Airfare Sadness

My condolences! This happened to me last year when I booked my flights to Rome on British Airways. I know that once I book a flight at a price I feel good about, I should never, never, never keep looking at that flight! But I did and 3 weeks later it was $250 less. What can you do? You're gonna have a great trip anyway! Happy travels!

I have learned to just book when I know my dates and find a decent price and times that suit, and then never look back. $750 is still good.

I also paid $1,500 apiece -- Chicago to London/Paris to Chicago -- last June, after watching fares hold steady around $1,100 for months. I felt like I panicked when they spiked up and was afraid they'd keep rising. A week later, naturally, they came back down. So a couple of months ago, I paid $960 for our trip to Italy next May. I still check periodically and, yes, they've been lower, but also higher recently. I figure anything under $1,000 is acceptable. I won't torment myself over a few hundred dollars after the fact. I think $750 sounds like a dandy price. As others said, be happy and don't look back.

This is exactly why most everyone here will tell you to book when you find flights you like at a price you think is acceptable and then never look back. And anyway, $750 is not just good it's great! So I, for one, won't commiserate with you. Quit gnashing your teeth and jump for joy that you improved your cost so much over last time.

Bummer, so sorry. It's happened too many times to count cprice. My worst was actually due to a friend. I booked airfare at a good rate to visit my friend during her Spring break. Felt great that I finally lucked into a deal. I emailed my friend with the news and she emailed back with bad news that she got her dates mixed up. So 100 dollars later I switched my dates. All in all I still had a good deal not as good but still pretty good. A day later another email from my goofy friend that she made another mistake. The first date was correct after all. Another 100 dollars. So much for my good deal. Needless to say when I do anything with this friend I plan and check the final details.

I'm still holding out on my April tickets to Italy. 1200 dollars Hartford to Venice home from Rome. But Hartford has a non stop to Dublin with a 2 hour lay over then to Venice and a Non stop from Dublin to Hartford. All for 700 dollars. I can get a one way ticket from Rome to Dublin spend two days there and do it all for less than the original 1200 dollars. Sounds great but I'd rather get a better deal on my open jaw flight to Italy since I'm traveling the following September.

Thanks, everybody. I know we'll have a great time and it's all good. Just aggravating!

As has been said many times here, just yesterday I think by Frank-don't look back!

My version of airfare sadness is that I won't be taking advantage of great prices available now for next year, count yourself lucky...and look forward.

$750 is REALLY good. I'm also from the west coast so I have a bit of an idea of how much it costs to get to Europe "in general." $450 on the other hand is so suspiciously low that I'd be almost afraid to purchase it.

On the bright side....YOU'RE GOING TO EUROPE! That's cause for celebration no matter what :D

Just to clarify, since I forgot to put it in the original post, the $750 is for the last part of March, not June.

Never look back.... it's like a sad song title. I hereby offer comiseration. No, it hasn't happened to me, but I believe that I have never seen anyone on this forum pay a higher price for an air ticket than I did this summer, SFO to Frankfurt on - probably the most traveled day in the year, 3 July, coming back on July 23 - which must be the APEX golden high-price travel moment....ugh - - I paid like $2600 for premium econ round trip. (Had to travel then because I was attending a calendared event, but my evaluation of the event included my gripe about scheduling it during this awful time-period - super high temperatures, maximum crowds, etc.)

Ouch, Shelley! It's so disheartening to have to pay megabucks for a flight because of somebody else's scheduling.

@cprice, we also have March tickets SFO-Vienna in the $780 range which seemed like great fare at the time (July) but now see introductory fares OAK to Gatwick for under $500. But if we all waited for the absolutely best fare, we'd most likely be at home ... waiting.

It seems most people get hung up in fixating on getting the rock bottom ticket price but ignore getting the best value, which isn't necssarily the lowest price. Yes I want a reasonable price, but not at the cost of adding additional days, more connections, poor service, and overcrowded planes to my life and trip. For the average flyer, buying airline tickets is a little like playing the stock market
by trying to time the low market with your purchase. Statistically very difficult. But buying for value at reasonable prices is always available for the savvy investor and airfare buyer. As with most things in life I find if I pay a little more I sometimes get more than a little more for it in total value added when all is considered.

jrmeier you are absolutely right. Value is different than price.

And sometimes it's the other way. I just checked my March flight... it's twice as much as I paid!

Some airlines will refund part or issue a voucher...call - it never hurts to ask - the worst they can say is no