Anyone familier with airfare trends from MHT or BOS?

[mlacreta]

We have a sept. trip planned. usually fly either sw or jb. right now sw is cheepest at $135 each way...jet blue about $20 more. Anyone know if I should jump for SW before the prices rise or if I might get a better ding fare? we dont fly often so i really am not sure if this is a good rate or not! TIA!

 

[OKW Lover]

There is no reason to rush to buy right now. September is a long way away. But I will say that your current price is slightly high out of BOS.

Why not go to www.kayak.com and enter an alert for your specific dates and departing airport. Then monitor the rates for a couple of weeks (at least) so you'll get a good feel for what the prices are.

 

[Groomer Gal]

I'll be interested in this myself. ( haven't flown in 20 years! ) but have a trip booked in Dec.

I've been looking at BOS, MHT and BDL (Hartford) . So far $135 is the cheapest BUT then you have to take into consideration if you are going to get EBCI for Southwest. ( which we would x 4 so it adds $80 RT) It's all so confusing! Lol
For me...I can't book now because the schedules not out yet.

I don't know where you are in NH....I'm also going to look into Providence airport as well. They are all within an hour and a half from me...give or take.

Good luck! Have a great trip!

 

[mlacreta]

I'll be interested in this myself. ( haven't flown in 20 years! ) but have a trip booked in Dec.

I've been looking at BOS, MHT and BDL (Hartford) . So far $135 is the cheapest BUT then you have to take into consideration if you are going to get EBCI for Southwest. ( which we would x 4 so it adds $80 RT) It's all so confusing! Lol
For me...I can't book now because the schedules not out yet.

I don't know where you are in NH....I'm also going to look into Providence airport as well. They are all within an hour and a half from me...give or take.

Good luck! Have a great trip!

I will be traveling with with my 5 kids so I am not going to buy the EBCI for all of us..too much extra to spend. Maybe I am wrong (and I'm sure someone will jump all over me for this one) but you could just buy it for 2 of you and hold the seats till the rest of you get on..to save a few $$$. We are in southern nh but I think Providence would be a bit far. Prices aren't better than MHT anyway from what I have seen so far. But I am nervous not to book soon as I do periodically see the flights I am looking at go up to $155. Of corse that is just over the past couple weeks.

 

[Groomer Gal]

Like I said........I'll be interested in this myself.

I don't know if you can hold seats in SW. Frankly, I'm afraid to book with them because our twins have never flown and I'm scared they won't be able to sit with us. and I agree...the EBCI price in addition to flight really adds up.

Good luck!

 

[mlacreta]

Like I said........I'll be interested in this myself.

I don't know if you can hold seats in SW. Frankly, I'm afraid to book with them because our twins have never flown and I'm scared they won't be able to sit with us. and I agree...the EBCI price in addition to flight really adds up.

Good luck!

I have heard stories on these boards where a parent and a child have been seperated. But as long as you check in right at the 24hr mark I think you are likely to be ok. And if say you and one child (assuming your 4th person is an adult) paid for the Early Check In and you planned to say get a window seat and middle seat in each row and you each stood in front of the middle seat and put your carry on on the window seat while you waited for your other 2 to board I doubt anyone would ask you to move it. I don't know if there is a written policy about "saving" seats but I doubt you would even have to worry about it unless your last two in the party were the very last to board!!! I'm not the type to reccommend trying to skirt the rules.... but really....kids should not be expected to sit with a stranger. And I doubt other adults really want to have to enterain someoneelse's kid for 2 hours either!!! Good luck!! Hope it works out for you!!! Oh, and I did read somewhere..not sure if it was on the boards or on southwest itself that if you pay for the Early check in when you book your flights you have to add it to everyone. But if you wait you can add it later to just whichever tickets you want. I don't have experience with this at all but that is just what I read!

 

[nmrgrl55]

We are going in Sept as well and I booked with SW out of MHT for $135. Even factoring in a 2 hour drive and parking I am saving a couple hundred and have better flight times then if we flew out of Portland with Jetblue

As much as it hurt for me to spend that much, it already put me over budget and if the price goes up it would put the trip in jeopardy completely So unless you are willing to pay more I would just book now.

 

[STAYC18]

i'm planning on booking this weekend.. i think the 79-99 dollar flights are gonna be far and inbetween these days... especially with gas going to 4-5 dollars this summer... if they do go lower you can get a credit and just have to go to Disney next year...

 

[mlacreta]

i think you are both right and i will be booking in the next couple days...already had a major hit to my budget with a hotel snafu so i can't afford to have to pay more for airfare than the 135 right now. well..truthfully..i can't even aford that..lol..but it is disney...we must make sacrifices!!!!!

