICA FOR ONLY $259 ROUNDTRIP

Cheap flights from Los Angeles to San Jose, Costa Rica for only $259 roundtrip with Copa Airlines.

MuranoJo · Jul 10, 2016

PStreet1 said:
did you try www.kayak.com/explore

You can set a price and then see anywhere in the world you can get to for that price.

Pat, I've used Kayak on several occasions but didn't know about this 'explore' section. Pretty cool! Thx.

isisdave · Jul 11, 2016

kwelty said:
You may want to keep an eye on Seret Flying http://www.secretflying.com/usa-deals/
They currently have a $259 RT fare from L.A. (which of course won't help you) and new deals come up often.
--------------------LOS ANGELES TO COSTA RICA FOR ONLY $259 ROUNDTRIP

Cheap flights from Los Angeles to San Jose, Costa Rica for only $259 roundtrip with Copa Airlines.

Yeah, how about flying to San Jose and then either getting the bus or driving, or looking for a flight from San Jose to Liberia?

PigsDad · Jul 11, 2016

Pat H said:
Mid $400's is more like it. In March but not during any holidays.

March is prime spring break time. Airfare is always higher in March because of that. Mid-$500 doesn't sound so bad to me -- I have had to pay at least that to go anywhere in Mexico from Denver. Personally, I would be booking that flight now before the fares go up. Less competition due to mergers and more demand due to a stronger economy means higher prices. We best just get used to it, IMO.

Kurt

Pat H · Jul 11, 2016

isisdave said:
Yeah, how about flying to San Jose and then either getting the bus or driving, or looking for a flight from San Jose to Liberia?

I would have to get to LA first so it wouldn't help unfortunately.

Pat H · Jul 11, 2016

Has an ongoing search to see what would pop up and got a match to St. Marteen. Found airfare for $460 but we miss the first day because we don't get in until late. Going to change to St. Marteen. Thanks for all tour help.

brownhaired_girl · Jul 11, 2016

Flights to LIR

Have you tried looking at Skiplagged. I have not had good luck on their mobile site, however, if you look at the main site and type in LIR and then not enter a destination, it will give you a price for many destinations for a given day. You can watch for a month out, every now and then and find the least expensive airport to connect. I am planning a trip to Costa Rica in January, I see the flights from MSP are now nonstop $314. Last fall around Thanksgiving they were $186. I check a couple times a week. You don't need to skip a section of the flight. The search area is just a nice place to look for a good jumping off place.

GrayFal · Jul 12, 2016

Pat H said:
Has an ongoing search to see what would pop up and got a match to St. Marteen. Found airfare for $460 but we miss the first day because we don't get in until late. Going to change to St. Marteen. Thanks for all tour help.

So you aren't going to Costa Rica?

We went in March 2014 and airfare from NY to San Jose was $500-650 range plus 2 nature air flights (that was quite an experience, I never had flown in a plane with the windows open before :bawl:

)
Friends flew Southwest direct from Baltimore DC area for under $500.
It is just not a cheap area to visit in our winter season.

ronparise · Jul 12, 2016

GrayFal said:
So you aren't going to Costa Rica?

,,,,,, It is just not a cheap area to visit in our winter season.

And I thought I was the only one that was having that thought

You're not going???

Thats the same question that occurred to me.. or as my grandmother might have said ... So you cut off your nose to spite your face.

Im glad someone opened this up.

For a few hundred dollars, the op would rather miss a day and at the last minute decide to go someplace else. and presumably loose the timeshare fees they paid

Pat H said:
I booked a timeshare and don't want to lose my fees. I do have kayak set up with alerts.

Makes no sense to me..

am1 · Jul 12, 2016

Makes no sense to me either. Once the place is booked the airfare difference is the cheap part.

If you live in a place that offers Avianca, Taca, Copa then flights can be very reasonable. But United, their star alliance partner in the US or silver airways in Florida is not going to want to fly you cheap to where you can fly on a competitor.

I am not sure about Costa Rica but supply has been cut in Latin America because of the high US dollar.

Pty - Mia, FLL, Tpa or MCO can be $500 or more. Unless one wants to fly spirit. Direct flights of just over 1100 miles.

Pat H · Jul 12, 2016

At $175 x 4 = $700, I don't consider that a few dollars. I didn't lose anything. RCI gave me a "one time exception" and refunded the exchange fee and full trading power. I'm sure if I hadn't had the other unit match, we would have bitten the bullet and paid the airfare to go to Costa Rica. There have been a few problems with the resort in CR so I didn't mind changing.

happymum · Jul 12, 2016

Saw this today http://www.secretflying.com/2016/07/non-stop-new-york-liberia-costa-rica-260-roundtrip/
I too am booked at that resort in February. Given the problems at the resort, I'm not sure I'll be going either.
Edited to add that these fares are only good until November, but it does give one hope!

So frustrated trying to find decent airfare

Pat H

PStreet1

Pat H

tschwa2

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

Pat H

Timeshare Von

TUG Review Crew: Expert

rhonda

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

Pat H

PStreet1

falmouth3

TUG Review Crew: Expert

kwelty

MuranoJo

isisdave

PigsDad

Pat H

Pat H

brownhaired_girl

GrayFal

TUG Review Crew: Expert

ronparise

am1

Pat H

happymum