Airfare. Is. Evil.

[Happyjen27]

While I miss the days I could get from Upstate NY to the Caribbean for $300 round trip, I have to take a look at the service provided me, I can hardly complain.

Airplanes hurtle us through the air at amazing speeds and heights, and get us to a destination. That's AMAZING!!!

So, while I loathe to pay the $750 per person to the Caribbean now, I recognize that it is still worth the money. Of course it means I travel elsewhere rather than the Caribbean, and of course it means I travel less frequently. Overall though, airfare is the price of living the posh life, the life of privilege for just a week or two.

 

[elgerber]

Are you coming from overseas?

We pay about $400-450 a person from Minneapolis. There are four of us, so airfare alone, by the time you add taxes and add ons, is $2k. There are seldom cheap flights out of the Twin Cities, even the low cost airlines aren't cheap.

MPLS never has good fairs. $300-$325 used to be good from here, forget ever having $59 one way fares. Now, I see them over $500 on a regular basis.
I used to be able to fly for $80 to Chicago round trip, now it's $200 on a good day, if you are lucky! Yeah, that I can drive to save the $$$.

 

[Brittmarie04]

Airfare from Pittsburgh for the 6 of us is $1900. Ack! $1900!!!!!!!
3 years ago we got to go a few times a year because the airfare was so low. Okay...there were also 3 less people in our family, LOL, but still. It's just outrageous. With 3 more littles, we need 2 rooms, and with airline tickets, our $2000 10-14 day trips, have turned into a one week stay for $6000 with airfare.

I fly from Pittsburgh also. I have found southwest has the best prices fom pit to Orlando. I just got ours for January for $99 each way. $198 round trip.

 

[Brittmarie04]

This is exactly the same for us. The only reason we are going this year is SW points, or we would be driving. Yikes!

Sw points are awesome!!!!

 

[jennycraig]

Oh, boy do I hear you! Our family vacation Aug. 2013 was at Music 11 nights /2 day tickets (had non-exp. ones left) for 4 adults $1745. Airfare from Canada was $1850....yah, we drove 24 hours each way for around $600. Disney is so worth it though!

Where in canada do you live? I'm only wondering because my family may want it drive down to Florida, and I was wondering about cost.

 

[Brittmarie04]

Agreed! We used to fly and go once a year. Now we drive, it's about 16 hours or so. We bought annual passes and already have our 4th trip planned in 12 months! We actually prefer the drive to flying we found. Leave when we want, pack what we want.

We are thinking about driving this summer. It's 18 hours that's with no stops at all. The longest we have ever drove was 10 hours. So I'm not sure how we feel about driving but it would save us bout $700 I'm thinking.

 

[sydneysmom]

airfare is incredible. We priced out Southwest and Delta for our trip this past June and it was $1350 from MS!!! So we decided to drive. It was too absurd to pay that amount to fly when we were 10 hours away. It was a long drive, but saving that kind of money was worth it.

 

[Brittmarie04]

Where in canada do you live? I'm only wondering because my family may want it drive down to Florida, and I was wondering about cost.

If you go to mapquest.com type in your address and disney world address it will tell you how long and the estimated cost of gas to get there.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

agreed. hoping economics take over soon and less people able to afford trips means lower airfare. i have a trip to vegas planned and the airfare is 3-4 times the cost of the room. my friends want to go again the spring and i just dont think it will happen with these rates.

Economics have taken over. The airlines decided that it made more sense to cut capacity then to lose money flying us below cost.

 

[crisi]

Economics have taken over. The airlines decided that it made more sense to cut capacity then to lose money flying us below cost.

Which makes sense for them - you can't fly people for less than it costs to fly them and keep a company in business.

I can't complain, currently my husband is traveling a lot for work, so we'll get some free flights out of frequent flyer miles. Given that his airfare has been as much as $23,000 round trip, I'm not sure how much of a deal those frequent flyer miles are though - but his firm pays for the airfare.

 

[mcraige]

Only one more year until the Wright Amendment expires. Hopefully then airfare from Dallas will start to drop. I'm not holding my breath, tho.

 

[KimOhio]

here is a cool site that tells you how much it cost to drive

http://beta.costtodrive.com/

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

Where in canada do you live? I'm only wondering because my family may want it drive down to Florida, and I was wondering about cost.

We live in Montreal, Quebec. We usually leave around 3 or 4 in the afternoon.
Kids sleep and dh and I take turns every 2-3 hours. We drive straight through the night (with several stops to eat) and by the next day we are usually in Georgia. We stay overnight in a hotel, usually around $60 Days Inn, and the next day we leave after breakfast around 7 a.m. Usually, by noon time we are in Disney.
Coming home we do the same but stop somewhere in northern Virginia or Maryland. It is tiring but we usually stay 11-12 nights in Disney so we make the drive worth it and we have a car in Florida. Also, we pack a cooler with drinks, food so the only thing we purchase on the road is coffee.
The money we save by not flying covers the QSDP in Disney for our family of 4.

 

[SondraC]

here is a cool site that tells you how much it cost to drive

http://beta.costtodrive.com/

I just entered our info. It said $123.15 that is based on 4 people total.

We live East of Pittsburgh.

 

[kiramay]

I just realized that if I drive an hour to another airport, I'll save nearly $500 and won't have to pay for checked bags! So I highly recommend checking other airports too!

 

[kiramay]

I just entered our info. It said $123.15 that is based on 4 people total.

We live East of Pittsburgh.

Not quite accurate. I tried it, it said $194 to drive. We drove in December and spent double that in gas.

 

[dansamy]

Not quite accurate. I tried it, it said $194 to drive. We drove in December and spent double that in gas.

The calculator counts one way I think.

 

[kiramay]

The calculator counts one way I think.

I assumed so. 1200 miles, 15 mpg, $4 a gallon = $320 in gas each way. I know between rest stops, traffic, etc, we spent closer to $400 each way. We're flying next time.

 

[SondraC]

I assumed so. 1200 miles, 15 mpg, $4 a gallon = $320 in gas each way. I know between rest stops, traffic, etc, we spent closer to $400 each way. We're flying next time.

We drove 3 times so far this year and didn't spend anywhere near that each way in gas. 15 mpg?? Highway? What type of vehicle? We drove a minivan fully loaded with suitcases and supplies and was nicely in the 20's. We only stopped for gas twice each way.

 

[scottmel]

we fly SWA from Pittsburgh. This is my 6th June in a row going, flying three of us. I have YET to pay for airfare. Oh wait, I did pay in 2009 and that is what prompted me to open a south west visa. Have flown for free on their bonus point into cards year after year for the 3 of us. I have enough for 2014 and 2015 to fly free as well. If you don't own a southwest card get one! 50k miles free!!