When and where to get best Dec. airfare to orlando?

[chris7]

We are taking our first trip to Disney World on Dec. 18 for eight nights. I'm a little worried about airfare since this is Christmas travel time. We are in Austin Texas. Can anyone point me to good travel websites with good hints and tips for getting best Christmas airfare and when is the best time to start looking? Any ideas about where to look or learn about this would be appreciated. Travelling with two adults and two kids (3, and 5). Thanks

 

[beglluvr]

I booked for the beginning of December a few weeks ago from expedia and got a great fare... i would check back to those sites often. Incidentally, I got my deal (about 1/2 off regular price out of buffalo) on a Sunday. I don't know if it makes a difference.

Good Luck!

 

[golfgal]

I like Travelocity.com for travel reservations. You can sign up for fare alert and they will email you when your fight prices chage. I know this past Dec, flights from Minneapolis were in the $110/rt range from about the first of Dec through mid-Dec.

 

[dcibrando]

order an entertainment.com book for $9.99 at http://www.funyouth.org/fundraisers.htm and use the $30 off coupon to book through Hotwire.com. That's what I did!

 

[chris7]

We could take Southwest airlines but right now they only have fare up until Dec. This is the part i'm not clear about. Southwest can usually beat most airlines, but i'm not sure what happens with their fares over Christmas, whether they get jacked up. So... do I wait and see what their fares are, or will I miss out on the other deals by waiting? We have not traveled by plane since our oldest was born so I haven't got a clue about finding the best airfare. Thanks

 

[d-man's mom]

Southwest is only booking up until September online (I just looked a second ago to verify).

I'm going to WDW Dec 13-17th (Philly to Orlando) and am sitting here impatiently waiting on Southwest to open up it's reservations for the rest of the year. As soon as they do, I'm booking my seats and if the rate goes down, will have them credit the difference towards future flights. I literally check every day to see if they've changed the site yet, even though I'm sure it won't happen for another month!

Right now I can get $186RT on either Airtran or UsAir. I think I will be able to do better on Southwest.

Have you downloaded DING yet onto your computer? At the very least you might be able to buy your tix on SWA and have the price adjusted for any specials you might find.

Good luck!

edited to say I just found $172/RT on Airtran! Still holding out though!

 

[chris7]

Thanks, you're right, I meant to put September. I called Southwest this morning and they said theres no predicatable way to figure out when the Dec. fares and schedules will be posted. Right now the best price I can find (expedia, travelocity...) is $350 which sounds astronimical to me, but I have not flown in ages so do not have an idea of what a good rate from austin to orlando would be. Whats DING?

 

[chris7]

Ignore the last question. I just looked it up online and downloaded it.

 

[MAKMOM41]

HOw often does a DING flight happen. I downloaded it 2 weeks ago & have not had anything happen. I was wondering if my AOL spyware was blocking it?

 

[jeanneg4of4]

I get DINGED 2-3 times a day. I also have some problems at times. Not sure about the aol browser.

 

[paslea_pooh]

I haven't downloaded yet but hope to very soon. I was wondering if the flights that they discount or "ding" are red eye or extremely early morning flights, say 6 am? I am traveling with 4 kids and I'd like to get a fairly decent flight time say 8-9 am. I read all the time about great fares but when I go to the website that is recommended I get a price for almost double.

We are located in NorthEast PA so we could fly out of Allentown (ABE) or Newark, NJ or even Philadelphia but haven't been able to find any really good fares. We are hoping to fly Nov27th if we get a good price, there's six of us total so every little bit helps, otherwise we are driving again (just drove this Past March)

Thanks for any help you guys can offer.

 

[amee]

check out

mobissimo.com

A really helpful site for airline travel.

If you can fly from Newark, check out Jetblue.com

AMEE

 

[chris7]

Hi all - I'm going to start a seperate thread about DING since this thread has kind of split into two topics. I have additional questions about DING as well, so I'll post them on the new thread. The general topic of how to get best airfares in Dec. will continue here. Thanks

 

[chris7]

I cut and pasted everyones questions over to the new Ding thread and someone has asnwered most of them.