Help Me Figure This Out...SWA Strategy

[kristenrice]

Can someone explain this to me...

If I book 4 people on one itinerary and the price of that trip goes down, each INDIVIDUAL person gets a credit if I rebook, correct?

Right now, I am the only one in our extended family that hasn't booked the flights for our October trip. I'm still not sure what route I want to take and I am also waiting for my 3K anniversary points to post next month.

Here's my two options...

Option #1: Fly out of FNT ($161/person) on SATURDAY, non-stop, with the rest of the family. This is a non-stop flight but we would be driving over the night before and staying at a nearby hotel since we live about 90 minutes away.

Option #2: Fly out of GRR ($200/person) on FRIDAY night with a 70-minute stop with plane change at MDW. We would stay at the Orlando Airport Hyatt that night and take DME to our resort on Saturday.

In either case, we will be flying back into FNT ($141/person) so that is not a factor. If we fly out of FNT, we will book a one-way rental car (each way) since it is actually cheaper than long-term parking. If we fly out of GRR, we will take Uber to the airport which is only about 4 miles from our house.

The reason that Option #2 has a lot of appeal is that it will allow us to have time in a park on Saturday, if we so desire. We have 7-day tickets but the rest of the family only have 6, so they are not planning on a park that day anyways. The non-stop Saturday flight does not land until 3pm so there would not be enough time to really get any use out of a park day. The kids (and me too!) have always wanted to stay at the airport Hyatt so this would knock that off of our bucket list. On top of that, I could surprise them by going directly to the airport after school on Friday instead of driving over to Flint.

As soon as my 3K points hit my account next month, I will only be 3K short of being able to buy one more one-way ticket and I will pay the $82.50 to "top-off".

Here's where I need some assistance...

I have (2) $200 SWA gift cards, (1) $100 SWA gift card and (1) $150 LUV voucher to use towards our flights. Right now, that will cover the entire amount if I book the flights from FNT->MCO ($643.92). If I book those and either the fare from GRR or FNT drops and I decide to rebook from GRR, how do they apply the funds? I assume the GC/LUV voucher values simply become ticketless travel funds assigned to each of us, correct? So when I go to rebook the new flight, would I do a cancel, or a change? I'm not planning on buying EBCI on the way down so that isn't important. I've always just done a change in the past, but that only involved changing airports, not airports AND dates.

I'll complicate things a little more....I have (3) tickets booked on points right now for the flight out of FNT. When I booked them, they were $141/person (the same price that the return is currently at) so I am wondering if I should simply book the 4 tickets home (MCO-FNT, $563.92 total) right now, using the GC/voucher, and then worry about booking the final ticket (mine!) from FNT once my points are available. Perhaps the prices will change for the better and I can rearrange everything at that point. And by rearrange, I mean cancelling the FNT-MCO points flight and booking MCO-FNT with the points, using the resulting credit to book GRR-MCO with the "cash" (TTF).

Sorry this got so long and confusing....I'm really trying to get this all figured out since it is making my family nervous. My DH and kids have flights to Orlando, but not me!...and none of us have a flight home.

 

[PatMcDuck]

Sorry, could not follow all of this, sorry. Priority obviously is to use up that LUV voucher no matter what. (I am thinking of you book with a LUV, and cancel, it still is a LUV voucher for that amount. I like the LUV vouchers, since anyone can use them)

You think 90 minutes away from an airport requires an overnight stay near the airport? I would not have thought that was necessary, I drive 1 hour 15 minutes to PHL all the time. (is the traffic really bad?) I would think option 1 looked easiest, non-stop down.

I sympathize with all your anxiety, I book all sorts of crazy things on SW. I currently have flights for DH in Oct out of both PHL and Wash DC, not sure where he will be in Oct because of his job (on points, so we just get the points back, no credits to deal with). For May, I had me going down both on a Sunday night and a Monday morning, I was not sure which would work (have resolved it and only have one booked now).

Worse part is, I change flights around and then lose my good rental car deals sometimes.

 

[alliecat523]

I also don't understand how landing at 3pm means you can't go to the park. There is plenty of time to enjoy the parks in the evening.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I think I would use the LUV voucher and GC's to book your flight home right now. You already know for certain what that flight will be and to where.

If going Friday night is an option then do it and enjoy that extra vacay time.

 

[kristenrice]

You think 90 minutes away from an airport requires an overnight stay near the airport? I would not have thought that was necessary, I drive 1 hour 15 minutes to PHL all the time. (is the traffic really bad?) I would think option 1 looked easiest, non-stop down.

I have terrible anxiety about missing a flight so I couldn't handle the 90-minute drive. Our family has bad karma when it comes to delays so I build in a LOT of cushion, even an overnight stay.

Example #1: On our first family trip, we planned on meeting my parents at a restaurant for lunch (1 hour planned) before having them drop us off at the airport. Well, that plan went to crap when a person ran a stop sign and hit my Suburban while I was en route to the kennel to drop off the dogs. It took all of an hour to wait for the police to come and take the report. By the time I got back home to pick up the rest of the family, it was time to head to the airport. Thank goodness I had that lunch planned!

