Help me play the airfare guessing game
 

Need to fly BOS-Raleigh/Durham last weekend in april (Fri-Sun). JetBlue, AA, Delta are available airlines. Lowest RT fare I can find is almost $400 - when it is usually just over half that. JetBlue can get me there for $89 - it is the return flight on Sunday that seems to be the problem on any airline, regardless if I book 2 one-way tickets or RT.

I am definitely going - even if airfare goes up. Anyone have recent luck waiting out an airfare when trip is less than a month away or do I just deal with it. Thanks.

I don't get what you mean by "it is the return flight on Sunday that seems to be the problem on any airline."

When I check on the various airline sites, using price option - that is, where you pick a flight one way, then the other, the price for the Sunday trip is about 3 times the Friday trip heading south. For example, BOS-RDU on Friday is $89 and RDU-BOS on Sunday is $269. It is almost cheaper to stay until Monday and pay for a hotel, but that would be difficult for me to schedule at work.

Well, I just looked at availability for nonstops as listed on ExpertFlyer, and of the 10 flights shown on EF for Sunday the 26th, only one (a 6:25 AM departure on American) has any seats for sale at all in the lower-cost economy fare categories. Most are simply sold out, so any seats being sold now are probably the result of "deliberate overbooking."

When demand exceeds supply, prices tend to rise, whether it's airline seats or Super Bowl tickets.

RDU-BOS also labors under the curse of regional jet-ism, i.e. non of the majors uses large planes on the route; even JetBlue uses E190s, a smallish jet.

Have a look at USAir, connecting at La Guardia, in the early afternoon.

Thanks. Just booked a JetBlue non-stop each way at just over $400 - not happy about it since someone in our family flies this route many times/year and can usually get ticket at $200-250. Attending an important college event of daughter and I guess I should just deal with it and be happy I can afford it. Next time I will book sooner - if I had booked in February it would have been much cheaper.

Delta just today drastically reduced fares to some flights to Europe in early September.