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As many long-time blog readers know, my family is going to Europe this summer. I used miles and points to book us lie-flat business class seats. This will be our first time flying in business class as a family.
The only piece of the puzzle missing is a domestic leg on the way home from Chicago to Dallas for my husband and sons. They are flying United from Zurich to Chicago non-stop, but getting flights for the Chicago to Dallas leg should be relatively cheap and easy. Right?
Historically, a one-way flight between these two cities is under $100. But now, for the date/time required, I’m looking at flights in the $300 range. What??!?!
I know there are several factors coming into play here….inflation, fuel prices, fewer workers/routes, more travelers, etc. But instead of looking at paying a total of $300 for this final jaunt home, I’m now looking at ~$900.
Using miles and points isn’t much better. Yikes!
My Strategy for Dealing with Outrageous Flight Prices
I’m not quite giving in and buying those expensive flights yet. I do have a few tricks up my sleeve.
Setting Price Alert: I set up a price alert email through my Capital One travel portal. This alert will let me know if ticket prices go down.
Watching for Web Specials: I plan to keep watching AA and United websites for web specials on award flights.
Considering Alternatives: We could consider staying the night in Chicago for a less expensive flight the next day. Or, I can start looking at flights from Midway instead of O’Hare. And, they could even take Amtrak home instead of flying.
Of course, this is the last leg on a two-week trip. We will all likely be exhausted. I don’t want to make the last leg too inconvenient and complicated to where it takes away from our overall trip enjoyment too much.
So, in the end, I may end up ponying up the $900 for the flights. But for now, I’m taking a “wait and see” approach.
Are you seeing high prices on summer flights? How are you dealing?
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Was looking at doing a long weekend to Vegas next month and prices just kept going up so I’ve decided not to go. Maybe I’ll go somewhere in June but not going to pay those high prices!
@Boonie Ugh, hopefully June prices will look better.
rgjgj
What we did was search alternate airports, airlines, dates, and times – instead of $600+ OAK-ICT, we found $275 SFO-MCI on Frontier. Packing light, accepting the seats they assign, planning for fun during a 6h layover in DEN. Could have gone for $190 if we had been willing to fly the SFO-DEN red eye.
It’s going to be hard to escape the high prices with travel demand up this summer. I just paid $350 one way and 40k on points for the return per person for a Southwest STL-JAX flight in May that was planned by my wife much too late. At least there are a lot of choices for Chicago-Dallas areas. You might also check and see if you can move your long haul euro tickets out of Houston or another UA hub. That might help even if it sounds kind of crazy. You might also call the airline to see if they will open up award space for that positioning flight as an add on.
I would wait especially if your trip is more than 60 days out. Airlines are raising prices everywhere right now because they feel they can, but this will eventually bring down demand as most travelers are leisure right now and they will not pay these high prices. They will drive, not travel, ect. Planes will end up not filling up and prices will drop within 21 days. I noticed this over Easter weekend – sky high fares 30 days out, then dropped 14 days out because planes weren’t full.
You’re not the only one. I live in Chicago and have a Alila Ventana Big Sur redemption on the horizon (scheduled 8 months ago) and the prices are $400 RT (ORD-SFO). But it gets better…400 is on Frontier. That’s the best I can do. p.s. similar to you, I can drop 120k RT (60k per person) on award availability but there is no saver award availability. Ayyeeee!
The best option is to not buy the expensive fare. Stop feeding the inflation beast and prices will come down.
I would love to do that. And I really hope the fares come down in price. But somehow, they have to get back to Dallas. 🙂