Vent Vent

[Sandy Feet]

Between yesterday and today our fares went up by $100 PER TICKET. Multiply by 5 people and you'll see why I'm so mad.

Our condo owner wants the deposit paid by May 29. First of all mail from here to there will take longer than that. Second, until I am sure of a great fare we can't commit to a date. Third, maybe we should scale down to a 2 bed condo to save money. I know there are cheaper places out there and maybe I'm silly, but I had my little heart set on being there and the condo we found is right next to the pool which might be noisier but would be nicer for our breaks from the parks and "off days".

Course we had to open our big mouths and tell the two older ones we're going and now they're all excited.

 

[Kay1]

A surprise $500 charge would upset me, too. Sorry.

 

[zurgswife]

I suggest you purchase your airfare soon....I think there is the possibliity it will go up more...

Maybe even downgrading to a 2 bdrm will be a good idea...

 

[kilee]

I would get the airfare before it goes any higher. Then if it comes down many airlines will credit you the difference. As for the condo--- most usually require a deposit to hold it so they don't refuse other viable offers for that date.

 

[PRaffen]

Was in the same position so I can commiserate with you. When I first started looking at airfares, I could have gotten a $285 rate but I waited and now am paying $480.

I agree with the other poster too - I'd bite the bullet, and buy tickets. With the gas prices going up, up, up who knows where air fares will go.

Good luck.

 

[disneysteve]

Airfare rates tend to be higher as you approach the weekend (regardless of your day of travel). So buying a ticket on Friday or Saturday will cost more than buying the same ticket on Monday or Tuesday. Also, fares tend to be higher later in the day.

I'd suggest taking a chance and waiting until Monday morning and checking again. If rates have dropped, grab them. If they are still the same, then buy them anyway because they probably aren't going to drop.

Of course, it also depends when your trip is because the closer you get to the date, the more likely the rates will rise.

As for the condo deposit, find out the cancellation policy. Most owners will give a full refund up to a certain date, then a partial refund after that. It may still be worth booking and cancelling if the trip falls through.

 

[MK Familystone]

Watched CNBC today and Steve Birmbaum or something like that , CNBC's travel advisor said that the fuel surcharge started by Contintental Airlines is going to be matched by other Airlines from today through a week or two.
He was uncertain at this time if the fuel surcharge would stick for long term.
option: buy your tixs, but find out from the airline whether or not a refund would happen if the fare decreases.
Remember the reduced fares come 14 or more days Before Your Departure Date. That means that you have to call your airline before the 14th day before your departure date on a daily bases.
GOOD LUCK!!

"THE MAGIC HAPPENS!!!"

 

[Sandy Feet]

Thanks All,

I did call the airline and they said they'd give me a voucher for the difference if the fare goes down. Which is ok...but I'm going to wait and see if they go down a bit more.

Good idea about checking the condo's cancellation policy. An additional concern is that this condo was just sold and the new owner is supposed to contact me. The original owners are travelling right now. I'm supposed to send the check to the rental agency. All very confusing.

It's hard to know whether to bite the bullet and book/pay for everything now and pray nothing happens to make us change our dates or wait a while and watch prices. Although -yippee!- our Universal tickets are on their way! I used the Mastercard offer and bought 5 for the price of 4.

 

[Joan S.]

SandyFeet, Could you elaborate on the Master card Offer at Universal?? Thanks, Joan

 

[dmfuru]

Airlines comes out with new fares on Tuesdays and I have read that 1am Wednesday is the best time to purchase tickets. I don't know the reasoning behind the purchase date and time though.

We usually check out orbitz.com or travelocity.com to compare the fares, then go on to the airlines own website to purchase the tickets since both orbitz and travelocity charges a small fee if the ticket is booked on their sites.

You have got to bite the bullet now since the fares will only go up the closer the travel date. Since today is Friday, you could wait til Tuesday of next week and hope that the fare has gone on sale. Also check to see how many seats are left on the particular flight you are looking into. If there are a lot of seats left then you have a bit more time, but if the flight is getting full and you don't want to switch flights then buy now.

 

[MK Familystone]

HI!
Southwest Air on their Rapid rewards page has a condo promo which might be worth investigating.

"ENJOY!!!"

"THE MAGIC HAPPENS!!!"

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

Sandyfeet,
At first I was going to suggest you try and drive because even if gas goes sky high it no where near matches air faire but then I realized where you live. I would suggest you first lock in your airline rate and then look for a less expensive lodging rate. Sounds kind of iffy to me since the condo has changed hands. There are plenty of places that are reasonable. Cypress Villas is renovating and the prices for the condo suites are very reasonable. If airline prices continue to rise, then in my opinon, room rates will go down considerably next year. I think one of the reasons that many of us have not found deals on hotelkingdom.com or hotels.com is because when the rates were made the airline prices were reasonable so it assured hotel owners that many people could get to their destination(orlando)and had a little extra to spend on rooms. As fuel prices rise, less and less will fly and many do not want to drive(or cannot) therefore rooms will not be at a premium. You could try and wait this out.

