Am I missing something? Airfare

[MickeysFan]

I'm a little confused. We have flown to WDW several times. It has been a few years, but I am having a hard time understanding why the rates I am looking at are so high!!! We are not picky flyers, we always bargain shop because there are five of us and it is costly to fly even at a great rate. We will fly any airline, don't care if we have stop overs, ect. The only thing we try to ensure is that we sit together.

The problem is that wherever I look right now for our trip in November it is expensive! My DH thinks maybe that's because it is so far away, we usually don't start shopping until the trip is 6 months or less. Is there validity to that? Have ticket prices just gone up that much? Any tips would be great Thanks!

 

[bavaria]

Well, a few general comments

• no airline will guarantee that you will be seated together; even with advance seat selection this is subject to change until the time of takeoff
• airfares have been artificially low for many years, with barely any increase or a decrease in average fare from 1996 to 2006
• travel is up significantly in the past 2 years
• airfare is beginning to increase in an attempt to reach more realistic levels. Airlines continue to bleed money on ridiculously low fares
• Southwest hedged fuel; that agreement is coming to an end and they have increased fares twice recently as a result

 

[dopeyfanatic]

Yeah, airfare has just gone up that much. It's up every where, for everyone. There are still some good deals out there, but for a family of 5 harder to come by. You have to look constantly through out the day to catch a "deal". Otherwise you have to find something you're ok paying for and do it. I do have to admit that airfare is barely more for us to go from CA to FL next year than it was when we went in 1992! That's HUGE! It should be a LOT more with the way everything else has gone up.

 

[CarolA]

Without knowing your origination and pricing it's hard for us to really say if it's high or not.

That said, I for one hope that common sense breaks out in the airline industry. They cannot keep flying us for less then thier costs, it just a business model that makes no sense. (I am not holding out hope for common sense however!)

 

[bavaria]

one thing that I really don't understand is the lack of airline loyalty by the occasional traveller that we see here. ('I'll book whatever is the cheapest price') Decisions seem to be based purely on the price. Why not join a frequent flyer program and start building up mileage for every family member? If you fly Delta, AA, United, SW, AirTran just based on lowest price, you'll never build up miles. But if you pay a few dollars more and get the miles, a free trip can add up quickly.

I am no longer an Air Canada elite member, but I use my account for trips to Europe (80,000 miles in business/first). I dump all my Amex miles 1 for 1 into that account.

Even before I became a regular flyer, a few trips to Disneyland and some wise choices added miles quickly into my account

 

[bicker]

one thing that I really don't understand is the lack of airline loyalty by the occasional traveller that we see here. ('I'll book whatever is the cheapest price') Decisions seem to be based purely on the price.

This is consistent with the lack of customer loyalty which is been the norm across-the-board in the consumer marketplace (for practically all consumer products and services) since the early 1990s. Somewhere along the line, signals got crossed, and a lot of people got the idea that "loyalty" meant that the supplier gives them better and better products/services for lower and lower prices, and still also provide better and better returns on investment for our retirement accounts. It's utterly unrealistic, but it is the norm these days.

 

[simzac]

one thing that I really don't understand is the lack of airline loyalty by the occasional traveller that we see here. ('I'll book whatever is the cheapest price') Decisions seem to be based purely on the price. Why not join a frequent flyer program and start building up mileage for every family member? If you fly Delta, AA, United, SW, AirTran just based on lowest price, you'll never build up miles. But if you pay a few dollars more and get the miles, a free trip can add up quickly.

I am no longer an Air Canada elite member, but I use my account for trips to Europe (80,000 miles in business/first). I dump all my Amex miles 1 for 1 into that account.

Even before I became a regular flyer, a few trips to Disneyland and some wise choices added miles quickly into my account

We only take one trip per year, so building up FF miles doesn't work for us. That being said, we only will fly SW. We have no desire to fly any other airline, so we are loyal even though we get no reward from it. jMO

 

[bicker]

Southwest has seen its traditional business eaten-into, recently, by Delta, JetBlue and AirTran. So while you might be loyal to Southwest, Southwest knows that they cannot count on very many passengers being loyal to them.

 

[Darcy03231]

Sign up for airfarewatchdog. I did and have seen some great flight deals that I might not have found on my own.

