It's like beating a dead horse that's been decaying for ages ... but, fuck me, could United be more expensive on its fares to Vegas this summer? For my next trip, I can't find a RT with decent flight times from IAH for less than $650 or $700 for economy. Brutal! Southwest isn't much better, more than $600.

I'll bite the bullet and blow the miles rather than let this dig into my bankroll even slightly. There has been no movement down on these fares, even though the flights aren't even one-third sold.

 

do you have to use United? Are there other options?

 

I'm finding the same thing for summer Vegas airfares. I'm going to book my August flight on points rather than pay up.

 

I'm basically stuck with United. My work travel goes on it, so the status link becomes important. I won't fly Spirit. But United and Southwest are essentially the only options out of HOU or IAH. Hate making layovers. But even AA, which sometimes will go cheap via DFW, is high. It sucks!

 

30-45 days it is the sweet spot. And don't be scared to wait until 28-30 days out before pulling the trigger. Especially when you can fall back on your miles.

The flight I just took to Vegas was $700+ a few months out. Dropped under $500 about 35ish days out. Pulled the trigger at about $515 around the 30 day mark.

It was roughly a third sold just like yours a few months out.

 

Revenue management at its finest. Both of my flights on Delta were the same range from Atlanta. Usually I get $280-$320. In December I booked at $242. It wasn't even the "Basic Economy" fare.

 

Ya'll should quit bitching. You don't know how good you have it. Check out the prices from JAX. Far worse.

 

I'd like to get a flight for what pphold pays. Flying cross border....the taxes and fees are crushing.

 

SWA > United

 

United is still in flux when it comes to flights to Vegas. Before they de-hubbed Cleveland, they had 3 direct flights per day to Vegas. Now there are none. they all connect in either Chicago or Denver. Spirit and Frontier came in and took almost all the Vegas business from United. From Cleveland, at least, SWA is a bit more than United on flights to LAS, which usually run about 400 r/t. Spirit/Frontier are about 280 plus bags, etc...

About two years ago, United was famous for oddball fares around 1-3am EST. A flight that would normally be $200 each way would come up at $74 or some odd, random number. I haven't seen it come up like that in a while though.

I assume most of you know this, but for those that do not, Google Flights is the most comprehensive, real-time flight search tool there is.

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It is based off of ITA Matrix software, which was/is the industry standard in flight searches on the internet. Google purchased ITA in 2014 I believe. Try out ITA Matrix if you REALLY want to know details about your flight search and have some time to kill. It isn't ultra user-friendly, but most people can get the hang of it.

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