Need advice...about airfare trouble!

[kelscross]

I can't believe how much airline tickets have been so far! We have never paid more than 200 r/t from Dayton to MCO and now I'm encountering problems.

Here's the deal...

My mother booked a trip through WDW including airline tickets for a trip with just her and my grandmother in December. She bought the airline tickets through Disney, WHICH I would have never done in the first place. Well, they are unable to go now because my grandmother's illness is not improving..it's worsening. So my mother calls Disney and although she got the travel insurance she doesn't get a refund on the airline portion. She does get a voucher.

So we are planning on going in September. She wants to use the vouchers for our September trip which at first I thought was cool of her to give me a voucher so I wouldn't have to pay for a ticket. I have to buy two more for my children. The problem is...it's on Delta and it's twice as much as flying out of any other airline in Dayton!! Even though I will only be paying for two tickets it will be over 600.00 for those two tickets. I'm not spending any more money than if I were to pay for all three on let's say Airtran or something. My point is...it seems silly to pay the same amount for two tickets as I had budgeted for three.

My issue is..should I just suck it up and pay the 600.00 for the two tickets, not costing me anymore than I budgeted for three and call it good? Or should I let her issue the voucher in one child's name and the other child and I fly the other airline for half the price...arriving at the same time, ultimately saving me more money than planned?

Don't get me wrong..I appreciate her giving me the free ticket, but how can I justify it knowing that we're sitting on an airplane going to the same destination..at the same time, from the same place for twice as much as the other?

 

[DisneyJenn18]

Do the vouchers have an expiration date? If they do, I would use it right away.

If it were me...I think I would just pay the price, so everyone stayed together...and since it was what you were going to spend anyways..

Good luck!

 

[cloverkat]

I would also vote for keeping the family together especially if you won't be out any extra money.My family ended up paying an extra $100 per ticket for my brother and mother last year because my Dad and I already had tickets we had to use on Northwest.I seriously thought about sending them down on a different flight but ultimately I decided that it wasn't worth the hassle of travelling seperately.It just about killed me at the time especially since my Dad and I had already taken a hit on a $100 per ticket change fee on our tickets but it was so much better traveling together that I don't regret it at all.

 

[CarolA]

Are you 100% sure the vouchers are transferrable? I don't know how they work on Delta, but on some airlines they are not transferrable.

 

[MrMarv]

If I understand you correctly, you MIGHT be able to save quite a bit of money if two of you used those vouchers from Dayton and the other two flew from either Columbus or Indianapolis on Southwest or another airline, and possibly saving some serious $$$$ in the process.

You might be able to get a better fare out of Columbus (or Indianapolis) anyway on Delta, Southwest or somebody else.

 

[angwill]

You might want to wait till 2 months before you go when they typically drop ticket prices. Right now going in September you can't be far from the 2 month mark.

If I had no other choice than to split up and save money or pay more to fly together I would split up. I am very budget concious though.

HTH

 

[MrMarv]

Something else that I just thought of is that if the flights from both Dayton and Columbus are structured with a change of planes and/or a stop in either of Delta's hubs in Cininnati and Atlanta, then the four of you MIGHT be able to fly together on the second leg of your trip to Orlando.

 

[seashoreCM]

Would you get a lower fare if you were to travel one or two days earlier or one or two days later?

If you only save ten dollars using the free ticket and paying more for the other tickets, compared with paying less for all of your tickets on another airline, then the free ticket was worth only ten dollars.

Disney hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm