Flying to Aruba in mid-December

[Bernie157]

We are looking to fly to Aruba from the NYC area including HPN (Westchester airport). Right now flights are a minimum of just under $600, mostly from Newark (EWR) via kayak.com. I have an alert in to notify me of changes and hopefully prices will drop.

Bernie

[lucky]

book directly with continental. lowest fares for direct flights from newark would be $478.00 if booked for return before dec.18 otherwise high holiday fares kick in. have found lowest fares to aruba are around 16-18 weeks before departure

[Chadd]

Unless the increasing commodity prices have a big impact on the economy, and travel spending slumps again, I would think anything under $600 is a pretty good deal.

[Randi]

OMG, this is been my nightmare the past few weeks! We are traveling mid December and have been watching the USAIR prices go crazy.
The first week of Feb. they had good prices from Canada to Aruba ($722 return) with a return date of Jan. 1st, then all hell broke out mid Feb !!!!
Unfortunately, I waited and this is what went on:
prices went from $722 to $1190 then went to $1388 all for economy seats. The economy prices were the same as first class , the speculation was to encourage people to buy first class tickets...ok
Then a few days after that the departing dates (mid december) dropped a few hundred dollars but the return portion was out of control!! $775 for the return portion with economy non refundable and for other flights economy is showing SOLD OUT. Some flights the first class was $668, lower than economy??? If you check the economy seats, most are empty via Charlotte.............
It was suggested to me that USAIR is "testing the waters" on who is going to purchase these tickets at the higher fares. United, over the weekend had one route for $897 return but most of the flights on Continental, United and US Air was for over $1200!
Traveling from Canada via the US will usually add on about $200 to our flights so if you check flight prices from Philadelphia or Charlotte to Aruba the prices are very expensive. Perhaps, the airlines are trying to see if people are starting to travel again?
This year Jan. 1st is on a Sunday which is making the Sunday and Monday the preferred date of travel as most people will not want to travel on Saturday Dec. 31st. Another factor as to why the return portion might be higher.

[paulmorin]

waite for Jet Blue to open their dates from NYC

[fattypatty]

don't matter, jb is no longer heavily discounting their prices from nyc after american effectively pulled out of the market for non-stops. average price for jb is 600+ with a low of 450-500

[GaryA]

Gasoline prices have been going through the roof in general...flights all across the country are higher. I'ts pretty upsetting, since we have a bunch of tickets to buy for an upcoming wedding....

[Arubalisa]

Airfares Are Chasing Oil Prices Higher:
Airline passengers are definitely going to feel sticker shock this year.