 

[MrsPMC00]

The entertainment book has an offer for 10% off any flight over $200...and it is valid for up to 6 tickets on that flight. We spent $20 on our local book and saved almost $100 on our airfare to see Mickey and friends. Every little bit helps these days!! Good luck!

 

[emilyclaire]

We only take one trip per year, so building up FF miles doesn't work for us. That being said, we only will fly SW. We have no desire to fly any other airline, so we are loyal even though we get no reward from it. jMO

Southwest Airlines does have a Rapid Rewards program. Not exactly frequent flyer miles, but it is SOME kind of reward. I got my free flight within a year due to my college student credit and being in a long distance relationship with DH a year before we were married. True, with you flying only once a year, it would definitely take awhile to accumulate. Still, if you're not already a Rapid Rewards member, you should join up so you can earn SOMETHING for your money.

 

[NancyIL]

The entertainment book has an offer for 10% off any flight over $200...and it is valid for up to 6 tickets on that flight. We spent $20 on our local book and saved almost $100 on our airfare to see Mickey and friends. Every little bit helps these days!! Good luck!

My 2007 Entertainment book has an offer for 5% off any fare for up to 6 people on American. I was under the impression that the national coupons in the center were pretty much the same for all Entertainment books.

 

[NotUrsula]

Why not join a frequent flyer program and start building up mileage for every family member?

If you only take one flight per year (or even less), and it is a short one such as from the DC area to MCO, you'll never accumulate enough miles before expiration to get anything for free except a magazine subscription or two. That goes double if the only time that you fly is during high-demand holiday periods, which is pretty common in this crowd. There are also a lot of people here who don't use credit cards unless absolutely forced to it, which also factors in to the mileage game -- unless you are a true road warrior, you really need to use CC points to flesh out the accounts.

I fly a fair amount, but I've never been able to take a r/t award flight on a legacy carrier in a period where I haven't flown internationally at least twice in a calendar year. Added to that, a lot of my leisure flights are during holiday periods, and my extended family mostly live near resort destinations -- availability is very scarce. (These days I mostly fly SWA domestically, and I *do* earn a lot of award flights with them; on SWA every flight has the same value, so it doesn't matter that most of my trips are regional.)

That said, my immediate family all have accounts with every carrier that services our region, just in case. I still shop around on price, though, and a savings of several hundred dollars on a single ticket beats miles for us any day. If the savings is small I'll go with the benefit of earning miles, but I definitely do the math first.

Oh, and for the OP: two reasons: 1) reduced capacity, and 2) the increased price of jet fuel.

 

[MrsPMC00]

My 2007 Entertainment book has an offer for 5% off any fare for up to 6 people on American. I was under the impression that the national coupons in the center were pretty much the same for all Entertainment books.

Sorry...memory problem - we bought the tix a few months ago...pulled out my book and it was 5%...but mine says any flight over $200....it did save us a little over $100 on our tickets.

 

[NancyIL]

Sorry...memory problem - we bought the tix a few months ago...pulled out my book and it was 5%...but mine says any flight over $200....it did save us a little over $100 on our tickets.

Interesting! My book says, "SAVE 5% OFF ANY FARE WORLDWIDE FOR UP TO SIX (6) PASSENGERS."

 

[dopeyfanatic]

one thing that I really don't understand is the lack of airline loyalty by the occasional traveller that we see here. ('I'll book whatever is the cheapest price') Decisions seem to be based purely on the price. Why not join a frequent flyer program and start building up mileage for every family member? If you fly Delta, AA, United, SW, AirTran just based on lowest price, you'll never build up miles. But if you pay a few dollars more and get the miles, a free trip can add up quickly.

I am no longer an Air Canada elite member, but I use my account for trips to Europe (80,000 miles in business/first). I dump all my Amex miles 1 for 1 into that account.

Even before I became a regular flyer, a few trips to Disneyland and some wise choices added miles quickly into my account

Why do people need to be loyal to an airline? An airline is no different than a brand of car, or tv. Do you buy the same brand everything, all the time? The reason people look for the cheapest airfare is because most people can't afford to pay twice as much for a ticket just to go on the airline they prefer. Also, why throw that money away? That's pretty senseless. I for one don't fly enough to earn any free trips before the points would expire, and we also don't do credit cards. I think if people didn't look around for the cheapest flight, there would be less competition and the airlines would try less to offer comparable airfare.

