Keep looking at Spirit Airlines for rates. They go from Detroit, thru Fort Lauderdale and to STT. Website is www.spiritair.com. You can also sign up for email alerts on specials, and they have quite a few.

One word of caution on spirit air. Having spent several days/hours searching for airfare I thought I found a really good deal with spirit air. I continued with the site and was proceeding to check out when the second to last screen came up with a very frightening list of additional fees, by the time everything was added it was NO DEAL! So naturally I backed out and didn't book with them. Just a word of caution that it looks great in the beginning but watch out for all the hidden fees!

Our travel agent found us roundtrip on United (from Dulles), $245 a person!!! We leave on Christmas Eve, return on Dec. 30. Other than the awesome price, they are non-stop flights. (I am convinced that the San Juan airport gate area loosely resembles Hell!)

BTW, leaving Christmas day would have been about $400 more a person.

At this point, the airlines know that whoever REALLY wants to go to the islands over the holidays has booked. Now they are starting to lower prices to fill up the seats.

I fly USAir - Christmas travel in 2004 dropped last week of Oct and then again around Dec 1. ALl we can go on is past experience...and sometimes things change year to year.

Jill:

Those are the security & inspection fees collected by the government. All airlines must collect them, not only Spirit.

If you go to the Continental website you'll see the same thing at the end.

F.I.

I recently booked a flight on USAIr. The base rate was $422. The fees for security, international arrival and departure, animal and health inspection, and facility charge brought the total cost up to $482. All airlines do it!

I realize all airlines charge taxes, fuel charges, etc. but Spirit was outrageous. The total airfare for two was less than $600. but the additional was $242. in various charges, that's a bit much. In my 1st response I was simply pointing out to be careful in that the original fare seems really great but Spirit's additional fees are much higher compared to most and in some cases it may seem to good to be true and to just be careful.

Jill:

I think there is something wrong with Spirit's system. The $121. for fees/taxes is erroneous. I got the same number, but when I went back again 30 minutes later I got $60.50, which is correct.

F.I.