Changing flight costs?

[Edward Reardon]

First of all thank you to all the veterans who spend so much time answering questions for all us rookies.
My question involves flight tickets. Two weeks ago I browsed flight booking sights to get a general idea on costs but since I still had a few more things to finalize I didn't book.
Now today when I rechecked all the flights were over $300. more. The $300. question is should I book now or wait to see if the price comes down? Some sites offer a service where you can sign up and get notifications of price changes. My departure date is still way off, October 11, flying out of Boston. Thanks for your time.
Ed

 

[trecile]

Airline pricing is dynamic, and unfortunately, without a crystal ball, is hard to predict. The best advice I've heard is to book when you find a price you are comfortable with and not to look back.

 

[TaijiPilgrim]

First of all thank you to all the veterans who spend so much time answering questions for all us rookies.
My question involves flight tickets. Two weeks ago I browsed flight booking sights to get a general idea on costs but since I still had a few more things to finalize I didn't book.
Now today when I rechecked all the flights were over $300. more. The $300. question is should I book now or wait to see if the price comes down? Some sites offer a service where you can sign up and get notifications of price changes. My departure date is still way off, October 11, flying out of Boston. Thanks for your time.
Ed

I agree with trecile - not that I am smart enough to do it! My experience with buying flights is the price rarely goes down once I start to search. It is useful to sign up for one of those tracking services, and I would also clear your browsing history each time you do a search yourself. Also, if you see a good price on a travel engine, check the airline itself - best to book directly with the airline if possible. Don't get too hung up on waiting for "the best deal," and once you find a "reasonable deal" for you, be happy because you are on your way to the Camino!

 

[TMcA]

This is kind of a long shot, but you might consider flying out of Montreal...maybe take a bus to get there. I think you will find that the prices are at least $300 less than flying out of Boston.

Of course, it'll be a hassle to (probably) bus up to Montreal, but if you look at Montreal as the beginning of your adventure, the hassle becomes a tradeoff for another interesting experience.

Most of the trans-Atlantic carriers will show up on the major search engines, but also check out Air Transat. They are a budget carrier out of Montreal and Toronto and usually have very low fares. (But some of their flights to European destinations end sometime in October.)

Good luck and buen camino. PM me if you have more questions.

Tom

 

[whariwharangi]

First of all thank you to all the veterans who spend so much time answering questions for all us rookies.
My question involves flight tickets. Two weeks ago I browsed flight booking sights to get a general idea on costs but since I still had a few more things to finalize I didn't book.
Now today when I rechecked all the flights were over $300. more. The $300. question is should I book now or wait to see if the price comes down? Some sites offer a service where you can sign up and get notifications of price changes. My departure date is still way off, October 11, flying out of Boston. Thanks for your time.
Ed

I've never been able to figure out how to predict airline ticket prices.

Suffice it to say they use an algorithm that is intended to maximize profits by trying to predict your behavior in purchasing.

Someone suggested flying out of Montreal ... I don't get that because prices are cheap enough to go to by bus, pay for accommodation and meals and still make it cheaper to fly from Seattle instead of Vancouver due to differences in taxes and service charges.

Best idea is to buy your ticket when you are relaxed about the certainty of your plans and damn the cost should it come down later.

 

[C clearly]

I think you are early yet. I try to buy international trips about 3 months before travel, but only if I am confident of my plans.

 

[Edward Reardon]

I agree with trecile - not that I am smart enough to do it! My experience with buying flights is the price rarely goes down once I start to search. It is useful to sign up for one of those tracking services, and I would also clear your browsing history each time you do a search yourself. Also, if you see a good price on a travel engine, check the airline itself - best to book directly with the airline if possible. Don't get too hung up on waiting for "the best deal," and once you find a "reasonable deal" for you, be happy because you are on your way to the Camino!

Thanks, TaijiPilgrim,
Your advice on browsing history was right on. I used my laptop instead of my mobile and since there was no history on flight searches the prices were lower. What kind of twisted world do we live in? I fell like I'm in an old western dealing with a snake oil salesman out of the back of a covered wagon.

 

[linda piso]

First of all thank you to all the veterans who spend so much time answering questions for all us rookies.
My question involves flight tickets. Two weeks ago I browsed flight booking sights to get a general idea on costs but since I still had a few more things to finalize I didn't book.
Now today when I rechecked all the flights were over $300. more. The $300. question is should I book now or wait to see if the price comes down? Some sites offer a service where you can sign up and get notifications of price changes. My departure date is still way off, October 11, flying out of Boston. Thanks for your time.
Ed

 

[linda piso]

I got an excellent deal to Compostella from NYC....I'm in Pittsburgh and flights were double from there. I went to AA directly and bought my tix from NYC, and then I bought tix from Pittsburgh to NYC. My tix RT are $759RT. I have to spend some time in NYC, but no hotel or long bus ride...my Camino is end of September.
I think there are good deals direct with airlines.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Norwegian Airlines, which offers cheap international flights, has recently gotten permission to fly some US/Ireland routes. I think the service starts this July from the Providence, RI airport. From Ireland you should be able to get cheap flights to Spain or France.

These recent webpages talk of a special $65 one-way fare.

http://www.godsavethepoints.com/new...ts-us-cities-to-ireland-scotland-on-norwegian
http://www.newser.com/story/238811/cheapest-ever-flights-get-you-to-europe-for-65.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...wegian-air-fly-spain-four-us-cities/89962580/

Edit: I just thought of another trick. Look for deals from farther-away airports. Once Peg and I got a good deal by flying from Boston to Detroit to Amsterdam.