 

[ccgirl]

We have a sept. trip planned. usually fly either sw or jb. right now sw is cheepest at $135 each way...jet blue about $20 more. Anyone know if I should jump for SW before the prices rise or if I might get a better ding fare? we dont fly often so i really am not sure if this is a good rate or not! TIA!

That is a good price in the current market. I have a flight from BOS to MCO on JB for May and I got it at $135 each way the day the fares came out. Same flight is now $180 for one leg and over $200 for the other leg.

I also have a flight from Providence to Orlando in October with SW. Again, booked the day the flights were released. That flight is $135 each way as well.

I will be traveling with with my 5 kids so I am not going to buy the EBCI for all of us..too much extra to spend. Maybe I am wrong (and I'm sure someone will jump all over me for this one) but you could just buy it for 2 of you and hold the seats till the rest of you get on..to save a few $$$. We are in southern nh but I think Providence would be a bit far. Prices aren't better than MHT anyway from what I have seen so far. But I am nervous not to book soon as I do periodically see the flights I am looking at go up to $155. Of corse that is just over the past couple weeks.

SW will not let you save seats. All flights I have been on they have actually made the announcement that there is no seat saving. Even with C boarding passes, I have yet to split up from my children. We only fly non-stop direct though so we are always getting on at the originating airport of the flight.

i'm planning on booking this weekend.. i think the 79-99 dollar flights are gonna be far and inbetween these days... especially with gas going to 4-5 dollars this summer... if they do go lower you can get a credit and just have to go to Disney next year...

I agree. If my flight is under $250 RT I am happy.

 

[mlacreta]

Groomer Gal - I don't remember if you mentioned what age your twins are....but I did call for my own piece of mind and find out that if you have kids 3 or under you can do the family boarding right after A group. I guess that should work for me since I do have one that will be 3 and they told me all kids would be allowed to board with us at that time. Last year that will work though! I would think being right after the first group that will hopefully be early enough that we can get 2 rows together either across or behind. Hopefully!!!!

 

[Groomer Gal]

Groomer Gal - I don't remember if you mentioned what age your twins are....but I did call for my own piece of mind and find out that if you have kids 3 or under you can do the family boarding right after A group. I guess that should work for me since I do have one that will be 3 and they told me all kids would be allowed to board with us at that time. Last year that will work though! I would think being right after the first group that will hopefully be early enough that we can get 2 rows together either across or behind. Hopefully!!!!

My twins will be 8 by the time we go in December. I'm torn because I really don't want to pay more than $250-$270 RT and Southwest seems the cheapest but it might be worth peace of mind to pay a higher fare and know that we won't be separated.
Who knows what the price will be when it comes out in May anyway. I have some time to think about it I guess.
Thanks so much for your reply.

 

[mlacreta]

My twins will be 8 by the time we go in December. I'm torn because I really don't want to pay more than $250-$270 RT and Southwest seems the cheapest but it might be worth peace of mind to pay a higher fare and know that we won't be separated.
Who knows what the price will be when it comes out in May anyway. I have some time to think about it I guess.
Thanks so much for your reply.

I can understand that for sure! Well hopefully it will work out for you. Maybe a lower fare will show up before then......

 

[ccgirl]

My twins will be 8 by the time we go in December. I'm torn because I really don't want to pay more than $250-$270 RT and Southwest seems the cheapest but it might be worth peace of mind to pay a higher fare and know that we won't be separated.
Who knows what the price will be when it comes out in May anyway. I have some time to think about it I guess.
Thanks so much for your reply.

Did you say how much difference JetBlue was? Personally, I would pay about $20 more a ticket for the chance to pick my own seats and the tv's. I really think you will be okay without EBCI on SW. Like I said, I have gotten low C's and could still find a row together. Granted, it was pretty far back in the plane but that didn't matter to me.

As far as family boarding, this is their policy:

An adult traveling with a child four years old or younger may board during Family Boarding, which occurs between the "A" and "B" boarding groups. However, those Customers holding an "A" boarding pass should still board with the "A" boarding group. With an all-jet fleet outfitted with comfortable, leather seats, our families traveling with small children are easily accommodated together.

Depending on the amount of children, they may eliminate family boarding or decrease the age to 2. I have also seen them limit to preboard to just the young child with one parent.

Again, I have yet to be separated from my children.

 

[Groomer Gal]

Ccgirl, thAnks so much for taking the time to respond.

If Jetblue is sighing $25 per ticket by the time I book....I will DEF go for that.

