Make Up Your Mind!!

[Flyboy]

After deciding 6 months ago we would drive to wdw from northern Arkansas now my wife and mother-in-law want to fly. Any tips on where to start looking for good rates. What kind of prices should I expect out of St. Louis, Little Rock, or Memphis?

Also, any idea what it would cost to rent a minivan to drive from northern arkansas to wdw? Is the mileage extra?

I'm new at this family vacation stuff so could use all the help I can get. Thanks! My dates are Aug.4-Aug. 12.inkbounc

 

[horseshowmom]

I'm not too far from you, and every time I've checked on renting a minivan to drive to Orlando, the cost has been really bad (plus many add on mileage). I even tried Priceline and couldn't find any deals. You may have better luck than I have.

As far as flying, I'd check Little Rock/Southwest Airlines first. Lots of people actually drive from Memphis (or take the Bette Bus) to catch SW out of Little Rock, because it's frequently so much cheaper. Now and then you can catch a great deal on Northwest out of Memphis. Also, we've flown AirTran several times with no complaints (their prices are usually cheaper). We really like flying best, but the drive isn't terrible.

 

[KellyJ]

Well, I can tell you ballpark prices out of Memphis. We fly when we go and the prices don't change too much. We've flown at several different times of the year too. Right now (for January) the prices are at $209 which is about what they usually are. I think a couple of weeks ago the same flights were $201. We flew down in February of this year and booked the flights at $239 because they had gone up twice but never came down any lower than $239. 3 weeks before we left, the flights came down to $179 and I was able to get credit vouchers, but that is the best price I've seen in several years. I think we paid $170 three years ago when we went in early December. Of course all of these prices are for Northwest.

Southwest does usually have cheaper flights out of Little Rock but my experience with the Orlando route has been that they are usually competitive with the Northwest prices... definitely not enough difference to warrant the trip to Little Rock for us.

Have you checked Northwest's website lately? We get emails when they have specials and I want to say we got one a week or so ago about summer specials. Didn't read it closely though.

Keep watching the fares, book one if you're comfortable with the price, then keep watching to get credit vouchers if they go down any more. I had given up hope that our flights would ever go down.

KElly