 

[intrepidtraveler]

It's a good idea to either clear your browser history or use a different computer between sessions of researching flight prices/info. "Big brother" now knows that you're very interested in certain dates/routes and will price things accordingly.

 

[Edward Reardon]

Norwegian Airlines, which offers cheap international flights, has recently gotten permission to fly some US/Ireland routes. I think the service starts this July from the Providence, RI airport. From Ireland you should be able to get cheap flights to Spain or France.

These recent webpages talk of a special $65 one-way fare.

http://www.godsavethepoints.com/new...ts-us-cities-to-ireland-scotland-on-norwegian
http://www.newser.com/story/238811/cheapest-ever-flights-get-you-to-europe-for-65.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...wegian-air-fly-spain-four-us-cities/89962580/

Edit: I just thought of another trick. Look for deals from farther-away airports. Once Peg and I got a good deal by flying from Boston to Detroit to Amsterdam.

Thanks Rick,
Sitting through a raging blizzard now here in Maine so I have time to read up on the links you included. Until the power goes out anyway!!!
Thanks again.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Sitting through a raging blizzard now here in Maine so I have time to read up on the links you included.

Note that there is a difference between Norwegian Airlines and its subsidiary Norwegian Air International. It may help with searches. Norway is not in the EU; Ireland is. And I think Norwegian Air International is technically an Irish company. This way the business can play by the rules with which it can do best.

I haven't used either version of Norwegian and may not for some time but I heard of them recently and so I'm spreading the word.

I'm in the storm too, watching the woods fill up with snow. If I shovel the wind will fill the path up with snow too so I'm taking it easy for now. The storm and the Two Brazilian pilgrims rescued on Route Napoleon thread got me to Google "Worst weather in America" and read some Mount Washington stories.

 

[poogeyejr]

I use flights.google.com and have had excellent success finding cheap flights. (Vancouver to Bilbao for C$465 return was the best!)

BUT - You must always use the airline's website to book the flight, if you use the travel agent site offered to you, they have exorbitant change/cancellation fees.

 

[poogeyejr]

Right now, (Mar 14, 5pm EST), Iberia Air currently has a price of $393US return from Boston to Madrid (direct flights!!!)

I guessed at dates, and put in Oct 11 to Nov 30th. But there were other dates available!

These prices are amazing!

(Private message me if you have questions and can't find this pricing yourself.)

 

[Edward Reardon]

This is kind of a long shot, but you might consider flying out of Montreal...maybe take a bus to get there. I think you will find that the prices are at least $300 less than flying out of Boston.

Of course, it'll be a hassle to (probably) bus up to Montreal, but if you look at Montreal as the beginning of your adventure, the hassle becomes a tradeoff for another interesting experience.

Most of the trans-Atlantic carriers will show up on the major search engines, but also check out Air Transat. They are a budget carrier out of Montreal and Toronto and usually have very low fares. (But some of their flights to European destinations end sometime in October.)

Good luck and buen camino. PM me if you have more questions.

Tom

Thanks TMcA,
Good idea but I think I'm barred from Canada after an incident on the Cabot Trail from a motorcycle trip way, way, way back in my youth.

 

[C clearly]

There is considerable doubt about the theory that browser history leads to higher fare. I do not believe it.

If you want to renew the debate, you could start with this thread.

 

[tabbyCat]

From East coast of United States I found cheapest total travel expenditure was to fly NYC to London and then take Ryan Air to Biarritz (1.5 hour train/bus to SJPDP). Return is from Santiago de Compostela to London (Ryan Air again) to NYC. I got relatively low cost RT flight NYC to London on Indian Air but you just have to keep searching. I use ITA Matrix search engine and I also use "incognito" window to avoid the browsing history issue (which IS real). I found Rome2Rio to be a good website for researching the travel options in getting to SJPDP.

 

[Edward Reardon]

I use flights.google.com and have had excellent success finding cheap flights. (Vancouver to Bilbao for C$465 return was the best!)

BUT - You must always use the airline's website to book the flight, if you use the travel agent site offered to you, they have exorbitant change/cancellation fees.

From East coast of United States I found cheapest total travel expenditure was to fly NYC to London and then take Ryan Air to Biarritz (1.5 hour train/bus to SJPDP). Return is from Santiago de Compostela to London (Ryan Air again) to NYC. I got relatively low cost RT flight NYC to London on Indian Air but you just have to keep searching. I use ITA Matrix search engine and I also use "incognito" window to avoid the browsing history issue (which IS real). I found Rome2Rio to be a good website for researching the travel options in getting to SJPDP.

 

[Edward Reardon]

Thank you everyone for your help. If it was only a few bucks I wouldn't be so concerned but several hundred dollars difference I would much rather leave in Spain's economy than a big airline.

 

[linkster]

+1 there is certainly no harm in using incognito or clearing your browser history even if you do not prescribe to "big brother". I am planning on starting in September, but have a flexible start and end date. I have been tracking prices on google flights and they fluctuate wildly. I think I will end up flying Miami to Madrid @~$450, but the outbound nonstop Iberia flights are no longer coming up on the searches. Madrid to Biarritz @~$60.

$404 on Google Flights use the calendar if your dates are flexible
10/11/17 BOS to MAD Iberia 5:35PM - 6:25AM Nonstop
11/15/17 MAD to BOS American 10:35AM - 4:55PM 1 Stop in JFK