Flying School Vacation Week from Northeast

[camdensmom]

I figured the "families" of the Dis would be helpful in answering this question. I am a teacher. Typically I have never been able to travel my school vacation weeks because it is "busy" season in my husband's line of work.

Well, as the ink is drying on his new contract, I am in the process of booking a semi-last minute April vacation. The rates from the northeast (I could fly out of Boston, Manchester or Providence) are CRAZY high.

In your experience do the prices go up or go down as it gets closer to the school vacation weeks?

 

[all4fun]

We are in the NW and the prices have been high for a few months now. We were able to adjust our dates by a few days so we are flying midweek instead of on the weekend, and were able to get good rates ($250 pp/rt which really good for us!) but flying out on the weekend it was $400 rt. Now the dates we booked are much higher so we are glad we snagged the deals when we did. Don't know what to tell you... since you're a teacher you have a set time frame to work with. Usually as you get closer to your travel dates, the prices go up, IME. You might also try the transportation board. Maybe some of the regulars there can give you some good advice? Sorry I can't help more just wanted to let you know that prices have been high (for us here in the NW) for a while now.

 

[JESW]

They tend to go UP. I stalk the Jet Blue website months in advance and book April as soon as the rates come out - and I STILL end up paying a lot. (Supply & demand you know..) We end up flying sunday - monday and it cuts down the cost a bit and the kids miss one day of school - last year that one day saved me over $900!

We fly out of Logan. From what I have seen in the past, it is very hard to get a good deal for that time frame this late...sorry.

Jill

 

[_queenie_]

We always try to book a few months ahead of time (four on average), sometimes rates will go up afterwards, sometimes they'll go down. We're leaving the 25th, and I checked Jet Blue the other day, and the fare went down $50 each way! The reason we never book late is because we want to guarantee a vacation, but sometimes it can pay off!


By the way, we fly out of Logan also!

 

[DISNEYFOS]

We had plans to go to Vero Beach (fly into Orlando out of Boston) for School vacation week in MA...Sunday to Friday..Airfare was ridiculous (over $500). We had to change our trip to Tues to Thursday to get a reasonable fare on Airtran ($258.00)..My daughter is in preschool so it wasn't a huge deal.

I had been monitoring the fares for a while..and the prices weren't budging.

 

[Darcy03231]

It been my experience that the closer it gets the higher the fare goes. When I've booked for April vacation week I usually book as soon as the fares are released.

 

[MichelleinMaine]

My sister in law got $160 r/t tickets on Sunday- flying Boston to Tampa, for the Saturdays on either end of vacation. She was up checking (and then booking) them at 330am Sunday morning. I couldn't get the deal by the time I got home from work Sunday morning.

She booked them Jetblue through Travelocity.TC and Expedia are both advertising rates under $200 to Tampa. (I've seen them from Portland, Manchester and Boston.) As soon as I click the date they show as "available"- it suddenly becomes unavailable. UGH! Shoot, I'd advertise the flights alot lower if I didn't have any to sell.

We're resolved to driving. Not overly thrilled about it, but what can you do?

 

[collcass]

Have you tried other airport combinations - NY area, hartford, Tampa?

we are going in July. In order to get reasonable fares we ended up booking Newark to Tampa

 

[Aliceacc]

Another teacher here!

Try www.bookingbuddy.com

They are a clearinghouse of other travel sites, including kayak, expedia, and others.

Also, people here have gotten great deals from Southwest.

We're flying Jetblue from JFK and paying $198 roundtrip in August.