STL to MCO on Jan 2nd...Sometime my plans don't work so well

[AprilRenee]

Ok so I need to get airfare for our trip to orlando but I'm afraid I waited too long. I read online that you should wait til close-ish to your trip and you'll get the best deals. However, because of free dining we ended up changing our check in date to Jan 2nd. (Leaving Jan 9th) so NOW we have to fly the day after new years Anyone have any advice? Southwest fares are really high now for both dates. We really can't change our dates because of schools (they're already missing 4 days and can't miss any more) So should I buy now before they get any higher? Should I wait and pray for a DING fare? Should I wait and use a different airline? (though I was really into the free checked bags with southwest!)
HELP!!!

 

[Jestocost]

If your plans are not flexible you might as well bite the bullet and buy now. At least with SWA if fares go down you can get full credit for the price difference without paying any change fees. That won't be a refund (unless the fares available now are the refundable Anytime fares), but a credit to be used on a future flight within a year. It's better than what you'd get on any other airline that flies out of St. Louis.

Unfortunately, other than maybe one flight per day on AirTran (and maybe not even that as I haven't checked lately), SWA offers the only non-stop STL-MCO flights. AA stopped all of their non stops earlier this year. As a result, other than SWA any flight pretty much requires a stop in Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta or somehwere like that.

The idea that sales will come out as you get closer to the travel date generally doesn't apply to peak travel times. This year that could stretch to Jan. 4 as many schools (including ours) and businesses will use that day as a holiday with Jan. 1 falling on Saturday. We have tickets from STL to MCO over Thanksgiving this year, for example, that were $400 each the day they went on sale and are higher now. They did go up really high (like $600 per ticket) and are back down a little bit now, so you could see some minor pull-back; but that's a risk.

 

[delmar411]

Airtran has 1 non-stop on each day and the way down is just over $100 and the way back is under $100.

We're flying out of Indy on 1/1 and Airtran was $76 down and $76 back (1/6). Southwest had terrible pricing and time schedule for these dates.