Late summer / fall airline schedules

[gopbroek]

Typically from mid August till mid November the various airlines cut back on their schedules into Cozumel. This has a lot to do with folks not wanting to book vacations in advance during the 'Hurricane season'. This year is a little different with a lot of pent up demand and the phase being used is 'Revenge' travel, nothing is going to stop vacation! There is a commercial out there with two ladies talking about vacation plans while one is tenderizing meat and the other mentions the phrase 'cancel' and the gal with the hammer shifts over and pounds the other gals tablet into oblivion for mentioning the 'C' word.
I was looking at flight schedules today and noticed little to no reductions in flights from the two main routes into the island, DFW and IAH (yes there are other routes but these two carry the bulk of the travelers). It looks like United is running a full schedule and AA is running a full schedule until mid October and then drops Tuesday and Wednesday for three weeks. In years past the reductions were much deeper, I remember a few years back when United reduced to one flight per week (Saturday). It appears SW is shifting to a once a week schedule out of HOU September 10th but I think in years past they dropped this route entirely in the fall.
With all the extra capacity it appears, at least for now that the pricing is pretty reasonable. I personally find Cozumel diving in the fall very pleasant but have often had to do the bag drag to CUN as I travel back home on Tuesdays.

 

[ggunn]

I remember some talk in here about direct (non-stop) flights from Austin to Cozumel starting up later in the summer, but I don't remember which airline was supposedly going to offer them. Do you know anything about it?

 

[DandyDon]

I remember some talk in here about direct (non-stop) flights from Austin to Cozumel starting up later in the summer, but I don't remember which airline was supposedly going to offer them. Do you know anything about it?

American starts nonstop flights June 4, Saturdays only.

 

[gopbroek]

Round trip cost, if you factor in that $94 of that is for Tourist taxes and customs and immigration fees, its a pretty cheap intro fare.

 

[DandyDon]

Round trip cost, if you factor in that $94 of that is for Tourist taxes and customs and immigration fees, its a pretty cheap intro fare.

Those $369 RT nonstops quickly disappeared. I gave it a few hours, but it didn't clear up. The problem seems to be that they are not offering Basic Economy on some return dates, and even when they do like July 2, it's $377 oneway, $620 roundtrip going the Saturday before. Surely they have a glitch to fix...

 

[gopbroek]

yep what a difference a few hours and fare searches make. I want a raise.

 

[DandyDon]

Surely they have a glitch to fix...

Who knows how fares occur. I don't think anything changed overnight. The lowest RT nonstop fare seems to be $452 in mid-July, and the last scheduled nonstop flights is August 13, until they change something

 

[gopbroek]

This morning google flight matrix was showing $376 next month, right now the same date pair (6/11-18) shows $676 but AA.Com shows $487. I think the software pricing algorithm reacts to inquires frequency not just actual sales.

 

[DandyDon]

right now the same date pair (6/11-18) shows $676 but AA.Com shows $487.

Plane fares are always moving targets, but I don't see those numbers. Matrix shows $760 for nonstops on those dates, and AA.com agrees since Basic Economy is not available on the nonstop on the 18th, and Basic Economy on the 11th cannont be book with other fares on the 18th, so the whole ticket gets bumped to Main Cabin.

 

[ReefHound]

How is CUN looking lately? Maybe the bag drag is going to be necessary again. Seems it runs in cycles with a few years of CZM being same or slightly higher than CUN then a few years of CZM being hundreds more.