Feb Vacation travel- Holy Mackrel!!

[Harligirl]

Hi all

Alright- I am actually traveling to Ft myers area (but would fly anywhere and if it happened to be Orlando, I would have to visit Mickey) and the airfare, car rentals, etc is horrible! I dont know if I can pull this vacation off. I have checked airlines and the cheapest round trip is thru Hotwire for $370.00 per person. And thru them they dont give you the specifics of the flight (dont like that ) until you book it.

Car rentals are like $500.00+ for the week. Why do they have to do this??? They know that people will travel on the kids vacation week, they know they will get our money....why must they overinflate everything???? It's just not fair!

Should I book a $500.00 car rental and flight???? Or wait until it gets closer for a better rate but risk not getting anything at all? We used to drive over that week and now I know why! I just dont think we have the time this vacation!

Ugh! Any ideas???
Lisa

 

[SB in KY]

I wouldn't be too concerned this far out....none of the carriers post any discounted rates this far out. I am not sure where you are flying from... but wait until SW (or whatever discounted airline in your area) posts fares for those dates....the others will come down immediately thereafter almost always.

For car rentals I think you are too far out to see any discounts there also...although if you are travelling presidents week I would expect air, hotels and rental cars to be high (the old supply and demand thing) but not as high as they are now. Just be flexible with your travel days and destination location and you will do a lot better than the rates you see now.

It may be late fall before you see them come down. Hang in there!!

 

[Ludwig Von Drake]

Spiirit Air just introduced non-stop service from PVD to Ft. Myers. Just checked President's Week (sat-sat) and RT fair is $336pp. See Spirit Air

Hope this helps!

 

[magsmom]

It's too early to book ...

Where are you flying from in MA? I am from western MA, usually fly from BDL in February and can get $79 pp each way. Song flys from BDL for approx $89.00 pp each way once the fares for SWA comes out. The rates for February generally comes out in September.

If you are in eastern MA, check out SWA from either Providence or Manchester, or check out Jet Blue from Logan.

Book the cheapest car rental you can find right now YOURSELF and keep on checking. If you don't use hotwire you can cancel anytime and re-book. I am still doing this for my trip in 4 days . Make sure you use any discounts available to you, AAA, entertainment card, BJs, costco, etc.

Good luck!

 

[jcemom]

I'm looking at February also, and the cheapest I'm seeing is $215 PIT to MCO and those are with yucky flight times. For the times I'm wanting it's around $255. Last year we only paid $180 for the same flights. Bummer.

 

[Esmerelda]

its really waay to far out to be booking February....I would wait until around closer to the holidays (after Thanksgiving). I never book any (planned) trip more than about 3 months or less out and I've always gotten great deals.


happy planning,
Esmerelda

 

[debster812]

I would have to disagree with everyone saying it is too early to book for February. Up here in New England, that week (President's Week, or Feb School Vacation as we call it) is HUGELY popular, and the flights get very expensive, very quickly. I booked our flights to Ft Myers for Feb of 2005 exactly at the 331st day as 2 one ways, and am flying on Song for $249 r/t non stop. 2 days after the 331st day the prices started skyrocketing. These flights are now up over $500.

There is a new player in NE for the Ft Myers area, www.spiritair.com out of PVD, maybe take a look at them.

I think at this point you need to just look at all the airlines every day. (www.flysong.com www.jetblue.com www.spiritair.com ) and hope for another fare sale. I do know that our Song flights are both only about 1/3 full, so maybe there will be some discounting, but you just don't know.

Good Luck!!!!! You can also look at flying into Tampa on SWA and doing the drive down to Ft Myers. Last year we also flew into Ft Lauderdale and did the drive across Alligator Alley. It might be time to get creative!

 

[Rpsemont]

I'm also from Western MA and fly out of BDL and President's week is tough. We usually fly SWA, but the only way I could get that $79 each way (whcih equates to abot $120-130 RT depending on connections) was to fly out MOnday Presidents day and go for 9 days and fly back the Wed after (so for 2004 it was 2/16-2/25) I booked this the day the SWA fares came out and kept checking and it was never any lower and I couldn't get it that cheap any other times. There were, however, other options between that fare and SWA full fare, which ends up being about $400 RT. If I remember right,from the times the Pres week dates opened up, it was almost impossible to get much of a discounted fare if you flew on the weekends. With a little bit of flexibility, you can usually do much better. I would wait for right now.
BTW - I just booked a full size car through budget with Costco codes adn coupon for $144 for 2/21-2/28.

 

[Harligirl]

Thank U everyone!

I am going to keep an eye on things and hope for the best. Spirit is our best bet right now. I am just worried becuz of that travel week that it will fill up.

I will be creative and play around with dates, airports, etc.

If anyone has any good rates to share, please do!!

Thanks again!
Lisa

 

[Ludwig Von Drake]

Just checked President's week BDL -> MCO on Independence Air and get $99 each way with thier "We told you so sale!". So tempting, had to share.

 

[CarolA]

The only time I have seen that you need to book airfare WAY out there is President's week coming from New England. People jump on those tickets the day they become avaialble. That said the way the airlines are juggling right now anything could change.
My advice is, if you see something in your price range BOOK, don't hold out for better sale on that week.

 

[dvc guy]

We are heading down to South Florida over Presidents week and I bought tickets back in April. Even with that we are leaving the Thursday evening before the break to get a good rate. We go into FLL and out of MIA on SONG & AA and the tickets were about 279 R/T. We NEVER get a bargain at this time of the year and we go ever year.

I booked Hertz with a AAA discount for 10 days and payed 317.00 for a full size. If you see anything that looks good jump on it , it will be gone the next time you look. Doj't expect to see and bargains from the cold northeast to florida.

 

[kilee]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Last year even SW didn't come down on their fares in the President's Day timeframe. It was treated almost like Christmas time travel. You may be able to jump on something from them the minute it comes out for a decent rate. However, you're going to have to plan for higher rates for that timeframe.

Also, by the New Year this time was pretty much sold out- or up to $500 RT on most airlines, including Jetblue and Delta.