Multi-city air fare: How much is reasonable?
 

We are looking to buy/fly the following multi-city itinerary in November. I'm finding it hard to find a per-person fare that I consider reasonable, so I thought I'd solicit opinions from the Fodors community to determine (1) what most think a reasonable fare for this itinerary would be, and (2) if my expectations are unreasonable. (I've been having a hard time finding anything under about $900 per person.) Thanks for your feedback.

Sat. Nov. 15
NYC to MEX

Tue. Nov. 18
MEX to OAX

Sat. Nov. 22
OAX to SAN

Sat. Nov. 29
SBP to NYC

* For those who might not recognize all of them, those abbreviations are New York City (all airports), Mexico City, Oaxaca, San Diego and San Luis Obispo (we're taking the train between San Diego and SLO).

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I looked at Kayak.com, and the fare that came up was $818.00. Involved several airlines.

Considering it costs me that much to fly from my small, local airport to Belize City and back, I think it sounds like a reasonable fare.

We did a multi-city itinerary around Colombia out of Miami this winter and it was about $800.00.

I presume you don't want to take the bus between Mexico City and Oaxaca? That's the option I am considering for a possible future trip. But in any event, the fare range described does sound pretty reasonable.

By comparison, I can get a roundtrip flight between Vancouver and Mexico City for $490 total, and a combination that is SEA-OAX, MEX-YVR for about $600 total. But the type of division you have makes it hard to get much cheaper.

We've considered taking the bus for the MEX-OAX leg, but don't want to cut too much into our time in Oaxaca. On the other hand, I've heard it is a scenic drive. Can you share more info about this bus ride? And more to the point, is it a significantly cheaper alternative? How much is it?

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Check out my new travel blog, STRICKLANDIA
Travel tips, news, deals, stories and more
www.stricklandia.com - updated daily!
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Raymond - please drop the advertising so you won't get booted off.

Okay... so any more tips? I obviously missed the boat and now this multi-city itinerary has gotten significantly more expensive, like close to $1500 p.p. I read recently that the airlines have increased fares something like 18 times this year, and finally demand is slacking off as a result, so the article suggested fares might start going down again. Should I wait and see if this will happen, or just accept that if we want to do this itinerary, we're going to pay through the nose? Any creative tips welcome.

Thanks,
Mike
My personal travel blog: www.stricklandia.com

Re: the bus ride to OAX, after getting past Puebla, there isn't much traffic and it really is some beautiful high desert scenery. Lots
of catus, views, gorges, etc. It is worth doing sometime. On the other hand I am going to guess that fare on UNO or ADP Primera Plus is not going to come out to much less than airfare.