I Cannot Believe The Price of Flights

[Wish Upon A Star]

Not only is Delta switching over to Song, but now its getting more expensive to fly.

Song only offers 3 flights out of BDL to MCO and IMHO they all are terrible, ie, 7:00am, 3:20pm or 7:25pm.

What ever happened to the 10:30am flight or the 1:55pm?

With WDW resorts not giving any room discounts and with flights (flights with assigned seating) not offering reasonable fares, I definately won't be a yearly visitor to WDW or anywhere else.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by Wish Upon A Star
Not only is Delta switching over to Song, but now its getting more expensive to fly.

Song only offers 3 flights out of BDL to MCO and IMHO they all are terrible, ie, 7:00am, 3:20pm or 7:25pm.

What ever happened to the 10:30am flight or the 1:55pm?

With WDW resorts not giving any room discounts and with flights (flights with assigned seating) not offering reasonable fares, I definately won't be a yearly visitor to WDW or anywhere else.

Well, there is always SWA. They have a lot of daily flights.

 

[TinkHappy]

We are also flying out of BDL in Feb. The cheapest flight I have found is $447.00 !!! I am just holding out, hoping that when SWA puts out their rates, they will be a little cheaper. I know it is Presidents week, but WOW!!
We may end up just driving, but I am not sure I want to drive in February.
Another option is the Auto-train, but I will still have to drive to Lorton, VA
I don't know...

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Tracy,
When SWA releases dates, they usually run a sale afterwards.
I have 111.50 per person r/t ns for Labor Day.

 

[kda]

I'm not happy with the new Song times out of BDL either. We preferred the late AM or early afternoon flights and liked to come back in the afternoon, not at 11 AM. It seems pretty obvious that Song has structured the prices around the weekend so the cheapest flight is the one that leaves BDL in the eve and returns at 8 AM --- not my top choices.

I have literally checked the Delta site daily for months and months (plus reading this board daily) and was able to take advantage of the sale about 6 weeks ago and booked for early November. I missed the $171 price, but got $191 the next day. Since then, the price for Song flights has literally bounced all over the place --- back down to $171 very briefly and up to $300. This takes work! Don't give up! Or, try SWA. DH is dragging his heels at booking flights without seat assignments, or I'd have done that. Sigh! The things we do for love.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by kda
I'm not happy with the new Song times out of BDL either. We preferred the late AM or early afternoon flights and liked to come back in the afternoon, not at 11 AM. It seems pretty obvious that Song has structured the prices around the weekend so the cheapest flight is the one that leaves BDL in the eve and returns at 8 AM --- not my top choices.

I have literally checked the Delta site daily for months and months (plus reading this board daily) and was able to take advantage of the sale about 6 weeks ago and booked for early November. I missed the $171 price, but got $191 the next day. Since then, the price for Song flights has literally bounced all over the place --- back down to $171 very briefly and up to $300. This takes work! Don't give up! Or, try SWA. DH is dragging his heels at booking flights without seat assignments, or I'd have done that. Sigh! The things we do for love.

kda,
Tell DH no seat assignment is better than a cancelled flight or rearranged seats. Honestly, SWA's seating policy is not a big deal. Get there early, get an A or B seating pass and you will have seats together.

 

[alexturner74]

Originally posted by kda
It seems pretty obvious that Song has structured the prices around the weekend so the cheapest flight is the one that leaves BDL in the eve and returns at 8 AM --- not my top choices.

And you're surprised by this? Airlines have always structured their fares so that you typically will pay more for the more convienent flights. You'll generally get lower fares the more flexible you are.

 

[JennSaint]

For those of you who live in CT it may not be too far for you to drive to Newburg NY. Southeast Airlines has nonstop flights available to Sanford, FL for President's week. Prices seem to be around $200-$210 per person. I booked with them for the dates of February 12 - 22 flying into St Petersburg and we paid only $127.00 per person roundtrip.
Here's a link to their website: www.flyseal.com

 

[BobH]

American seems no better than Delta. From Boston they only have a 3pm flight which cuts out your whole first day. I am flying to Ft Lauderdale to get to Vero instead of Orlando becuase it wass the only flight that would get me to Florida at mid day on a non-stop. It seems like Delta and American are leaivng themselves open to lose a major share of the market with their current flight schedules.

