airfare question Newark to Orlando-budget buster?

[Kitzka]

DD will have a dance competition in orlando at the end of June. Since this will be her first DH and I decided to both attend. I was able to use miles i had saved to pay for our hotel room and will rent a car. I have some unused tickets for Disney and plan to buy a 1 day pass for Universal so we can go to Harry Potter land.

The issue is airfare. I have been tracking some flights on Yapta and the fares were pretty steady at $175-$195 (with fees and taxes). Well, when they were that low we didn't have the cash to use, due to the holidays, bills etc. well, now we have money and now the fligths are $283-373 (with fees and taxes)! Do i stand a chance of these going down? I am just sick that i couldn't get them for less and the thought of spending $300 more makes me ill.

I played around with the arrival date and the price is the same. I know gas prices are going up but am not sure if i should risk buying them now or wait. I still have 4 months but i would like to get it done if i could.

thanks for any advise.

Lara

 

[PatMcDuck]

Where do you live in NJ?

I live in Monmouth County, central NJ, and we usually fly out of Philadelphia nowadays. It is often cheaper, either on Southwest, Air Tran, or US Airways.

I have also used Jet Blue out of JFK (should be less than out of Newark, JFK is a hub).

Sometimes there are ok fares out of Newark, depends, but we rarely fly out of there anymore.

 

[mjkacmom]

Those early fares were good! Anytime you go out of Newark to Orlando, when the kids are out of school, it is expensive (at least when I checked - Jersey week was close to $400!). You will almost always end up getting cheaper tickets from all of the other airports in the area.

 

[Kitzka]

We live in NNJ, in Bergen County. it's about 2 hours for us to get to Philly. I will check JFK. Didn't think about that option. I jsut fly out of Newark 99% of the time and that's my go to.

I know part of the problem is our dates. We are flying June 30-July 7th. I know people will be trying to get out of town for July 4th.

Lara

 

[juliebean]

I second checking the Philadelphia airport. We live in Morris Cty and it's an extra hour each way compared to EWR, but I usually save $500 or more on five tickets. Plus, I don't know if it's just me, but the Newark airport turns me into a complete stressball! I find the philadelphia airport much easier to get in and out of roadwise and in the actual airport. Our tickets in April, during spring break are nonstop to MCO for $150 including taxes. Good luck!

Oh, since you are in Bergen - check newburgh or white plains too - my friend got nonstops to MCO for less than $200 last year - can't remember, think it was Jet Blue or Airtran....

 

[love2disney]

Did you try Jet Blue. Try them on Tuesdays they are cheapest then. They have frequent sails too. I got 79$ out of newark for spring break but i booked early. You can try Jetblue from JFK too I have had luck there.

 

[Marionnette]

DD will have a dance competition in orlando at the end of June. Since this will be her first DH and I decided to both attend. I was able to use miles i had saved to pay for our hotel room and will rent a car. I have some unused tickets for Disney and plan to buy a 1 day pass for Universal so we can go to Harry Potter land.

The issue is airfare. I have been tracking some flights on Yapta and the fares were pretty steady at $175-$195 (with fees and taxes). Well, when they were that low we didn't have the cash to use, due to the holidays, bills etc. well, now we have money and now the fligths are $283-373 (with fees and taxes)! Do i stand a chance of these going down? I am just sick that i couldn't get them for less and the thought of spending $300 more makes me ill.

I played around with the arrival date and the price is the same. I know gas prices are going up but am not sure if i should risk buying them now or wait. I still have 4 months but i would like to get it done if i could.

thanks for any advise.

Lara

Spirit flies out of Atlantic City for Orlando. They often have really cheap flights.

 

[lurkernj]

Those early fares were good! Anytime you go out of Newark to Orlando, when the kids are out of school, it is expensive (at least when I checked - Jersey week was close to $400!). You will almost always end up getting cheaper tickets from all of the other airports in the area.

I've been watching those too. They were $164 round trip(great times too) on continental about 2 weeks ago and have crept up to about $221 (but not for good times). Not really planning a trip, but just keeping my eyes open in case all the stars align (good discount and cheap airfare), which I'm sure won't happen, but doesn't hurt to look.

 

[njsweetP]

I live in Monmouth County and always fly out of Newark. We have been going to Disney in June for the past three years and are going again this June.
The only way I can afford the fares (and I know this won't help in your situation) is to buy them in August - right after they start selling the June fares. So for our June '11 trip I bought our tickets in August '10. At that time I paid 717 on Continental for the four of us...having said that I constantly check our flights just to see what they are going for. They have consistently gone up since Dec. Keep checking, you might get lucky. Like another poster suggested, check Spirit out of Atlantic City and JetBlue. Good luck!

 

[karenos]

I just checked for November ("jersey week") and flights out of EWR were close to $400. I live in Bergen county so I might actually fly out of LGA or JFK. Eek!

karenos

 

[Ava]

Check LaGuardia also. I usually find flights out of LGA to be cheaper than JFK or Newark.

 

[stich1fan]

We too live in NJ and drive. We stop in GA, after about 10-11 hours of a drive and then get up really early like 6 or 7amish and are in the parks by 2pm the next day. It is really not a bad drive. We have done it about 6 times now with a 2-4 year old...

 

[Anthony1971]

Try both JFK and LGA for Jetblue. You will likely be able to get the fare for 79or now 82 as a low each way plus taxes (about 10 per ticket)
off times like September can be 64-69
It seems to be a witing game with JB the best fares were at 5 months out now they seem to be a few days -weeks under 3.
Newark will likely go down agoin but the cost will almost always be more then JFK or LGA these days.....

 

[manhattan]

Second for Spirit. I was supposed to go up to Newark next week and had found some great airfare, especially if you sign up for their $9 club.

 

[Kitzka]

thanks everyone. i will check other airports and hope that the fare goes down somewhat in the next few months. I defintely want to book no later than april 1.

Lara

 

[Sagginit]

i just moved from monmouth county to hudson county. the last two trips we went out of AC. we have used both airtran and spirit. i forget the exact figures but we were able to get bargain flights each time for under 200 roundtrip a person with baggage fees included in that price. parking was also reasonable. from southern monmouth county the drive there is about an hour and half or so without heavy traffic so it may not be as bad as you think.