Crazy NE airfares in April

[no one]

Been lurking here for a few months, finally signed up.
We are going to WDW April vacation week, from New England. I understand flights would be higher but I am not seeing much under $1K round trip pp, and the times are awful. I have checked each airport, PVD, BOS, BDI, MAN, and nothing reasonable. Also checked leaving Fri or Th and not much better.
I know SW posts their flights next Tuesday and maybe things will look a little better. A lot of advice here says to book SW the day flights are released. Just curious if any of you have past experience of seeing those prices going down on any of the other airlines? I just have been really surprised by these prices since I always here people getting great fares to FL (yes I do have a cc with points to use). TIA

 

[DisDadDVC]

Been lurking here for a few months, finally signed up.
We are going to WDW April vacation week, from New England. I understand flights would be higher but I am not seeing much under $1K round trip pp, and the times are awful. I have checked each airport, PVD, BOS, BDI, MAN, and nothing reasonable. Also checked leaving Fri or Th and not much better.
I know SW posts their flights next Tuesday and maybe things will look a little better. A lot of advice here says to book SW the day flights are released. Just curious if any of you have past experience of seeing those prices going down on any of the other airlines? I just have been really surprised by these prices since I always here people getting great fares to FL (yes I do have a cc with points to use). TIA

I would hold out for SW. Esp out of PVD. I fly out of there all the time and they generally have the cheapest of the local airports. What week is your vacation? Apr 17-23?

 

[no one]

I am hoping for PVD, that would be most convenient for us. Yes it would be 4/16-4/23, booked AKL CL, first family trip. I did look at SW fares for the Feb vacation wk just for comparison sake and it seems to be about $700 rt

 

[DisDadDVC]

I am hoping for PVD, that would be most convenient for us. Yes it would be 4/16-4/23, booked AKL CL, first family trip. I did look at SW fares for the Feb vacation wk just for comparison sake and it seems to be about $700 rt

But those weren't $700 to start. I am booked 2/14-2/19 from PVD-MCO and we paid about $275 RT (17,000 pts). I booked them the second that the fares were released. I am also booked out from PVD on 4/11 for $114 right now, and will be booking my return when the new fares get released.

I will say that the April fares were different. The weekend dates started off VERY high and then came down. I booked Monday 4/11 for $114 when Sunday 4/10 was $299. Sunday 4/10 is now down to $114 depending on your time.

So in short, if the fares you want are $250+ each way, and you are not sure if you can use the credit within a year, I would hold off. They will come down. But if they are $139 or so to start, I would jump on them day 1.

 

[DisDadDVC]

Also, this can be a bit of a pain, but if you are booking for a lot of people, look at the price for 1 person first. If you have 4 people travelling, and there are only 3 seats in the lower fare bucked, ALL 4 people will be charged the higher fare. If you book it as 3 people and then 1 person, you will get the cheapest fares for the 3 people, and only pay the higher for the 4th.

 

[edbo77]

I'm in the same boat - have my eye on a cheapish flight down but waiting to see what happens to prices once SW opens up next week.

 

[a742246]

If fares are $1,000 roundtrip a person and you have several people going, I would consider taking a flight out of the NYC area you can get flights at 260.00 RT on jet blue for those dates.

 

[DisDadDVC]

Also, I realize it is another hr+ away, but check BDL as well. CT and RI often have different April vacation dates, and you can fly out of BDL for cheaper during RI breaks and vice-versa.

 

[no one]

Yeah, I thought the same thing about BDL but they were not much different, probably because it's close enough to MA , where I'm at, for that school vacation week.
We'll just see how SW does next week.

 

[DisDadDVC]

Yeah, I thought the same thing about BDL but they were not much different, probably because it's close enough to MA , where I'm at, for that school vacation week.
We'll just see how SW does next week.

Yeah, Presidents week is the same for everyone of course. It's spring break where you may see the differences. We went out of PVD this April. It was $250 RT from PVD and $500+ from BDL that week. The next week was almost the exact opposite.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

I'm also looking at April vacation week to fly out from PVD and waiting for SW. Hoping that things will be reasonable. We flew out of PVD during Feb vacation this year and got cheap rates when we booked right when they open.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

$1K round trip from the Boston area to Orlando is absolutely outrageous, even during a vacation time.

 

[dis_guy]

I agree, those are some pretty downright ridiculous fares. I get that the airlines have to have flexible pricing and that prices go up (and down, sure...lol) according to demand and even the perceived interest in a particular route at a particular time. But that still doesn't explain how United can have flights from YEG, here in Alberta, Canada for $496 (CDN) one day and three days later they're over $2000 (CDN) per person. For our November flights, we booked them for about $500 CDN pp in January. Last time I looked they were $2300 (CDN) pp and it's not like the planes were filling up very fast. Who knows. I do know that United frequent flyers dislike the airline's pricing system with a passion.

 

[no one]

Wow, $2300 is crazy. I guess I was surprised because there are plenty of airlines and a couple of airports to choose from here, so thought there might be some competitive fares, but they are all about the same. Again SW might change that equation once they release their schedule next week.

 

[Skwinkles]

Anyone know what time of day flights are released?

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I agree, those are some pretty downright ridiculous fares. I get that the airlines have to have flexible pricing and that prices go up (and down, sure...lol) according to demand and even the perceived interest in a particular route at a particular time. But that still doesn't explain how United can have flights from YEG, here in Alberta, Canada for $496 (CDN) one day and three days later they're over $2000 (CDN) per person. For our November flights, we booked them for about $500 CDN pp in January. Last time I looked they were $2300 (CDN) pp and it's not like the planes were filling up very fast. Who knows. I do know that United frequent flyers dislike the airline's pricing system with a passion.

I'm a UA frequent flyer and their pricing strategies are no different than any other airline. They constantly adjust fares depending on a pretty sophiscated pricing model. It must be working; the airlines are making plenty of profits these days.

 

[DisDadDVC]

Anyone know what time of day flights are released?

Normally it is between 6:00 and 6:30 am EST. Last time it was much later. I'm guessing there was an issue.

 

[focusondisney]

I'm a UA frequent flyer and their pricing strategies are no different than any other airline. They constantly adjust fares depending on a pretty sophiscated pricing model. It must be working; the airlines are making plenty of profits these days.

It's not just their pricing that's giving them high profits. All the fees they are now charging (luggage, seat selection, etc) aren't taxed the same as fares are. That's what's making the airlines huge profits.

 

[DisDadDVC]

It's not just their pricing that's giving them high profits. All the fees they are now charging (luggage, seat selection, etc) aren't taxed the same as fares are. That's what's making the airlines huge profits.

Actually, fuel savings make up the bulk of their profits right now. I love how they tacked on tons of fuel surcharges when gas went up, but they just keep the profits when gas goes down.

 

[Mynamewastaken]

Always expensive. Ours were 500.00 pp round trip this is after rebooking for 340.00 cheaper with SW and earning credits. It has always been that way for us but being teachers it is the only time we can go so we take it up the you know what.