Providence/Boston to MCO on SW??

[MapleGirl]

Has there ever been a good DING fare for BOS or PVD to MCO? I'm waiting for one for January, but I don't seem to remember ever seeing one in the past. If you've seen one, what was the rate?

 

[goofy4tink]

Depends on what you would consider to be a 'good Ding fare'. I won't fly with any stops or connections. So, it's non-stop for me. I find that the good fares I've found with Dings have also had stops of some kind. And they have been flights at times I don't fly.
But, others may find those offered flights to work just fine for them.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Have there even been any Boston Dings yet?

 

[Moomduck1]

No Boston dings yet. The flights don't start til mid-August so there probably won't be any for a while.

 

[Moomduck1]

The SW flights out of Boston aren't that good. My sister has been looking for a flight to MCO out of Boston. The SW ones aren't direct and some of them are pretty long.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Yep. At least initially, Southwest is only flying Boston/Baltimore and Boston/Chicago-Midway. Everything else requires a connection.

 

[buzz5985]

A lot of SW flights from Manchester are also 1 stop, so instead of waiting I booked Air Tran for November out of Logan last week. $89 down and $64 back. But the $6 booking fee (bringing DS friend so felt the need to sit together) taxes etc out of Logan bumped the price to $805 total. Short 5 night trip, so will do carryons. That was $350 cheaper than SW and I don't have the 50 minute drive to Manchester and the parking fees. I will just have someone drive me into Logan and drop us off.

Janis

 

[Michael623]

I used to think Ding was the greatest thing that ever happened to travel but over the last 12-18 months it's actually been pretty crappy. Here is what I've found they're doing: They open up the fares and PVD-MCO is $109, about a week later they lower the fare to $84 for a few days and them promptly bump it back up to $109. Once the dings come out they are $95-$99. If you booked for $109 you think you're getting a bargain but if you were shrewd and checked the fares every day these ding fares are no deal. I haven't seen a decent ding to MCO from PVD or MHT is quite a while. I remember paying $49 a couple of years ago.

 

[MapleGirl]

Yep. At least initially, Southwest is only flying Boston/Baltimore and Boston/Chicago-Midway. Everything else requires a connection.

This doesn't bother me too much. I actually prefer to fly from Providence. Parking is cheaper and the airport is smaller.

By the way, I love your siggie quote Kay!

 

[MapleGirl]

I remember paying $49 a couple of years ago.

YES!!!! I keep telling DH that flights used to be $49 each way and he doesn't believe me. I'm waiting for this to come back.

In the past couple of years that best I've done from Boston or Providence to MCO is $200 per person, round-trip (including all taxes and fees). I also only fly non-stop. Lately we've had good luck with Delta out of Boston. My favorite way to fly is SW from Providence, followed by Jet Blue from Boston.

What kinds of flights have you all gotten?

 

[Michael623]

I think we may have actually gotten a Ding for $44 one time or maybe even $39 (I'm sure my wife will chime in on this thread.) We're booked for October PVD-MCO on SW. $84 each way. I won't make a stop going to FL either. Non-stop or nothing. Since SW has 5 non-stops a day from PVD and 3 more from MHT we have plenty of options.

 

[ccgirl]

Michael623 - when did you purchase those tix? DH and I have decided to go to WDW in October and the best rate we can find with SW is $109 each way. Thanks.

 

[Michael623]

I booked May 2nd. Since then the price went to $89, then $94 and then it jumped to $109 and has been there since about May 20th or so. I still check every day.

 

[alyssa810]

I think we may have actually gotten a Ding for $44 one time or maybe even $39 (I'm sure my wife will chime in on this thread.)

I'm pretty sure $39 was the cheapest we paid on a ding. When song was flying out of Boston we had a couple of trips where we paid $115 RT but that was a long time ago. I personally am interested to see on how the SW BOS flights go, and when they'll get a direct BOS-MCO flight going. While we do prefer flying from PVD too, depending on the prices it would be a great option.

 

[goofy4tink]

Guys, I really doubt we're going to see those $49 fares anymore. You all can wait for them, but they are pretty much done. The airlines can't afford to put those kinds of fares out there. Why in heaven's name would SW put a fare of $49 out, when all the other airlines are asking $120 or more???? They had $49 fares when the other airlines were under $100.
Personally, I would be thrilled with any fare under $100 one way/pp.

 

[Mouseaholic!!!]

Guys, I really doubt we're going to see those $49 fares anymore. You all can wait for them, but they are pretty much done. The airlines can't afford to put those kinds of fares out there. Why in heaven's name would SW put a fare of $49 out, when all the other airlines are asking $120 or more???? They had $49 fares when the other airlines were under $100.
Personally, I would be thrilled with any fare under $100 one way/pp.

You are so right!

Across the board airlines are saying this is the worst year for the airline business so far. They are shrinking inventory to cut costs -- and with fewer seats available, they will not have to discount as much.

The GOOD thing about Southwest is there is no penalty to change/modify your reservation. If the price DOES go down, just modify it and you have the difference as a credit for your next trip to Disney. Yippee!

 

[mlacreta]

We are a family of 7 hoping to fly for our trip in just 40 days and i have been watching all the SW fares out of MHT, BOS and Providence for months..the lowest they/ve been is $74..wish i had grabbed them then..now our desired flights are up to 110. I held out remembering last time we got $59 flights but that was 3 years ago!!! Now I don't know what to do. Last time we did have 2 checked items per person which makes me think SW is still our best option but now i am considering airtran....although i really don't care to fly out of bos. but if we drive i think we would only have room for less than 1 bag per person. our stay is 16 nights though....but we do have laundry in the villas. providence has the lowest sw fare at the moment..or atleast last time i checked but that is a bit of a drive from nh and with all of us we usually have to have 2 vehicles to get to the airport and i hate to ask someone to drive us all the way down there and back!!! i give myself another 10 days before i start panicing!!!

 

[happily single]

When we flew out of PVD in January '09 I paid $99 per person each way. I held out for a ding but to no avail. Several days after booking for $99 I got dinged for $89. About 3 years ago we paid $59 per person for same flights.

 

[DAZY3BYZ]

We are a family of 7 hoping to fly for our trip in just 40 days and i have been watching all the SW fares out of MHT, BOS and Providence for months..the lowest they/ve been is $74..wish i had grabbed them then..now our desired flights are up to 110. I held out remembering last time we got $59 flights but that was 3 years ago!!!

Be careful not to wait too long. We booked our flights from PVD to MCO months ago at 94 and 109. I wasn't thrilled as in the past we flew for as low as 49 each way. I do think those days are over though. I've watched my flights since booking and they've changed very little. One time, one way went down slightly but not the return flight. Now, the price is DOUBLE for the flight to MCO and the return is unavailable. Don't wait too long!
We have 5 in our family to fly so with the extra baggage we need, we've never been able to get a better price to fly than with SW. We flew out of MHT once. That went well but I would avoid Logan. I'd much rather deal with PVD. So much easier. Good Luck!

 

[alyssa810]

We check flights every day. We took my parents with us in February (we actually flew down on 1/31) and on 2 random days we were able to book 1 one way for $59 from PVD-MCO. (We were flying back from FLL on points so we just needed the 1 ways.) So for that flight on the 31st, we had 2 tickets that were $59 (mom & dad), and 2 for $87 (me and Mike, and Joel was a passed around lap baby). The lower fare was a crazy flukey thing, but we jumped on it and continue to check everyday for October.