Airfare Insane?

[ton80]

The cheapest time to book airfare is usually 60-90 days prior.

 

[heynowirv]

not entirely true. As I noted following someone else's advice to check out BWI I found exactly what I was looking for at 169.RT

 

[Anal Annie]

OP I can sympathize but I probably would consider $246ish to be average. I have found that flight prices have been all over the board lately. I found a bargain $146 pp round trip on Jet Blue for our January trip to MCO (out of BWI) but can't come anywhere close to that for our June trip so we are driving that one (best flights for our June dates / flying direct was about $300 pp)!! DH has a hybrid so only needs limited gas stops - we drove it last summer with higher gas prices for about $65 each way - I expect it to be a tad less this summer if prices don't go crazy between now & June. We live in the DC area so I have been pricing all 3 major local airports - they are ridiculous. DH has a weekend trip to Detroit the end of April - costing us over $300 for that one on SW. Just flew our DS home from college on spring break from Rochester, NY and it was $121 each way. Both of those are crazy high prices for an hour long flight IMO. I'm also finding it harder & harder to find direct flights. Keep watching.

 

[circhead]

Check out frontier also.

I got 70 round trip Philly to Orlando for President's week.
We paid to check one bag and all of us took a "personal item".
5 people plus 1 checked bag each way total cost - $410.00.
Flights from my home airports (NYC area) were over 300 pp.

I have a habit of checking airports within a 2 hour drive of me and take whatever has the best price.

 

[a742246]

I would just get that $246.00 R/T ticket now before it goes to $300.00. $123 one way flight from Philly to Orlando doesn't sound to bad to me.

 

[wench]

Try this search engine & see if you can find anything better. I'm absolutely obsessed with it.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

 

[Shanti]

Does Jet Blue fly up there? They're sometimes cheaper than Southwest.

 

[heynowirv]

Does Jet Blue fly up there? They're sometimes cheaper than Southwest.

They do ,but to go to MCO you have to fly to Boston first and then go down to orlando,crazy.

 

[Anal Annie]

Try this search engine & see if you can find anything better. I'm absolutely obsessed with it.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

I also use this one a lot - it will list every combo possible.

 

[heynowirv]

I also use this one a lot - it will list every combo possible.

Thank you one and all . SW came thru with 166. RT BWI Non Stop. Decent times .... Doing the happy dance

 

[Deb & Bill]

I saw that,nothing like flying 300 miles north to go south,LOL

Try flying from NW Louisiana to Atlanta to get to Denver.

 

[heynowirv]

Try flying from NW Louisiana to Atlanta to get to Denver.

No Thanks.

 

[cedricandsophie]

Just for kicks I checked United for that time period. Out of Chicsgo it was 324 and out of philly it was 349. personally for us that's about what we always pay. If we get below 300 it's a bargain. In March we paid 260 per person to Orlando from Chicago.

 

[TheGecko]

Philly is Brutal right now for airline prices. Ever since the AA/US Air merger prices have been more or less ridiculous. Southwest is high and will run right about the same as AA which used to never be the case. Frontier is a decent option, but only has a couple flights a day, and you will have to pay for the bags. Just a byproduct of de-regulation ultimately leading to a lack of competition, which was never supposed to be the case.

 

[Steve G]

If you are willing to drive you could check out Spirit Airlines flights out of Atlantic City. Direct and usually a very cheap flight or two every day.

 

[heynowirv]

If you are willing to drive you could check out Spirit Airlines flights out of Atlantic City. Direct and usually a very cheap flight or two every day.

Honestly don't like spirit as they only have 1 or 2 flights a day ,and can cancel if they feel like it.Oh and of course everything is ala carte.

 

[luckyman_apd]

Spirit can be a deal or a nightmare. Their bread and butter for the area is AC to Florida flights. They are pretty regular and consistent... But since the planes are basically rotating from Florida to this area a storm in Orlando/Tampa/Ft Lauderdale.... It delays the plane for the rest of the day those night flights to MCO can get delayed 2-4 hours.... Or can be right on time. We've had good luck with Spirit but know what you are getting into (bag fees, sizes, weights) as they are VERY different than other Airlines. If you aren't prepared it can cost you a ton. If you are aware of their tactics it can be dirt cheap. We've regularly gotten flights for under $100 rt but have had to go through a few hurdles to get them. We also plan our trips around the airfare. When we see ultra cheap flights, we take a trip. Not always the best plans for DVC but we've been lucky enough so far to get the flights cheap and the room availability.

Frontier is similar to Spirit with their fees/bag sizes/weights.... Given the choice I go Spirit just because AC airport is soooo much easier than PHL.

 

[smjj]

We had issues with cost/options with SW from Indy. In the past they had several a day direct and non. This time for our Oct. flight, they had cut back to only a few and the prices were very high compared to past trips this same time of year. So much for their claim the high airfares were due to high fuel cost...smjj

 

[TiggerBouncy]

Our BWI -> MCO flight is costing us under $200 / person for our coming trip. But as someone who often pays $800+ per flight, I don't think that price is bad.

 

[Anal Annie]

DH and I just decided this past weekend to add a quickie 4 night trip in Sept. for F&W so I'm already hawking all possible combinations from the 3 DC area airports with BWI being my 1st choice if possible. The only "reasonable" SW direct flights are in late afternoon or evening. All of their morning flights are $218 one-way which is just not going to happen with my pocketbook!! Since it's only a 4 day trip I obviously want to maximize our time on the ground in FL as much as possible so I'm looking for earlier flights. JetBlue had an 11:10 one-way for $100 - it was there yesterday and early this morning but then it disappeared off their schedule this afternoon (same flight was on the entire week schedule & last I looked it was just GONE)!! Odd 'eh? Perhaps it will show up again? I then found a "deal" of sorts on United out of Dulles for $171 round trip - and with good flight times (8:50 am going down so morning but not crack of dawn and ret. @ 6:52 pm so we could have pretty much all day down there on our last day). Might just book that if SW fares don't budge. (JetBlues ret. is early afternoon so we lose our last day BUT it's only $67 but SW has a reasonable evening ret. for $83 - but these are out of BWI.) Hard to find the right combo flying in & out of the same airport. Hate the stress of flight watching!!