missya

We are planning a trip to St. John next March. Is the high season more expensive to fly? I've checked the rates from now until October and they are much less expensive. Is this because March is too far away to book yet, or because its more expensive to fly in March??

tpatricco

I believe airfares are higher during high season than they are off peak. I did find that if you travel mid-week instead of close or on weekends, you can find better fares. When we went this past time (May '04) we flew there on a Tuesday and returned the following Thursday (10 days total)...this was close to $100 cheaper per ticket than it was to fly Saturday to Saturday or similar. We typically fly Continental, as their hub is in Newark (our home gateway) and their website allows you to search fares with the option to show rates + or - two days for comparison. Great way to see if a day in one direction or the other will save you a few dollars. Good luck. St. John is one of our favorites...well worth the airfare! Trish

cdt

Yes, high season is more expensive, and yes, it's too early to get a good price. Unless you're flying on a holiday weekend (e.g. Easter), I would wait until after Labor Day. Best time to buy is when the airlines have a "sale," even if the advertised sale dates don't include your dates.

LauraT

My experience has been that the airfares fluctuate a great deal and you can get good deals for high and low season. I think it's harder to get good deals a month or so in advance during high season though. I don't think it is too soon to start looking for March - in fact, I think this is the time to start watching fares. Case in point: About a month ago, UAL had a low ($345) aifare from Chicago that was valid every weekend through at least end of Feb. A couple weeks later, AA had a similar deal that was valid on mid-week (and weekend) flights - again, at least through Feb/March (that's when I booked my December trip).

What I strongly recommend is to start looking now (using Orbitz's Deal Detector or something similar from another travel site can help). Airfares literally change every day, so you need to look everyday (again, Deal Detector can assist with this).

jectac

check airfares now. Just got a GREAT deal on travelocity. Usually pay from $500 - $650 per ticket for Jan-Feb. Booked 4 tickets at $273 pp including taxes & fees.

missya

WOW!! What a steal. I checked and its still $848 pp. EEK!

CathyF

I agree with the advice to keep checking every day. A few weeks ago I booked BOS - STT for $330 r-t Feb. 16 - March 2. You never know when there will be an airfare sale - and the seats go fast!

Do a little research so you will know a great deal when you see one - our target price was $350 so when I saw $330 I booked right away.

Good luck!

floridawannabe

We booked using Delta that was the only one stop flight we had from Des Moines. I kept checking for a good price, this was for June of this year. I checked three months before June, and the tickets were $865 pp. YIKES. Then kept checking every day and they went as high as $1016. This is off season! Finally they went down again to $860 and I booked four!! I did notice that you can get a cheaper tickets if you don't mind more stops, and come into San Juan to St Thomas. There is a good seach engine for airlines: www.qixo.com. Good luck!