Flight availability on a weekend

[Triton]

Anyone have any idea why flight availability out of MCO the weekend of December 15-16 is so low? There don't seem to be any major events and it's a ways away from Christmas.

I'm trying to make a fly/drive decision and this is making it harder than I hoped it would be.

 

[NotUrsula]

Bowl game. The CureBowl, at Camping World Stadium, which has a capacity of 65K fans.

It's also the end of the semester at UCF, but that's probably not accounting for very much of it.

 

[focusondisney]

Well, that game is on the 16th. So it might have a crowd going out on the 17th, but wouldn't be impacting outbound on the 15th & 16th.

OP, what city are you flying to? I have been watching flights to Buffalo on the 16th. The flights are very high. We fly SW & right now, some of them are showing sold out for WFA fares. The same thing happened this spring for May flights. Showed sold out for weeks, then came back with very good fares. I will keep watching for prices to drop on Dec 16th. I don't believe the flights are that full leaving Orlando over 4 months out.

 

[loveswdw]

I've been watching Dec 16 but so far, no luck. SWA is REALLY $$$ with several WGA fares sold out. I keep hoping they'll come back down to reality otherwise we will drive.

 

[Triton]

OP, what city are you flying to?

IND is our home airport. I don't ever recall seeing rates as high as they are with this much advance purchase.

 

[focusondisney]

IND is our home airport. I don't ever recall seeing rates as high as they are with this much advance purchase.

SW has been really high all year. I randomly picked several cities & everyone of them is showing many a lot of sold out WGA fares. This is the same thing that I saw in May. Several flights with sold out WGA fares for any city I checked. Then all of a sudden, they all came back. I think SW has a new pricing strategy. And not a good one!

 

[Triton]

I guess it's good to know others are in the same boat -- hopefully I will see a nice price drop in the future!

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

IND is our home airport. I don't ever recall seeing rates as high as they are with this much advance purchase.

We've been looking from Indy for our October trip and fares have been nuts! We ended up booking Allegient via Louisville and crossing our fingers for no extended delays.

SW has been really high all year. I randomly picked several cities & everyone of them is showing many a lot of sold out WGA fares. This is the same thing that I saw in May. Several flights with sold out WGA fares for any city I checked. Then all of a sudden, they all came back. I think SW has a new pricing strategy. And not a good one!

I think you are exactly right....especially for markets where SW has a large market share on routes like Indy to Florida. I also think more and more people are booking right when the schedule opens, which grabs the lower fares quicker. I also think it's a current industry trend to be holding fares higher, longer and discounting excess seats closer to departure. This makes it tough for most of us WDW leisure travelers as we like to have our plans set months out. Playing chicken with the airlines can be tough....especially when booking for a whole family.

 

[Shanti]

Anyone have any idea why flight availability out of MCO the weekend of December 15-16 is so low? There don't seem to be any major events and it's a ways away from Christmas.

No major event besides half the schoolchildren in America being let out of school for Christmas vacation, and lots of them heading to Orlando to celebrate...

 

[Triton]

No major event besides half the schoolchildren in America being let out of school for Christmas vacation, and lots of them heading to Orlando to celebrate...

I thought this too, but it's the other direction that's expensive -- down is fine, back to IND is expensive.

 

[Shanti]

I thought this too, but it's the other direction that's expensive -- down is fine, back to IND is expensive.

Early December has free dining this year. The whole month is going to be packed.

 

[NotUrsula]

It also could be a youth sports event of some kind; those are hard to locate on event calendars. MCO serves all of central Florida and tends to be cheaper than the other area airports with better flight times, so it's not uncommon for folks to fly in and out of there for events that are being held on the Space Coast or Tampa Bay.

Pop Warner is the previous weekend, so it's also possible you would be getting some holdover from that, if families are choosing to tack on a vacation after the event.

 

[Triton]

The strangest thing about the whole thing is that fares drop down to <$60 if I change my return to Tuesday.

 

[X and G's mom]

I'm watching the 16th also to MKE. I have a flight scheduled on the 18th. Snagged it on release date back in May, but I'd really like to come back on Saturday. Fingers crossed that they will go down.