Air fares and oil prices

jacketwatch · September 3, 2008

My TA had advised me to wait to book airfare for our Feb. Panama Canal cruise until 60-90 days B4 going. Do you think i should wait and do you think prices will be lower if I do assuming the price of oil keeps dropping? This is a tough one I know but any oninions are welcomed. Larry :smile:

Joanandjoe · September 3, 2008

My crystal ball is rather cloudy. However, cruise lines are quick to add charges, slow to drop them. IMHO, if there are price decreases, it will be due to falling demand, not falling oil prices.

hazelson · September 3, 2008

Just like the government lol

rogue · September 4, 2008

I guess that it's possible that prices will go down, but I can't believe they will drop significantly between now and December. If you're satisfied with the cost you're getting, I would do it now, but, who really knows.

DebbieandJerry · September 4, 2008

There was an article in our Sunday paper about airfare. The jist of the article said that if you believe the rate is a good one, book it. The author didn't think it would get any better.

We usually follow rates and see how they fluctuate. Our next cruise is March 2010. We booked our airfare May 2008. The only "risk" that we now face is whether the airline will cancel the flight. But, we made sure that there were plenty of options in the event of flight changes.

Yapta.com is a wonderful website. It will watch fares for you. Sometimes you can plug in the fare that you purchased and if it goes down, they will offer you options on how to negotiate a lower price.

As for cruises, I have always been told that as long as you haven't paid for your cruise in full and you find that the price has dropped, you can always bring the dropped price to the attention of your TA. Again, because we book out so far in advance, we haven't seen a situation where the closer we got to sailing the cheaper the price became.