Forums > General > Traveling Mexico

mickeyz

May 13, 2003, 9:45 AM

Post #1 of 25 (2302 views)

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OUCH, air fare a killer!

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Just checking on air fare from San Francisco to Guadalajara and I was shocked! Right around $600.

For those of you that have flown back and forth between Guadalajara and the states does this seem high? Any tips on where and how to get lower airfare. I went on to Expedia.

I thought air fares were at a low about now. If this is low...YIKES!

Also, I will want a car for a few days, not the whole time. Can I rent a car in Lake Chapala area?

Thanks, Mickey

(This post was edited by mickeyz on May 13, 2003, 9:57 AM)

Musicman

May 13, 2003, 10:27 AM

Post #2 of 25 (2284 views)

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Re: [mickeyz] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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Yes, you can rent a car in the area but I understand that car rentals are rather expensive. As for airfare, $600 from SF is in the ball park. Mexicana quoted $520 which included taxes R/T Guadalajara to Sacramento. That was ten days ago. Since I had a $400 credit voucher from America West I opted not to fly with Mexicana, which is a direct flight. Hope this helps.

Don

May 13, 2003, 10:27 AM

Post #3 of 25 (2284 views)

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Re: [mickeyz] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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That rate seems a little high. My daughter was here several weeks ago from the S.F. / Oakland area and their fare was in the $400s. Check with the web site Farebeaters. America West usually has fares in the $400s and you can also check with Allegro Air. Don't care for the leg room on Allegro Air, but they have cheap fares.

(This post was edited by Don on May 13, 2003, 10:29 AM)

spiderwoman

May 13, 2003, 11:38 AM

Post #4 of 25 (2269 views)

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Re: [mickeyz] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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We've been watching fares for a break from Dallas to Guad,,, it has been right at $770/person for the last couple of months. Seems high to me when all the airlines are crying about going broke,,, no wonder, who can afford it?

esperanza

May 13, 2003, 11:48 AM

Post #5 of 25 (2266 views)

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Re: [spiderwoman] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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Airfare to/from Texas is always horrible. The airfare quoted from San Francisco seems on the high side...you might check out airfares from SFO to San Diego, then hop a cab across the border and fly out of Tijuana. The r/t airfare from Tijuana/Guadalajara is usually between $300-350. A lot depends on how much convenience you need or want...the plane/cab/cross the border/plane situation might be a bit inconvenient.

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HHERRINGTON

May 13, 2003, 12:40 PM

Post #6 of 25 (2256 views)

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Re: [spiderwoman] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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Have to love the airfare structure. It is cheaper to fly from SW Florida to Guadalajara via Dallas then from Dallas to Guadalajara. No wonder the airlines are going broke.
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Jean

May 13, 2003, 2:00 PM

Post #7 of 25 (2244 views)

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Travelocity gave me a price of $362

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Travelocity gave me a price of $362

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zapata Bob

May 13, 2003, 7:26 PM

Post #8 of 25 (2213 views)

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Re: [Tuatha_de_Danann] Travelocity gave me a price of $362

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While I was down the last time, I got tickets twice for my wife on Priceline. The quoted fare from Tulsa was between $700 and 800. I bid a little over 1/2 that fare and got tickets both times. Give em a low ball and see if they bite. It doesn't hurt to try!

Georgia

May 14, 2003, 12:27 PM

Post #9 of 25 (2176 views)

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Re: [mickeyz] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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I've started using a flight consolidator: airfare.com. They seem to have the lowest rates for specific dates. Other than that, if you are flexible, try priceline.com. Also, if you can get to another airport, that might do it. Somewhere in California (I have no idea where) is a place called Ontario. (This confused me for a long time.) Aeromexico has really cheap flights from there to Guad. Try alternate airports.

Rolly

May 14, 2003, 1:16 PM

Post #10 of 25 (2172 views)

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Re: [Georgia] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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Georgia, the Ontario airport is one of the five airports serving greater Los Angeles. It's in the city of Ontario east of LA on Interstate 10.

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Georgia

May 14, 2003, 2:16 PM

Post #11 of 25 (2160 views)

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Re: [Rolly] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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Thanks, Rolly. Ontario seems to be the place to go for cheap airfares to Mexico. Unfortunately, it's a bit out of the way for me!

