Help: Airfare
 

My family is going to have our first time cruise on April 15, that will depart from Ft. Lauderdale. I haven't booked our flights to get there yet. I was just now checking the airfare and found it was outrageous. For the round trip flights between Boston and Ft. Lauderdale, we will be charged at least $600+ apiece. Please give me some advice: Should I wait a little bit longer to book by myself or just use the cruise line add-on airfare? My final payment is due on January 30.
Thanks very much!

Sometimes it can be worth it to just by the cruise line add-on. The big benefit of that is that if you are delayed, canceled, etc, the cruise line will be responsible for your air-cruise connection. If you buy airfare on your own and you don't make the ship in time, you'll have to find a way to meet up with the ship on your own dime.

I had a friend recently who was on a ship that lost a couple engines. Because of this, they didn't get back to the dock until 4 hours late and everyone missed their connections. Those who booked through the cruise line had a much easier time changing their flights.

If you have some time in advance and want to go a couple days early, I would recommend checking some other sites. What site did you look at initially? If it was one of the online travel agents, you won't see fares from airlines like jetBlue (which flies nonstop) or Southwest (which flies out of Manchester and Providence).

jetBlue fares should show up on most online travel site, unlike Southwest. Also check for alternate airports. For example, Spirit flies from Providence.

And waht exact dates are you looking at?

It is only 20 miles from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale's airport.

Actually, jetBlue does not participate with online travel agents like Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz. You will only see them on metasearch sites like Kayak, Sidestep, PriceGrabber, etc.

Check www.jetblue.com right now. They're having a sale on a bunch of routes that ends today or tomorrow. I don't know whether Boston-Ft. Lauderdale is one of the routes or, if so, whether any of the cheap seats are left, but yesterday I bought a ticket from Oakland to Ft. Lauderdale for $216 RT (including taxes, fees, etc.)!

Never mind about the sale. I just realized that you're travel dates are too late. Sorry.

In addition to these tips and those posted on similar thread on "Cruise", I would investigate cost of foying into almost any airport in Southern FL - even Ft. Myers. That really is a lot of money, but as I noted in response on other thread, I was only able to do a little better when I researched.

I believe the main problem is that 4/16 is Easter Sunday, so many kids the week before or after off for spring break. That means 1000's of families from the North, tired of a cold, lingering winter, have already gobbled up all the cheap flights into S. Florida.

Can you come down one day early? Visit www.itasoftware.com and check all airports 100 miles from Ft. Lauderdale. Pick up a rental for one day and drop it off in Ft. Lauderdale. Most rentals don't charge extra for droping a car off at a different location.

jetBlue on the 14th has fares from $254+ and up. Guessing that your return is the 23rd, I checked the fares: $299+ and up. Those are one-way fares.

Going south:
$204 on the 13th, connecting at Dulles
$144 on the 12th, connecting at Dulles
$104 on the 11th, nonstop

Having read replies on this post and one on cruises, it seems byt ceing flexible and creative you can get a fare of about $500 - but not the usual $250 or less I expect on a trip to Florida. As I said on thread under cruises, fares seem to be outrageous that weekend - not just Easter, but Passover, Patriots Day in Massachusetts, school vacation week in New England.

Usually I would recommend that if saving money was really important you try to fly into some ridiculous city (like Atlanta) and drive the rest of the way - but I know flights Bos-Atl are also very high - you may be stuck.

No, I do not think waiting will lower fares.

I think you're in trouble. That's school vacation week and if you don't book a flight 8 months in advance you can't get flights. My husband was a teacher for years and we knew that if we were going anywhere April vacation that you had to book in August. You should have had the cruise line book you when you signed up for the cruise.

Just FYI, JetBlue doesn't include taxes in the fares when it displays them, only after you select the flights. So that will add probably around $70 to the fares quoted above.

I meant around $70 in taxes RT, not OW. Sorry.