Phl To Mco May 2006

[CMERCANTI]

I Have Two Questions. We Are Going To Wdw Next May. Right Now It Looks Like I Can Only Book Flights With Us Air. We Like To Leave Early In The Morning Going Down And We Like To Leave Florida Late In The Afternoon. Us Air Is Quoting A Price Of $600.00 For The Three Of Us. My First Question Is When Will Other Airlines Like Southwest And Airtran Publish Rates For That Time Frame And Secondly Will Their Prices Be Lower Than What Us Air Is Quoting Now? Also Do They Offer Flights Early In The Morning And Then Late In The Day? It Seems With Gas Prices Going Up I Can't See The Prices Being That Cheap. I Have Always Flown Us Air But I Am Willing To Switch If The Fares Are Better Elsewhere. Any Advice Is Appreciated.

 

[GoingtoSeeRella]

We just booked April 2006 for 5 of us, PHL to MCO, with USAir. Rates seem to be all over the place. Like you, I only wanted early morning departure going to MCO and late departure leaving MCO. I watched travelocity for about a month before I finally booked. I checked USAir's web site and all the other discount sites, and found Travelocity had the most to offer and the best prices. After watching the prices for awhile, I just decided on what my "deciding" point would be. We paid $220 for Easter 2005, and I decided that if I could find $220 again for Easter 2006, that would be a good enough deal for me. I knew I was being picky with flight times, and I had no flexibility on my travel dates, as hubby is a teacher.

I refused to buy until I saw that price, and I was fine with waiting until SouthWest opened up their dates if I had to (which they still haven't).

I'm thinking SouthWest and AirTran will definitely have better rates than $600, but I'm sure either of them won't open their dates for May 2006 until at least January some time.

My suggestion would be to wait...keep watching Travelocity, Expedia or Orbiz, and if you find a good price you can live with, then go for it. Otherwise, you can still wait for SouthWest or AirTran, which I think would definitely be better than the current $600.

Good Luck!!

ETA: Oops! I read that as $600 per person!!!! Whoops! $200 per person right now is pretty good...but SW might still give you a better price. Just need to be willing to wait.

 

[beccasmom]

I can't speak about Air Tran, but SW and USAirways usually run neck-in-neck with pricing in PHL. The earliest SW flight right now out of PHL is around 7:00 a.m. USAirways' earliest (at the moment) is 6:30 a.m., which we took three weeks ago. We took a voluntary bump, somewhat unusual for such an early flight. USAirways has more flights to MCO just now and definitely more non-stops. This will probably change as SW gets more gates at PHL. Some of SW's flights connect through Raleigh/Durham.

Your fare is not bad, but you can probably do better. We have visited WDW twice this year - in February our tickets were $133.00/pp and in June they cost $179.00/pp, both on USAirways from PHL. On both occasions, SW's fare was identical, but they had no seats left. I would assume the same would be the case with AirTran. Delta has few non-stops to MCO from PHL; I am unsure about their pricing. I have never had much luck with Delta and have only used them once.

 

[puffkin]

I have a hard time getting the early morning / late afternoon flights out of PHL for a real bargain. However, the most I have ever had to pay was $220. I think $200 per person is pretty good if you get exactly what you want. If you feel like taking a chance, I would wait, but I don't think it is worth the risk unless you would want to risk flying at more undesirable times. Too me, paying an extra $30 but getting a full day in WDW is worth it.

My rule of thumb is to book as soon as I have my dates set and I can get flights at the exact time I want for under $200 out of PHL. The only reason I haven't booked AirTran for December is that my dates aren't 100% set yet. But since Southwest is opening up any day now, I am trying to finalize my plans so I can jump on some good airfare.

We flew out of PHL at 1:15 p.m. and left MCO at 10:15 a.m. our last trip and I HATED it! I felt like I lost a full day at the beginning and end of the trip. I will never do that again! Early AM and Late PM flights work the best for us!