Waited too long :(

[dahrjo]

We are planning to go to Disney in Feb.--Presidents week. Still I have not found the right price for a flight.
We prefer to leave from DTW, but Lansing has slightly cheaper prices....but is 1 1/2 hours away .

Any suggestions out there??

 

[ancestry]

Presidents weeks is a rough time to find cheap flights. With all of the schools on vacation then it seems like 1/2 the country is heading to Orlando.

In my experience the flight prices only continue to climb. Rarely do they come down during peak travel times. I would recommend booking soon rather than later.

 

[PrincessNoelle'sMom]

I booked my President's week flights almost a month ago when I decided to take a vacation or would have booked it even sooner. I missed the cheapest fares at the time by about 2 or 3 days, so I grabbed it at $30 more pp. I have watched it climb ever since.

As the pp said, it is only going to go up - so I wou purchase soon - Good Luck!

 

[dahrjo]

I think they are averaging around $400. That times the 5 of us, is the problem. That is a huge chunk of money.

 

[floridafam]

Keep checking. I found tickets for my parents at Christmas time for $200 each from GR to Melbourne just a few weeks ago. You never know when you are going to get a deal.

 

[michst8alum]

Cheaper from Lansing? That is a surprise! As someone from the Lansing area, we find that Flint or Detroit is always cheaper. I am flying out of Detroit for our Christmas trip and the rest of the family from Flint. The nice things about flying out of the smaller airports is the parking is SO much cheaper and right in front of the airport. 1 1/2 hour may really be worth the price savings. I am taking our airport bus service to Detroit to avoid the parking expense and hassle.

 

[Marionnette]

We are planning to go to Disney in Feb.--Presidents week. Still I have not found the right price for a flight.
We prefer to leave from DTW, but Lansing has slightly cheaper prices....but is 1 1/2 hours away .

Any suggestions out there??

How flexible can you be with your dates? Can you depart the Wednesday before President's Weekend? Come back in the middle of the week? Are you willing to fly at odd hours and change planes, like a a 4.5 hour trip that won't get you into MCO until 10:30 at night? Or return from Orlando by departing at 7:00 AM?

The more flexible you are, the less it will cost you in the long run. Southwest has fares in the range of $115-$130 each way if you're able to be flexible with your dates and times. Plus, if they come out with a lower fare later on a day or flight that suits you better, you can switch for no fee.

Other than that, I got nothing. I've watched airfares for my January trip skyrocket over the last two weeks. They are now almost double what they were when I booked. I don't know why. But I'm glad that I had the ability to book when I did since I was paying with Rapid Rewards points and it saved me quite a few points.

 

[ccgirl]

I think they are averaging around $400. That times the 5 of us, is the problem. That is a huge chunk of money.

I find that Presidents week and mid April fares are ridiculously high. The first day the April fares were released I could have saved a huge chunk of money if I could fly to MCO 2 days before vacation started. But, I waited too long and they are up past $400 each so we will be going in May instead.

 

[dfchelbay]

Consider it a blessing in disguise. WDW is crazy busy that week. President's week is one of my least favorite weeks to visit the parks. You spend majority of your time waiting in line...ugh.

 

[shortbun]

If you're serious about finding cheap tickets, check Toledo-Indianapolis-Columbus-Cleveland-Dayton-Cincinnati. Look for charter flights. Yeah, I think November is a little late for one of the busiest weekends of the year but you might find something opening up this month...maybe. Personally, I'd book the best thing I could find now and move forward to the rest of my plans OR I'd pick another weekend.

 

[ccdoster]

We live in Holland and the cheapest flights (that we find) are always out of Flint. I feel your pain. Don't forget to add in the overnight parking and gas into the comparison. We have driven several times for the cheaper flight and the kids are so excited, it's never been a problem.

 

[Hoogy]

In Ontario (Canada) we have the Monday off too (Family day) so Canadians will also be using airports such as Detroit (and Buffalo) to find cheaper fares...so I would say the fares are just going to keep going up! Too much demand.

 

[MichiganKris]

I'd keep watching Flint also. When I was flying a lot, it was almost always cheaper from Flint than Detroit or Lansing and parking is a lot cheaper.

 

[Fire14]

I have found that Columbus ( my home airport) tends to be cheaper or on par with DTW. You can try Flint and Kalamazoo also. Even Flights from Grand rapids have been pretty good as of late.

 

[dahrjo]

I will look into Flint flights. We have no other choice but that week, because my son is going with his band from school. We are extending our part of the trip so are not flying with the school.

 

[auntmeme7577]

We live in Saginaw and always get a good deal on AirTran out of Flint
Good Luck!

 

[floridafam]

Have you checked Delta? You can do a ten day search. The fares look reasonable for that week depending on yoyr days.

 

[carebee21]

You can set up price alerts through sites like airfarewatchdog or kayak. They will alert you when the price drops with any airline, except southwest.

And you will usually find cheaper flights trying to fly on Tuesday, Wed or Thursday, either early, early morning flights or late night flights. So if you can rearrange your schedule to accomodate any of these, you may have better luck.

When I was looking for airfare, I checked the prices through kayak and southwest every morning. You just never know what day the prices are going to go down.

But, I'm going to be honest. Southwest, Delta, Frontier, Air Tran and Continental all just had great prices on their flights for late Dec, Jan & Feb toward the beginning-mid october. I'd be suprised if most people looking at that time frame didn't book then, decreasing the chance that they'll need to lower the prices in the future. I'm going over MLK weekend, the price before the sale was $176/pp each way and we paid $89/pp each way; the price now is $161, just to give you an idea of how much the prices have fluctuated and shot back up.