new to disney - airline question - help!!!

[ocrazyjane]

1st time traveling to disney with my husband and 3yr old in early december for one week. which airline is recommended??? did an initial search on southwest - is approx $1000 to fly there what i should expect to pay????

what about other airlines???? when should i have my airline tickets purchased by? do i have time????

flying out of philadelphia...

any tips would be great!
thanks!

 

[DebbieB]

1st time traveling to disney with my husband and 3yr old in early december for one week. which airline is recommended??? did an initial search on southwest - is approx $1000 to fly there what i should expect to pay????

what about other airlines???? when should i have my airline tickets purchased by? do i have time????

any tips would be great!
thanks!

That's a tough question to answer. First - what airport are you flying out of and what are your dates?

 

[ocrazyjane]

sorry... flying out of philadelphia

 

[DebbieB]

PHL has several airline choices w/non-stops. In addition to SW, I would also check AirTran and USAirways. What you should expect to pay depends on your dates. $1,000 sounds high for 3 people.

 

[disny_luvr]

I don't know - $1000 sounds right to me based on what I am paying. We are flying out of BWI the Sunday after Thanksgiving and paying $566 (one-way) for four people. I have yet to book the return flight the following Sunday but wish I would've booked when the flights were released because prices have only increased. I also priced out of PHL, but for us, it was cheaper to fly out of BWI. Did you look into BWI? We are flying Southwest.

 

[Buzz's Buddy]

Depending on where you live, you may also want to look into flying Spirit out of Atlantic City. They have lots of fees, but depending on when you go you may be able to get ridiculously low fares which when combined with the fees are still much less than other airlines.

 

[DebbieB]

I don't know - $1000 sounds right to me based on what I am paying. We are flying out of BWI the Sunday after Thanksgiving and paying $566 (one-way) for four people. I have yet to book the return flight the following Sunday but wish I would've booked when the flights were released because prices have only increased. I also priced out of PHL, but for us, it was cheaper to fly out of BWI. Did you look into BWI? We are flying Southwest.

I looked at flights for early December on Orbitz are they are in the $200-$250 roundtrip range for AirTran and USAirways. I used the first Saturday to MCO and the second Saturday return. Again, it depends on the OP's dates. Dates closer to holidays are going to be more. The Sunday after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel days of the year.

 

[goofy4tink]

I just checked, using 12/11-12/18, three people and got $748. I think $333 is a bit high, but it all depends on the flights you choose.

 

[Missytara]

I don't know - $1000 sounds right to me based on what I am paying. We are flying out of BWI the Sunday after Thanksgiving and paying $566 (one-way) for four people. I have yet to book the return flight the following Sunday but wish I would've booked when the flights were released because prices have only increased. I also priced out of PHL, but for us, it was cheaper to fly out of BWI. Did you look into BWI? We are flying Southwest.

I am booked the Saturday after Thanksgiving going down and the following Saturday coming back out of BWI.

The high prices on Sunday is why I switched.

I got $192.00 round trip, non-stop on Airtran.

 

[pamjb]

As PP stated, it would help if we had your dates of travel. I usually fly southwest out of Philly, but I always check kayak.com for other airlines. Kayak.com will show fares for other airlines (except Southwest) so I can do my comparisons for fares. I only live about 20 minutes from Lehigh Valley International Airport which sometimes has lower fares, but there are few direct flights, and I prefer direct.

 

[Cee]

I just booked my flight for a Disney trip, dates 10/31/10-11/7/10. Flying out of DCA(Reagan National, DC) to MCO(Orlando Intl.) non-stop on US Airways for $222.00 round trip(+taxes, etc. $244 total). This was the cheapest I could find that was non-stop(I also checked Dulles, did not check BWI because that's too far away from me and going in the opposite direction anyway since I'm in Va.). I did see flights that were over $300 on airlines like Delta, so I'm not surprised at the $1,000 that you mentioned in your post. I honestly don't know if flights will go up or down the closer we get to our travel dates, but I figured I'd go ahead and book it so I could fly and the time of day that was convenient for me. Good luck and have a blast at DISNEY!

 

[plutolovr]

Always check for airfare on a Tuesday or Wednesday, never on a weekend. The airlines load their new rates on those days.

 

[ocrazyjane]

thanks!

 

[Missytara]

Always check for airfare on a Tuesday or Wednesday, never on a weekend. The airlines load their new rates on those days.

My theory has been that the fares go up over the weekend period (Friday through Monday) because that is when families are home together and most likely planning their trips.

I travel alone or with friends, and I have found the fares dip down on Tuesday/Wednesday, especially early in the morning or very late at night.

Case in point, I booked my flight last year at 6:00 am on a Tuesday when I got to work. It was about $190.00 round trip. I called my two friends and they booked on their lunch hour and it was $25.00 more.

By the weekend, it was $60.00 more than that.

Try it out!

 

[ccgirl]

thanks!

I am flying very similar dates 12/2 - 12/12 and AirTran was by far the cheapest. From Boston, direct it was $99 per person. I paid the $6 per person to pick the flights. I ended up paying just over $900 for 4 tickets. Personally, I would never pay over $250 each.

I just checked airtran for your dates and the nonstop flights are $107. It would be $706 for 3 tickets. You would then pay $15 a bag plus $6 for seat assignments. So...add in round trip seat assignments for $36 and 2 checked bags for $30 and you are still at $772.

Good luck!