airfare is a killer

[Purseval]

Originally Posted by wdwmom0f3
My mom checked prices for them to fly from Atlanta to Orlando and she said it was going to be 1100.00 for both of them to fly round trip. That's insane!! They may be driving down with us instead.

That's insane.

I just checked Airtran for a flight leaving today, ATL to MCO, no notice at all, and it was $79 each way. $1100 round trip would be business class, which wouldn't make much sense for a short flight like that. Delta also charges in that area for a non-supersaver flight, which is why more people fly Airtran.

 

[WDWisTheBest]

Originally Posted by wdwmom0f3
My mom checked prices for them to fly from Atlanta to Orlando and she said it was going to be 1100.00 for both of them to fly round trip. That's insane!! They may be driving down with us instead.



I just checked Airtran for a flight leaving today, ATL to MCO, no notice at all, and it was $79 each way. $1100 round trip would be business class, which wouldn't make much sense for a short flight like that. Delta also charges in that area for a non-supersaver flight, which is why more people fly Airtran.

Air Tran in February indicates a $74, including all fees, each way price ATL to MCO. So, as you said, the $1100 price is insane.

 

[Shleedogg]

Airtran just lowered their prices! $84 each way out of MCO, total would be $568 for the 3 of us. Not a huge discount, but definitely makes it less overwhelming. Plus the flights are direct and at perfect times, no crazy early rising, coincides with nap time. Course we'll have to pack only carryons which will be a bit challenging w/ cloth diapers and leave a day earlier than planned, but hey who cares, we're going to Disney World!

Thanks for all the tips everyone! Waiting till Tuesday seemed to pay off.

We actually don't have Allegeant Air, had never heard of them.

 

[MELSMICE]

Where are you flying from? $200 pp seems really reasonable to me.

I think $200 round trip is pretty reasonable. That's only $100 one way. If you are flying anytime around President's Day/Week, then that's a pretty good price, IMO.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

My mom checked prices for them to fly from Atlanta to Orlando and she said it was going to be 1100.00 for both of them to fly round trip. That's insane!! They may be driving down with us instead.

You don't mention when they are flying but I fly out of ATL and just received notice of airtran having a sale.

Flights to ORL from ATL were 59.00 one way during the weekdays. If their travel dates are thru May25, 2011 - have her check again.

Sorry this info won't help the OP!

 

[kelcoppens]

Coke rewards will save you money on any southwest flight. You have to get the codes from Coke bottlecaps and save up points. Check out the site for more info. This saved us $60 on our last Southwest flights to Disney.

 

[snowy76]

I know its killer paying the airfare, even more so now that Jet blue doesnt fly direct to MCO anymore.... layovers in JFK with a 2 year old and a 4 year old are terrible!! Good luck!

Jetblue still flies SYR-MCO nonstop twice a day! You might look into driving to SYR for that. An extra 75 minutes in the car vs layovers... it's why we're not ruling out flying out of our hometown. But AirTran's rates are usually tempting... just not out soon enough for me!

But for our dates JB's prices are still high, not the discount carrier they once were. Their fares match the legacy carriers now.

OP, Allegiant flies out of Elmira. It's two hours from us in SYR... straight south from ROC on 390 to I-86.

 

[ccgirl]

You may have already posted this but what dates are you looking for? The week of Feb 19th is vacation week in the Northeast so you are going to be paying a premium for tickets. We just went last month and got $225 per ticket direct/non-stop. That was the cheapest I got (on AirTran).

 

[Shleedogg]

You may have already posted this but what dates are you looking for? The week of Feb 19th is vacation week in the Northeast so you are going to be paying a premium for tickets. We just went last month and got $225 per ticket direct/non-stop. That was the cheapest I got (on AirTran).

OP here.

We didn't care what the dates were, I looked for the entire month. We were mainly looking at the first 2 wks because of the holiday weekend.

We booked this afternoon on Airtran. It was $90 down and $84 back per person for a grand total of $586. While it's not that much less than what I was being quoted before, the flights are much better. They're good timing for DD's sleep schedule and most importantly for us, non-stop.

On a side note, I looked into the A+ rewards thing they offer on their checkout page. Anyone else a member? I joined, it appeared to be free, hopefully I didn't just miss some fine print. You get a point for every flight (2 for rt) and with 8 pts can get a free one way ticket. This seems way too good to be true, lol.

 

[bettyann29]

I havent read thru the other replies so not sure if this is mentioned or not..

But are you able to fly with Southwest?? I never flew with them before but recently started using them and Im finding some awesome deals that I NEVER found with any other company..