I do not blame the condo owner asking for the deposit, if they just recently purchased the property, then they have bills to and need to plan their budget too I would imagine.

 

[cynjam]

I don't know how much your condo is, but have you considered a vacation home? We've stayed in several and they've all been nice three bedroom, private pool homes. I normally don't pay more than $100 a day total, and they're fully equiped. Try VRBO.com, choice1.com, or greatrentals.com. I usually try to rent directly from the owner. CJ

 

[HollyJoy]

That stinks! Ugh. We're going to drive down, and the increase in gas is scaring us.

 

[Sandy Feet]

Hi Everyone

I'm going to wait and see what happens with the airfares. Hopefully they will go down either mid-week and in a week or two according to Steve Birnbaum on msnbc, as told to me by another poster. Sometimes we can get good fares to Miami in the summertime and then could tack on the MIA - MCO portion. Looking at the airfares, the expensive part for us is getting to somewhere like San Juan. From SJU to MIA is around $300 pp.

Paying a deposit on the condo is totally acceptable and understandable to me. Its a bit worrying only because the new owner was supposed to contact me and has not. Since the original owners are travelling right now I'm not sure who to contact to let them know that the cheque will not arrive by the date stipulated because mail from the Caribbean to the US can take up to a couple weeks. And paying to Fed Ex the cheque would cost another $35 on top of the additional cost of getting a US bank draft. I must try to contact the original owners again. I could get a cheaper place, and reluctantly might just have to if the airfares don't budge.

The MasterCard offer for Universal is Buy 4 Get the 5th Free and costs $379.80 plus tax and shipping (if you want). It worked out to $75.96 each before tax and UPS. With tax and UPS shipping it was $84.29. These tickets are good for 5 consectutive days. Even though we aren't planning to spend 5 days there it seemed a good deal. Another DIS-er put me onto this deal. I don't know how to insert links to other message threads in this post so will look for it and add it on here for you. See if this works...
https://tickets.universalstudios.com/USRG/us_store_secure2.jsp?merchant=mastercard
Bye for now.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by Sandy Feet
Hi Everyone

I'm going to wait and see what happens with the airfares. Hopefully they will go down either mid-week and in a week or two according to Steve Birnbaum on msnbc, as told to me by another poster. Sometimes we can get good fares to Miami in the summertime and then could tack on the MIA - MCO portion. Looking at the airfares, the expensive part for us is getting to somewhere like San Juan. From SJU to MIA is around $300 pp.

Paying a deposit on the condo is totally acceptable and understandable to me. Its a bit worrying only because the new owner was supposed to contact me and has not. Since the original owners are travelling right now I'm not sure who to contact to let them know that the cheque will not arrive by the date stipulated because mail from the Caribbean to the US can take up to a couple weeks. And paying to Fed Ex the cheque would cost another $35 on top of the additional cost of getting a US bank draft. I must try to contact the original owners again. I could get a cheaper place, and reluctantly might just have to if the airfares don't budge.

The MasterCard offer for Universal is Buy 4 Get the 5th Free and costs $379.80 plus tax and shipping (if you want). It worked out to $75.96 each before tax and UPS. With tax and UPS shipping it was $84.29. These tickets are good for 5 consectutive days. Even though we aren't planning to spend 5 days there it seemed a good deal. Another DIS-er put me onto this deal. I don't know how to insert links to other message threads in this post so will look for it and add it on here for you. See if this works...
https://tickets.universalstudios.com/USRG/us_store_secure2.jsp?merchant=mastercard
Bye for now.

Hi,
Use paypal to pay your deposit. Anyone with an email address can do this, pay and receive. It is free.

 

[Joan S.]

Thanks Sandy Feet! We are also a family of 5,so the MasterCard deal worked out great for us! I was originally going to do the 2-third day free with AAA. But MC is a cheaper deal and gives us 2 extra days! We are staying two nites at the HRH so counting the day we arrive and the day we depart we may end up using 4 days! Thanks again! Joan

 

[Sandy Feet]

Originally posted by GAIL HAYDEN
Hi,
Use paypal to pay your deposit. Anyone with an email address can do this, pay and receive. It is free.

Thanks Gail! Good idea - I'll ask the renters if thats ok.

You're very welcome Joan.
I'm so happy to help someone out. This board has been very kind to me.

 

[dsnycrzy]

have you ever considered the train? We're going in August and with paying for 7 people, we paid $940.

It's not as fast but may be less expensive.