Kids fly free to Disneyland??

[PNWmom]

What do you think the chances are that Alaska will run this offer again for 2009? If so does anyone remember when the promotion starts?
Thanks,

 

[CrazyDuck]

Kids fly free while adults pay 3x cheapest available rate... Hmm...

 

[northshoremama]

i'm thinking it's highly likely that they'll do this again next year. don't remember when it started, but my sister and her family went to DL on alaska with the kids fly free special. they book in late march/early april and went during memorial day weekend this past may. i'm hoping they offer it again...maybe we'll spend dd's 3rd birthday at DL next year!

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

Kids fly free while adults pay 3x cheapest available rate... Hmm...

SO TRUE!!!

 

[PNWmom]

SO TRUE!!!

Any travel secrets you would like to share? I'm all for saving money.

 

[avalon451]

Alaska usually does "Kids fly free" in the late winter and spring. We did it last March for spring break. I realized later, though, that in most cases they charge you a full-fare price, and it can easily work out to be more than you would pay with a "hot deals" price for all of you. For example, DH and I had 2 of our kids fly free in our package, but we figured out that the cost of our two tickets was something like $1400. If we'd shopped around for the best deal into the least expensive airport, we could have gotten all four tickets for about $800.

Do try pricing out all your vacation components separately, airfare, hotel, and park hoppers, and see if you can't get a much better deal that way, before booking a package or a "free" special.

 

[EnnEss]

Alaska usually does "Kids fly free" in the late winter and spring. We did it last March for spring break. I realized later, though, that in most cases they charge you a full-fare price, and it can easily work out to be more than you would pay with a "hot deals" price for all of you.

This isn't quite how it works, but depending when you book it can seem this way. Its like any other deal. Package deals are actually almost always more expensive. In my dozen or so trips to either Disney place Ive never gotten a better deal through packages.

The way this works is they have it tied to certain fares, if you book right away you'll be able to have some of the cheaper adult tickets. But they're limited, its just like any fare on an airplane, the cheaper tickets are exactly the same but go earlier. If you get this promotion late its likely all the cheaper promotional seats are gone, even if there are cheaper fares on the airplane still left, there aren't for that promotion. You see this all the time with WDW's hotels too.

Alaska runs it nearly every year though it seems. Seat sales will probably be cheaper if you can luck out and find them, Alaska's rates really really far out are extremely inexpensive at times.

 

[luvsmickey1968]

I was always of the opinion that it is always cheaper if you book everything separately instead of packages but I found out recently that packages can sometimes be less expensive.
My friends took advantage of the Alaskan Air Kids Fly Free package in May and I was amazed at the deal they got!
I had researched it a lot and there was nothing less expensive out there!
We definitely had to work a little with the departure date and the return date.
I also agree that you need to book early as the good deals go first!
I also booked a package for September using this deal and there isn't even any children flying free with us.
The package just provided the best airfare!
We chose to only include two nights at Hojo's as these nights were not available for the Entertainment rate.
We booked the other five nights ourselves through Hojos.
The fact that we live in Canada does make this deal better as we do not have the competition in airlines so we don't really get that good of airline deals.
The one thing I like about booking separately though, is that you have a lot more control over the departure times and your room selection.
My suggestion is to always look at all the options!