'Have a trip planned for 8 of us, arriving Jan. 5th. Five of us are originating f/ Minneapolis, & flying the Continental red-eye through Houston. I've been watching the airfare periodically through the summer on Cont.'s website, & the rate has been steadily about $880. Last Friday, I checked & it dropped to $650. I should have dropped everything & bought 2 tickets for my daughter & me right then & there, but I waited 'till today. Shocked - fare went up to $1050!! In a panick I pulled up my Expedia account, where I saved this trip under "my itineries" & couldn't believe it, but it confirmed $650 (plus the usual $5 booking fee) when I went all the way through the on-line booking process. What gives w/ these sudden & extreme fare changes? Why did Expedia hold the lower rate? Any educated guesses out there?

While following the cost for our July trip (Feb-April this year) it did the same thing several times. It would not surprise me any if they do it just to shake up some folks and cause them to stop watching and buy. $600 for weeks, jump to over $900 for a few days then back to $650 or so for a while.

Same thing happened to us - Red-eye out of Newark on 10/6/07, back two weeks later. Bought tickets at $660, dropped to $428 a month later, now back up to $580.......after deregulation the airlines do pretty much what they d--n well please.

About a month ago, I got in on an internet special and snag tickets on the redeye out of Newark in Sept. for $350 ! Really couldn't believe the price. I checked and it's not available now at that price.
It pays to watch and look around.

I found that fare on a Tues. on continentalair.com (the airlines websight)about a month or so ago. It said it was a 48 hr. web special.
I found great prices for tickets in America by doing this too.
Someone told me that consolidator's sometimes have seats left and offer it to fill up flight and they usually do it on Tues. I know people who look in the middle of the night to see if they can get travel deals, not only on air, but hotel and rental cars.
I check around and see what's out there.
Worked for us this time.

That CO $309 EWR-BON deal was around a couple of days, Lorraine, I kept looking at it....

I have never paid such a great price, the best, I think ,back in the ALM days was $369, so when I saw this I jumped at it.
Oh, by the way, the correct site is continental.com(sorry)
The $309 was even better. The total of our tickets was $798, tax and all.
Let's hope that Continental keeps these routes going!