What's the best UNITED fare ORD to MCO? Those "Award" tickets can be tricky to use!

[goofy4wdw59]

For those from the Chicagoland area--
In the past, I didn't find the best airfares at United, but, maybe with recent events, things may change? Today, I found what I think is a good deal for United airfare from ORD (O'Hare) to MCO (Orlando) -- $221.50 nonstop.
If one checked regularly, (I didn't) maybe United offered a good sale now and then. What rates have you found in the past, and, did you fly United?
The reason I'm interested in United flights--We've had a United Mileage Plus VISA card for years--charged everything (paying off most/all each month) trying to accumulate flyer miles. Now, after some years, we have enough for 4 "award" tickets (25,000 each). We stopped using this card awhile back when we realized that United didn't offer the best deals to Orlando. We switched to a card that accumulates miles that can be used for several airlines of your choice, etc.
Anyway, I would like to use these award miles up as we've had them for almost two years! They haven't been easy to use for several reasons--
#Saver tickets are very limited--you must pick your dates as soon as possible (I think you can do this a year out). It's sometimes difficult to make this commitment a year out--especially as later changes, etc are costly.
#Also, even with many months of advance checking, getting 4 "award" tickets on the same flight isn't easy--we haven't found 4 on the same flight yet for the dates that we needed.
#Another reason--ATA and Southwest out of Midway/Chicago offer much better "nonstop" airfare for vacationing families. The last couple of times we've flown, we purchased from ATA & Southwest.
The best way for us to use our "Saver" tickets is to split them up--pay cash for a couple of tickets. It's not much of a "deal" if you're paying a high cash price!--might as well go for 4 sale tickets on ATA!
So...finally, after checking United airfare today, I used two of our "Saver" tickets (available for our flights!) and paid cash for the other tickets. I think today's find of $221.50 (nonstop) is a good rate for United. Just wondering what others have found for United fares?
What have you done to redeem your "Saver" tickets?

 

[Buzzsgramma]

Ded. 3-10..2002.....three of us (each) pd. $155.00 rt into Orlando....on ATA......which we always use.......(no air-line miles) for us........have gotton that price for numerous flights before..... . at that price again ...... .. ....looking for 6 rt for Oct 2003....hope i can get them..

 

[Figment2]

The best air rate I found was on ATA - $125 RT for my January 2002 trip (purchased in November). We fly ATA. In October 2002 it was $165, Sept. was $145. We think anything under $180 is good.

We find that coming home on a weekday sometimes helps the fare. We are fond of leaving on Wed. or Thurs. and coming home Monday.

We still check SW or UAL but ATA seems to beat them.

C.