Question for those who take multiple trips each year

[Minnie824]

I've noticed here, some of you have 4 or more trips planned each calendar year. While, budgeting points and all that is awesome that you can have all the rooms paid for, my question is, how the heck do you get there? Airfare is crazy lately. I can't find anything for less than $400 a person and with 4 of us, it still seems like a lot to spend over $1600 per trip over 4 times a year. I guess it sort of balances out that you're not paying for the hotel, but still.

 

[eliza61]

Actually Minnie,
You're doing what most of us do. Generally if I take more than 1 trip a year all the variables that you mention must work out.
1) I have to be able to find a decent airfare. If I can go for 10+ days I drive.
2) If I have ap's its a little easier, if I've let my passes expire than I have to figure can I afford tickets
3) Over the years I've taken different types of trips. for example this year I'm taking a trip in may with my girlfriends. This will be a little less expensive because I only have airfare & expenses for 1 as opposed to my entire family.

 

[tammymacb]

I think I'll end up doing 4 trips this year.

But- I live in SC and I drive.

Trip 1 was just me and my 11 you DD in Dec.

Trip 2 will be just me and DH ( and I still have a pass from Dec )

Trip 3 will be just me and DD and DS ( 16 ) and may be just waterparks.

Trip 4 will be just me and a couple girlfriends and I'll only pay for myself.

 

[DVC Mike]

We go 4 times per year, but since we live just a bit over 500 miles away, we drive every time.

Taking into account getting to the airport early, checking in, going through security, waiting in the terminal, actual flight times, etc., it really isn't that much longer.

 

[isyt]

Actually Minnie,
You're doing what most of us do. Generally if I take more than 1 trip a year all the variables that you mention must work out.
1) I have to be able to find a decent airfare. If I can go for 10+ days I drive.
2) If I have ap's its a little easier, if I've let my passes expire than I have to figure can I afford tickets
3) Over the years I've taken different types of trips. for example this year I'm taking a trip in may with my girlfriends. This will be a little less expensive because I only have airfare & expenses for 1 as opposed to my entire family.

I totally agree with Eliza. We usually plan our trips and if I can get good airfare, great, if not I will drive. It is a long drive. I did go on a girls weekend last month, so only paid for me. In May we go on a family trip, we were planning on driving but fil decided to come with us (he's never been), so he is picking up our airfare for the trip cool1: )!! We will go in Auggust for 11 nights so we will drive. If there is a way I will find it and get there!!

 

[welovewdw]

We go about 6x/year - we fly if we are going for less than a week or can't get good airfare. (although if I can't get good airfare for a 4 day weekend trip, I reschedule it usually) There are 4.5 of us now (our oldest dd is at college - it took a while to get used to planning trips without her but that's a whole 'nother thread! ) the .5 is still a lap baby so really just 4 to worry about airfare for now but I know what you're talking about - air can be crazy. The drive is 10 hours without the baby - longer now that we have to make stops more frequently for him - so we only drive if we're staying over a week - it's just not worth the drive otherwise.

One thing we do to make it more affordable is dh & my ap's renew in Jan., the kids renew in June - it helps a ton to spread out that expense - especially since we do the premium ap's.

Also - everyone doesn't go on every trip - like dd (10) and I went w/ a friend & her dd in February, dh flew down for the last weekend of the week. And in October, dh & I do a f&w festival trip w/o the kids (at least we used to - now the 1yo comes with us everywhere. ) Summer trips are always more than a week, and everyone's home usually and we all go then - but as I said, we drive. (also because there are 6 of us and renting a car big enough is crazy, too!)

it's doable but takes some planning - also if we're feeling poor, we'll eat cheaper - and not buy as much "stuff" - lord knows, we have more Disney stuff that we need already.

 

[edk35]

SWA baby!!! I have gotten airfare for as low as 49 bucks each way for us. I have also gotten dings and lowered that. We also use AP's so we will want to squeeze as many trips out of those. This is our first set of AP's and we will have used them for 4 trips.

 

[Claire L]

We have to fly regardless of how many times we visit, due a huge amount was water between us and Florida!! Realistically we can manage about twice a year on Premium Economy flights for DH and I, at about $3200 a round trip, depending on time of year it can be a little more or a little less.

Claire

 

[LocustPoint]

Live in Baltimore, Fly SW, Use BWI where SW has a hub. This keeps airfare reasonable. Also I live close enough where I could drive if I wanted to. It's worth the money to fly when it only take 2 hours to fly as opposed to driving for 16 hours.

 

[global_mom]

We have only an 8 hour drive but we did fly for one of our recent trips b/c we had great airfare. We felt a little "lost" w/o our car so we will drive for most trips. We will make 6 trips b/w Oct. 07 and Oct. 08 b/c we have APs. We have not yet decided if we will renew the APs or not. On the years that we APs we will go alot and the years that we dont buy APs we will go only once and then add a cruise.