 

[LoriZH]

Check EVERYDAY! That is what I did. I didn't book the exact date I wanted until it was too late, I was waiting for them to go down but they went up $57.00 per person and times that by 6, it was outrages. So I tried leaving the day before and got the $200 pp roundtrip and booked it immediately, the same exact flight is now $314 pp, but this is down from $340. I don't get how they come up with their prices. Also if you are travelling with a lot of people, try putting in two at a time and see what comes up. I don't know, I always thought airfare went down during this time. You may want to check out Expedia.com or travelocity.com that way you can choose your fight, date and time by price if your dates are flexible.

 

[Tigger7570]

I am very unhappy with Delta's new schedules as well. We have always been able to book a non-stop direct flight with great rates for September/October, but this year I am really having a hard time. I usually have our tickets at least six months ahead and have always paid well under $200 - usually anwhere from $150-$180 for this time of year. We are going the beginning of Oct and I still haven't got tickets. DH likes to fly non-stop direct so we are there in 2 1/2 to 3 hours. To think that we'll have to pay more and take longer to get there is just not setting well with us. But, since air travel is down, it is not surprising that the airlines have had to make these adjustments. I have been checking every day for months. We have mainly flown Delta and have always been happy with them, but I now check Southwest, AirTran, and all the rest. Does anyone have an opinion on AirTran. They have been offering some really great prices, but I am hesitant because I have never flown them. We also go in April, can you imagine what the flights are going to cost then? I usually felt pretty good if I could get those flights for $200 or slightly under.

 

[BobH]

As I mentioned above I found some flights on American to Fort lauderdale Non stop that arrive around 11 am. Cost was $223.
It is a longer drive to Disney but it might be worth it if the ticket price is too high to MCO. Just another option.

 

[NotUrsula]

Here's an interesting short article about ways to play the airfare bargain-hunting game: http://www.msnbc.com/news/915476.asp

One of the tips mentioned in the article is calculating the price per mile of the ticket cost. I found an online mileage calculator to help with this: http://www.webflyer.com/travel/milemarker/

Priced out this way, the SWA sale tickets we just bought are costing us 6/10ths of 1 cent per mile. I'd say we got a bargain by just about any calculation.

 

[dcgrumpy]

I got Song from LGA-MCA for $140 rt in Nov. I'm happy, just a few years ago $200 was cheap.

 

[cindala]

Originally posted by Wish Upon A Star
Not only is Delta switching over to Song, but now its getting more expensive to fly.

I was just going to post this as well. We usually book our airfare around 330 days out, and have always received decent airfares ($169-$180). But now not only have they changed the times, but that same fare is now $230!!! Why so much more??

Looks like I won't be booking my airfare anytime soon with these fares! Continental is even worse, SWA doesn't fly by us, and JetBlue only books out 6 months in advance.

 

[smvdelv]

I have been checking Pan Am at www.flypanam.com. They have flights out of Portsmouth, NH to Sanford for under $300 for Feb. school vacation and April school vacation. Check it out!!!!

 

[f0rdfx4]

SW usually has good deals. They will be kicking them out soon. As for the seating assignments I kinda like the get in line early get a good seat option. This year I had decided to try ATA and the seating assignments so we will see how that goes. Right now I know SW and ATA are both at 170 RT out Midway...

 

[alexturner74]

Originally posted by cindala
I was just going to post this as well. We usually book our airfare around 330 days out, and have always received decent airfares ($169-$180). But now not only have they changed the times, but that same fare is now $230!!! Why so much more??

Because Delta Express was a different product for a different time and a different purpose. Song is designed to compete directly with JetBlue. Last year, the average price per ticket for Delta Express was considerably less than JetBlue. Now you have an upgraded product that is very similar to JetBlue, therefore the fares will also be similar. That is why you're seing higher prices. That being said, once JetBlue puts out their fares, you'll likely see the Song fares adjusted to closely match them if they're far off.

 

[DJGifford]

We used PanAm out of Portsmouth in JUly...they were excellent....free parking and easy to get to and easy to leave from.

The have only one flight down each day though...8 am and leave at 5 pm...these are perfect for us.

For those coming from CT...there are a few decent priced hotels to stay the night before your flight so you don't have to get up before the crack of dawn for the 2 hour drive!