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Finding the Best Airfare to STT

AirplaneFinding the best airfare is no easy feat. With prices skyrocketing, purchasing flights can be a hair-raising experience. Should you buy today? Will the price drop tomorrow? Purchasing flights has almost become a game of chance.

JetBlue extended its schedule yesterday through April 30, 2014, and I had major sticker shock while perusing the newly released fares. Fares to St. Thomas from destinations across the US seemed to be more than twice as much as they were earlier this year. The good thing about JetBlue, however, is that they are one of several airlines that will credit you if the fare you purchased drops. Don’t know about price drops? Well here are the details:

There is a pretty cool website called Yapta.com. Once you purchase your tickets, add your flight details on Yapta’s site. They’ll track the prices, and if a ticket ever drops below the price you paid (on participating airlines), you will get an email alert. You then call the airline and you’ll get a credit. It’s that simple.

Unfortunately not all airlines offer price drop credits, but several that travel to Cyril E. King airport in St. Thomas do. JetBlue and AirTran offer credit for any price drop at all. American, Delta, United and US Airways offer a credit for a price drop of more than $150. (Add in the expensive change ticket fees for these airlines and these usually aren’t the best deals, but give it a whirl anyway.)

Another good tool while researching fares is the Matrix Airfare Search, which is powered by Google. This website allows you to see a calendar of the lowest fares for all of the airlines, all in one place.

And for those of you who are still holding out hope for a winter or spring 2014 trip but can’t bear to pay the current prices, Southwest is expected to extend its schedule on July 22. Hopefully those fares will be a bit more reasonable. (This may be a bit trickier as Southwest only flies into San Juan. For this to work, you’d have to book a separate flight into St. Thomas.)

If you have any tips for getting the best airfare, please share them in our comments section. 

13 thoughts on “Finding the Best Airfare to STT”

  1. Spirit Airlines also has competitive prices to STT. They are a newer, bargain airline. Me and my husband have flown them a few times and the fares are reasonable.

  2. Be flexible- look for alt airports – for those that fly Spirit be warned ( see TripAdvisor STJ forums) they nickel and dime you for everything including carry ons plus they don’t code share with anyone

  3. Not going to do Spirit, too many nightmares there (and, they are NOT a “new” airline, they’ve been around for years). Trying like crazy to find air for our family of 6 to get down for our late December/early Jan trip. I’ve been flexible with airports but still, nothing comes in for less than $1100/per person. If I had known this was going to be the price point for air, I never would have booked the villa. This trip is not affordable for us. Too late now.

    • Marcia, are you sure it’s too late to cancel the villa? Most places give you a full refund if you notify them 3 months in advance and a partial refund if you cancel 1 month in advance. I would definitely contact them. Good luck! 🙂

      • We could try to cancel the villa and in fact, Pete and I have discussed it however, the four kids are pretty much over the moon excited about this trip so we’ve decided to just deal with it and call this “the last time we ever do this again.” Going to STJ during high, high season is not a wise choice for this family.

    • Did you try American Airlines? They seem to have the lowest prices right now.
      Jet Blue has gone crazy with their prices. They have doubled since last year.

  4. I am a travel agent and use the matrix site all the time as a starting point. Often when you go to the airlines’ sites you may find a better or worse price. The best thing about the matrix site is that you can look at a calendar to compare prices – especially good when you are flexible.

  5. Flights from JFK to St Thomas for next April were $800 each yesterday morning, then $380 in the afternoon. It’s more than we normally pay, but the thought of paying more prompted us to buy.

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