Also, we only go as a family: me, DH, DD9, DD7 and DS12. I may take some girlfriends this coming fall for a 3 night trip but I dont take the kids unless DH can go too. This is not b/c I am nervous to travel but b/c DH is the world's biggest Diney addict and would NEVER think of letting us go w/o him. Good thing he is self-employed!

 

[alldiz]

I've been lucky with SW....usually 99 bucks each way...

this time in April we got slammed with high airfare....1300 for 3.....but we have our passes and DVC room so it equalled out.

For my OCT trip.....I expect the airfare to be more reasonable....I hope anyway because I will need to buy passes.

I've realized DVC and the AP does not save money when you keep going more
and spend the money different ways
Kerri

 

[dwelty]

Holy Cow, where do you live? I live in Southern California and can almost always find fares in the low $300.00 range. Check Orbitz.com, and Kayak. I always purchase at least 9 months in advance. IF you live in a secondary city with a small hub, this may be the problem. Check prices from your closest Major Metropolitian area, I bet you get a better rate.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Those of you who live in SW country are so lucky!! Those of us stuck here in "one horse town" of NWA can't get much in the way of "bargains" on airfare. We do shop around though, and usually take 2-3 trips down a year. We never go for less than 10 days though to make it worthwhile.

 

[drag n' fly]

Living in Calgary, AB we normally would not take more than one trip every other year. However we ended up taking three trips in one year. With flights averaging 2500.00cad for the five of us return we managed....how? Well between buying DVC, house renos and three trips to Disney we have been banking our cc points for so long it paid for our flights in December for the five of us return and our 4 day hotel stay in Tampa. The rest is on DVC points/developer points. This upcoming trip is courtesy of a person who rented us their DVC points (before we bought) and the airline tickets were paid for courtesy of dh's employer (he took another position...parting gift). The trip to Disneyland in November was partially paid by dh's employer as he had an engineering conference in Anaheim so we all flew down and joined him...on a seat sale of course and got the 4th night free promotion at the GC hotel......so after we managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat we were able to swing three trips in one year due to pure luck, coincidence, planning and some serious flinty eyed shopping. Being almost 3000 miles away or a 42 hour drive lol from WDW it will turn it into a every other year trip from now on at our home resort.

 

[kt-scarlett]

SWA baby!!! I have gotten airfare for as low as 49 bucks each way for us. I have also gotten dings and lowered that. We also use AP's so we will want to squeeze as many trips out of those. This is our first set of AP's and we will have used them for 4 trips.

While I don't usually go more than once a year, one way I keep costs down is my Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa card. I use if for everything: gas, food, cable, newspaper, cell phones. Be very sure you are always able to pay it off monthly, don't carry a balance! The interest rates are ridiculous. On the average I earn Rapid Reward Awards for three roundtrip airfares each year. DH and I are using two of them in May for our 25th anniversary trip. Free airfare plus old park passes with days left from our pre-AP days, and 'free' lodging... all we have to worry about is paying for food. Can't wait!!

 

[spiceycat]

will drive unless SW is having a sale.

well guess what for my june trip they are - so either drive at $160 or flight at
$150 - plus having my car parked for $50.

still trying to decide. since these sales don't last a long time - got to decide quickly.

got a great deal in March and Sept - so it is hard to drive when only for a few dollar more fly.

my problem - I HATE to fly.

 

[MrsNick]

got a great deal in March and Sept - so it is hard to drive when only for a few dollar more fly.

my problem - I HATE to fly.

Such a catch 22!

 

[PutnamDS]

We can almost always get airfare for $79 (one way), which isn't too bad considering we are traveling 1200 miles one way. We could never drive to Orlando for $79. I also do the credit card points thing. I buy everything with a credit card and alternate between my Disney card (so I can have some cash at the parks) and my Airtran Visa (free flights).

APs help a lot, too. We usually do splurge on the DDP....because eating out at Disney is too good to miss.

D

 

[gingermouse17]

we've been lucky so far - we have three trips from Dec 07 to Oct 08 so we purchased AP's with the DVC discount which comes out to be similaar to purchasing 1 week tickets for 2 trips. We were also lucky that we were able to book all 3 airfares from $79 to $99 each way.

When I compare that to driving from NY with 3 young kids in the car- I think we came out ahead.

But if we weren't dvc members we would not be able to enjoy this many vacations in a year.

 

[drusba]

We go mainly Southwest from Chicago, grabbing low fares as soon as they come out. Entire family has rapid rewards number and thus all get a freebie now and then. I accumulate numerous rapid rewards because I use SW for business travel whenever feasible.