I know most everyone says that more than likely we won't get separated ( my hubby would take one and I would take the other so it's not like all 4 of us HAVE to be together) ...but it would be MY luck that it would happen to us.

If it's going to happen to ANYONE....it would be ME! Lol

 

[goofy4tink]

Let me be the voice of sanity here...yeah, I know, scary. In any case...I've flown with SW many, many times. Only on several occasions have I seen parents and kids being split up...and those times were when it was a larger family (5+) and they were boarding in the C group. Sure, if you get into the A or B group, you may still have issues finding seats all together..but you can be pretty sure you'll find 3 seats together for one parent and two kids and then two seats together closeby for the other parent and child. But, if you wait to check in, and dilly dally, and get into the C group?? Well, all bets are off. You will 'most likely' find 3 together and 2 together but they won't be close together..and the 3 together will be waaaaay back in the plane.

With kids, I find flying JB to be a better choice. Yes, you get to choose your seats. And the kids have the tv's to use....so nice to have that vs lugging a ton of stuff to amuse them on the flight!!! And, you get that first checked bag free....you should be able to make do with one checked bag pp, in addition to a larger carryon that can go overhead and a smaller bag under the seat. So, even if it costs a bit more, you may be better off.

 

[Groomer Gal]

Thank you Goofy4Tink.....I think you are right. my first inclination is to go with Jetblue.

Add on top of it that my DH is not in love with flying....I need to take some of the stress out of it. ( the tv will entertain him too)

It is a vacation after all!!!!

Thank you again to everyone for your help.

 

[solana131]

We just flew SW for the first time and out of MHT for the first time and I was worried about this too. The reason I finally decided to pay the extra for Early Bird is the return trip. I could easily check in right at the 24 hr mark at home, but at Disney I couldn't. So I paid for it just for that reason. It was nice. I got my boarding passes delivered to my room the morning of departure with my Disney bill. It was great. Even with EB, we were #58+ in the A group. The plane was pretty busy on the way down, but on the way back it was almost empty. I just didn't dare take the chance of not sitting together. Gotta say that I would pay more to be able to skip the Boston headache and go to MHT. Not to mention the price of parking is way better too. We are flying Airtran out of PWM (Portland) this time. Got tickets for $125 each way. Almost half what they were charging from BOS or MHT. So your $135 is good for right now.

And I thought SW didn't have a change fee?? You could just book it at that price and call back and change it to the lower price when and if that happens. My mom did that on our last Disney trip. Saved a ton.

Good luck!

 

[Groomer Gal]

Solana131, thanks for sharing your experience.

Can I ask...because this is all new to me...how did you get the boarding passes delivered to your room??? And did you pay for EBCI on both legs of the trip?

We are having a friend drive us to the airport...he is like family and staying at our house with the dogs while we are gone. ( that's the plan as of right now....December is a long way away so,I don't thunk parking will be a problem.
From what I have heard you are right and MHT is a much easier airport to navigate....but we are fortunate too that Hartford and Providence ( as well as BOS and MHT ) are all about an hour and a half drive for us. So we have several options.

Any chances you want to take another trip in December with us to help us with all of this????

 

[mlacreta]

We just flew SW for the first time and out of MHT for the first time and I was worried about this too. The reason I finally decided to pay the extra for Early Bird is the return trip. I could easily check in right at the 24 hr mark at home, but at Disney I couldn't. So I paid for it just for that reason. It was nice. I got my boarding passes delivered to my room the morning of departure with my Disney bill. It was great. Even with EB, we were #58+ in the A group. The plane was pretty busy on the way down, but on the way back it was almost empty. I just didn't dare take the chance of not sitting together. Gotta say that I would pay more to be able to skip the Boston headache and go to MHT. Not to mention the price of parking is way better too. We are flying Airtran out of PWM (Portland) this time. Got tickets for $125 each way. Almost half what they were charging from BOS or MHT. So your $135 is good for right now.

And I thought SW didn't have a change fee?? You could just book it at that price and call back and change it to the lower price when and if that happens. My mom did that on our last Disney trip. Saved a ton.

Good luck!

They don't have a change fee but you don't get a refund..you get a credit towards future flights from what I understand. ( Great for people who fly alot..unlike us.) I don't usually book until about 3 months out but I went ahead and booked today at the $135 rate. Wish I could afford to pay the $20 more for jetblue as it will be just me with 5 kids but I can't. IT would also add to our expenses to get into Boston as we would have to bus down. Anyway MHT is so much easier and just 15m from home so easy to get a ride in. Guess I will just have to let the kids bring their DS's....they are allowed to use those on the flight right? If not it's gonna be a long 3 hours!!!!!