MA school vacation trip

[Jaylie]

We are in the process of planning a WDW trip for next February or April. One member of our group is a teacher, so this vacation has to be over a school vacation (Massachusetts). My question is about the possible cost of flights at that time. I’m just looking for an approximate guess. We usually fly JetBlue. We are in the budget planning mode right now! Thanks for any help.

 

[shoreward]

I can't help with fares, but contacting the airline might be useful.
Info on JetBlue's group fares:

http://mobile.jetblue.com/mt/help.j...IN/webcgi.exe?New,Kb=askBlue,case=obj(378395)

 

[JimMIA]

I would look for a travel agent who specializes in group travel.

The size of your group, and how early you can realistically book, will matter greatly. With a smaller airline like Jet Blue, you may not be able to get enough seats on specific flights. Legacy airlines, with many more daily flights, may be a better option. Another option might be a charter flight, depending on the size of your group.

An experienced travel agent who deals with groups every day will be able to give you a LOT of help.

 

[Jimsig]

With a smaller airline like Jet Blue, you may not be able to get enough seats on specific flights. Legacy airlines, with many more daily flights, may be a better option. Another option might be a charter flight, depending on the size of your group.

JetBlue is huge in Boston (Logan). it has more departures out of Boston then any other airline and flew over 9 mill passengers between Apr 2016 and Mar 2017 as well as most destinations served. Worcester is a different story as they only offer a handful of flights.

Besides looking at Boston, depending on where you are look at Worcester, as well as PVD, and Bradley for Jetblue. Although JB does not fly out of Manchester NH check out flights from there.

 

[DISNEYSQUIRRELS]

I also fly from either Boston or Providence & usually budget $300 per ticket but hope to come in between $230-$250. If that works out, we put the difference towards a special dinner or the Hoop Dee Doo.

 

[Jaylie]

I just remembered we have some Visa rewards points. I’m not sure how to figure those (from dollars into points). We have about 100,000 points.

 

[Donna M]

We usually fly during the NH Feb. or April vacation weeks which are a week after your dates and I usually get the tickets for around $250-$300 by getting them right around when SW releases the dates. This year they (all airlines) look higher and I am thinking they will be closer to $380.

When using SW, their prices only went higher, and I never saw a drop in price for our trip dates, so if the price is under $350 on the morning they are released I'd grab them. I compare SW release date with JetBlue to decide which airline to use.

SW can, but in the last few years not so much, have good prices when they are released, and they fly n/s out of Manchester, but not Boston.

I need to get tickets for Dec. 1-8, and the prices have been sky high for JetBlue. SW opens booking tomorrow and my fingers are crossed.

 

[pixiegoose]

We usually fly during the NH Feb. or April vacation weeks which are a week after your dates and I usually get the tickets for around $250-$300 by getting them right around when SW releases the dates. This year they (all airlines) look higher and I am thinking they will be closer to $380.

When using SW, their prices only went higher, and I never saw a drop in price for our trip dates, so if the price is under $350 on the morning they are released I'd grab them. I compare SW release date with JetBlue to decide which airline to use.

SW can, but in the last few years not so much, have good prices when they are released, and they fly n/s out of Manchester, but not Boston.

I need to get tickets for Dec. 1-8, and the prices have been sky high for JetBlue. SW opens booking tomorrow and my fingers are crossed.

I’m booking our December trip tomorrow, too! Fingers crossed!

Southwest also flies nonstop to MCO from Providence, which is where we usually fly from when headed to MCO. I still don’t understand how they can fly nonstop from PVD and MHT to MCO but not BOS.

 

[hsmamato2]

HIGH. Expect way more than usual fares at spring break. I flew Spring break this year and fares were about double (at least) what I'm used to paying. Plan high.

 

[Jimsig]

I’m booking our December trip tomorrow, too! Fingers crossed!

Southwest also flies nonstop to MCO from Providence, which is where we usually fly from when headed to MCO. I still don’t understand how they can fly nonstop from PVD and MHT to MCO but not BOS.

