Best Caribbean Christmas

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Airfares are going up. If you are hoping to travel to the Caribbean for the Christmas season the time to book your flights is NOW! This year is unlike any we’ve experienced before. Bargain rates for flights over the holidays may no longer exist but the airline situation may create some unexpected bargain prices for you on the islands if you know where to look. Or you may want to consider revising your plans to take a trip before the holidays. There are a number of things to keep in mind.

With the high price of fuel, travel to certain locations will be harder to come by as airlines cut back on the availability of seats for unprofitable routes. For the moment there seem to be an abundance of empty seats available to such places as Europe, Florida, and the Caribbean during September. However this will not last long. U.S. carriers are expected to retire many aircraft. By the holiday season prices will be much higher especially when you include the additional fees for checked bags, pets and pillows or blankets on flights.

Travel for Thanksgiving and Christmas have traditionally been two of the busiest travel times of the year. For now there are still seats for the holiday season but that won’t last long. Some airlines are adding flights to the most popular destinations in the Caribbean. Virgin Atlantic Airlines, with flights from London, just recently added five flights to Jamaica. JetBlue is offering more flights to the top spots in the Caribbean from the United States.

However, even the islands that traditionally have had the most flights, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, are looking at a reduction in service overall. With fewer flights available, some of the islands may offer incentives to sway your choice of destination. It seems that Puerto Rico is actively pursuing this angle.

Unless you have a particular reason for needing to book your flight over the holidays and cost is not an issue, you can realize significant savings by traveling before the holidays or postponing your trip till after the high season ends in mid-April. If you have any flexibility, the month of September would be an excellent time to snap up the kind of bargain rate tickets for flights to the Caribbean that we may not see again for a long time, if ever.

Technorati Tags: airlines, caribbean, caribbean christmas, christmas, holidays, JetBlue, travel, Virgin Atlantic

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Caribbean Christmas, Caribbean Holidays, Island Christmas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.