Flying out of Milwaukee in October

[buzzgirls&dad]

Hi ALL, I know this is for a very specific group of People but I hope you can help. We are going to WDW the last week of Oct. over the WEAC convention days. We are very limited in our travel days so as to maximize our time. Aside from last year we have always traveled in Dec. or Feb. and have had great air rates from 79-99 each way. Last year we traveled roughly the same dates in Oct as we want to go this year and we paid much more somewhere around 250-300rt. I thought last year maybe I had waited too long. However, as soon as Airtran and Southwest opened their dates I was checking rates. I know airfare is up for the year but I am still in sticker shock. The nonstop flights are 187-303 each way and the 1 stops are at 129. I have never seen such a large difference in price between the two with airtran. Does all this boil down to the fact that we are being fleeced because all of Wi. is off of school that week and everyone is going to WDW? Can anyone let me know what they have paid in the past and when/if prices typically down at any point over the summer. I know this is a guess as fuel prices continue to rise but any help would be great.

 

[AndreaDBfan]

Gosh, I think I would keep watching. Are you flying out Wed or Thur? I realize right now there isn't a difference in price, but that may change, too. We are going in May and the Disney Travel Company actually had better rates than Air Tran did online. We just booked in January for our May trip. From Milwaukee, online AirTran was $119 each way, Disney Travel was $89 each way. Needless to say, I booked the flight through Disney. Good luck and have fun in Disney!

 

[LJD2143]

I feel your pain!
We fly Airtran out of Milwaukee.

Our trip this year is from Oct 22 - 29. I paid $134 each way/one-stop.

Last year we went in late Sept and booked through Disney with an awesome rate of $179 round-trip/non-stop.

AirTran's Oct fares came out later than usual this year - so by the time they were released I was already nervous and in a hurry to book. I'm not sure if that was the right decision or not - but I'm not looking back!

 

[MarthaJr.]

We had the same problem in October about 4 years ago and opted to fly out of chicago for half the price of MKE tickets. Got a sweet little park/sleep/fly deal too. We flew out very early Thurs. non-stop and had a non-stop coming back too. I will say the 2 hr. drive home was not fun knowing we had to get up for school the next day.

You may want to check the price of flights out of Madison. I haven't flown out of that airport personally but by sister-in-law did and got a great deal.

If you are dead set on flying out of MKE I would recommend booking SW because you can always watch for a price drop and get credited for a future flight.

Good Luck!

 

[buzzgirls&dad]

Thanks for the replies. The 1 stop flights are definitely better priced than the nonstops. DH detests these as we have truely amazing bad luck when we change planes. It's been luggage, bad weather, plane issue, crew issues you name it we've seen it. However, I will book these if necessary. I will continue to look at Madison and Chicago. Usually, with airtran Madison flights hook up with the mke flights so no real advantage there. Chicago maybe a few bucks cheaper but not enough of a savings for a three hour drive home. At least I know not to keep my hopes up for an $99 flight. I can start to prepare DH for the sticker shock as well.

 

[tlenzendorf]

We are from Madison and flying from MKE 10/21 and returning 10/30, but we are flying SW into Tampa instead. It will take us just a little longer getting there, but we will leave for the airport 3 hours before departure, just like taking the ME. Flight costs were significantly less than flying right into Orlando. The issue comes with the car expense. We have 5 people and are using frequent flier miles to get the car, so we are saving about $100. To us it's worth it.

FWIW, SW prices dropped a bit today for both Orlando and Tampa.

Good luck to you!

 

[buzzgirls&dad]

Thanks for the tip, I'm going to check right now!!!

 

[WhitGB]

I don't even know where to begin regarding the flight prices this year, last year - one week later, we paid $280 rt out of Green Bay. We cannot even come close this year.

I was watching a $345 rt flight that actually changed to $1147 rt right after the SW hole in the plane incident. Yes, you read that right $1147 per person. I even made my DH come to the computer to check to make sure I put everything in correctly. The price has now dropped to $545 but I cannot pay that for a family of 4.

We eventually decided that I will take our two DD down on Wed 19th instead of Saturday. The flights out of MKE were $89 one way. DH will drive us down and come in on Saturday (needs to work and we kennel the dogs). Paying the hotel/dining for an extra 3 nights was still cheaper that the Saturday flights.

DH is flying out of GB on Sat for $250 one way.

Now, we need to find flights home for the 30th. SW is currently $232, we may have to go into MKE again and have someone get us. Coming into GB is just not affordable.

I thought DH was going to make us cancel but we have a 4 day cruise in the week we are there and the kids already know about it, cannot tell and 7 and 4 year old otherwise

Here is some information just for fun....We flew Allegiant out of Appleton last year in May for $9 one way and $29 the other. Yes, there were fees and baggage we needed to pay but we went with 5 people, for under $400 rt and a direct flight.

 

[siropa]

We are in appleton and have been watching prices for late october for awhile now. We had hoped to fly either from appleton or GB, but finally just decided to get some tickets from MKE. The price difference has just been too great. Purchased the tickets yesterday fly on delta. For 4 people round trip it was $877 total including all the taxes and fees. That was almost half of what we've been seeing out of appleton.

 

[Inkmahm]

I feel your pain!
We fly Airtran out of Milwaukee.

Our trip this year is from Oct 22 - 29. I paid $134 each way/one-stop.

Last year we went in late Sept and booked through Disney with an awesome rate of $179 round-trip/non-stop.

AirTran's Oct fares came out later than usual this year - so by the time they were released I was already nervous and in a hurry to book. I'm not sure if that was the right decision or not - but I'm not looking back!

Our dates were Oct 20-25 and the fare was stuck at $134 each way until the recent sale. I switched to Oct 19-25 and got flights for $178 round trip out of MKE to MCO. Leaving on Wed was cheaper than leaving on Thurs so I added a night to our trip.

 

[wisconsinmom]

Flights are always higher for WEAC weekend, especially if you are flying home on Sunday. Unfortunatly this has been the case for years.

 

[buzzgirls&dad]

I know it's monday but the flight I was looking at returning on just went up $55. I think the nonstops are now completely out of the question now. We will either have to go through Atl on airtran. Or as a PP suggested go to Tampa which right now is nonstop and about $700 cheaper. It looks like it is about an hour drive from the Tampa airport. Since we were renting a car anyway that part shouldn't be too big of a deal. This whole travel business is really taking the pleasure out of planning the trip.

 

[SaraJayne]

I know it's monday but the flight I was looking at returning on just went up $55. I think the nonstops are now completely out of the question now. We will either have to go through Atl on airtran. Or as a PP suggested go to Tampa which right now is nonstop and about $700 cheaper. It looks like it is about an hour drive from the Tampa airport. Since we were renting a car anyway that part shouldn't be too big of a deal. This whole travel business is really taking the pleasure out of planning the trip.

We flew out of MKE last October, on Delta.

Flying into Tampa saved us over $800 (for four tickets).

Honestly, I would not hesitate to fly into Tampa again. The airport there is SO easy to get around in and even driving out was a breeze. We drove right to I-4 and I turned to my Mom and said "really? That's how easy it was?" Security in Tampa was great (and NO lines!).

And this is coming from someone that HATES driving in FL.

It's all interstate to Orlando/LBV from Tampa and easy peasy.

Flying out of GRB and ATW is always going to be more expensive. Which stinks, b/c even factoring in the cost of driving two hours to Milwaukee from the Fox Cities, it's STILL cheaper to fly out of MKE.