Crazy NE airfares in April

Our flight down from BDL to MCO on 4/16 is 100% sold out. No chance of lower fares being released now!

I see PVD is not sold out but fares have remained steady or a little higher. I have not seen April school vaca prices drop after SWA opening in 6 or 7 years so I'm anxious to see if what others say about WGA fares being released later is true.
 
Figment&Piglet said:
Our flight down from BDL to MCO on 4/16 is 100% sold out. No chance of lower fares being released now!

I see PVD is not sold out but fares have remained steady or a little higher. I have not seen April school vaca prices drop after SWA opening in 6 or 7 years so I'm anxious to see if what others say about WGA fares being released later is true.
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It's not sold out 100%. Only the seats they have released have sold out. They will release more.
 
It would be surprising if all the seats were sold out. I'm sure they will release more, I would guess in December as people plan Christmas gifts of a trip to Disney. As for prices coming down, I just dont see them coming down that much. It is pretty clear there is demand. When you see people talk about cheap fares, the devil is in the details. Was that for a flight with 2 stops getting in at 1am? If you want mornings of those two weekends in April non-stop I dont think you are going to see much movement. Just my two cents.
 
no one said:
It would be surprising if all the seats were sold out. I'm sure they will release more, I would guess in December as people plan Christmas gifts of a trip to Disney. As for prices coming down, I just dont see them coming down that much. It is pretty clear there is demand. When you see people talk about cheap fares, the devil is in the details. Was that for a flight with 2 stops getting in at 1am? If you want mornings of those two weekends in April non-stop I dont think you are going to see much movement. Just my two cents.
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I agree. Those 2 weekends are never going to be $1xx. But there will be WGA fares released. And you may get some in the high $2xx's. And you may eventually catch a break on the Monday or Thursday flights in the $1xx if you can take an extra day.
 


Check your fares. A bunch of WGA fares were released today for the 2-3rd week in April. Flights going down on Sat 16th from BDL for $159 and $92
 
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Also just read an article in Boston Globe that there may be many flash sales on Cyber Monday for Spring airfares
 
Thanks for the heads up. Of course the only fares available are terrible times for us, plus not enough seats available for our group. What exactly does sold out vs unavailable mean? Does 'Sold out'= never going to be released unless someone gives up their existing reservation?
 


zilp said:
Thanks for the heads up. Of course the only fares available are terrible times for us, plus not enough seats available for our group. What exactly does sold out vs unavailable mean? Does 'Sold out'= never going to be released unless someone gives up their existing reservation?
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This is "phase 1" of SW releasing fares. They do the worst times first. More will come...Sold out does NOT mean never going to be released. There will end up being WGA fares for almost every single flight. Some may be $300, but they will come.

Also, when booking for a group, find out the max number available at the lowest fair. Then book in "groups".
 
Coming from the midwest, but we pulled our kid out of school and went Wed to Wed because the flights were literally 1/3 of the price of the Sat to Sat prices. Used to say I wouldn't do that, but I have since changed my mind! I told her teacher the price difference and why we were pulling her out of school. The response "Uh, yeah!"
 
A previous poster mentioned flying out of NYC area. A few years ago we did this for the April vacation. I'm from Cape Cod, and although it wasn't ideal it wasn't too bad-honest! That trip was to the west coast to DL, and I think we made plans only a couple of months in advance( which didn't help finding flights cheaply), however going on Jetblue from JFK saved us each $1000!! Driving to JFK didn't seem too bad for a $3000 savings! We drove down Friday night stayed in a hotel & flew Saturday.

Another time I had flight vouchers for USAir, but it was February vacation, and same issue, well I found a cheap flight out of Philly, so I took the Amtrak from Providence to Philly, went sightseeing that afternoon, and flew the next morning to LAX. The way home I was able to get flights into Boston at a decent price, so we flew nonstop home. Amtrak was inexpensive if booked a few weeks in advance . The NE ended up getting a snowstorm that caused major delays& cxls, philly was spared and the trains were full capacity.


And FINALLY, my latest unconventional trip.....I found $15 flights on Frontier from Trenton NJ, the drive was just under 6 hours, the airport makes Providence & Manchester look HUGE. A checked bag was only $25 , but we only went for a couple of days and packed a backpack. Only aggravation was the George Washington bridge going down. There was a Courtyard outside the entrance if you went day prior. Would I do it again??? YES if the flights in NE were high and I really wanted to go away. NO if I could get flight for less than $400 RT during peak times (school vacation). I have also flown close to mid week during vacation weeks, and returned mid week the following week for great airfares, but it requires missing school. As my son gets older (6th grade now), pulling him from too much school becomes more difficult.

We are going away for Thanksgiving ( have for years) and always get flight from PVD for about $100 each way, we fly out either Tues or Wed night and return the Monday. Unfortunately I NEVER get lucky with Feb or April vacation :sad2:

Worcester is another option with Jetblue, but I'm sure that's also high. Allegiant is now flying from Portsmouth NH, and has some good fares, but may be challenging that week.



