American Airlines for Spring Break

[EricLaurie]

We are going to WDW from O'Hare from 3/22 through 4/1 in 2019. We want to use American because we have miles to pay for part of the flights. We got decent points for the return flight on 4/1 so we booked it, but March 22nd and March 23rd flight prices and points are outrageous (over $500 each or 30,000 points). Any predictions as to when these flight prices might get down to a lower range? Will they drop when Southwest opens up their flights on those dates? TIA!

 

[FCDub]

You're going at a busy time.

Airline prices are totally, 100% unpredictable. They might come down, they might not. Are you a gambling man?

 

[Psychodisney]

I wouldn’t count on it going down for that week! Such a popular Chicagoland spring break week and the airlines know it. I doubt the SW release will matter at all...and the SW flights will be high too.

 

[cedricandsophie]

You might try a late night March 21 flight. But I would not count on either miles or price to come down
During spring break. Actually 500 doesn’t seem bad for that week.

 

[JimMIA]

You might also try other airport options besides MCO (TPA, FLL, or MIA) for the outbound flight. I know there are a ton of flights between ORD-MIA because both are major AAL hubs. It's about a 5 hour drive from MIA to WDW; 4 hours from FLL; 1 1/2 - 2 hours from TPA.

 

[writerguyfl]

If you're trip coincides with Spring Break for your local school district(s), the likelihood that prices will drop is slim to none. You'll either need to pay the price or choose travel days other than Friday or Saturday.

 

[EricLaurie]

I guess we are gambling. We have made reservations and placed deposits with this one last piece left. We are set for getting home, but don't have a way there yet! $500 one way is an awful lot and even $400, but we are getting to the breaking point that we will have to pay it. We might hold off until September - the checking of prices has become compulsive!

 

[Magical2017]

Do you have an AA Advantage card? The Budget board with the "I love credit cards sooo much" thread is helpful about ways to get free air miles, whether you are traveling to Disney or another destination. They might be of help to you. https://disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/

 

[JimMIA]

I just checked AA online and got the same $500+ ORD-MCO fares you got, with one about $430 with one stop in Dallas.

However, there was ORD-TPA available for good prices.

• Two flights on March 22 through DCA (Washington, DC) for $248 and $285.
• And also on March 22, three other flights flights for $369 (two through DCA and one via DFW)

ORD-DCA-TPA with a less than two hour drive might be a good option. DCA is a very easy airport to connect through.

For the drive, you could do a one-day car rental, or Uber if you don't want to drive. Easy drive, I-4 almost the entire way.

 

[richmo]

A bit of a gamble, but I'd still be inclined to wait for the Southwest release at the end of this month that I believe will cover your time period. Let the competition increase a little.

 

[JimMIA]

A bit of a gamble, but I'd still be inclined to wait for the Southwest release at the end of this month that I believe will cover your time period. Let the competition increase a little.

Why gamble? I'd just snag one of those Tampa flights for more than $200 less than what he was paying and do a one-day car rental. Save $400-$500 on two tickets, pay $50 for car rental. Easy and risk-free.

 

[Psychodisney]

Why gamble? I'd just snag one of those Tampa flights for more than $200 less than what he was paying and do a one-day car rental. Save $400-$500 on two tickets, pay $50 for car rental. Easy and risk-free.

Agreed! More than likely, ORD spring break flights will only get more expensive.

 

[JimMIA]

Hopefully OP is checking back on his thread and has seen these suggestions!

 

[EricLaurie]

Hi all - here's an update on our thinking. It is spring break so we don't want to get out of school another day early. In fact, we are hoping for a late flight that we can go directly from school or just miss an hour, which lowers our chances of a good price.

We aren't crazy about renting a car for the last leg of our trip, but it is an option if we get to the end of our rope. There are a couple of connecting flights through DFW that are closer to $400. But ... on Tuesday, AA lowered the $569 direct flights to $509 and my wife got excited that maybe waiting will pay off. (she's thinking that the flights aren't selling out at that price) Some crazy things we have discovered in this were that the prices are so high that some flights have cheaper first class seats than regular seats (!) and for some flights, we can buy points for it cheaper than the price!!

We have the AA credit card where we get most of our points from and my wife uses them for work travel. The annual fee makes it worth it for the free bag. That, along with her TSA pre-approval makes us want to get all 4 of us on the same reservation, either with points or dollars, to take advantage.

So hang on for the gamble -- it's looking like we might be waiting until SW announces their prices.

 

[JimMIA]

Hi all - here's an update on our thinking. It is spring break so we don't want to get out of school another day early. In fact, we are hoping for a late flight that we can go directly from school or just miss an hour, which lowers our chances of a good price.

We aren't crazy about renting a car for the last leg of our trip, but it is an option if we get to the end of our rope. There are a couple of connecting flights through DFW that are closer to $400. But ... on Tuesday, AA lowered the $569 direct flights to $509 and my wife got excited that maybe waiting will pay off. (she's thinking that the flights aren't selling out at that price) Some crazy things we have discovered in this were that the prices are so high that some flights have cheaper first class seats than regular seats (!) and for some flights, we can buy points for it cheaper than the price!!

We have the AA credit card where we get most of our points from and my wife uses them for work travel. The annual fee makes it worth it for the free bag. That, along with her TSA pre-approval makes us want to get all 4 of us on the same reservation, either with points or dollars, to take advantage.

So hang on for the gamble -- it's looking like we might be waiting until SW announces their prices.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but on March 23 (Saturday) there is a flight ORD-DCA-TPA that is $174 per person in basic economy, or $189 in regular main cabin -- $423 FIRST class. If you do main cabin, you're saving $300 per ticket from the newly-reduced ticket you're excited about.

On that Friday, March 22, there is also a non-stop ORD-TPA flight (AA 2409) leaving at 6:40 PM and arriving in TPA at 10:19 PM for $428 -- again well under the prices you are looking at.

 

[EricLaurie]

Hi all - I thought I would share the outcome of our gamble. SWA released flights on Thursday and when we looked at 6 AM central, the Wanna Get Away rates were gone and their flights were about $400. Going SWA would also mean not O'Hare where we were returning to. American came down to about $450 for the flight times we liked.

So - back to the drawing board - we are now flying from ORD to MCO on Delta with an hour and 41 minute stop in Atlanta for $260. It leaves at 5:20 so the girls miss less than an hour of school and gets there about 11:30. This is the first time we are flying Delta, but this is the price we were hoping for!

Now on to the rest of planning. It feels good to know that we have a way to get there now!!

 

[Cinderumbrella]

Hi all - I thought I would share the outcome of our gamble. SWA released flights on Thursday and when we looked at 6 AM central, the Wanna Get Away rates were gone and their flights were about $400. Going SWA would also mean not O'Hare where we were returning to. American came down to about $450 for the flight times we liked.

So - back to the drawing board - we are now flying from ORD to MCO on Delta with an hour and 41 minute stop in Atlanta for $260. It leaves at 5:20 so the girls miss less than an hour of school and gets there about 11:30. This is the first time we are flying Delta, but this is the price we were hoping for!

Now on to the rest of planning. It feels good to know that we have a way to get there now!!

I’m glad you got it settled. We were supposed to go from Chicago 3/24 to 3/29 and despite getting on SW site at 5:40AM Central, the prices kept jumping as I progressed from screen to screen. What started at $146 each way was over $200 by the time I got to checkout screen. I didn’t book and watched the same flights climb to almost $400 each way by the end of day. We are now going around Presidents Day for barely over $200 RT and DS will only miss one day to do it.