I think I screwed up royally with my procrastination!

[bcbmommy]

I feel sick. We decided to take a last minute vacation, so I booked Disney about a week and a half ago. Since then, I've been trying to figure out the perfect scenario for our flight. Our nearest airport is 2 hours away, but their SW flights to Orlando are long with at least 2 layovers each. With a toddler, I was nervous about that. The next nearest airport is 4 1/2 hours away, but the flight lengths are way shorter. Yesterday was the 2 week mark until our vacation, so I told my dh last night that I'd get tickets first thing this morning. Well, they went up quite a bit, from both airports! Is it because I missed the 14-day cutoff? Ugh. Those of you who are familiar with SW, will they stay high, or is it possible they could go down?

 

[deedeetoo]

I'm not familiar with Southwest's pricing but I know that most airline pricing does go up as you get very close to flight time. Vacation travelers who are price sensitive tend to book further out. Most booking done within a week or two of travel are business travelers who must travel and are not price sensitive.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Yep they will stay high and get higher. At two weeks out is when the fares climb higher.

 

[bcbmommy]

Oh boy. My only options are to drive a little further to a different airport, or change our dates a bit.

 

[nilseks]

Keep an eye on it a bit, they may flex up or down a little, but probably won't go as low as they were. At the one week mark the 'Wanna Get Away' pricing will completely disappear. At least this is what always happens when I book work travel for my husband (yes, I am his unpaid personal secretary lol ). Good luck!

 

[bcbmommy]

Oh, I pray it flexes down a bit! And I relate to the "unpaid personal secretary" comment. Im ready for a vacation!! Thank you.

Keep an eye on it a bit, they may flex up or down a little, but probably won't go as low as they were. At the one week mark the 'Wanna Get Away' pricing will completely disappear. At least this is what always happens when I book work travel for my husband (yes, I am his unpaid personal secretary lol ). Good luck!

 

[Pooh2]

We booked a last minute trip to Disney for Thanksgiving week (less than a week out). We took Amtrak down and flew back on Jetblue due to time constraints.

So our Jetblue tickets were booked less than two weeks before travel (for the return trip). It killed us to pay $840 for two one-way tickets but figured it was a holiday weekend, so what could we do. About 8 days before plane travel, I checked and the price went down to $250 for the two tickets.

We were able to get a credit for travel within the next year. So who knows how the pricing is structured!? Made no sense to us but now we have to be sure we get a vacation in again this year!

 

[bcbmommy]

So glad to hear this!! I'm going to be hopeful until proven otherwise! .
That was quite a savings! I bet you were thrilled!!

We booked a last minute trip to Disney for Thanksgiving week (less than a week out). We took Amtrak down and flew back on Jetblue due to time constraints.

So our Jetblue tickets were booked less than two weeks before travel (for the return trip). It killed us to pay $840 for two one-way tickets but figured it was a holiday weekend, so what could we do. About 8 days before plane travel, I checked and the price went down to $250 for the two tickets.

We were able to get a credit for travel within the next year. So who knows how the pricing is structured!? Made no sense to us but now we have to be sure we get a vacation in again this year!

 

[TheWog]

Oh boy. My only options are to drive a little further to a different airport, or change our dates a bit.

Have you priced airlines other than SW? That could be an option as well.

 

[kalliyan1]

Oh boy. My only options are to drive a little further to a different airport, or change our dates a bit.

If you changed your dates wont there be penalities assessed by Disney for changing your reservations, assuming your staying on property

 

[bcbmommy]

Have you priced airlines other than SW? That could be an option as well.

I'm in the process of doing that right now. It's looking like Delta is going to be quite a bit cheaper. I was just looking at SW because I like their policy of being able to change if need be. I have no experience with Delta.

 

[bcbmommy]

If you changed your dates wont there be penalities assessed by Disney for changing your reservations, assuming your staying on property

I was under the impression that you could change dates with no penalty, but not cancel. I may be wrong, though. I'm going to TRY not to change at all.

 

[TheWog]

I'm in the process of doing that right now. It's looking like Delta is going to be quite a bit cheaper. I was just looking at SW because I like their policy of being able to change if need be. I have no experience with Delta.

Delta won't give you the same flexibility to change. There are fees associated with it, but if they are that much cheaper it can make up for it.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Don't forget Delta charges baggage fee's.

 

[bcbmommy]

Delta won't give you the same flexibility to change. There are fees associated with it, but if they are that much cheaper it can make up for it.

Don't forget Delta charges baggage fee's.

Yep, I'm thinking I may feel safest with SW. I just really like how they make it so easy to change things if you have to. I've never needed to, but that security is nice.

 

[Rpsemont]

Inside of 14 days is likely to be more expensive, inside of 7 usually even worse.
That being said, sometime I have been surprised sometimes when I see inexpensive fares pop up inside of 14 days - it does happen.

Personally, without considering with airport drive time issues and other considerations; I would book SWA to fly a day later (two weeks from today, maybe the rate is the less expensive rate) and then check the SWA schedule 4-5 times a day! If the fare drops on the day earlier, just switch your flight to the day earlier. I have sometimes grabbed my best fares by checking the flights multiple times a day. Other times, I have checked the fares at work, and said when I get home tonight I have to change our tickets; and then when I got home, the cheap fares were no longer there. At least with SWA, if you decide it really doesn't make sense to go a day later, you can cancel and have the credit available for a future trip within a year.

 

[E-P-C-O-T]

When are you leaving? Jetblue is running a special right now and you can also fly into/out of Tampa. Due to my DH schedule we waited until this week to buy our tickets for next week and our airfare went down exactly 7 days before. We had to be flexible and are now flying into Orlando and departing out of Tampa, but, we saved $150 per person.

 

[bcbmommy]

When are you leaving? Jetblue is running a special right now and you can also fly into/out of Tampa. Due to my DH schedule we waited until this week to buy our tickets for next week and our airfare went down exactly 7 days before. We had to be flexible and are now flying into Orlando and departing out of Tampa, but, we saved $150 per person.

We don't have JetBlue anywhere in Kansas, unfortunately. I didn't think of checking flights to Tampa, though. Thank you for suggesting that.

 

[ibob52]

Airfare flexibility (change of date) is good to have ... the further out I book the tickets ...
But ... when I am within a week or two of departure ... I am pretty much sure ... vacation is good to go
and flexibility is not so much a necessary factor.

 

[sam_gordon]

Don't forget Delta charges baggage fee's.

If you sign up for Delta's American Express card, everyone on the reservation gets one free checked bag. There is no fee the first year, then $95 each subsequent year.

I just booked our airfare for June, and it's $100 more each ticket than what we usually pay. Of course, I usually book ~10 months out, just after the tickets are released and the prices usually never get that low again.