Since airfares are increasing-should I buy ours now for October?

[Harvest02]

I am totally up in the air about what to do...our family is going to Disney the third week of October and we have to fly(from IND to MCO) because our time is limited since it is the kids fall break. We flew in June for a family of 4 for $754 total including all the fees. I have been monitoring airfares for our trip from October 22-28th, and Airtran is the cheapest I can find(total comes to $778 for all four of us, only about $20 more than last time). I keep hearing how airfares keep going up, and it is scaring me! I also looked on the airtran website, and a few of the flights are already sold out at the $87 rate(one way far). I don't know what to do!!! Should I hold out a little longer, or wait a while? I don't want to get stuck with skyhigh prices!!!

 

[OKW Lover]

I wouldn't make a long-term decision based on a short-term trend. Keep watching prices so you know what is a good one and then wait until you see something really good before you buy.

 

[PURTYPAT1]

I would have personaly booked that great fare. For the last 4 years I have been booking early. (I travel to diseny 3 times a year) In all honesty, by booking early, I have never seen my any of my flights go any lower than what I paid. It has only gone up & up. By booking early, I also have "great peace of mind", and put all my energy in the rest of my planning. Just my experience.

Patricia

 

[debden]

I am totally up in the air about what to do...our family is going to Disney the third week of October and we have to fly(from IND to MCO) because our time is limited since it is the kids fall break. We flew in June for a family of 4 for $754 total including all the fees. I have been monitoring airfares for our trip from October 22-28th, and Airtran is the cheapest I can find(total comes to $778 for all four of us, only about $20 more than last time). I keep hearing how airfares keep going up, and it is scaring me! I also looked on the airtran website, and a few of the flights are already sold out at the $87 rate(one way far). I don't know what to do!!! Should I hold out a little longer, or wait a while? I don't want to get stuck with skyhigh prices!!!

If you feel comfortable with that price and want to book now and not worry about wether it will go down or not in the future then definitley book those fares.Then you can sit back and relax knowing you have your tickets and you don't have to worry if they start an uphill climb...
Good luck whatever you decide.
Debbie

 

[cbrfan]

Keep in mind that if your fare goes down you can call AirTran and get a credit toward a future flight for the difference minus a $5 pp phone booking fee. You can do this one time only and the credit is good for one year from the date of original booking.

 

[mom2my3kids]

I just booked our airfare for 966.00 for our family of 5 for our Sept 28th trip through the same airline.

 

[Snow Shoe]

I just booked our Christmas flight with Delta at $278 pp/rt for 7 people. Now I'm having to go to fly out of another airport other than DFW, but the cost difference of $400 pp/rt more than justifies it to me. My policy has always to buy early.

This is what happened to me just in the past week!
I always fly from my local regional airport to DFW and then on to MCO. The rate from flying out of my regional airport to DFW to MCO 12/1-15 was $278 pp/rt. Then starting 12/16 -1/2/08 the price jumped to $657 pp/rt. To me that is simple price gouging because of the time of year it is! I jumped at the lower cost air fare, even though I'll have to travel 1-1/2 hours to catch my plane for our Christmas vacation at another airport.

 

[dopeyfanatic]

Now I'm nervous. You guys are saying buy early, but when I posted about a month ago everyone told me not to do buy more than 6 months out, and preferably around 4 months out. We're going next June so we can't even book yet anyway, but should we book as soon as we can, or wait? Obviously if the price isn't good I won't book. The other thing is, currently the cheapest fare is on Airtran, but they're only open until October. When shouhld I expect them to open dates for June 2008? I've been comparing to June this year from all other airlines and the airfare has pretty much stayed the same with maybe a $20+/- fluctuation, so I don't know that waiting really matters for us. What do you think?

 

[FigmentGuy]

We purchased our tickets for our November trip the other day too. There will be 5 of us. To fly out of detroit was about $500 each (first class, Im a big boy and this will be a first time for the others so yes we are spoiled). Well to fly out of a local small airport to detroit to Disney was only $98 more. Hum... $98more to fly out of my town. No two hour drive to detroit, no parking cars in a ramp... So we snitched them up. We are flying Northwest I ended up paying $598 each for our tickets for this november. Regret it? NOPE. Its done, out of the way.

(we usually fly spirit air because thier first class is sooo afordable. Well they currently only have flight dates up to Oct 31st. and their airfare is double what I payed for our tickets. SO that is what made me decide to buy and not look back.)

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

I book our flights from Oregon to Orlando last night on Delta for our Aug. trip because the price was just too good to pass up ($97 per person). I will keep my eye out for the next few month for a great rate on a return flight home, but I felt fine booking 6 months out at that price!
Saved us over $400 then what Southwest rates are going for.

 

[Harvest02]

OK, I went ahead and took some of the DIS'ers advice on here and booked my flights for October. I got the nonstop flight from IND-MCO on Monday night, the 22nd. All the non-stop flights were sold out already on Sunday coming back(which my husband was ready to KILL me for because the other day they were all available. Guess you snooze, you lose!!!). So, we have to connect in Atlanta on the way home. Oh well!!! The total for all four of us was $834 with all taxes and fees included. Not too bad, I don't think. Airtran told me that if the fares happen to go down, I can call and get a credit. I thought there was a change fee, but he confirmed that I can get the lower fare if it comes up.

 

[FigmentGuy]

Way cool! See now isn't there just a part of you that feels better.

(one step closer to disney!!)

 

[MEK]

I did not know about credit on Air Tran - good to know since I am thinking about using them in August.

 

[Pixeldust Fairy]

I just booked our Christmas flight with Delta at $278 pp/rt for 7 people. Now I'm having to go to fly out of another airport other than DFW, but the cost difference of $400 pp/rt more than justifies it to me. My policy has always to buy early.

This is what happened to me just in the past week!
I always fly from my local regional airport to DFW and then on to MCO. The rate from flying out of my regional airport to DFW to MCO 12/1-15 was $278 pp/rt. Then starting 12/16 -1/2/08 the price jumped to $657 pp/rt. To me that is simple price gouging because of the time of year it is! I jumped at the lower cost air fare, even though I'll have to travel 1-1/2 hours to catch my plane for our Christmas vacation at another airport.

You sound like your in my same shoes. I am in the South Plains area and I have to fly to DAL spend the night and fly to MCO the next day. Return flight is MCO to home. I had to rangle it that way to get us down to a reasonable rate. Otherwise we would be paying 2500.00 for 6 people.
Oh how I would love to have that extra day at Disney, but cost vs time was the issue. I saved over 1000.00 dollars doing it this way.

 

[deelam]

Keep in mind that if your fare goes down you can call AirTran and get a credit toward a future flight for the difference minus a $5 pp phone booking fee. You can do this one time only and the credit is good for one year from the date of original booking.

Is this a new policy for Air Tran? I thought they wouldn't credit for drops in fares. I know other airlines will, but I thought Airtran wouldn't. If they do credit, I will also book my October flight out of Philly now.

 

[Harvest02]

Way cool! See now isn't there just a part of you that feels better.

(one step closer to disney!!)

Actually, yes, I do feel better. I don't think fares will go down much more, and at least I don't have that worry of fares skyrocketing by summertime and not being able to afford to fly!!! If the fare goes down, I can get the credit, so I guess it is a winning situation for our family!!!