Flight to Philippines HELP!!

Hello friends

I'm trying to plan out a trip to the Philippines for my winter break ( Jan 29-Feb 5th or 6th.) I found some decent flights for around $600,000 but just today they went up $300,000!!!!! INSANE!! :( 

Does anyone know WHY they would go up soooo much? 

Do you think maybe after Christmas and New Years they will go down? Or should I just find something else and not risk it?


THANKS!! 


Re: Flight to Philippines HELP!!

A good observation.  Is that because of the lunar new year, the best holiday which is 구정 연휴 here?  It will last for five night six days from Feb. 1 to Feb. 6, 2011.   

Re: Flight to Philippines HELP!!

Years ago I went to Shanghai fo 280, the Phil for 300 and so on. Now, because of many reasons, prices here have gone through the roof.  One thing for sure is in Jan-march and july to sept, prices are higher because that is when people here have time off and the students are off. This is just peak season. But as well, taxes are killing us as well. Taxes on flights now are like 30% of the ticket. They were never like that before. One tax is the oil tax-which ws implemented when oil was 150bucks a barrel but when the price went down, the price stayed high. Plus, as Korea becomes more affluent and can afford more, prices naturally rise and of course good old inflation here is tops of all OECD countries so that hurts as well. But the main difference between dec and jan/feb is just that it is peak season. You still can get good deals, though. Try G-Market, forget travel places. You have to go on line! Last winter, if you booked way ahead, they had tickets going for like 350 inclding tax. Good luck.

Re: Flight to Philippines HELP!!

Mostly the cheaper fare applies to return bound just like any other ground-based transportation; to you it would be the Philippians.  Sometimes a group fare can be reasonable depending on the blind followings부화뇌동 for Korean air careers due the peak season of the chinese new year.  Any later booking will never guarantee any better deal but the last minute chance can be given to some charter flights.  Caribbean Cruise "transmarine" could be an alternative via other islands of the Philippines nearby. 

Re: Flight to Philippines HELP!!

The best way is to secure through a 100% Korean site.  They have much lower prices than any other place normally because the taxes are so much lower and domestic price fixing is very in effect.

Other than that I suggest that you just keep your eyes peeled for deals through the normal travel search websites.

When I went to the PI for new years last year I also found some great deals on the Korean sites, but because of my Weigook ID# they spit me out of the system and I couldnt close the deal.

The traditional search sites had at least 200$ tacked onto the Korean equilivent price but I kept at it and rather than getting scared by the wild flows in ticket price I stuck it out and found a round trip for about 600$ that flew through Hong Kong.  I was worried though as when I bought them I had about a week left before I was supposed to check in.

I think the prices fluctuate to violently to encourage people to get worried and buy early or buy artifically inflated prices.  There is no good reason or link to how tickets ebb and flow, and I've been paying attention for almost 3 years now.  Ticket pricing is unregulated, and most if not all sites are owned partially or linked to a major US carrier, so do what you can to eliminate the US carriers from teh search results.  Asiana, Cebu, Korean Air, etc. are generally the best bet.  Although beware of crafty US carriers buying the rites to use Asian carriers name.

I bought an ANA (all nippon airlines) ticket from Seoul to Chicago and it was "operated by US Airways" which meant it was US Airways hidin the fact that they are the shitty carrier you will fly on.  Wont ever fly a US airline agian in my life.  There was a problem with the flights and gate schedules in Tokyo, so instead of fixing the problem normally they took two attendants off the service counter to "protect" the first class lounge form people who were despirate to find out just where the hell their plane was.

US carriers are trash, Rant off.

I think every airline will grift you hard for holiday travel, so so hard.

Good luck and just keep looking, the prices will come back down, its just a mystery as to why or when.

Re: Flight to Philippines HELP!!

When I went in the summer fares jumped up and down quite alot, so if they are really expensive it MAY benefit you to wai as you may find they come down again. They did last summer. 

But...obviously they may go up further so it's kind of a gamble.


Do they look like they have peaked? The summer flights pretty much peaked at a certain price and never went above it.

Re: Flight to Philippines HELP!!

Thanks everyone. I ended up going Jin Air. It flys out of Seoul, but tickets were like $560 Won. If anyone else is interested look up their site. They fly to Clark Field, which is 40 miles NW from Manila. We are flying there and then catching a bus to Manila then catching another plane to Cebu. PARADISE! Happy Thanksgiving BTW!