Basically what it boils down to is available flight slots between airports as well as number of landings available at each airport and IIRC the FAA/DOT and local airport authorities controls that. Right now IIRC it's only JetBlue, Delta, and Spirit that have the non stops from BOS to MCO. There are no other slots available at this time. I'm not sure how it is handled as in who get's what slots, in other words if they are bid on, purchased, or awarded from time to time or not and how long an airline get's to keep a route. Now that said it could be a case where an airline, in this case SW, chooses not to fly a certain route and does not bid-purchase-apply to be awarded for that for a number of reasons. Thought in SW's case I would imagine they would want at least one if not a few non-stops between BOS to MCO, but they could have figured it would cost too much for them to bother trying to get a route. SW also got into the game late at BOS and the slots were probably already taken up. I can't remember when they started flying from BOS but it was quite a number of years after PVD and MHT. Primarily they used to fly secondary airports like MHT and PVD and stayed away from the big city airports when it could be helped to keep cost down. It costs more to fly into BOS then it does MHT and PVD and that's one of the ways they keep costs down.


ETA: local airport authorities

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

I'm a teacher and the last April vacation trip (2016) I took down to MCO from PVD cost around $1246 roundtrip for two people. They were nonstop flights with early bird.

 

[Tinknalli]

VT and we usually go in April vacation and it is the same week as MA. Be online and book the second they release if you plan to fly Jetblue or Southwest. The key to getting a good fare is flexibility. We look all all airports within a 3 1/2 hour drive. So we check MHT, BDL, BTV, WOR and ALB. Lately ALB has been the most economical for us at less than $300 round trip if booked the second they are released, but not sure if that is a practical drive for you.

 

[sponica]

Keep in mind if you're booking for April vacation, Easter weekend is the closing weekend of April break in MA. opening weekend for NH break. I'm sure that will probably throw off the airline pricing. Both my undergrad and grad schools had an Easter break, closing good friday through Easter Monday.

 

[Tattylou]

We always go away MA school vacation week....plan for high prices if you are flying the vacation Sat to Sat. @hsmamato2 is right....it is usually double what you'd pay at other times of year.

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

I have traveled over MA April school vacation & paid around $400 per person.

Sat. - Sat. is usually the most expensive. Look at Fri. evening & Sun.

Check JetBlue & Southwest.

Also check different airports - Boston, Worcester, Manchester, Providence.......Or further away like JFK

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Tattylou]

@BLTtinkerbell has a good idea. Seems JFK is always much cheaper for that week...maybe NYC has different vacation weeks. NYC is 4 hours drive away for us, so I haven't done that before, but I've looked at the prices. We've also found cheaper out of Hartford than out of Boston. We have done that and that's an easy little airport. Sat to Sat of April vaca is usually between 400 and 500 out of Hartford. It's 500+ out of Boston for those days usually. The fact that Easter falls that week next year will raise prices a bit. Also, I heard that fuel prices being up could make costs higher (not sure if that is true).

 

[momtwoboys]

we fly same time every year, mostly out of BDL once our of Worc. The flights have never been over 325 pp roundtrip and that was the highest we ever paid last april. and we usually fly fri-fri, some years it was sun to sun, and sat to sat. MOSTLY we like to do fri -fri.

 

[Tattylou]

we fly same time every year, mostly out of BDL once our of Worc. The flights have never been over 325 pp roundtrip and that was the highest we ever paid last april. and we usually fly fri-fri, some years it was sun to sun, and sat to sat. MOSTLY we like to do fri -fri.

Actually, you have a good point. Every time I've gone we've flown out of Boston until last year. Last year we discovered Hartford is much cheaper to fly out on vacation weeks than Boston. Boston always seems to be outrageous for Sat to Sat of that week.

 

[monorailsilver]

We have been flying the past 5 April vacations from bradley. One year we got lucky...$240 ish RT (to Ft. Myers) and that was the week leading to Easter.

This past April we paid $550 ish RT and Easter was I think 2 weeks before. Part of CT had break the week before us and then we had it.

Expect $$$$$$$