Flying these days

[rsinj]

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[backyardponder]

The easiest thing to do would be to try to estimate your cost of driving. Not knowing where in NJ you live, I picked Trenton...

Milage Trenton to WDW: 1050 miles
At 20 mpg for your car, this is 105 gallons of gas at $3.90 per gallon, $409.
At 30 mpg, it would be 70 gallons or $273

Hotel, 1 night each way, total $200

Meals enroute, depends on what you eat

Extra time if it is a factor

Wear and Tear on your car

now the question is how many people are going, etc. Figure it all out and you'll have your answer. My view is if it is 2 people, flying is a lot cheaper. If it is 4 people, driving might be a good idea.

 

[shortypots]

Our total trips within a year are going to be 4 -1 week long trips to Disney, and we live in NC (about 9.5 hrs away). We decided the last 2 trips to drive, and are flying for the 3rd, not sure what we are doing for the 4th trip. Driving at least affords us the ability to leave early and hit the parks when we arrive and if the busses are not running well, we can always use the car. It also gives us the ability to go somewhere other than Disneyworld if we chose to.

We were thinking about adding on a couple extra days to our Oct trip, but since we are flying, it makes it difficult with changes fees. Although, SW seems to be better than most.

 

[Judy WI]

I wish we were closer to drive no matter what the gas price. We are going to HHI June 22 and the airlines United, has changed the times 4 times in the last month. And of course each time they change the seats. We have 4 kids going with DIL and grandpa and grandma and we are now all over the plane. Had a heated call yesterday and they will not change the seats. Just can't understand why when you buy 7 tickets they can not keep them together. Sorry for the rant just so madding.

 

[TDC Nala]

I am one person and my trips are generally weekends only. I am still getting great flight deals. No changes here.

 

[rsinj]

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[JimMIA]

We drive to WDW from Miami, but I used to fly 50-60,000 miles a year for business. A few things I learned in making reservations were:

• Booking far in advance generally (but not always) results in higher fares.
• Booking last minute guarantees high fares.
• Booking 1-2 months out often gives better fares, although your seating choices may be lessened (I was not worried about that because my frequent flyer status gave me better choices).
• Booking your airfare on the weekend (which many people do because they can't do it from work) is a mistake. Airfares often go up on Friday and come back down at midnight Monday/Tuesday.
• Booking on Tuesday morning will usually offer both lower rates and better flight and seating choices.
• Searching for fares on the travel sites gives you a good indicator of what you should pay. However, the flights offered at cheap prices will be awful. Look for the price on Expedia, Travelocity, et al, but buy your tickets on the airline's website. You'll find much better flights, connections, seating, etc, and you'll pay the same price as you will pay at a travel site -- sometimes less. The same is true for rental car bookings.
• Major airlines are often no more expensive than the discount lines. More than 50% of the flights out of MIA are American, and I can usually get the same fare and much better flights with them than so-called discount carriers.
• Armed forces discounts are usually legit, but many other "discounts" (especially "senior discounts") actually result in higher fares. Never book a "discount" without checking the regular fare, because you will often pay too much. (MIL is 80, and we NEVER get senior fares for her.)
• Check fares to and from ALL airports near your home and your destination. Very often, switching airports will result in greatly reduced fares and/or better flight options. For example, on my last trip to Portland, OR, I flew into Seattle, rented a car, had lower total costs and much better flights than I would have had flying into Portland.

 

[Kathi OD]

We live in NJ, Burlington Cty. When the kids were little we lived across the river in Bucks Cty, PA. At that point we always drove, and straight on through, using those Welcome Centers along 95 to rest when needed There was no way we could have afforded airfare for 5, even when flights were cheaper.

That said, now that there are just the two of us, we'll continue to fly, at least for the time being. We've already been managing on one checked bag, so I figure it probably won't be too difficult to get everything into 2 carry-ons. My car only gets 20mpg, so the cost would probably be pretty much a wash.

If airfare gets such that it would be significantly cheaper to drive, say more than $150, then I would start to consider driving.

FWIW, right now SW has fares $64 one way Philly/Orlando.

 

[Kathi OD]

We drive to WDW from Miami, but I used to fly 50-60,000 miles a year for business. A few things I learned in making reservations were:

• Booking far in advance generally (but not always) results in higher fares.
• Booking last minute guarantees high fares.
• Booking 1-2 months out often gives better fares, although your seating choices may be lessened (I was not worried about that because my frequent flyer status gave me better choices).
• Booking your airfare on the weekend (which many people do because they can't do it from work) is a mistake. Airfares often go up on Friday and come back down at midnight Monday/Tuesday.
• Booking on Tuesday morning will usually offer both lower rates and better flight and seating choices.
• Searching for fares on the travel sites gives you a good indicator of what you should pay. However, the flights offered at cheap prices will be awful. Look for the price on Expedia, Travelocity, et al, but buy your tickets on the airline's website. You'll find much better flights, connections, seating, etc, and you'll pay the same price as you will pay at a travel site -- sometimes less. The same is true for rental car bookings.
• Major airlines are often no more expensive than the discount lines. More than 50% of the flights out of MIA are American, and I can usually get the same fare and much better flights with them than so-called discount carriers.
• Armed forces discounts are usually legit, but many other "discounts" (especially "senior discounts") actually result in higher fares. Never book a "discount" without checking the regular fare, because you will often pay too much. (MIL is 80, and we NEVER get senior fares for her.)
• Check fares to and from ALL airports near your home and your destination. Very often, switching airports will result in greatly reduced fares and/or better flight options. For example, on my last trip to Portland, OR, I flew into Seattle, rented a car, had lower total costs and much better flights than I would have had flying into Portland.

