Southwest, WWYD

[pens4821]

I posted this on the SW thread in the transportation forum, but thought I'd see what the budget board people think too.

We live in Pittsburgh, but are most likely going to have to fly out of Richmond to get my nephew. We could save $400 ish in airfare to fly out of Dulles (2-2.5 hours from his house). While that's a lot to save on airfare, the return trip we'd have to add a day. So by the time we pay for meals for the day, the extra gas it'd take to drive from Richmond to Dulles and back, and the possibility of a hotel stay we could be down to really only saving $100-200. Would you go out of your way like that for $100-200?

That all depends on the flight costs too (Dulles went up $80 since this morning for the 4 of us). As of now the Richmond to MCO flight is over $200, but it's usually around $140 (which is what I'm basing the above savings off of) and it was 112 this morning. I'm thinking it'll come back down eventually. If it doesn't, I'll surely be flying out of Dulles because that would be an extra $300.

 

[cel_disney]

I think that time is money also - the extra day would probably cost me more in vacation time than I would save - so I would probably aim for the shorter travel.

My threshold for savings is closer to $500 when it comes to an extra day of ‘travel’...if it was an extra day ‘stuck in disney’ on vacation, that’s a different story...

 

[AquamarineSteph]

I agree with above poster that time is money, especially if you're looking at taking time off work for travel.

I would not spend that much extra time (again, potentially worth more if using vacation or PTO) to save $200 in transportation costs, but that's me. Your situation may be different.

 

[pens4821]

Thank you both for your thoughts. It won't make us have to take an extra vacation day, but I'm still with you both. Not sure if it's really worth the time spent when all said and done to end up just saving a little bit of money. At first it seemed like a no brainer to save that much, but then I started adding what that would entail and I'm not so sure anymore.

 

[WDWFan0813]

I missed booking first this morning, but overall am not thrilled with the prices out of Pittsburgh myself. I am normally on the cheaper side, but really agree with the other posters that the added time probably wouldn't be worth it for us. On your way down that extra travel might not be bad, but on your way back do you really want to have to worry about all that extra travel when you already are depressed because you are leaving Disney???

 

[starry_solo]

I go with convenience over cost. My closest airport is ONT and, of course, there are no non-stop flights from ONT to MCO. I could get a non-stop flight out of LAX (have looked at SNA before, not that much different than LAX), but then I either have to get a shuttle or have friends/family drive. The first day is a travel day, typically, so I don't make plans at any parks other than to just get to the resort, check-in (in person, I don't do online check in) and then go to the room.

This last trip, we did fly out of LAX on Jet Blue for a red-eye flight, but that's because we wanted to take advantage of the concierge/club level amenities that we paid for right away

 

[gottalovepluto]

Not worth it to me for a savings of $200 but if I needed to save the money for something else I'd go ahead and do it.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I go with convenience over cost. My closest airport is ONT and, of course, there are no non-stop flights from ONT to MCO. I could get a non-stop flight out of LAX (have looked at SNA before, not that much different than LAX), but then I either have to get a shuttle or have friends/family drive. The first day is a travel day, typically, so I don't make plans at any parks other than to just get to the resort, check-in (in person, I don't do online check in) and then go to the room.

This last trip, we did fly out of LAX on Jet Blue for a red-eye flight, but that's because we wanted to take advantage of the concierge/club level amenities that we paid for right away

LAX requires extra, extra savings for me considering the airport of tears and misery that place is!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Is your nephew a minor? If no, I'd vote to fly separately to meet at MCO. If yes, maybe his parents can meet you at Dulles and that would save you some extra driving? Otherwise I'd have to say time is more important. You're already driving a lot of extra hours to get your nephew. If someone was taking my son to WDW, I'd try to make it convenient for them and minimize how much they'd have to go out of their way to take him.
On the way down, it wouldn't be so bad but when it's time to leave, I just want to be home and not drag it out to a long day. Savings would have to be more like $400 pp, not $400 total to even consider it. jmho.

 

[DisneyHardin]

When it comes to flying, I am willing to spend a little more for convenience. We have a nice airport here in Louisville, but I know lots of people that will fly out of Cincy, Indy, Nashville, etc to save money. It would have to be a HUGE savings for me to drive several hours to get to the airport when I can drive 10 minutes to get to the airport and pay a little more.

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

I go with convenience over cost. My closest airport is ONT and, of course, there are no non-stop flights from ONT to MCO. I could get a non-stop flight out of LAX (have looked at SNA before, not that much different than LAX), but then I either have to get a shuttle or have friends/family drive. The first day is a travel day, typically, so I don't make plans at any parks other than to just get to the resort, check-in (in person, I don't do online check in) and then go to the room.

This last trip, we did fly out of LAX on Jet Blue for a red-eye flight, but that's because we wanted to take advantage of the concierge/club level amenities that we paid for right away

LAX requires extra, extra savings for me considering the airport of tears and misery that place is!

For the short flights (the Bay, Phoenix or Denver) I will choose SNA, ONT or LGB any day but since those airports rarely have non-stop flights to the East Coast I go with LAX. I don't find it nearly as bad when you head over there at 8 o'clock at night for a red eye

 

[Jaime4004]

I live 10 mins from our airport, but i'll drive up to 1.5 hrs if it'll save me $200 or more with all costs calculated in. 2.5 hours is pushing it for me, I probably would pay the higher rate at a closer airport unless the savings was much more significant...

 

[danygirl]

it is fairly cheap to travel from richmond to DC union station. could your nephew meet you in DC?