Bill_N

May 14, 2003, 2:21 PM

Post #12 of 25 (2158 views)

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Re: [mickeyz] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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Try cheaptickets.com where we found the lowest fares from Buffalo NY to Morelia about two months ago. I don't know about now.

But I agree with you in general that flying to Mexico seems always more expensive than flying across the Atlantic to, for example, Frankfurt Germany. We can find fares as low as $350 sometimes but nothing like that to Mexico. Go figure?

Bill

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Georgia

May 14, 2003, 2:23 PM

Post #13 of 25 (2157 views)

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Re: Try American Airlines faresavers

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They're pretty cheap. About $200/rt. Even if you don't return, it's a bargain.

jennifer rose

May 14, 2003, 2:23 PM

Post #14 of 25 (2157 views)

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$330 SFO-GDL rdtrip

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At Mexicana's website http://www.mexicana.com under E-fares is a promotion right now for SFO -GDL roundtrip for $330 for the fare of the week. United's website offers similar specials.

Gayla

May 14, 2003, 3:02 PM

Post #15 of 25 (2150 views)

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Re: [esperanza] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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SAN - SFO is a killer, around $165- 300 RT. Plus, United is the *only* airline with non-stops between SAN/SFO and there are only 3 or 4 of those each day. Everything else has to go through LAX. Soutworst no longer flies this route.........

Good idea, but terribly expensive at the moment.

esperanza

May 14, 2003, 3:40 PM

Post #16 of 25 (2140 views)

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Re: [Gayla] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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*Sigh* What a pain. Looks like Jennifer has the best solution. I just came back from a swing through Illinois, Kentucky, and Nebraska and got what I considered a bargain roundtrip ticket...$600.00USD. And a got a zillion-dollar pollution-free view of Chicago and the Lake Michigan shoreline thrown in for free.

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jennifer rose

May 14, 2003, 6:27 PM

Post #17 of 25 (2126 views)

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Aviacsa

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Aviacsa, my newest favorite airline (with very, very clean planes) http://www.aviacsa.com.mx is offering a "Mothers Fly Free" promotion, good on international as well as national routes through sometime in June. Mothers must be accompanied by an adult.

The promotion has been heavily advertised in the print media, with the remark "Consult your travel agent," but I've not seen anything about it on Aviacsa's website.

May 14, 2003, 9:47 PM

Post #18 of 25 (2110 views)

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Re: [Gayla] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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Quote

Gayla writes:
SAN - SFO is a killer, around $165- 300 RT. Plus, United is the *only* airline with non-stops between SAN/SFO and there are only 3 or 4 of those each day.

I fly this route fairly often, and although the fares being cited are not unrealistic, even with United's reduced flight schedule, they're still running between 8 & 10 nonstop flights/day between SFO and SAN.

Overall I don't view this to be a particularly viable option, however, as because there's a border crossing involved you either have to pay a premium for a specialty taxi or limousine service between SAN and TIJ, which can run in the range of $100, or you have to either shift from a taxi to a cross-border shuttle to another taxi, or schlepp your bags for a couple of hundred meters between taxis, to make the crossing.

gpk

May 15, 2003, 10:04 AM

Post #19 of 25 (2068 views)

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Re: [jennifer rose] Aviacsa

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Didn't this used to be TAESA?

mexigrl

May 15, 2003, 3:42 PM

Post #20 of 25 (2040 views)

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Re: [gpk] Aviacsa

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I believe Taesa sold their flying rights to Azteca, another A airline. However, the Azteca planes I have been on have been brand new. I am not sure where Taesa's planes actually went.

I just booked my ticket from Hartford to Mexico City through www.compfare.com. The price was only $350.00 on Continental, which was a good deal cheaper than most other things I saw.

Buen Suerte!

Mexigrl

May 15, 2003, 7:44 PM

Post #21 of 25 (2025 views)

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Re: [gpk] Aviacsa

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Quote

GPK writes:
Didn't this used to be TAESA?

Two separate entities (at least on paper) which developed in parallel.

Transportes Aereos Ejecutivos (TAESA) was founded in the 1990-1991 window, grew to be the third largest airline in Mexico (and biggest non-government owned airline), but collapsed after being grounded by the Mexican government in 1999 when an aging TAESA DC9 crashed in Michoacan and public and regulatory attention focused on a severely aging fleet, questionable maintenance practices, and a horrid financial picture. Supposedly some of the assets (I suspect routes and non-aircraft equipment) were morphed into Aerolinea Azteca (Lineas Aereas Azteca, S.A. de C.V.).