 

[bavaria]

But airline miles can and do add up quickly. Consider this example:

- OP flies from Idaho to WDW in Dec 2005 and Dec 2006 on United and earns 3,000 miles each trip for a total of 6,000 miles
- OP opens a United Mileage Plus card with a bous of 15,000 miles
- OP rents a car on each of those trips and earns total 1,000 miles
- OP has to overnight before their trip and earns 500 miles on each stay for a total of 1,000 miles

Total earned miles for OP is 23,000 miles - 2,000 miles short of a round trip ticket.

I realize that it doesn't work out the same for spouse and children, but that one free ticket is already work a few hundred dollars.

As several posters have pointed out, even SW has a rewards program, and miles can be earned in a variety of ways.

I am not suggesting that someone pay $200 more per ticket just to earn miles, but in many cities airfare is pretty equal on a variety of carriers. A lot of smaller markets don't have SW or other LCC, and even the LCC prices will continue to rise.

Just going for the cheapest product to save a few dollars (ie $10-20) is not always the best choice. It amazes me how often I am on a 2,500 mile flight with people who do not belong to an airline program. If you are already flying the airline, join the program

Still, if you're not already a Rapid Rewards member, you should join up so you can earn SOMETHING for your money

.

We see time and time again here that people booked the cheapest carrier, had something go wrong which may be a reality of flying, and they vent here 'I'll never fly XYZ again!' Yet the next time XYZ has a sale, many of them DO fly XYZ again.

If price were the only motivator for every purchase, we would all be eating no name food products and driving micro mini cars and your local Starbucks would be empty.

 

[bavaria]

I think if people didn't look around for the cheapest flight, there would be less competition and the airlines would try less to offer comparable airfare.

Those cheap fares of $39/59/79/99 are hurting the airlines. They need to stop offering them in order to make a profit. The reality is that at least one US carrier will need to go under in the next few years in order for the others to survive.

As we have already seen, those fares are becoming less common, as the airlines continue to change their pricing structures in an attempt to become more profitable.

A lot of those bargain basement fares were led by SW, which continues to increase its fares due to the end of fuel hedging benefits.

 

[kribit]

I'm a little confused. We have flown to WDW several times. It has been a few years, but I am having a hard time understanding why the rates I am looking at are so high!!! We are not picky flyers, we always bargain shop because there are five of us and it is costly to fly even at a great rate. We will fly any airline, don't care if we have stop overs, ect. The only thing we try to ensure is that we sit together.

The problem is that wherever I look right now for our trip in November it is expensive! My DH thinks maybe that's because it is so far away, we usually don't start shopping until the trip is 6 months or less. Is there validity to that? Have ticket prices just gone up that much? Any tips would be great Thanks!

Weird...I had just logged on this board to ask the same thing. We fully intend on driving from MA, but part of me was considering the idea of flying just to have an extra day in WDW. I was researching prices and the airfare for 4 of us is $1300!!! The last time we flew Southwest to Disney, it was $230 per person with refundable fares. The prices I'm looking at are that for Internet specials, which are the cheapest fare (non-refundable).

We're driving.

 

[NotUrsula]

Miles add up quickly *if* you play the traveler's mileage game, and if you fly long-distance at least some of the time. There is no way that a once-a-yr. flyer who only flies domestically and doesn't at least occasionally overnight for business is going to consistently earn awards at a profit unless the mileage is supplemented with a CC program (AND unless the CC is PIF every month. Interest will gobble up that couple of hundred dollars in a heartbeat.)

I'm not saying that mileage programs are useless for the occasional flyer -- it is easy and free to sign up, and I'll happily take whatever bennies I get. However, it takes planning, awareness, and a lot of self-discipline to actually profit off of a FF program in these circumstances. THAT is where a lot of people see a diminishing return.

Just for grins I checked SWA and UA from Boise to MCO on a random date at a slow time (not November, obviously, since SWA doesn't sell this far out.) I picked days in early May, travelling on Tues & Wed to make it cheaper. SWA's price was $169, while UA's was $340. Granted, SWA's route required 3 stops instead of one, and had 2 hours more total travel time, but is that worth $855? (Or let's say she did have a free UA ticket -- is it worth $515?) For further grins I looked at UAL and Frontier in the first week of November: $380 vs. $322. Closer price competition, but it certainly comes down when SWA fares are added to the mix.

I'd say that unless the travel is Thanksgiving peak days, she is better off waiting until SWA opens her dates.