AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Travel Flight deals

I am flying to Belize in February of 2008. I realize it's a ways away, but I am wondering when am I most likely to get the best flight rates? I don't want to wait until last minute, because it is for my wedding. So, should I buy them as soon as possible, or wait for a certain month of the year, or just a few months before? I just have no idea. It seems that when I look at rates for February of 2007 right now, they are higher than when I searched for that month back in November. If you have any ideas, please let me know! Thanks!!!!

I would say look now and keep looking often. Whenever you see a drop in rates, buy. You can also program your departure city and BZE in the search functions on Yahoo Travel, Travelocity, etc and they will notify you when the fares change. Sales come & go fairly frequently.

My experience, over the years, is that best rates come within 4-6 weeks ( barring any outlandish luck-of-the draw sale) of departure. Theory has held time & again and not destination specific. Got burned only once, but made up for it just recently BIGTIME!

Just my experience, not gospel.

My best luck has been about 4 months out. Have never gotten burned with this.

Jessie, see you're a mudduck so I assume it'll be a MSP flight. klc is right about the 4-6 weeks. I've followed that for 6years,twice a year. Happened again 2 weeks ago for late June flights. They hovered at $800+/-, then dropped overnite to $600(AA and CO) and are still there. I'd chill for about 14 months. Alternatively, pick a price you can live with, and if it hits, book it and be done.

Great advice from everyone -- it really seems to hold to that 4-6 week pattern. If that scares you, you may also want to look at services like skyauction.com that may be able to get you into the $450-$550 price range for the days you want without waiting until that last couple of months. I've had good luck with Costa Rica there and know they list BZE often.

I don't see where you are coming from. If you list that I think you will get a lot of very good advice.
I fly back and forth between BZE and the San Francisco Bay Area. I prefer going through Dallas and like American Airlines. Over the year I have learned the days of the week when the fewest business people are flying and they are always deadheading planes back to DFW - sometimes my flights are almost empty until I leave out of DFW.

I have set my ceiling (US $500) on what I am willing to pay. A friend taught me the value of frequent flier miles. If I can not get a flight for under my ceiling then I book FF miles. I also do a lot of multiple city travel and usually get a couple of extra cities for about US $100 each RT. AND - Boy the miles add up.
When I find a fare I like on the days I like I put a 24 hour hold on it. I have found RT for as low as US $348.

Good luck.

Is a 24-hour hold commonly available on most airlines? I am approaching the 4-6 week window (for a mid-July trip), so this information (hopefully) will be very useful. Thanks.

P.S. jessie - a friend will be flying from MSP, so I have been checking out deals from there, too. I saw $500.75 including tax on one day but it was back up to $700ish the next day.

I flew R/T Seattle-Belize in January, and again in May. In January the fares were showing up at about $750 so I used f.f. miles (Alaska f.f. program partnered with American): 35,000 f.f. miles was a good deal for that ticket. My sister joined me from Hawaii and her ticket also was 35,000 f.f. miles, for HNL-DFW-BZE, which was a REALLY good deal!

In May I got the same routing (SEA-DFW-BZE) for $440, so it was a good deal to buy with cash, bad deal with f.f. miles.

You just need to keep checking, and grab it when the time comes. If you're getting less than a 2-cent per mile value for your f.f. miles, it's usually not the best way to use your miles.

One other thing sorta mentioned by scubalady, and that's the day of the week you fly. MSP to BZE flights have also been cheaper flying tuesdays and thursdays