ATTN: Chicago area DISers re: Plane Fare

[muscarello4]

I usually fly to MCO out of O'Hare for around $150-$180 (always off season), but we are going over Spring Break this year. I have no experience with Spring Break price gouging. We are sailing on the March 25th cruise. Fares are $275 right now out of Midway. I hope they will go down, but I don't know. Does anyone have experience flying out of Chicago around Spring Break?????

Should I wait for Southwest to open up their March fares???? They would have to be cheaper, right? HELP! :thewave:

Thanks a bunch!

 

[asreitzel]

That is a tough choice. I heard from many of my neighbors that they had to cancel their Spring Break plans to FL last year because the flights were $800 a person from Chicago to various FL cities. However, if you could find out when Southwest will release their schedule for March, you could probably grab good rates. For our Oct cruise the rates on Southwest varied depending on when I checked them were $149 RT one week, $240 RT the next (which made me cry for not booking sooner!) and finally $91 RT when a fare sale was announced. I was so relieved I hadn't bought yet!! I wouldn't count on $91 during Spring Break, but maybe $150. You could call Southwest and find out which classes of fares are offered during peak travel times like Spring Break. Maybe even check to see the prices during Thanksgiving or Christmas. Good Luck!!

 

[pdarrah]

Although I can't say specifically about spring break, we have always paid a little more to fly in the spring than we do in the fall. I watched the fares for this October most of this spring and summer and they were consistently around $300 to $350. SouthWest FINALLY posted their October dates in mid July. I was able to get a fare of $115 for my parents and $175 for myself, DH and DS (we are flying different days.) These prices include all the taxes and fees adn are round trip. Although I have seen fares much lower advertised, when I look at the details they are never for the dates/times I need. Maybe if you are very flexible you can get lower rates. I just checked Travelocity again for my dates and the best fare I could actually use is $255 so I am fairly happy with my $175 from Southwest. Its possible if I wanted to gamble, that there might be lower fares closer to our travel dates - but they could also be much higher and I'm just not comfortable risking it.

The highest fare I have ever paid was a couple years ago in the spring for $240 per person. Usually it is lower than that.

I hope that helps some. I would definitely wait until Southwest puts out their rates - it really seems like the other airlines wait to have any deals until then also.

Pdarrah

 

[DisneyDotty]

My sister just go $88 RT ORD/MCO in Oct from Spirit Air. Maybe check their website? Good luck.

 

[pdarrah]

It must be VERY dependent on your travel dates! I just checked Spirit and not only are their flight times very limited but it would cost me $180.60 each round trip. (Oct 19 - 30) after taxes and fees.

muscarello4 - If you are at all flexible, try looking at different days since it seems to make a real difference. However, I would still wait a while before booking something for spring.

pdarrah

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

A high percentage of Chicago-area schools have their spring break during the same week -- usually the last week of March. In 2006, that means the last day of school before spring break is Friday, March 24, with school resuming on Monday, April 3.

This means there's a huge demand for roundtrips from Chicago to Florida leaving on March 24 or 25, returning the following weekend. The airlines know this, and price their flights accordingly. Then, as the seats fill up, the prices for the remaining seats go even higher.

If you were traveling in early March or in May, my advice would be to wait until you can buy roundtrip tickets for under $200. But given that you're traveling during the main spring break week, be aware that the prices are much more likely to go up than to go down as spring break gets closer. You could easily find the airlines asking $800 for roundtrip flights that would be a $175 a few weeks before or after spring break.

For our spring break 2004 Disney Cruise, I bought our airline tickets 11 months before our cruise -- 4 nonstop roundtrips on American Airlines from Chicago-O'Hare to Orlando at $197 each. I then watched the prices on AA.com to see if they would go down. They just kept going up and up, until one ticket would have cost far more than I paid for all four tickets.

 

[LAMPSKIES]

I don't know where you live near Chicago but, we are in N.W. Indiana and fly out of Indy. We did each of the last 2 years.....Thanksgiving. Even though IT'S MORE MILES IT is LESS TIME..........

 

[OzFan]

Someone also suggested flying out of Rockford. It sems that there are some pretty good fares leaving from there.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Regarding your question about waiting until Southwest releases their March 2006 schedule:

There might be some better fares... but don't count on it.

Southwest understands the law of supply and demand just as well as other airlines (probably better).

For example, go to http://www.southwest.com/ right now to see what fare you can get from MDW to MCO for Thanksgiving break. Try a November 24 departure and a November 27 return. You won't find any bargains.

 

[geffric]

muscarello4 we are on the same cruise. Please join our cruise thread. http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=710955 . so far the group is mostly midwesterns and we are all looking for fares out of Chi/Rockford/Milwaukee to anywhere near Orlando but not finding a fare that is reasonable...

we may drive.

 

[Lewisc]

The maximum, fully refundable, SW fare from MDW-FLL is $507.40 One of the reasons SW doesn't have to offer as many discounted seats for peak travel days are the customers who are quoted $800 with another airline will jump at the $500 SW fare. If you're flexible on the days and time you travel you might get some discounted fares. I'd think even $200 would be a great deal.

The nice thing with SW, if you booked at $240 and the fare for you flight went down to $91 you could get a full credit, for future travel, for the difference. No fees or penalties.

That is a tough choice. I heard from many of my neighbors that they had to cancel their Spring Break plans to FL last year because the flights were $800 a person from Chicago to various FL cities. However, if you could find out when Southwest will release their schedule for March, you could probably grab good rates. For our Oct cruise the rates on Southwest varied depending on when I checked them were $149 RT one week, $240 RT the next (which made me cry for not booking sooner!) and finally $91 RT when a fare sale was announced. I was so relieved I hadn't bought yet!! I wouldn't count on $91 during Spring Break, but maybe $150. You could call Southwest and find out which classes of fares are offered during peak travel times like Spring Break. Maybe even check to see the prices during Thanksgiving or Christmas. Good Luck!!