Please Help, should I book air now?

[chris1gill]

Okay, I need some help here... I was hoping to book our airfare when Southwest Released the dates for November... but seeing as I want to fly home the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I'm nervous... I've watched the rates climb higher & higher & I am nervous!!!

Having said all that, I found a fare out of Providence that is perfect for our dates... It's flying Delta (who I absolutely hate), but has a fare of 178.26. We have airline vouchers of 89.00, so that makes our cash out of pocket 89.26 each or 357.00 for 4 of us....

What should I do? Should I wait for Southwest to release the dates? Or do I go ahead & book with Delta taking advantage of our credit? I really don't know what to suggest to myself!!!

 

[4nana]

I have the same dilemma....we need 12 tickets for Dec. They are running $190 from BWI now. SW isn't releasing their prices until June. I vote rather than you waiting for a gamble...take the Delta $178 fare, as it has openings for Thanksgiving dates now and you already have vouchers. Then you will have it taken care of and can relax

 

[shelby2001]

We are doing Thanksgiving week as well and yes I booked my flight for $178.00 non stop out of Providence, was going to wait for Southwest, but I am affraid that they will blackout the week of Thanksgiving for the really good discounted rates and I'd be paying the same as with Delta and that is one less worry for me now.

 

[dtuleya]

chris1gill -

I had the same dilema as you. We're (4 of us) flying out of BWI 11/22 and returning 11/29 (Black Friday). The difference is AirTran and Southwest are the only two carriers with non-stops to MCO. I was checking fares daily for AirTran since a rep told me they would come out at the end of March. WELL, I missed them releasing our dates and sure enough when I saw them, they were sold out of the good (not great) rates. They quoted me a price of $450/pp. Yeah, right! Luckily I had flights with USAir on hold through DTC for $250 with excellent flight times (transferring through Charlotte). I searched around and found that our exact flight times were listed on Expedia.com for $199/pp total. We "saved" $200 and got the times we wanted. Even the USAir site had the same flight listed for $250/pp. Of course, I would have liked to get a cheaper direct flight, but I had a hard time find ANY flight at all on our departure date from BWI. The "plus" is that I don't have to be biting my nails for several more months and wonder if I did the right thing. I also was able to pick our seats, don't have to use Southwest's "cattle call" method. This is important since my boys (9 & 14) have never flown before and we are all sitting in the same row with DH across the aisle.

I guess my advice is to book the airfare now if it is within your budget. I'd hate to miss out on getting a flight at all and have to waste precious park days by driving. Please let us know what you decide. By the way, where are you staying?

 

[dtuleya]

It sounds like you have a great rate after using your vouchers. Since vouchers are only good for a certain length of time, I'd use them. Don't think you'd get much cheaper than that with Southwest.

 

[chris1gill]

Just an update, we went ahead & booked the Delta fare... I held the fare last night & we went to pay this morning at the airport... meanwhile, before we left this morning, I checked the fare again & it had already gone up to 259.00... I guess holding our fare saved our price to thankfully... So, we have our tickets for 396.00/4 out of Providence... We also have Southwest Gift Certificates, but those do not expire & we can use them anytime, so we'll use them next time!

Thanks for the input, it helped us make our choice!

 

[DebbieB]

Sounds like you did the right thing, now you don't have to worry. I'm going in May and let a fare of $205 pass by last fall, thinking it may go down (PIT-MCO). I spent the next 3 months checking it everyday and it went up to a high of $750! Then one night it dropped to $183. Saved about $20 x 2, but it wasn't worth all the aggravation.

 

[chris1gill]

Wow DebbieB, that would have driven me nuts!! I'm surprised your fares aren't cheaper coming out of PIT, but then again our cheap fares have dried up too... Haven't seen a really great fare since very early January!! Although Southwests bring a friend free was a great deal if you were traveling before 9/13... which of course we aren't....

By the way we're BW DVC owners too!!

 

[Jenn]

I think you made the right choice. We always fly SW out of Providence and we were lucky enough to snag the Friends Fly Free for our July trip. The only kicker is that the fares were $222 with the second person free, so it comes out to $111 each. The best I have EVER done with SW is $109 PP RT, which we have been lucky enough to get a few times.

I don't think you could have done better price wise than what you booked.