Flights for cruise $$$ just needed to vent...

[cheermom2four]

We are on the March 23 sailing of the Fantasy. If it's the same we should plan to meet

We are on the same cruise

 

[anjuan]

I believe you on the prices. I am also in the Chicago area and also looking at traveling for spring break the same week. I also agree that from Chicago it is so worth trying to get a direct flight. We were thinking about doing a 7 day cruise on Royal Caribbean out of Florida but with the flight prices, and the fact that my DD loves DCL we just ended up booking the 5 day Mexico cruise on the Wonder that week and going to enjoy a few days in CA because the direct flights to San Diego on SW were cheaper, which really surprised me.

 

[disneyeek]

We are on the same cruise

Yay!

 

[lklgoodman]

Just checked, SW has a direct flight from Indy leaving at 11:40 am for $244/pp, leaves March 22. They There's 2 more direct flights leaving later that day for less than $300/pp. Return flights on the day your cruise gets back, one leaving at 1:05, another at 2:15, both are direct flights and cost $294/pp. More direct flights for return home that leave later in the day that are all less than $300/pp. I paid $131/pp for our tickets on SW for Jan. 2019 cruise, and I thought that was a lot, guess I got a good deal after all. I realize you live in Chicago, but it may be cheaper to drive to Indy, hopefully it's not that long of a drive, I don't know.

 

[eva2015]

We are on the same cruise

Us too!

We are traveling from MSP, spring break to warm weather destinations is always $$$. We fly Delta and have been checking prices regularly since they released their schedule. Prices have been $675-750 each for the past few months.

 

[DCL_Wonder]

What???? Yikes. The OP is looking for support, not distrust.

The OP didn't tell us at first she was only looking at direct flights. As I suspected, there was information she was leaving out.

That being said I hope the OP can get a direct flight from Chicago for a price that she is comfortable with.

 

[ColoradoCruiser87]

We have a family of 7. We've just completely given up on flying. Between the astronomical price, the strain of taking 5 kids under 9 through security, the limitation on what we can and cannot bring, all for the pleasure of sitting in uncomfortable seats for several hours on at least two different planes. Meh, I'd rather take more time and drive it. I'll be happier, they'll be happier and we get to see some awesome stuff along the way.

 

[disneyeek]

Just checked, SW has a direct flight from Indy leaving at 11:40 am for $244/pp, leaves March 22. They There's 2 more direct flights leaving later that day for less than $300/pp. Return flights on the day your cruise gets back, one leaving at 1:05, another at 2:15, both are direct flights and cost $294/pp. More direct flights for return home that leave later in the day that are all less than $300/pp. I paid $131/pp for our tickets on SW for Jan. 2019 cruise, and I thought that was a lot, guess I got a good deal after all. I realize you live in Chicago, but it may be cheaper to drive to Indy, hopefully it's not that long of a drive, I don't know.

Thank you for checking, I'll have to check with my DH if that could be an option. It's a little over a 3 hour drive to Indy.

 

[disneyeek]

The OP didn't tell us at first she was only looking at direct flights. As I suspected, there was information she was leaving out.

That being said I hope the OP can get a direct flight from Chicago for a price that she is comfortable with.

Well while I do prefer a direct flight, the ones with one stop aren't any cheaper, unfortunately. Especially with the other airlines that charge for bags it all comes out to about the same. I guess this year the demand must be high.

We'll keep checking and see how this pans out. We'll get there one way or another

 

[TrishaK]

I also scoped out the non-stop flights for March spring break from Midway to Florida (Ft. Myers - in-laws). Ouch!

 

[_auroraborealis_]

We fly Delta and have been checking prices regularly since they released their schedule. Prices have been $675-750 each for the past few months.

Delta are jerks about leisure travel these days.

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

The prices are always high when flights are initially released. The prices will come down.

I have never known this to be the case with southwest. Seems like their flight prices have been high in general lately (to me at least).

Here a couple of options if you are interested and you probably still have time:

Get a southwest credit card and you will get miles at set up.

Alaska air also has companion fair. Both my husband and I have a card (75 annual fee each). I just booked our flights from SFO to MCO today for a total of $1190 for the 4 of us. I feel like this is a great deal. All of our bags will fly free too. This year we did this when we flew to Hawaii and last year to Vancouver.

There are some other airlines that do this as well, I think United is one of them.

Even though you aren't flying at easter, I think March/April are bad in general because everyone has different spring breaks.

 

[darnheather]

Put the app Hopper on your phone to look for other airlines and keep checking Southwest. Right now they are far more expensive than Delta on our flight back from San Diego in March but I'm going to wait.

 

[MomOTwins]

Do you have reward points? I once looked at a Southwest flight that was $700+, but just an ordinary amount of reward points. I had a few less points than I needed, but my DH had more, so for a minimal transfer fee we were able to move the points around and save a lot of money.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

We are on the March 23 sailing of the Fantasy. If it's the same we should plan to meet

We are at WDW 3/23-3/30, So flying to MCO at the same time. I booked our flights at 6 am the day they were released on SW, they only went up after that. (Also flying from Chicago). I would look at other airlines as well. For me, it’s not worth the drive to Milwaukee or another airport for it to be a bit cheaper.
There are a few apps, like Hopper, that can watch prices for you. Check Google flights as well. For instance you can get a United nonstop March 20, return March 31 for $494. Still not cheap, but...

 

[CyndiLouWho]

The OP didn't tell us at first she was only looking at direct flights. As I suspected, there was information she was leaving out.

That being said I hope the OP can get a direct flight from Chicago for a price that she is comfortable with.

Even multiple stop flights that week are $500.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Just checked, SW has a direct flight from Indy leaving at 11:40 am for $244/pp, leaves March 22. They There's 2 more direct flights leaving later that day for less than $300/pp. Return flights on the day your cruise gets back, one leaving at 1:05, another at 2:15, both are direct flights and cost $294/pp. More direct flights for return home that leave later in the day that are all less than $300/pp. I paid $131/pp for our tickets on SW for Jan. 2019 cruise, and I thought that was a lot, guess I got a good deal after all. I realize you live in Chicago, but it may be cheaper to drive to Indy, hopefully it's not that long of a drive, I don't know.

It’s a 3 1/2 hour drive, at least, to Indy. A non stop to Orlando is 2 1/2 hours. Honestly, I’ve never found it advantageous to drive to another airport from Chicago for flights. We already have 2 airports, driving to another usually involves lots of time and logistics. But that’s just me. OP might find it a good option

 

[Minnie & Daisy]

It's all about supply and demand. I wouldn't expect that prices on any of the airlines would go down by much if a lot of people are traveling.

 

[meliscan]

Southwest won't come down. They'll sell through to MCO pretty well for all of March-April and there won't be seats to discount.

Unfortunately this is probably true. Sometimes Southwest can be expensive. Last year I kept hoping my New York ticket would go down and it never decreased. It is true that is the flights decrease you can get a credit. Check flights on Tuesdays after 3pm, flights drop of Tuesdays if they drop.

If you do check other airlines make sure you look at their fees for bags, food etc. I found that I couldn't save enough with JetBlue to fly them on one of my trips but JetBlue is a great airline to fly.

 

[deide71]

Us too!

We are traveling from MSP, spring break to warm weather destinations is always $$$. We fly Delta and have been checking prices regularly since they released their schedule. Prices have been $675-750 each for the past few months.

We are going to the world that week and booked flights from MSP to MCO the morning SW opened the flights and paid $440. To get that fare we are connecting in Baltimore! But hey, at least we are going!

We usually fly Delta also but had some SW miles to use. Unfortunately SW does not fly non-stop MSP to MCO