Ugh! Why did I wait to buy airline tickets?

[ang79]

Quick Q. We are going the last week of Oct. and will be using Southwest Miles for all or most of our air fare. I found available flights but DH wants to wait til Aug. to book in hopes that the prices go down slightly, then we would have it all covered by the miles he has earned. I'm worried the non-stop flights won't be available by then (this will be our first plane trip w/ my 6 and 9 yr. old, so I'd prefer the shorter flight w/ no layover/change). Is it too risky to wait that long to buy tickets? We will be doing the cheap Get Away ones.

 

[Marionnette]

Quick Q. We are going the last week of Oct. and will be using Southwest Miles for all or most of our air fare. I found available flights but DH wants to wait til Aug. to book in hopes that the prices go down slightly, then we would have it all covered by the miles he has earned. I'm worried the non-stop flights won't be available by then (this will be our first plane trip w/ my 6 and 9 yr. old, so I'd prefer the shorter flight w/ no layover/change). Is it too risky to wait that long to buy tickets? We will be doing the cheap Get Away ones.

Why not purchase one-way tickets for the trip down with your points right now? Then monitor the the fares to see if they fall. You can always make changes to your tickets and have the difference refunded to your RR account if the flight goes down in the number of points needed. You can wait a little bit to book the return flights, but I think that anything beyond the first week of August would be pushing it too much. This will not only give you a chance to see if fares are dropping, but it will also enable you to earn a few more RR miles (consider shopping through their online portal to pad those points or joining their RR Dining rewards if you eat out often).

A lot of WGA fares sold out very quickly when Southwest opened their dates for Nov.-Jan. Oct. is a very popular time to visit Disney due to MNSSHP and the F&W Festival. I would not wait too long to book the flights that I wanted.

 

[hsmamato2]

I wouldn't wait.... just book everything you can on points, then book the rest on cash- non stop flights are worth way more than the others,and sell out quickly.

 

[hsmamato2]

We are flying into Fort Lauderdale then driving up to Orlando for a week before driving back to Fort Lauderdale to get on our cruise. I don't need DME this trip.

FLL has some great deals, but be aware that it's quite a driving distance from Disney.... you may want to explore the option of flying in closer to Disney,and flying home from FLL,if you have options.I think it takes about 4 hours or so to drive to Disney from there if I remember correctly

 

[Just Love Disney]

Does anyone know when flights on Frontier Airlines will open up past October 20th? I called the airline and they said they have no idea... Unfortunately, both of the non-stop WGA flights I was looking at on Southwest are sold out

 

[ang79]

Why not purchase one-way tickets for the trip down with your points right now? Then monitor the the fares to see if they fall. You can always make changes to your tickets and have the difference refunded to your RR account if the flight goes down in the number of points needed. You can wait a little bit to book the return flights, but I think that anything beyond the first week of August would be pushing it too much. This will not only give you a chance to see if fares are dropping, but it will also enable you to earn a few more RR miles (consider shopping through their online portal to pad those points or joining their RR Dining rewards if you eat out often).

A lot of WGA fares sold out very quickly when Southwest opened their dates for Nov.-Jan. Oct. is a very popular time to visit Disney due to MNSSHP and the F&W Festival. I would not wait too long to book the flights that I wanted.

Thanks, flights booked! The ones we wanted actualy went down a bit so round trip was covered with points! It still puts us getting into Orlando at 6:40 pm, so I'll keep watch to see if prices on earlier flights go down at all and see if we can switch flights.

 

[Disneymoon09]

I just checked the Southwest site and they released a new fare sale today. I saved $40 round trip and $20 for Dh, plus some points. Worth checking at least!

 

[henry lutz]

Just got one way tickets to mco from bwi non stop. $ 104. Seem nice to me..new to flying...is that ok

 

[Judique]

Just got one way tickets to mco from bwi non stop. $ 104. Seem nice to me..new to flying...is that ok

That's a decent price.

I've paid anywhere from $75 to $150ish for that same ticket. I saw $99 (plus the $5) earlier today for a November nonstop that we need. I will be using points, so only $5.

By the way, the 50000 point offer is on the home page for their credit card.

 

[henry lutz]

I used disney card ....we go now every two or three years So I passed on the card ??? It was the 6:30 am flight that I wanted...

 

[henry lutz]

That's a decent price.

I've paid anywhere from $75 to $150ish for that same ticket. I saw $99 (plus the $5) earlier today for a November nonstop that we need. I will be using points, so only $5.

By the way, the 50000 point offer is on the home page for their credit card.

I figure now i can use my points for return flight

 

[henry lutz]

That's a decent price.

I've paid anywhere from $75 to $150ish for that same ticket. I saw $99 (plus the $5) earlier today for a November nonstop that we need. I will be using points, so only $5.

By the way, the 50000 point offer is on the home page for their credit card.

I kept checking like you said and it went down to 69 bucks..I grabbed it
Return flight looks less promising..in your opinion will more flights be added in november. 21 ish.I can be a little flexible. There are showing not as many flights on sat..only 11. Thanks for advice

 

[henry lutz]

Keep checking southwest today

 

[Joe'sgirl]

This is precisely why I booked airfare first. I am booked for the last week in Oct and originally I was trying to get the week before. I am also flying out of an airport 1.5 hrs from home but for 1/2 the cost of what it would be if used a local airport. Additionally we have direct flights. That sold it for me and in the end I have to believe it was more then worth it because that is the only week in Oct the free dining was offered! Using some credit card points I am flying JetBlue Hartford to MCO direct for $714 for 6 of us. And the seats are all reserved to boot!

 

[honeybunches]

So glad you all suggested flying into a different airport! I've explored flying out of a different airport to save money (and select the dates, since they're different) but hadn't considered flying into Tampa instead of Sanford. It was a big price difference, and the days won't have to change. I haven't bought the tickets yet because we have to make sure it will work with our work schedules, but I plan to do this. The distance from the airport to WDW is only 40 min or so. Sounds awesome!