How far in advance do you usually book airfare?
as far as I can as long as I know I'm definitely planning to make the trip. With the price of oil climbing daily, sooner is better than later. Besides, the airlines only have a limited # of cheap seats and they're the first to go! (I believe airlines easily let you book a year out.)
Do you ever purchase air at a not-so-great-price and then wait and have any fare drops credited to you?
Nope. I fly often enough to be an elite mbr. of Delta and I never do that. The reason is, if the fare drops, it'd have to drop more than the "change fee" they charge for a non-refundable tix. (I always buy non-refundable tix b'c they're cheaper. They're changeable but not refundable. And the "changeable" part means there's a fee involved.) So to be worth booking then cancelling and rebooking and/or changing ressies after ticketed, a domestic tix would have to drop at least $75 or more and I haven't seen that happen. Especially, since I book early, I tend to get the lower cost (L,U,T) fares. A sale of $75 off just doesn't happen these days. I have once or twice booked a tix one night and cancelled it the next day (DL has a 24 hour cancel for any reason policy and get your money refunded). We changed our mind about a trip and booked different dates the next day - the only problem was it showed up on my credit card as charged then cancelled then the new one charged so the credit card statement took some reviewing to ensure it was accurate after the juggling occurred.
Any tips for booking air--or car for that matter?
for air, use a search engine like
Kayak or
Mobissimo or itasoftware.com which gives you many of the standard airlines to compare. (It just excludes some of the discount carriers like Southwest, JetBlue and maybe AirTran.)
To get the best fare, be flexible in your dates and times - typically the really early and really late flights are the cheapest (if you don't mind getting up at 3am that is). Typically flights are full on Friday afternoons (business folks returning home from a week away) so those flights can sometimes be more expensive. Some search engines will let you do a +/- x# of days to see what day gives you the best price. After you use the search engines, go directly to that air carrier's web sitse. Always book directly with the air carrier whenever possible (not possible when doing multiple legs with multiple carriers like Orbitz or Expedia might offer). Check Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz; just keep in mind that if there are any problems, the air carriers take care of their customers first and the consolidators' customers next so you'd not be first in line to get attention!
Be flexible in where you fly from. From Central Jersey, you probably fly out of Newark; however, check the air from Philly and see if it's worth the extra 1/2 hour drive or so to go from there. Also, consider regional airports (i.e., Atlantic City has Spirit, Trenton had Delta not sure if they still do, and Lehigh Valley in Bethlehem, PA has Allegiant Air). I'd almost say you could check JFK and LaGuardia too but they'd be a last resort for me because of the expense of tolls and extra travel tiime.
Sometimes I thought Tuesday was a good day to book but these days, with every day you put it off, you risk the price going up because of jet fuel costs rising exponentially. Book earlier vs. later.
For those early morning flights out, you can sometimes get a hotel with free parking that would cost about the same as getting up before the crack of dawn and driving and parking in the airport lot. It worked for me! (PM me if you want more info on this.)
for a car rental:
check the major players in Orlando (Alamo, National, Hertz, Dollar, Enterprise). Use every discount code you have (i.e., airline frequent flyer club,
AAA, AARP, corporate). Check pick up at the airport vs. ride the free Magical Express bus and pick up at WDW locations; ditto the return (airport vs. WDW location drop off). Read the transportation threads under this board for tips on specials. Sometimes it's just easier to pick up the phone and call the rental car company rather than trying to figure it out on line.
I did get a great rate from Dollar for a mini-van. $177/week (thru June 30, 2008). I need that size vehicle and it's the best price I've found. I'll pick it up from the Regal Sun at DTD the next morning after arrival via ME the night prior. I'll drop it off at the airport when I'm done (they don't charge a drop fee). Be sure you know the extra charges - i.e., do they have a drop fee charge if you don't bring it back to the same location, is there an add'l charge for a 2nd driver even if it's your spouse, what's their no show policy in case a problem arises and prevents you from keeping your ressie.
Good luck!
