Feb. flights from N.H.

[melee]

Hi,
Can anyone give me advice on when to start looking for good rates (SouthWest from Manchester, PanAm from Pease, etc) for February 13th, 2004 trip? I'm not sure how far out either airline books and I don't want to get caught snoozing! Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[MOMO2DK]

Hi,
We've traveled twice to Orlando in the last few years and I have not paid more than $1000 for our family of four.

We are planning another vacation in Mar of 2004 and have started looking at flights, but have been discouraged at costs- no less than $1500 for our family.

Your post gave me a good idea- as I live close to Pease (about 45 min south in Mass.) and I noticed that we could fly Pan Am for $1000. This would be perfect for us, but I noticed that the flight does not arrive in MCO. Can you tell me if the convienences- most imprtant - rental cars are available at this airport. Have you traveled into this airport before and what were your experiences?

I'm not sure how many tickets you need to buy, but I will not spend more than $1000 for 4 tickets to fly Feb/March. I plan on looking into the Pease option (as I have always flown out of Boston) and if this works out, I will buy tickets NOW! Please let me know you experience on flying out of Pease and how your ticket search progresses.
Martha

 

[JustHolly]

DO NOT FLY PAN AM! DO NOT DO IT!

 

[melee]

Hi Martha,
I don't know much about Pan Am. I'm going to do a search on the travel forum for Sanford airport and see what comes up. It looks like justholly had a bad experience! With a small airline like PanAm I think I would worry that there wouldn't be back up planes if there was a mechanical problem. Pease is pretty small. I don't know if they could even get you on another airline. I also don't know if the car rental rates are good at Sanford. My husband likes the idea of a small airport even closer to home than Manchester (we live in southern Maine). He wants me to check it out. I love the Manchester airport and Southwest Airlines. Hopefully, I can get good rates with them. Anyway, after I put the kids to bed I'm going to "search" the forum. Good luck with your travel plans! melee

 

[EmptyNester]

Hi melee:

Last year we booked our Feb (2/2-2/10) flights in November. If I recall, flights were available through the middle of February at that time.

The tickets were $185.00 each. The price went down to $175.00 in January and I re-booked to save the $20.00

I looked at Pease but found the flights to be very limited. Also, I believe PanAm periodically has suspended flights from Portsmouth to Sanford.

HTH

- Sharon

 

[melee]

Thanks for the info, Sharon. From everything I've read, it seems that PanAm is not a good choice for us. I went to Southwest's website and right now they're only booking into January. I guess I have time to concentrate on "back to school" before I worry about airfare! Is Durham as soggy as York County this week? I can't wait for the weather to change!

Melee

 

[EmptyNester]

We're headed back to WDW in February too. At least you have something to keep you occupied while you wait

Is Durham as soggy as York County this week?

Yes, I'm quite water-logged. If I hear about the "drought" one more time this year, I'm going to scream!

- Sharon

 

[SillyOldBear66]

I just purchased our airfare from southwest...manchester to orlando roundtrip....NONSTOP! (I love that part).....for January.
Total cost for our family of 4 including all fees etc. = $840.

 

[EmptyNester]

Originally posted by SillyOldBear66
I just purchased our airfare from southwest...manchester to orlando roundtrip....NONSTOP! (I love that part).....for January.
Total cost for our family of 4 including all fees etc. = $840.

Non-stop is my favorite part too!

- Sharon

 

[travel with kids]

Originally posted by JustHolly
DO NOT FLY PAN AM! DO NOT DO IT!

Why?!! I was about to book our airline tickets with Pan Am this afternoon, then read this thread.

We have flown Southwest from Manchester (direct flight only) and have had no problems. Portsmouth is actually easier for us to get to and decided to give Pan Am a try. Plus, we found their one flight a day to work with our schedule. Maybe we sould stick with Southwest.

 

[melee]

Thanks for the flight info SillyOldBear66. I'll check SouthWest regularly and hope to get the $210 nonstop flights. Non stop is really the only way to go with three kids!

Empty Nester... Did you fly SouthWest last year? If so, when you rebooked at a lower rate did you get money refunded or was it redeemable towards future flights? Thanks.

P.S.

I think Maine-iacs are taking over this thread!

 

[EmptyNester]

Originally posted by melee

Empty Nester... Did you fly SouthWest last year? If so, when you rebooked at a lower rate did you get money refunded or was it redeemable towards future flights? Thanks.

P.S.

I think Maine-iacs are taking over this thread!

Yes, we flew SW last year. I got travel funds toward a future flight ($20.00) Unfortunately, I probably won't get to use it
The funds expire in the middle of November and my next SW flight is after Thanksgiving.

It's great to see so many of us "Maine-iacs" are here!

- Sharon

 

[melee]

Thanks EmptyNester. I use SouthWest to visit family in the midwest, so I should be able to use any credits we might end up with. Have a great weekend!

melee

 

[JustHolly]

Sorry for the brief post before! We're in the process of moving from NH to Fla and I don't have much time to DIS.

We flew Pan Am from Ports. to Sanford twice and both times were bad. Pan Am buys other airlines "reject" planes that the other airlines feel are no longer good. They are 30+ year old 727's and literally falling apart. Pan Am is famous for lengthy "uncscheduled maintenance" delays which is funny when they only have a few planes.

We had to make an emergency landing the last time we flew Pan Am because the windshield broke at 32,000 feet. It took 7+ hours for them to get a plane, a crew and get the plane to North Carolina. They offered nothing in compensation and didn't even give us DRINKS when we were finally able to complete the trip!

Pan Am is very convenient, but many people say they are just not safe. A friend of ours didn't heed our warnings and booked a flight with Pan Am. He was stuck on a runway for 4 hours while they had mechanical problems, there was no air moving through the cabin and the bathrooms were broken and smelly. Then they made 2 unscheduled stops and he had to be bussed from Portsmouth to Worcester and then flown to his destination.

The flight crew is wonderful and very professional, but the company is too small and the planes are too old. DO NOT FLY PAN AM!!