I am so confused

[imamicki2]

I have a trip planned for Oct. 31 to Nov. 7th of this year. I am currently looking into airfare from Philly or Baltimore. Southwest isn't available yet and I am not too fond of the "no seat assignments" and Usair only has early am flights (7am) coming home on Sunday morning. I need some good advice and I trust everyone's opinions on these boards. Should I wait it out and try southwest (I have two children, a 7 and 12 year old) and may not be able to sit with them or should I stay another night , pay more money and come home on Usair so that I can come home on an evening flight and have assigned seats?? Help me, I am so stressed out already!

 

[XStAnt]

It depends on the rate with USAir. If your round trip flight is around $175, then it's not a bad flight. If I had to guess I'd say Southwest will keep their current fares from Philly for most of the year. They are trying to establish themselves in the market and made a big deal of announcing that their current fares weren't "sales" or "promotional" fares but everyday rates. If that's the case then USAir will likely have to match the fares.

I also wouldn't worry too much about the seating on SW. Although I've never flown them, from what I understand people are pretty accomodating about keeping parents with kids (who wants to sit next to a child sitting by themselves ). Plus, if you get there early enough you'll get an "A" pass, which should let you be able to sit together.

Have you also checked out Air Tran out of Philly. I don't know if they have rates for October yet, but they are also a discount airline with good rates.

 

[Escapecar]

If it's going to cause you stress all the way up until your trip, stick with USAir. An extra night in the hotel is a small price to pay for several months of reduced stress!

However, don't be scared of SWA. I fly SWA a couple of times a year. It has been my experience that if you get to the airport two hours before your flight, you will get an A boarding pass, and you shouldn't have much trouble getting three seats together. Even if you end up with a B boarding pass, there will be three seats together in the back of the plane, as long as you get in the B line as soon as you arrive at the gate. The only situation where it might be a problem is if your flight is a midway stop on a longer flight, and not everyone gets off the plane at your stop.

SWA's boarding situation isn't bad at all, as long as you have time to spare. Of course, that's part of the reason why I rarely used them for business travel, back when I did a lot of that. (The other part being the stupid law that makes it a giant pain to fly into Dallas, but that's another topic completely.)

 

[imamicki2]

Ok, I just did another search for usair. I got a rate of 706.80 for four and the flight times were much better if I leave on the Monday instead of Sunday. Gee, if I book this, I could have an extra day of DISNEY! I guess since I have always flown with usair, I feel more comfortable. Is it hard to add on to a room ressie? Does this screw anything up? I had originally budgeted 1000.00 for airfare, so if I book this 706.80 flight, I'll save 300 and put that money towards the extra nights stay. It all works out .

 

[XStAnt]

I just checked USAir's website for your dates. There are lots of flights returning on Sunday. The cheapest flights are in the am, but there are many flights. Taking the earliest flights both ways gave me an airfare of $530 for 3 people. I don't know if those times are good for you but that's a great rate.

If you don't want those times the fares seem a little high still. I'd wait a while since you have plenty of time and there's lots of competition for flights to MCO. Just keep checking the airfare on a regular basis. If it drops below $200/person for the times you want then go and book it.

Worse comes to worse, you wait until SW releases fares and book it then.

 

[XStAnt]

I just resread your last post and saw the rates were $706.80 for 4 people. That's a great fare. If leaving on Monday isn't a problem I'd book those flights. Call your resort and see if you can add a day. If not, try a different resort for one night.

 

[imamicki2]

Yeah, what a difference a day makes. I am going to book the flight for coming home on Monday. I saw the flights you probably saw just now, but I didn't want to wake up at five or six in the morning to come home on Sudnay. I will call disney and ask them to add a day to my ressie, I hope it isn't a problem.
Thanks for responding, I always need someone else to help me make up my mind!

 

[wdwgoofeeee]

You might want to consider AirTran out of Philly. We used them last year and everything went pretty well. Their prices seem so be competitive with Southwest and I do like the idea of specific seat assignments. We printed out our boarding passes the day before we left and it was really easy and fast at the airport.
One thing....I noticed that their airfares are higher until Southwest posts their prices, then AirTran comes down. Since Southwest doesn't post too far in advance keep this in mind.
Good Luck!