New England Feb vacation SW fares?

[Michael623]

Since we have a child in school now we need to start booking during school vacations. Before our son was in school we went right after Labor day, right after New Years and before Memorial Day. Low crowds and cheap flights. Those were the days. Can anybody from New England tell me what you typically pay for Southwest flights from PVD (even MHT or BDL) to MCO for February vacation week? Just trying to prepare myself.

 

[ccgirl]

Since we have a child in school now we need to start booking during school vacations. Before our son was in school we went right after Labor day, right after New Years and before Memorial Day. Low crowds and cheap flights. Those were the days. Can anybody from New England tell me what you typically pay for Southwest flights from PVD (even MHT or BDL) to MCO for February vacation week? Just trying to prepare myself.

Southwest isn't always the cheapest. While you may get lucky, we found in general that airfare was crazy high and made the decision to go in June instead. I think prices for direct flights at good times were around 400.

 

[bamor]

We just went over Feb vacation but Tuesday to Tuesday (so two days of school were missed) PVD-MCO was $125/pp each way. Parks were not as crowded as I had anticipated, btw.

 

[jcarwash]

2014 pricing was pretty good. Purchased these on release day July 22, 2013:

MHT-MCO
Sat 2/15/14 $101 (5pm flight)
Sat 2/22/14 $122 (7am flight)

In 2013, the pricing on release day July 16, 2012 was:
MHT-MCO
Thu 2/14/13 $237
Sat 2/23/13 $202
Over time, the 2/14 flight went down to $222, $164, and finally $100 on a Valentine's Day promo they had that year. Got travel funds for those changes.

 

[clanmcculloch]

For vacation week, you want to pay attention to when schedules open for SWA so that you can book the moment they open. Look ahead of time at the trends for times of day on the flights so you can have an idea of what you want to book and get it booked immediately. Doing so can make a difference of $100+ per person per direction on the best flight times.

JetBlue typically opens their schedules earlier than SWA and if you book with them right away it'll probably be cheaper than when SWA opens their schedule. You can fly JetBlue nonstop out of PVD, ORH, and BOS.

If you're willing to have your kids miss a day or two of school then there's not as much of a rush to get the tickets booked. Saturday and Sunday on both ends of the vacation will book FAST but the farther you get from those days the slower the prices are to climb.

If you can be ready right when the SWA fares are posted then I would guess you'll get $149 each way per person though you may get lucky and get $129. JetBlue might be even less when they first open up.