mclaurie

Looking at options to fly from NYC to SFO on Easter weekend. I normally hate traveling on holiday weekends but this is for a family event on Sat. April 3. Preference for NY airports are JFK, LGA and EWR last. Would consider Oakland on the other end too but there doesn't seem to be much price benefit. Need 2 tickets. Don't want to fly before 10 am from NYC. Can leave April 1 or 2 and want to return either late on April 4th or sometime on April 5. Cheapest option I see is $258 on Delta from EWR at the crack of dawn. To get airport & flight times that are best is $350-500/person. Have tried using farecompare.com to see if they think prices will come down and can't seem to make it work. (Did it used to be simpler to get a prediction or am I doing something wrong?) I know if I could stay for a week, it would be cheaper but I can't.

I also have the option of using some Amex membership rewards points for all or part of ticket. I was saving points for travel to the UK but starting to wonder if I can maybe do both. Anyone with any thoughts? I have looked at air/hotel pkgs. but my brain starts to scramble in order to get decent (ie non-stop) flights with a decent hotel. I'm not as blonde as this sounds. I think I have analysis paralysis. Thoughts? Even just an estimate on what you think a reasonable price for air/hotel for a 3-4 day weekend should be would be appreciated.

rkkwan

If you can use only 25,000 points to get the non-stop flights at the good times you want, use it.

mclaurie

25,000 per ticket or for 2?

rkkwan

Roundtrip per person.

rkkwan

Looks like for those dates, you'll at least 40,000 DL points or 30,000 Jetblue points (equivalent to 37,500 AMEX points) to get the good flights on the dates you want.

No idea if you can use fewer points on AirTran or Frontier on those dates, but those will require connection anyways.

Might want to just book the flights directly. Besides the really early flights on DL out of NYC, you can also leave late in the evening on the 1st to get decent fare, but they require connection at MSP and arrive SFO almost midnight.

J62

JFK - SFO is a highly competitive route with at I believe 5 airlines flying the route nonstop (AA, DL, UAL, JB, VA), with going rate usually $250-300 as you found for the very early DL flight - the problem you're seeing is likely due to Easter weekend.

Have you also looked at Virgin America? Not sure if they show up on the sites you're using. They have far fewer flights vs DL, AA and UAL but may have a better rate.

mclaurie

Have come to same conclusion. Alaska Air has some ok prices on flights run by AA (better prices than AA). Just spent an age trying to figure out a way to transfer points into British Air and then over to Alaska Air (is that even possible?) I don't think it makes sense.

I've never done a partial pay partial points ticket. Amex tells me if I book with them I can do that on any airline using 10,000 pts. = $100. Does that make any sense? If tickets are say $450 each and I pay $250 and use 20M points/ticket is that a waste?

mclaurie

Yes J62, have looked at Virgin America. They're more expensive than the rest.

christycruz

$300 for airfare, +/- $50
$120-$150 (with tax) per night for decent SF hotel.

I'd recommend looking at these separately. With your somewhat specific parameters, it will be easier that way. You're unlikely to save much money with a package that ALSO fits your parameters.

I was surprised The Omni has a $136 w/tax deal with Obitz right now. I like using Kayak's hotel search to get a feel for what deals are out there. You never know what kind of deal you could get from Priceline.

doug_stallings

If you can get any flight for $350, that's a really good deal for a cross-country flight. For $450, it's a much harder sell for me, but I would go up to $400 for a holiday weekend and not really be upset or surprised.

mrwunrfl

I would expect that the fares would not go lower at this point. I think that the higher fares you see now for the return on Sunday is evidence that the lower fares are selling out.

I took a look at travelocity. Continental nonstops from/to Newark for $342 all in for April 1-5. Nice price. Outbound flight at 10:15 AM. Redeye coming back: departure 10:05PM arriving 6:21AM (on the 6th).

After selecting the flights, there are air/hotel package offers. Would be $727 for one person or $535 per person for two people at Hotel Nikko (they rank it 4-star).

Noticed a link saying: Use any American Express ® Card and SAVE! You get a $75 "reward card" if you use the promo code.

Here is the page with the promo code for 4 nites: http://tinyurl.com/yfym387

Dayenu

Have you checked Southwest airlines to OAK (SFO will be more expensive)?

mclaurie

I'm starting to think an air/hotel pkg. is the way to do this. Following mrwundrfl's link, there are quite a few pkg. options that are very good value even before the $75 reward. Yes, I have checked Southwest. The flights that are the best for us are AA flights but prices on Alaska Air (operated by AA) are better and their prices for checking bags are cheaper. Any downside to flying an Alaska Air ticket on an AA flight? Have never flown Alaska Air.

Dayenu

We flew once on AA buying tix on Alaskan website. I think I couldn't check in online. Called them, they said it's not a problem, it's AA policy. We had assigned seats picked on-line, only couldn't check-in.

mclaurie

Thanks Dayenu.