Not surprisingly when I Facebook something regarding new direct, or cheap flights to Belize City it always generates action. People are hungry for information and the satisfaction that is driven by travel deals, so today’s blog post is all about where to go for best flight prices and feedback from people who have scored them.
Yesterday I posted the following article on Southwest Airlines revealing more details on international flights out of Houston’s Hobby Airport. Belize made the cut in addition to Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Cancún in Mexico as well as San Jose, Costa Rica and flights will start Oct. 15.
Facebook Comments That Followed
Pepper – Wow….just ran some prices out of Dallas for Nov. 350! Yeaaa
Kendall (Ecologic Divers)- To all my friends that want to visit – SW just opened up Belize sales and a friend of mine got tickets for $279 round trip. Average ‘major carrier’ is around $700…in the words of that one guy from that one show – “COME ON DOWN!!!!”
Rebecca (Seaduced by Belize) – FYI…I just searched for tickets to Belize on Southwest out of Hobby airport in Houston December 20th returning January 2nd the prices is $735!!! On United, the exact same dates out of Houston International the prices is $1737!!!!
If you want to see what kind of deals you can get (after Oct 15th) out of Hobby Airport Houston click through to the Southwest flight search page.
Southwest Airlines flight calendar
Southwest airlines picture from entrepreneur
Cheap Flights Checkers on the Internet
Sue’s recommendation for checking flights is Google Flights. Google offers users flight search tools that makes it easy to quickly find the best flight. If you are lucky, Google Flights can be a great way to find the cheapest tickets that are not easily discoverable on other sites. Note: Google does not allow you to actually book a flight, but instead shows a list of options and gives you a link and then links corresponding booking sites.
For the next one, if your travel dates are flexible, your chances of scoring the lowest price goes up. Matrix Airfare Search has a calendar option that allows you to explore date ranges by month for lowest fares instead of having to pick specific dates. Their mobile version is called On The Fly downloadable at Google play store.
Matrix flight search tool
Matrix airfare search flight calendar
Feedback on flight deals after my last post about a seat sale – Dreams do come true 5 super cheap flights to Belize.
Jenny – I am signed up for every flight notification I can find from any airport within 200 miles and didn’t get any notification of the sales. I just happened to be on the United site to collect credit for a late flight in January. Bagged the sale fares plus $75 off per person! Must have been fate!
Gary – $476 DEN/BZE Thu-Monday mid-September. Also is routing me through DFW arriving at 1:00 AM and departing for Houston at 5:30 AM then on the 8:30 Houston flight! Whew, I’d be worn out!
Ric – I used Tropic Air to hop around Belize. The promotional flight code Tacogirl provided really added to the trips! I have to say that I was very impressed with the customer-oriented service on every flight.
This One is a Bit Longer and Came in Via Email from Bill McMichael
As you know, I make fairly frequent trips to Belize with my family. The most aggravating part of planning our several trips per year is trying not to pay too much to the airlines. No other industry on the face of the earth uses a pricing model like the US airlines. Seeming random, massive shifts in pricing levels appear to serve no other purpose than to mess with their customers’ perception of what the pricing should be. What another purpose could a “sale” that drops the price for a few random hours serve? Imagine if cars were sold that way.
I have decided to try to use their crazy pricing to my advantage. One of the biggest variable costs in our vacations is the airfare. So I seek to optimize that cost first and worry about the other costs, such as our hotel, later. Here are a few of my tips:
Use travel websites such as Trip Advisor and Kayak to monitor the routes with email alerts when prices drop. Be prepared to get teased with some prices that do not really exist. I find about 80 percent of the deals that get emailed to me do not exist by the time that I check them, but often they do still exist. You never know.
Don’t limit the airports that you are willing to use. I have about 6 major international airports within a 3hr drive of my home near Philadelphia. The pricing variation is huge. Sometimes one will go on sale. I am willing to drive 3hrs to save $300 x 3 tickets = $900 savings.
Try not to travel on Saturday. Not only is Saturday usually the most expensive day to travel, it is also the busiest day at BZE. It is the busiest day for Tropic. It is also the most crowded day to wait for your return flight at BZE. Your resort may not like it, but usually, the flights are cheaper. I once arrived 2 days early for a liveaboard dive trip to Lighthouse Reef that departed on a Saturday because I could save $300 by doing so. I got cheap accommodations in San Pedro and got a few extra days of vacation and STILL SAVED MONEY.
Try to be patient with your purchase. You should have no urgency if the advertised fare is in the normal range and it is more than 60 days until your trip.
Here is an example of our fare for our summer trip.
PHL-ATL-BZE $472rt. Booked 4/22/15 for a July departure. That fare is usually within a few dollars of $850 per person.
That savings on three tickets will add about $1,000 to our budget for our trip. I would rather spend that money in Belize than on an airline ticket. It’s not like spending that $1,000 will make our flights any more pleasant. $1,000 buys a lot of nice meals at local restaurants or a whole bunch of scuba trips. Make the airlines work for it. It is worth it.
The following pictures are all courtesy of picture courtesy of Bill McMichael
Belize Rider Fee
Tropic Air would like to inform all customers that the Government of Belize and the Belize Airport Authority are requiring all Belizean Airlines to collect a six dollar rider fee on all tickets segments.
Examples:
Ticket BZE – SPR – Rider Fee $6.00
Ticket BZE – SPR – BZE – Rider Fee $12.00
Ticket BZE – SPR – TZA – PLJ – Rider Fee $18.00
All tickets issued after May 31, 2015, will automatically have this fee included. Please note that the rider fee will be charged for every ticket issued regardless of discounts. If you have any questions regarding this please contact Sarah Dalsin at 226-2380 or the Belize Airport Authority at 223-3784.
Note – The prices quoted were current as of November 2016.
