Airfares going sky high--so who's driving now?

[DisneyDotty]

Well, we waited tooo long to book our airfare, and now from Ohare to MCO best rate is almost $900 for four of us. Worst goes WAAAAAAYYYYYY up! So we've decided to drive--and including 2 nights hotel and gas, we're still saving at least $350. (Hoping gas doesn't go beyond $4.00/gal late summer!)
Anyone else decided to drive because of the cost of airfare?

 

[DMville]

Best we could ever find was just about $200 pp from ORD to MCO for our upcoming trip for 5 of us. Even months ago. Just bad dates I guess. Searched high and low. So we are driving.

If we were going in May, SW from Midway has $54 OW fares to Tampa up today.

 

[Littlemotherhaywood]

I think for now we're going to plan on driving, but I'm still watching airfares. If I see one within my budget, I'll snag it..or rather four, lol. I don't mind driving, but I would really love to fly. People would probably think I'm cheap, but I think $150 is too much per ticket. After factoring in flights and a rental car, it's still likely to be about $300 cheaper for us to drive (factoring in $4 a gallon in gas costs). Could be more or less depending on gas prices, but gives us the comfort of our own car (no insurance questions) and lets us pack things we might not be able to if we fly. We can bring our own snacks and bottled water. All around, it just looks like a better deal

 

[txaggiemomof3]

We are considering driving now too. The best I've seen from Houston to Orlando in the past month (excluding Southwest b/c their rates aren't out) is $270/pp. That's about $1500 for our family of 5 to fly which is almost as much as we are spending on the rest of our vacation. I would love the convenience of flying but I can also think of some very good ways to spend the money we would be saving!!!

 

[DaisyD]

Double post! Sorry about that!

 

[DaisyD]

I think it is going to be cheaper for me to fly then to drive. It usually is for us since we take 3 days to get there and 3 days to drive home! We do prefer driving anyway but I think with the gas prices rising it will really be more expensive driving this time. We are driving in June but flying in October. It is only costing us $217 plus tax to fly per person. Pretty good deal for us!

 

[Disneylvr]

We decided to drive down there instead of fly even though it is Memorial Day week. Usually I plan our trips 6 months or more in advance but not this time. Only 2 months in advance and airfare has been over $300 STL to MCO.

 

[NotUrsula]

Not necessarily -- we are flying Memorial Day week for $102/rt on SWA from STL. Sale fare; booked it about the 15th of March.

BTW, for the OP, SWA had a Ding today for MDW-TPA for under $65 each way. For a legacy carrier, 4 seats for under $900 r/t is really not too bad, especially if you are including the taxes.

 

[zulaya]

I think another major factor people have to consider is the length of the drive and how many extra days you have to take off work to make the drive.

I live in MN...I haven't made the drive, but it's about 24 hours and that's if you drive it straight. DH and I figured we'd need an extra 2 days on each end of the trip.

4 more days off of work? If you don't have any extra paid days to give, you could be eating income just to drive, which would most likely eat up any savings you get with driving.

If you have the extra time, then it's definitely feasible.

 

[Disneyjosh229]

I think another major factor people have to consider is the length of the drive and how many extra days you have to take off work to make the drive.

I agree. Even if it runs our family of 3, $200-$300 cheaper to drive, I consider it a major inconvience to drive and in the long run, it forces us to take time off of work or cut our vacation short.

 

[mainewmn]

Since Jetblue is starting to fly out of my home airport in May they had some awesome fairs. We snagged 2 round trip fairs for September at the exact times we wanted for $200 per person. Of course add the free dinning and we this is turning out to be one of the cheapest trips we have ever taken to Disney world.

 

[DisneyKidds]

We may consider driving at some point in the future, but we just booked our airline tix for this year. We booked at $202 per person from Newark to Orlando. I'd have preferred to pay $150 to $175, but $200 is fair, especially considering the industry and fuel costs as of late.

I still haven't figured out where I'll draw the line on flying. Is saving $300 worth spending 4 days in a car? Probably not. How about $500? Still not sure. $1,000? Yeah, I'd probably go for that.

Tough call. We took some friends down a few years ago. They drove and met us there. By the time the 1,300 mile trip was done they were shot. Took them a couple days to recover. Then they got sick, probably from being tired and sharing germs in the car the whole way down. A week is too short of a time to lose those days.......and that doesn't count adding a day or two to either end just for the trip.

For us driving will probably be a last resort. If it means no trip because there is no money for airline tix then we'll do it.......but if the fares aren't astronomical and we have the money, flying is a much better option, for us.

 

[frdkngcbra]

Depending on where you are to Ohare, you could try flying out of Rockford on Alegiant Air. Parking is free and tickets when I booked were 84 one way. The site is flyRFD.com

 

[TDC Nala]

I'm driving by myself in July. It would cost far less to fly. If you factor in car rental costs, it works out, though.

 

[disneyeveryyear]

To the OP and others in IL,

I purchased seats last week on Delta r/t from Bloomington, IL (BMI) to Orlando (MCO) for $177.10 per person, non-stop. The flight leaves BMI at noon, arriving MCO at 3:30 p.m.; return leaves MCO at 10:00 a.m., arriving BMI at 11:30 a.m. We are flying in early August, but the rates were good other days also.

BMI is a very nice regional airport with 6 gates (I think). Free parking and very easy to get around.

You might consider driving 2 hours to get that rate, as opposed to driving 20 hours.