Can someone make this info a sticky?? This is great stuff to know, thanks!

 

[SEC]

We are thinking about driving this year instead of flying. We are about 900 miles away and have driven in 12.5 hours without stopping other than for gas twice. However, we usually fly which is a 2 hour 15 minute nonstop flight. This year we have a baby and her gear and we are taking a grandmother so it will probably be cheaper to drive than pay for 3 adult airfares and I might have to ship diapers and baby food or gear. I really don't want to drive though!

 

[bookwormde]

Here is my system. I fly out of PHL or BWI, the best fares are usually 2-3 months out. IF I do not get a fare that I like I just drive. This year I just got 4 rt from phl-mco on SW for $596 with all taxes and fees for Aug. If I am doing an early June I look at a 1 way down and rent one of the vehicles which they are looking to move back north and drive back (they generally rent these for $75-250 unlimited and you can usually have them for up to 2 weeks).

bookwormde

 

[rsinj]

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[mello]

Ticket prices are increasing rapidly, which will likely cause us to do more Disneyland trips in the future (anxiously awaiting DVC at GC!) and less Florida trips. Airfare to CA is half the cost for us, and we can always drive there if the airline situation gets out of hand (though at $4-$5 a gallon, driving won't be exactly economical either!)

The hardest thing to adapt to is all the packing regulations - 1 bag each, under 50 lbs is very difficult with a large family and the long stays that we typically do. The packing is so convoluted what with the ziplock baggies, "liquid" & battery regulations, etc. We just got back, and I was so frustrated with trying to remember just where I'd put this or that. My makeup wound up spread around in several of the kids' ziplock baggies as I didn't have room in mine due to antibacterial wipes, contact solution, sunscreen, etc. I accidentally put a small jar of peanut butter in one of the carry ons instead of in a checked bag, and they confiscated it! Watch out for those peanut butter bombs, people! It's just nuts. I tried, really tried, this trip to keep it to 1 bag each, but we got an Owner's Locker this trip, so that stuff necessitated 1 extra suitcase, and on the way home, we had to check 2 extra duffle bags with the kids' stuff they bought - light sabres, big stuffed animals, etc. WDW is going to have to start selling only very small items, LOL!

It's crazy I tell ya! But somehow I'm sure we'll all adapt in our own ways.

 

[Alexander]

I am a teacher in Upstate NY thus we must travel when everyone else is traveling. We always book our flights waaaaay in advance because over the holiday and peak travel times when we go the prices only go up.

We are about 1300 miles from WDW. Driving today would cost us about $725 round trip for fuel (DH's truck is a diesel ). We would drive anywere from 16-18 hours on the first day leaving home at 2:00 AM and stopping around dinner time for the night (usually in Georgia or Jacksonville if we push it). Hotels would be $200 for two nights round trip and I would average about $125 for meals roundtrip. That brings us to about $1050 to drive.

Right now it is $400 per person to fly over Easter break next April (not direct flights either). For four of us that is $1600, plus a rental car for about $200, and airport parking $60. Total of about $1860 to fly.

Since we have Holy Thursday through the following Sunday off (11 days) we have enough time to drive and still spend a week at WDW, I can't justify flying next April.

 

[drakethib]

We have been using SWA and they still have pretty good rates out of Houston.

I just bought three RT to MCO for under $700 including all taxes and fees.

I calculated driving and I would spend $550 in gas alone.


No brainer in this case IMHO.

 

[evaready51]

Not enough time to drive - so we fly

 

[itsreally4mommy]

I know airlines expect to earn revenue from this $15 per bag charge, but I wonder if it will be worth it? First of all it will chase A LOT of buyers away, and I can't begin to think of the headaches it's going to cause in the carry on search line.

 

[minnierealtor]

We always leave the option open for driving or flying when making reservations. I am leaving tomorrow with a DGF for a girls weekend and we got an amazing SW deal for $169.00 roundtrip per person. I had been looking at flights for an Aug. trip and for DH, DD and I it was looking like a $800 + trip. We look at the current price of diesel and add in the 2 nights in a hotel. We generally don't add food to the list because we would eat where ever we were. It probably would be about break even.

 

[dnoyes]

I live in the Northwest so a 3000 mile drive is out of the question. I try to book flights as far ahead as I can because when flights are full at a small airport we're just flat out of luck. I just booked 4 seats on Delta in December for $1388 total cost round trip. That's within $20 of what I paid in 2005 for the same trip and the best part about it was that Delta bumped us off that flight (in 2005) and gave us two round tip tickets for our trouble. So we went back in 2006 for free. Hey I can sit in Salt Lake City for a couple hours for free tickets whenever they ask. Now that we own DVC I hope they do it again this year.

 

[DisFlan]

We're 1200 miles away, and we don't like to drive straight through. With gas, overnights to and from and food, it would come to about the same as we paid for our tickets to fly in Sept. If tickets go up by much more, we'll be driving in the future. If gas spikes to $6 or $7 a gal. (and assuming a like rise in fares), we wouldn't be driving, either. That's our limit. At that point, we'll be doing "staycations".


DisFlan