Good luck - let us know what you find & decide to do!!!
 
Thanks mackeymouse! I grew up very close to that Trenton airport but never thought of it as an option. Excellent option to keep in my back pocket!
 
Before I purchase tickets I watch prices on Google Flights. You can check a month at a time in just a few minutes. Put in your flight, check one way, and check it for the next few months. You will see a trend... See what the lowest fare is for the flight you are looking for. See how far out it is and then be patient and wait for your flight to drop. I usually fly MSP to MCO and expect to pay right around $100 one way. Right now my April flights are high but I am confident that they will come down. My February flights (the ones I wanted) dropped for just one day last August. I'm seeing some BOS to MCO in Dec/Jan for $107/OW. All bets are off for holidays though.
 
Interesting article today in the Wall Street Journal about when to buy airline tickets. Several studies were looked at and interviews with several travel sites and airlines. Statistically speaking the best fares for domestic flights were 57 days prior to departure, although Hopper found that it is generally around 80 days prior. Flights to Europe would be 176 days, Hopper says 140 days. Generally it was recommended to book flights on the weekends because there would be no business travel booking then, also as has been mentioned before Tuesdays are the best day to book during the week. Avoid Fridays because of business travel booking.
Also interesting that they said airlines do not actively manage a specific flight's fares until about three months prior to departure so it does not always pay to book very early. Also, as has been noted many times the airlines are constantly managing the fares and flight availability so you need to check often.
Lastly, as most know, last minute booking is the most expensive again because of business travel.
 
Same out of KY. We fly SWA out of Louisville and spring break week the flights we would normally take are $476 each way. Almost $1K each for a 2 hour flight to MCO. That's crazy! We would drive. I would never pay that for a flight to MCO. Using the calendar, that week is the only week in April that is commanding those prices.
 
OP here, thought I would just update people on these airfares in case anybody does a search about this. I am 95 days out from our trip beginning 4/16, not holding out much hope that airfares will be going down from here. April 16-23 is school vacation week in MA and RI. I did book the flights with SWA when they were first released, departing from Providence. Since then the fares have only gone up, not a lot but about $20 each way. The Wanna Get Away fares were never released for any of the desirable flights, ie arriving before nighttime. I went with the Business Select because it was only slightly higher but you get the preferred boarding (so no Early Bird fee) and the extra points. So I would say the advice about booking immediately for high demand times is correct.

I really only saw a difference in fares if you left on Wednesday, the Thursday and Friday fares were about the same as the Saturday fares. Also there was no difference looking at Boston, in fact less nonstop flights from there. Also not much difference looking at Hartford.
The other airlines were no where close in price. JetBlue is still at $800 each way. Yes, you can find cheaper flights if you do multiple stops arrive late at night and have total trip time over 7 hours, which seems a bit crazy to me but I guess some people do it.
So my advice is to load up on whatever rewards program you have with a credit card if you plan on flying during a school vacation week.
 
Thanks for reporting back here, No One. Upstate New York has school vacation April 23-30 in 2016, and we had the same experience that you described above. (Even with JetBlue as a recent addition at ALB.)
A few years ago, I booked one way with Delta since it was significantly cheaper than any other option (for 6 of us). They repeatedly changed our flight times during the months leading up to our flights, resulting in longer layovers and terrible arrival times... the representatives told us we had the option of canceling without penalty, but there was literally nothing available to book within a few hundred dollars (each) of our Delta flight, so we were stuck. Our car rental during Easter week had to be modified and kept increasing. It was anxiety provoking, to say the least, and I promised myself to never do that again.
 
jkelly86 said:
Thanks for reporting back here, No One. Upstate New York has school vacation April 23-30 in 2016, and we had the same experience that you described above. (Even with JetBlue as a recent addition at ALB.)
A few years ago, I booked one way with Delta since it was significantly cheaper than any other option (for 6 of us). They repeatedly changed our flight times during the months leading up to our flights, resulting in longer layovers and terrible arrival times... the representatives told us we had the option of canceling without penalty, but there was literally nothing available to book within a few hundred dollars (each) of our Delta flight, so we were stuck. Our car rental during Easter week had to be modified and kept increasing. It was anxiety provoking, to say the least, and I promised myself to never do that again.
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Just an FYI from someone who lives by Albany, even with the addition of Jetblue to ABN it is cheaper to make the short drive to Hartford and fly out of Bradley. Our last few trips it was half the price.
 
we are flying out of BDL april 15th and coming back 22nd. School vacation week for us! we booked with JB the day they were released. 1,000.80 for 4 nonstop flights! sweeeet! we never wait to book, always the day of and have done well. Good luck all april vacationers!
 
What time is your flight? We are flying JB also on the 15th out of BDL. Our flight is at 12ish but we are flying to Ft. Myers. We return on the 25th.

I can't wait! I need to find all the kids goggles. That is the priority.
 
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