Last minute airfare help

[RweTHEREyet]

O.K, we leave in 3 weeks, and last night in conversation hubby says, "if we drive", well, i had not considered anything but driving, so I have not done any searching of airfares, etc. Now that flying is a possibility, is there any chance of sniffing out some super duper fares from RDU to MCO or Tampa or Jacksonville? I have not used cheaptickets or anything before, usually just booked far enough in advance when really great fares were available.

Any words of wisdom? I did look at the cheaptickets site. It pulled up a $137 round trip fare, and it said total $$, when I went one screen further, it said $225, how does that happen, fees are not that much, are they?

Need some help from you flying experts.

 

[Claudia1]

I use orbitz.com all the time and have found them to be the best source of cheaper travel.

I would also recommend that you check out the individual airline websites for prices, after you find them on Orbitz. Orbitz adds a surcharge, plus you can often get your seat assignments from the offical airline sites.

expedia.com does not always have the cheapest fare. Orbitz is my fav and you see the complete intinerary, not just a fare. I have never had that fare change happen to me at Orbitz.

 

[Pat_Elliott]

RweTHEREyet,

From the King of Cheap.....The upgrade from $137 to $225 is obnoxious and sounds fishy. It should be more like thirty bucks a ticket, give or take, for fees, etc.

May I highly suggest the following alternative: Go to either Travelocity or US Air's web sites (www.travelocity.com or www.usair.com), put in your airlines for the price search, but tell it your dates are flexible. As of 2 pm EST today, your approximate dates (I'm figuring round about March 2-9) are available. Should be somewhere in the neighborhood of $160 to $170 per RT ticket. At least today, Orbitz had higher rates. Southwest and Airtran are slightly higher, in the $150 + fee range.

Good luck!

Pat

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Well, due to the higher fares and all that is going on in the world today, we are going to stick with driving. Not a problem for me.

We were leaving on Sat. morning, and now plan to leave Fri after work and spend the night on the road somewhere. That way we can get to Orlando early on Saturday and get settled in and then see the last Tapestry of Dreams parade. I am sorry to see it go. I have enjoyed Tapestry of Nations and then Tapestry of Dreams even more so. Maybe something else will come along.

Thanks for the tips, but with the political climate like it is since we first started talking flying, I think I am happy to be driving.

 

[Pat_Elliott]

Actually, we're driving next time (June) also. Driving has it's pluses and minuses, but it can be an adventure. DW, who will be six months pregnant in June, is absolutely petrified to begin with. Add world events and an unborn child, and we'll be recreating our last trip, taken the second week of June 2000. In the past, we've always stay in Walterboro, SC. It's about six hours from there to Orlando. There's tons of hotels from expensive (re: clean) and inexpensive (shady, but $25 a night). Lots of restaurnts, easy access, etc.

Hope you have an excellent drive!

 

[RweTHEREyet]

O.K., what you need to know about the Walterboro area, and don't laugh:

summer before last, we were driving a Town & Country van to WDW, since it held all 6 of us on that trip. Just before the Walterboro area, we lost one of the gears on the car. It was Friday evening of July 4th weekend. We limped into an auto repair place. They could not help as they don't do transmission work, so we called the roadside assistance that came with the van. Talked to a dealership in Charleston or Savannah or somewhere. They said drive in 2nd gear to Orlando and get to dealership there. We drove 50 miles an hour with no air-conditioning the rest of the way. Once to Orlando got transmission replaced, no more problems.

fast forward to January of 2002. My 82-year old Mom and I are driving down in my volvo station wagon to take the Disney cruise. This was during the bad ice storm that hit the East Coast last year. As we get to the Walterboro area, my speedomotor started moving rapidly back and forth between 0 and 120 mph, all lights came on the dash, I lost power and had to coast to the right shoulder from t he left lanle. To make long story short, finally get someone to tow us in, after sitting in freezing rain/snow sleet for 2 hours. When we get towed to the auto repair place, it looks mighty familiar, get my drift???

Problem was a bolt holding the alternator had broken off. While spending all afternoon there while they fixed car we had a lot of conversation with the people there.

It appears that they must keep logs of all towing jobs that they do. And their logs show that almost 95% of their pick-ups are between certain mile markers along that corridor of I-95. Well, that only becomes interesting when you learn that that stretch of I-95 was built over an Indian burial ground.

We have driven that stretch of road since, but you better believe that we keep our eyes wide open and fingers crossed that all goes well.

Just thought you would like to know this little bit of trivia.

 

[Pat_Elliott]

Originally posted by RweTHEREyet
O.K., what you need to know about the Walterboro area, and don't laugh:
...Just thought you would like to know this little bit of trivia.

Not laughing In fact, I'm seriously considering getting off 95 before Walterboro and taking backroads to Savannah. Walterboro was nice, but it wasn't nice enough to tick off the ancients.....