Example #2: DH and DBiL were driving to Montana for a once-in-a-lifetime elk hunt. They left a day earlier than they needed, just to make sure they would be there on time if they ran into problems...which they did! They hit a deer and messed up the truck on the first night! They managed to get it repaired at a body shop the next day, but it set them back almost 12 hours.

Example #3: Driving home from HHI, a truck decided to blow a tire and throw debris all over the road right in front of us. With nowhere to go, I ran over a large chunk of metal which blew out our tire. We sat on the side of the road for over 2 hours waiting for a tow truck. Then it took another 2 hours to search for a new spare tire...which we never found. I was so nervous driving the remaining 300+ miles without a spare. Fortunately, our spare is a full-size tire so that was a good thing. We got home well after midnight when we'd planned to be home in time for dinner.

As you can see, my travels are always full of surprises. I can never leave too early, especially for a flight. With a 90-minute drive, I'd leave about 3 hours early because with my luck, I'd get stuck between exits and the highway would be completely shut down due to an accident....because that's how we roll.

 

[kristenrice]

I also don't understand how landing at 3pm means you can't go to the park. There is plenty of time to enjoy the parks in the evening.

I'm not sure where we are staying yet, but I always assume about 2 hours from landing to park which means it's about 5pm before we get to a park. Since it is a Saturday during F&W, Epcot is not something we want to do. AK will certainly be closed and if there is a MNSSHP that night, the MK will close at 7pm. That leaves the Studios, but for how long? Of all the parks, that one is the last park I would waste an admission day on for only 3-4 hours, at most.

 

[sunshinemelody]

I have terrible anxiety about missing a flight so I couldn't handle the 90-minute drive.

I understand the anxiety, I just don't understand how you can't handle a 90-minute drive. You're to arrive at the airport 2 hours early, so leaving 2 hours earlier than that gives you anxiety? I guess I don't understand as I have to do the 90 minute drive to JFK/LGA and it's not a big deal.

 

[kristenrice]

Ugh!! This is driving me crazy.

I booked (4) tickets from MCO-FNT to get us all home. I used the vouchers and gift cards. I couldn't use all of them because of the limit of 4, so I still have a $100 gift card left. I also added EBCI to this leg because I hate checking in from the park and the price is set to go up on the 14th.

Well, now my anniversary bonus posted and I am also looking at $2500-$3000 in car repairs that I plan to charge to the card (next week) so I have more points to work with. I ran the numbers and it looks like it will cost me another $160 to change to the flight out of GRR instead of FNT. This would require me to book the flight from GRR-MCO using the credit I'd receive from cancelling the flight I have booked right now from MCO-FNT. Then, I would also cancel the FNT-MCO that I have booked on points and use those points to book our flight from MCO-FNT.

If you are still following, you will see that I have a small problem...the flight I have currently booked (using cash) from MCO-FNT already has EBCI added. If I cancel that flight (so that I can book it with points next month), I am out the $50 for EBCI and I will have to pay another $60 to add it again, right?

Oh boy...decisions, decisions...

 

[Squirlz]

If I have an early morning flight out of GRR or FNT I get a hotel the night before, even though we're only an hour away. We do Park n Fly and get a shuttle to the airport. The cost of the hotel isn't much more than I'd pay for parking at the airport!

 

[kristenrice]

I pulled the trigger today. What I did was CHANGE our MCO-FNT flight (booked on cash) to GRR-MCO and paid about $150 to cover the difference in fare. Then, I CHANGED the three FNT-MCO flights (booked on points) to MCO-FNT. It was a wash since the price was the same, but I had to add EBCI again because it transferred with the other flight. I also booked my flight from MCO-FNT (using points) and added EBCI.

Now, we are all set...We are flying out of Grand Rapids on Friday night (instead of Saturday afternoon out of FNT) and returning into FNT. My parents are going to drop us off at the Grand Rapids airport and I have a one-way car rental booked from FNT to GRR for $36.

 

[Woodview]

Phew .... That took some doing not quite sure what is what ,, but you are happy ..... NOW RELAX

AND Enjoy Easter

 

[karly05]

I'm not sure where we are staying yet, but I always assume about 2 hours from landing to park which means it's about 5pm before we get to a park. Since it is a Saturday during F&W, Epcot is not something we want to do. AK will certainly be closed and if there is a MNSSHP that night, the MK will close at 7pm. That leaves the Studios, but for how long? Of all the parks, that one is the last park I would waste an admission day on for only 3-4 hours, at most.

I get this. (Although AK will be open much later than it has been by the end of April with ROL) I agree with not wanting Epcot on a F&W Saturday night, and I refuse to set foot in MK on a Saturday. Besides, when I travel to WDW, I have to be up in super early and I'm not going to want to stay out very late.

And as for the 90 minute drive, if I had to do that, I'd be leaving the house at 2:30 am - not gonna happen!

I'm not sure which I would do - I'd sure rather have the non-stop flight (I always have to worry about connections), but it would be nice to have most of Saturday at WDW.