Alaska when to book complicated trip
 

Good Morning from Virginia! I am attempting to book a trip for my husband and his cronies. They are leaving Virginia in early June going to Seattle Washington for four days, on to Kodiak for fishing for 10 days and then back to Virginia . I have to book a prop hop plan for Kodiak too and a hotel for a 4 day touring layover. Right now there are a few tickets left at $1181. Four years ago I was able to get all the tickets for around $400 per person. Have things gotten this bad or should I just wait a little longer to book the flights? I have searched relentlessly and found my best price on Orbitz. Thank you in advance for any assistance.

Try to break it down in to a series of 1-way tickets. VA to Seattle, Seattle to Alaska, the prop-hop, and back to VA.

Four years ago several major American carriers were either going into or coming out of bankruptcy. Your low-price experience was one of the reasons. Since your party is flying across the continent, then far north on a route that is probably lower traffic and therefore higher priced, the ticket quote you have found sounds reasonable to me. But keep shopping; you never know when a discount will pop up. It's wise to go to the carriers' websites to compare prices. Multi-destination searches, in my experience, are almost always cheaper than trying to piece together one-way tickets, and more convenient for luggage etc.

Using Alaska Airlines the Seattle stopover is at no charge. What "prop hop" are you referring to - from Kodiak airport to a lodge or village? Otherwise Alaska flies jets the whole way, DCA to Seattle, Seattle to Kodiak via Anchorage, then back the same way (or via Portland or LAX). Without knowing your dates it is indeed around $1200 round trip.

You can also look at joint fares with Delta and, I believe, AA. They are partners.

NFZ, How does one actually look at joint fares between partners Delta and AA?

I think NFZ is using "AA" to refer to Alaska Airlines, not American.

$1,181 sounds like a great fare for this trip that includes stopovers.

I'd say, let your husband and his friends book their own trip. ;-)

Assuming that they're capable, of course ...

Typo City. That should have read: You can also look at joint fares with Delta and Alaska, and, I believe, (Delta and) AA. They (referring to the former pair) are partners.

Still ambiguous. Read it as (1) Delta and Alaska, and, (2) Delta and AA.

Joint fares across alliances can be found on some routes on the GDS's. Used to be on most routes; I don't know how many have survived.

Then again, maybe I did mean AA (instead of AS). I think I got distracted in the middle of that post. Sorry for confusing everyone!