Aviacsa (Consorcio Aviacsa S.A. de C.V.) was also founded in 1990 but is still in operation today under the same name. Until the late 90s they seemed to fly an odd mix of older aircraft, but then launched into an expansion, adding routes, redoing their corporate logos and image, and buying or leasing newer flying stock, all indicators of possible new ownership or backing.

halcon

May 16, 2003, 1:59 PM

Post #22 of 25 (2000 views)

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Re: [mickeyz] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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Another 2 cents worth:

Sign up for a personalized Yahoo page at no cost and pay attention to the "Best Fares" section. You get updated airfairs to just about any city to which you'd like to fly. The current far from Chicago to Guad is $303 and should be in the ballpark for San Francisco since both are hubs and the distance is fairly similar. We just booked a trip from Chicago to San Francisco for $175 per person, additional charges included. Usually need to be flexible on days and times of departure, but we've been very happy with the results. Hope you enjoy your trip, Halcon.

Frank Burton

May 17, 2003, 10:17 PM

Post #23 of 25 (1964 views)

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Re: [musicman]: see post below, related to mickeyz's original post

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See revised post on May 17, related to mickeyz's original post.

(This post was edited by Frank Burton on May 17, 2003, 10:35 PM)

Frank Burton

May 17, 2003, 10:27 PM

Post #24 of 25 (1958 views)

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Re: [mickeyz] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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Another two cents worth: I've had DFW-GDL, SFO-GDL, and OAKland-GDL on the Best Fares section of my (free) Yahoo home page for months, which means I see them about every day. It's been showing DFW-GDL for $585, SFO-GDL for $362, and OAK-GDL for $293 pretty consistently for months. I believe all of these are plus taxes and airport fees, etc., which can tack on upwards of another $100.

As somebody said, the fares from Texas to GDL in general are awful; there was a special from DFW to GDL for a few weeks on Aeromexico which was under $400 as I recall, if one didn't mind changing planes in Mexico City. My guess is that these fares are so expensive because there is little competition on these routes.

From Northern California to GDL, the OAK-GDL fares have been consistently lower than SFO-GDL, and unless a person's land origin/destination is in San Francisco itself or on the SF Peninsula, the Oakland airport is more accessible anyway.

Someone spoke of SFO-SAN, cross the border, then TIJ to GDL and vice versa. It's much cheaper using OAK-SAN, because Southwest has frequent non-stop flights between OAK and SAN, sometimes with a round trip fare including taxes and fees of under $100. I've done this a couple of times, and it's not too bad if you can get the schedules to mesh and if each person has, say, only one piece of luggage--with rollers. One can use a frequent shuttle bus from SAN to a light rail station in downtown San Diego, the light rail to San Ysidro right at the border, walk the considerable distance up and over the border, then cab to TIJ, or vice versa. The walk over the border is all at ground level northbound.

I believe the low airfares stateside to Europe are mostly a matter of competition. Virgin Atlantic sets the fares extremely low in the markets they serve, similar to Southwest in the U.S. And there are many carriers, some of whom sell blocks of seats to consolidators. All of these factor increase competition.

(This post was edited by Frank Burton on May 17, 2003, 10:33 PM)

Gayla

Jun 4, 2003, 8:38 AM

Post #25 of 25 (1871 views)

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Re: [mickeyz] OUCH, air fare a killer!

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I know this is an old thread, and this info may not help you much now, but.............

Alaska Airlines will begin non-stop service between LAX and GDL on July 10th. RT from LAX is around $420. Alaska does have a couple flights a day between SFO and LAX that could connect to the GDL flight. If memory serves, the RT from SFO connecting through LAX was around $515 +/-.

In spite of the unfortunate crash several years ago, Alaska Airline is still my first choice for West Coast travel. They are in partnership with Continental and Northwest (among others) for frequent flier miles. BTW, if you have existing Alaska Airlines miles, it only takes 40,000 miles for a free ticket (50,000 if using Continental or NW miles), 15,000 miles for a 50% discounted ticket.

And, no, I am not an employee or in any way related to a business associated with Alaska Airlines :-) Just a relatively satisfied customer.