Keeping An Eye on Airfare

Although this is a cruise blog, the nature of cruising is such that flying to and from your port of embarkation is, for most of us, a necessity.  It's a factor that can impact your cruise vacation in a way few others can: the relatively high cost of airfare plays a significant part in determining both when and where we cruise, and the veritable maze of additional 'unbundling' charges like fees for luggage can further dent our travel plans.

The one beacon of light has been that, thanks to the recession, seat sales are fairly commonplace thanks to light load factors.  Supply and demand at its finest hour: more empty seats equals more savings for you.

But there are signs this may be a thing of the past: Reuters reported that Canada's two largest airlines, Air Canada and WestJet flew with greater numbers of passengers in June - 84% full for the former, 78.2 for the latter. On the same day, US Airways reported record load factors, and European lo-cost carrier EasyJet announced its passenger traffic jumped 10% during this same month.

What does that mean?  Simply put, planes are heading out with fewer empty seats - and fewer rock-bottom fares on certain routes.  On many popular routes, the best pricing is the earliest pricing, with fares increasing steadily as departure date nears.

On a flight to London from Vancouver last year, we booked five months in advance - and watched as prices climbed steadily as we got closer to our departure day.  When the time came, our Airbus 330 was packed - there literally wasn't a single seat left on the aircraft.  On a more recent JetBlue flight from Seattle to Long Beach, while we got a great deal by booking three months in advance, that flight too was full - only one seat on the Embraer-190 was unoccupied. The cost of a ticket booked two weeks in advance?  Four times what we'd paid.

So what to consider when booking your next cruise - or jumping on that incredible 'last-minute' cruise deal?  You may want to check your airfare prices first before deciding and paying a deposit on a future cruise - or risk being at the mercy of airfare that costs more than the rest of your vacation.