I live near Dallas Fort Worth and flying out this Sunday to WDW and coming back Friday.. The flight there I do have one connection and coming back I have 2.. however I dont have to get off the plane.. It will land and I am able to stay on.. I got $67 each way!! Ive never seen deals like this before!!

Me and DH flew to WDW last month and paid around $79 each way.. same deal with Southwest..

Ive never been able to get cheaper than around $250-$300 roundtrip with other flyers..

 

[ccgirl]

OP here.

We didn't care what the dates were, I looked for the entire month. We were mainly looking at the first 2 wks because of the holiday weekend.

We booked this afternoon on Airtran. It was $90 down and $84 back per person for a grand total of $586. While it's not that much less than what I was being quoted before, the flights are much better. They're good timing for DD's sleep schedule and most importantly for us, non-stop.

On a side note, I looked into the A+ rewards thing they offer on their checkout page. Anyone else a member? I joined, it appeared to be free, hopefully I didn't just miss some fine print. You get a point for every flight (2 for rt) and with 8 pts can get a free one way ticket. This seems way too good to be true, lol.

I am a member of A+ rewards as well. What you thought is true. Did you pay for the seats? I added the seat fee as well as the checked baggage fee in the price in order to get a more accurate representation.

 

[Br'erBriere]

Going in late August from Buffalo. Last year I booked through Southwest and three of us total round trip was $474.

I looked at their site today which is only updated through the first 2 weeks of August but their "web deals" show $144 each way.

How on earth can Southwest justify doubling their prices for the same time frame (if in fact the prices are the same for the last 2 weeks of the month) from a year earlier?

 

[KKB]

1--Airlines across the board have cut flights to increase % full to improve the bottom line.
2--It is early; prices tend to drop as dates come closer, then spike right before departure.
3--It's possible there is an event going on their that has prices inflated.
That being said, I see SWA prices definitively higher than in the past.
Factor #1 is the BIGGEST factor--we cannot expect to find as cheap airfare overall as we have. Those cheap fares drove many airlines to bankruptcy....

 

[Br'erBriere]

All air carriers want loyalty and spend millions of dollars creating these programs as well as marketing them.

Would it not build more loyalty and be a better marketing tool, to lock in customers/families who vacation the same time yearly, or go on trips the same month yearly?

I am thinking of something along the lines of what Disney World offers you in terms of rates for booking next years vacation when you are currently vacationing.

If an airline could come up with a program that allowed me to book at the same price year over year within a month after i got back from my current trip, got paid in full upfront, I think the consumer would jump at this and the airline would have loyalty along with more sales/money.

Of course, IMO this makes too much sense and they will never do it.

 

[Aliceacc]

All air carriers want loyalty and spend millions of dollars creating these programs as well as marketing them.

Would it not build more loyalty and be a better marketing tool, to lock in customers/families who vacation the same time yearly, or go on trips the same month yearly?

I am thinking of something along the lines of what Disney World offers you in terms of rates for booking next years vacation when you are currently vacationing.

If an airline could come up with a program that allowed me to book at the same price year over year within a month after i got back from my current trip, got paid in full upfront, I think the consumer would jump at this and the airline would have loyalty along with more sales/money.

Of course, IMO this makes too much sense and they will never do it.

I think a number of issues come into play:
- The price of fuel is totally unpredictable. They can't predict what it will be next month, never mind next Christmas. Yet it's a critical factor in determining ticket cost.

- Airlines have had to cut flights to accomodate changing economic demands. They probably don't WANT you booking next year's flight this week-- because if they change the flight, they've got additional issues.

-Many airports around the country offer a fairly limited number of choices to any particular destination. (I know that, as someone close to the 3 major airports of NYC, I'm the exception.) So there's not all that much competition-- no real incentive for them to offer a customer loyalty program.

- I'm not sure that the return-same-time-next year family flier is as large a market as the Disboards would have us believe. I think that many of the families who do fly, even to Disney,do so as a special vacation and not as an annual thing. So I'm not sure the airlines would want to commit to such a program for the relatively small number of families it would gain them.

 

[Dizzyworld]

I figured this would happen when SW bought AT, their competition.

 

[niccikatie]

I just spent more in airfare than I spent on our room at POR for 7 nights. Ugh. I could've gotten the flights for a little less (about $50 each when you take into account baggage fees) but I decided having the times we wanted for our flights was more important. Plus, we went with southwest, so we can pack an extra checked bag for food and will save some money that way. Airfare is killer right now! I actually paid less for our tickets to Hawaii in October than I did for our spring break flight to Florida!