1. When will tickets go on sale for next Nov/December? When is the best time to buy - as soon as they go on sale, or later?
2. Where is the best place to buy them - direct from the company, or on a discount travel site? If the latter, which one?
3. What airline do you recommend? We can fly out of Portland, ME, Boston, MA, Providence, RI or Portsmouth, NH?
We had planned on flying Spirit since they're so cheap (I know about the fees) until I read reviews here on the board. The two biggest complaints with them, are two of my biggest criteria which are:
- I absolutely MUST be able to pick seats, because I absolutely MUST be able to sit with my children. One struggles with anxiety and the other has ASD. Not sitting with them is simply not an option.
- Since we're going for such a short trip (only have 2-3 days in Florida), getting there on the day originally planned is definitely a must. So, if the flight is delayed/canceled, we need to be booked on another flight, ASAP.
1) I usually find the best prices around the 6 to 3 month mark. Earlier, and it is too soon for airlines to offer discounts since they don’t really have a good idea what’s selling and what isn’t yet. Later, and everything is booked up and what is left usually tends to only increase in price.
2) I refuse to buy from anyone but direct through the airline. You will find much cheaper tickets through third parties, but the headaches that occur if something goes wrong aren’t worth it to me. What can happen is if you have any issue, the Third Party Retailer tells you to see the airline, it’s their problem, and the airline tells you to see the 3rd Party Retailer since you purchased through them. It ends up being a huge mess. You can usually get it straightened out eventually, but you can end up stranded somewhere for a good amount of time while the two argue back and forth about whose responsibility you are. I had some friends stranded in Portugal once a couple of days due to this. I told them, book direct, but they wanted the discount.
3) My favorite airline is Southwest, but they do not assign seats, so ... I’ve had good luck with Delta also. This is what my work flies us on. But honestly, all the airlines seem about the same. I usually go with whichever is the best deal. I’ve had good and bad experiences with all the major airlines.
Some other advice, since you are trying to avoid delays and problems because of the tight schedule. I wouldn’t book anything but a direct flight, and try to get that for as early in the day as possible. Every time you have to change planes, you are doubling your chances of something going wrong. Flight delays, missed flights, etc.
If you do have to change planes, give yourself plenty of time between flights. A 30 minute layover, sometimes even an hour layover, is not enough at many airports. Flight times are listed as take off and landing. You could still be sitting on the plane waiting to get off it 15 to 30 minutes after it lands. Then you have to walk through the airport to your next gate which could take another 15 to 30 minutes, longer at larger airports if you have to go from one side to the other. Most flights begin boarding about 15 to 30 minutes before listed take off. Best case scenario, you’d need about 45 minutes at most airports just to go straight from one plane to the next. Worst case it could take 2 hours. If you need bathroom breaks and a meal as well, you will need even more time. So don’t think a 2 or 3 hour layover is too long.
Book for an early flight because if something goes wrong with the first flight, you have the chance to make it on another flight later that same day. The more flights leaving after yours, the better your chance of making it same day if there is a problem. If your flight is one of the last of the day to leave, you’ll probably have to wait until the next day if there is an issue because there won’t be another flight going out that day they can put you on.
Also, be your own advocate. All airlines are pretty bad about keeping passengers up to date on delays and cancellations. Don’t sit around waiting for them to help you. Be polite but ask to be put on some flight to somewhere, even if you have to change planes again. A lot of time they’ll tell there is nothing going where you want to go. That is going direct. Sometimes they can fly you somewhere else and then onto where you want to go, so check on that kind of stuff if you have any issues during the flight.
Another issue I’ve noticed happening to us a lot recently is seat assignment changes by the airlines. Since sitting together is so important to you, check periodically that your seats are correct. We have this happen all the time, that they change our seats and don’t alert us. I’ve had them move the kids all over the plane before, where they ended up no where near me. What happens is you initially book the flight and choose your seats. The flight is scheduled on a Size X plane. Then the airline changes the plane to Size Z and everybody’s seats get moved around because the new plane is configured differently. You can also have airlines rearranging seats for other reasons as well, so keep checking them up until you leave to make sure they haven’t changed. It’s usually a minor inconvenience and easy to fix online ahead of time, but if I had waited and discovered the issue at the airport, it would have been too late to fix.