Anyone else fall to the temptation of Black Friday airfare sales?

Good for you! As yet don't have a plan formulated for 2020 so won't get anything but happy for others to get good airfare deals!

That's great. I have way too many disparate ideas floating around in my head at this point (Mallorca, Paris and environs, Czechia, Slovakia, Scandinavia) to have a clue as to what airports I'll be flying in and out of, much less the dates on which I'll be doing so.

Hahaha...acraven...I read your post as "desperate" ideas! I'm feeling a little desperate....

Even though we planned on waiting until November or so to book our May trip, we ended up booking in mid-October when the airfare dropped over $400 one day. We put the flights on hold and then hemmed and hawed overnight. There were a number of considerations for us. The flights to Amsterdam and from Paris seemed to have more seats taken each day. In our case, my husband is not the best flyer (subject to motion sickness). He is also 6'4" tall and business class was not an option for this trip. We wanted to go American since I have status and we could get a direct flight on the way back from Paris. We realized that seating really is a priority for us. We opted for economy plus for the extra legroom. All in all, we are happy with our choice and so far, I have not seen another fare drop as it has only gone up since the time of our booking and more seats are taken. I'll continue to monitor the fares but won't really get upset because the seat selection was key for us and we did save over $400 so far.

I have yet to find a sale that coordinates with something I want to fly and/or do. I almost canceled a ticket purchase I made on Wednesday because the sale was announced. I am glad I didn’t because my tickets would have been a few hundred dollars more today. So I think it is bull unless one doesn't care about a particular flight or not a specific flight/route. YMMV. And I am talking BA so it definitely caters to only certain flights/locales. IMO.

I know that sounds grumpy, but I am not...

Wray, BA does have some good prices, but not for our itinerary, either. We haven't bought our tickets yet, but since they don't have our flights on sale, I'll probably go ahead and book in the next few days.

We've also checked the sales on American, Air France, and KLM, and nobody is discounting where and when we want to go.

Yep. I've never bought at the time of an announced sale. I think those are primarily marketing ploys. I just keep checking Google Flights until I like what I see or decide the risk of future increases is greater than the probability of a substantial fare drop. But first I have to decide where and when. This (October-November) has been a very good time of year for me to buy tickets for travel in April-May, but I guess it isn't going to happen this year.

And, yes, the situation is beginning to get a bit desperate!

I hate being trip-less. Pam and acraven, please find out where you want to go and be sure to let us know! Hey, I made a rhyme!

I had already booked my flight with Norwegian into Paris in April and was stalling on booking my flight home from Rome in May.
Even though there wasn't a sale for Spring flights, Norwegian was advertising a sale on Jan-March flights and I thought that the increased traffic to their website might result in higher fares on the flight I was looking at. So I booked it this morning.
I'm glad that this decision is now behind me... on to the next choices... ;-)

The Spousal Unit can't really get away too long during the academic year and most of the sale fares out there tend to be early spring or next fall, so I haven't seen something to pounce on yet. I'm hoping to get lucky with a Delta or Air France/KLM Flying Blue non-Black Friday award sale at some point later on.

We are tied to the academic year as well. Delighted with price for our July 31 and August 13 flights. So much depends on where you are going and what gateway you are going from. It is wise to know in advance what a “typical” fare is.

It also typically doesn't help in our case that we have to factor in connecting flights to get to anywhere interesting and that first hop to Atlanta/Charlotte/Texas tends to make the whole ticket reprice stupidly expensive.

And since our big trip this year is going to be the California mountains where staying in the Yosemite Valley for a few days makes Switzerland look pleasantly affordable, I'm only in the mood to bite for a really really good summer deal departing from Podunk Field.

Selkie, you obviously don't stay the same places I do in Yosemite -- have done bring-your-own tents and tent accommodations (with floors and electricity) rented at Yosemite Lodge. So when we go to bathroom-down-the-hall places in Europe it's an upgrade (at least the facilities are in the same building!)
😁

Laura B, when we went to Yosemite we also stayed in our tent - with no floor or electricity! And you're right; I think the years we've spent tent camping makes almost any hotel a treat, including the ones with shared bathrooms or baths down the hall!

The Curry Village canvas tent with bear box for your food option is up to $150/night now. I'm splurging on the Yosemite Valley Lodge (ie. not the fancy option in the Valley) in part because there are proper walls on all sides between me and the bears. And trying to finesse using a Delta Amex companion certificate to help knock back the airfare cost to get out to California.

$150 a night??? Wow.

We started camping early in our marriage because we couldn't afford any other kind of travel. We scouted out free campgrounds, especially in the midwest and southwest. The most we paid for years was $6 a night - Oklahoma, Missouri, and New Mexico state parks. Of course the price went up over the years, but so did our ability to pay. I will say though, that the first time we camped in California and had to pay $25 for a primitive campsite, we were stunned. The next day we found a wonderful county park on a beach; paid $10, I think.

The National Parks, at least some of them, have gotten very expensive. We have the senior passes, which help. Free admission, and 1/2 price on camping. I don't know if they work in the lodges or not; I want to sleep in a tent if possible. Here anyway, not in Europe.

The big name US National Parks are being loved to death in a lot of cases despite increasing costs of visiting. Zion's now trying to figure out some sort of limited admission policy for the main canyon area.

It's getting to the point where many big European nature sites are looking like a bargain in comparison, even with additional airfare costs.

Still a little surprised about how a thread about Black Friday airfare sales became one about National Park costs, but I guess anything can happen on the forum........

Carol, it's like one of those conversations we often have with friends or family - someone drops a phrase and someone else picks up on it. Then a third person jumps on a random thought in the second person's contribution.... Until often we forget what we started talking about in the first place! At least here, we have the thread title to remind us where we started.

Tickets are next year’s temptation. This year’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday was a new computer with Window 10 so I’d be able to buy plane tickets.
Happy Holidays Everyone!

Nope.

We are away for this long weekend as we usually are each year after Thanksgiving. This year, we are in Boston and right now enjoying the beautiful snow. We are both sick and tired of airports so we took the train Friday morning and will be taking the train home late tomorrow afternoon.

I tend to plan leisure trips abroad when I get emails from Delta regarding deals they have. Those emails typically never arrive on Black Friday.

It was a couple of years ago around now that we got a great deal on airfare to Vienna, thanks to posters here..so thanks for that. But none this time around. But I didn’t look too hard, and wonder sometimes if there’s more hype than deals. Happy holidays and safe travels.

Just booked nonstop flights on Air Canada for fall 2020 -- one day Cyber Monday sale. Maybe not the best price ever, but nonstop both ways, and about $125 per ticket less expensive than they have been!

Didn’t buy anything to Europe as that’s too much up in the air (pun intended) but just got MDW-BOS for $159 round trip on Southwest’s cyber Monday sale. My birthday falls around MLK day so I always try to take a domestic trip around that long weekend.