Have Airfares Finally Bottomed Out? @ Coach Class

Have Airfares Finally Bottomed Out?

Jeanne Leblanc| June 28th, 2009 3 comments

It has become my custom to tell you, gentle readers, that airfares have hit an absolute rock bottom and cannot possibly drop any more, just before they do. (Please note the increased courtliness of my writing style; I have been reading Don Quixote.)

Just last month I went to Honolulu on a $401 round-trip fare from Bradley that I was convinced would never be matched. And last week I bought a $256 round-trip fare to Honolulu from Newark.

Thus my credibility is in shambles, as it should be, but visions of palm trees and mai tais keep me from feeling suitably abashed. Yet now, wiser voices than mine proclaim that the precipitous decline of airfares is ending and that you, fair readers, had better buy your tickets now if you have somewhere to go.

“Two airfare hikes in the past few weeks is the strongest signal I have seen that the bottom is either here or near,” Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com told the Los Angeles Times.

The Associated Press quotes many well-informed experts in the field, including Seaney, who think prices may rebound soon. Tom Parsons of Bestfares.com offers a great tip. He “recommends making a top-10 list and checking fares until you find a bargain. Chances are some of your favorite spots will be on sale.”

So do it, my fair, gentle, good-looking and intelligent readers. Book your fares and go somewhere, not because I command it, but because you know you want to.

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3 responses to “Have Airfares Finally Bottomed Out?”
- Maryanne June 29th, 2009 at 20:21
  
  Yeah but how much is it going to cost you to get to Newark and back? Is it really cheaper, all things considered?
  
  There’s a good question for you: how to get to the NYC area airports from the Hartford area and back cheaply, quickly and painlessly, because I don’t think it can be done!
- Maryanne June 29th, 2009 at 20:25
  
  I even just mean RELATIVELY cheaply, painlessly and quickly, because we all know modern travel is generally quite painful, rarely cheap and almost never quick.
  
  In a related question, is it morally repugnant, if you’re living inside the Beltway near the Metro, to gloat when you listen to the highway commute reports in the morning?
- Jeanne Leblanc June 30th, 2009 at 09:22
  
  We’re going to Newark on the train, which will cost about $75 round trip, per person (with AAA discount.) Amtrak stops right at the airport. The total cost is still well below the $401 that I paid out of Bradley and way less than half the usual fare from the East Coast to Hawaii.
  
  I don’t know of a comparable way to get to JFK or LaGuardia, although I suppose one could take MetroNorth into New York and switch to the JFK express train. Haven’t tried it yet.
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