Kathy,

I have not specifically been following airfare from NY to Barbados, but I have been following the Washington DC/Baltimore fares to St. Lucia most of the year. I think the pricing should be somewhat similar. I'd say that if $408 includes all the fees and taxes, it is a very good fare. FYI,over the period (most of this year)during which I watched the St. Lucia fares (considering travel in March/April 2006 or Nov/Dec 2006, the "normal" fare for midweek travel was in the $570 - 630 range. After watching for several months and seeing relatively stable fares, I booked in May for December travel for around $600. That ended up being a mistake because fares did drop as part of summer/fall sale in late July/early August. Surprisingly, American Airlines actually adjusted my fare without charging me any penalty, so I ended up paying $460. When I went to Barbados a few years ago, I used frequent flyer miles, but I think even then average airfares were about $500 or so.

It seems that you're planning a trip similar to the one I had in July, using Barbados as the gateway for a 2 week vacation. You're going to have a GREAT time!

I don't watch fares out of NYC, but I do fly out of Hartford, CT. The least expensive fare I've seen from Hartford to Barbados was about $400, including all taxes & fees. When AA isn't running a fare sale, the prices probably average $600. Personally, I'd jump on that $408 fare.

Do you plan to overnight in Barbados? What islands will you be visiting and for how long? Oh, I'm so excited for you! I wish I were still in the planning stages of my trip.

check Air Jamaica fares

Thanks for the input. The $408 doesn't include taxes and fees, so I guess with all that it is more like $450 a person. Still fairly reasonable. I hate booking now and having them drop, but also hate gambling and only have them go up. Oh, what to do...

As for where we are going, we'll be staying for two weeks and I haven't totally broken up the trip yet. I will have a million questions to post along the way.

The $408 fare gets us into Barbados at 2:30 and we can catch a plane to Union or St. Vincent at 4:30, so I may just fly on and make it one long travel day.

We are celebrating our 15 year anniversary and we spent our honeymoon at Young Island. My husband wants to go back there again. I get to plan all our vacations, so I'll make him happy by doing that, but include other islands to make it an adventure to places we haven't stayed before.

Tentatively what I have planned it to fly from Barbados to Union and then go on to Saltwhistle Bay Club for 4 night. From there I'd like to catch a plane to Bequia and stay there for 4 or 5 nights, and then finish up the two weeks at Young Island.

Or we could do it in the reverse order and lengthen and shorten our stays at any of the above places.

But those are my early plans, still figuring things out. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
KathyH

Sounds like a great plan--oh, how I envy you for having the trip in front of you!

We only spent time on 2 islands, so we opted to fly from Barbados to Bequia directly on SVGAir, which is more expensive than other options getting to Bequia, but much more convenient.

If I could have figured out a way to stay at Saltwhistle Bay, I would have as it has really captured my imagination. However, there is no airport on Mayreau, so you'd have to take a boat someplace before connecting by air. There are mailboats and cargo ferries that run through the Grenadines, but I don't know their schedules and how you would get from Union to Bequia. VInceygirl or curiousx might have that info to hand, however.

We spent part of the day on Young Island when we were on St. Vincent. The food was excellent for our luncheon meal--I hope you have fun celebrating your anniversary there!

I think $450 is about as good as you're going to get for a flight to Barbados. If anything, you can expect flights to go up next year. The cheapest flight I've seen this year was a bit more than $350.

Okay, we are booked on Delta for airfare from JFK to Barbados. Prices went down a tad, total of $432, including all taxes and fees so I jumped on it.
Of course what this means that for anyone wanting to go there between now and May, the prices will probably drop. But I didn't want to take a chance.
Now have to look into connections and accomodations and I'm sure I'll have more questions, but will post a new inquiry with a new title.
Thanks for everyone's input.
KathyH

Good for you!

If fares drop by less than $100 for your itinerary, just chalk it up to paying for your own peace of mind. If they drop by more than $100, you can get the difference credited to you, less the $100 change fee. I like to think of it as win-win.

Hey, I'm going on vacation, no matter what that is a win win!
KathyH

This probably doesn't help KathyH but just today AA announced a sale on airfares to the Cartibbean for travel before December 15. R/T from JFK or LGA to Barbados is $302 plus applicable taxes. Some restrictions apply and certain dates around Thanksgiving are blacked out but still it's a very good deal. Other destinations to/from the Caribbean are also on sale.

Well, as I said, I booked airfare so you know they'll go down. And they did. Of course these fares are for travel before 12/15 and we are going next May. I could wait until next year and hope they'd go down again, but I'd worry they'd only go up, up , up.
I'm happy I booked, but you can bet I'll torture myself and check all the time.
KathyH

You're right--AA just came out with fantastic fares to lots of Caribbean destinations--from all over the USA. Tickets must be purchased by October 11, I think. Haven't seen fares this low in a long time.