When to book Dec air ressies?

[farleyman]

Hi everyone,

My wife and I are planning on a trip to WDW Dec. 7th thru the 14th, with hotel ressies already booked. Now we need to book our airfare. Checking online, tics are quite expensive(especially compared to the special airfares offered this fall). Cheapest I have been able to find is around 400 bucks round trip(from BOS). Now my question, when do you think I should book these tickets? I feel as soon as I book these, the airlines will have a sale a month or two down the road. For anyone that has traveled around this time, is this the normal airfare? Does anyone think I should wait and see if there is a sale?
Any help is very, very much appreciated!!

--Jim

 

[dbond]

In my experience, they always go up the closer you get, rarely down. We fly from Texas and DFW to MCO is a very popular route from here. I usually buy 10 months out or more. I do watch the rates, and occasionally, over the past 8 years, the rate has dropped after my purchase. Most major airlines will give you a voucher for the rate difference if you bring it to their attention. This year, we bought our flights for NYE back in March with Delta for $244 RT. Currently, our same Delta flights would cost $1061 RT!

 

[zulaya]

I'd buy sooner rather than later. Usually December flights, you see the drop in price in May, June July timeframe, at least in my neck of the woods. You might have to buy now and just take it as a lesson learned and buy earlier next time around.

 

[disneyaddict]

We had the same problem, but we are going down xmas week. Did you try travelocity and expedia. Our travel agent told us that she could have got us tix out xmas day returning new years for a little over $400. On expedia i was able to find flights as low as $252. We ended up going with the $300 ones because we liked the times a little better.

 

[marianne98]

We are going Nov 29- Dec 4th I have been checking faithfully for about 3 months now, I booked yesterday on Delta for 155.00 Round Trip. I have done better in the past, but the flight on the way down is pretty full so i didn't want to wait anymore. I would definely check travelocity on the MY DATES ARE FLEXIBLE alot of them are going to a DEC 14th last date of travel.

 

[hercamore]

Try checking flights into Tampa...usually cheaper.



Herc.

 

[chinamom3]

We are also going in Dec, the fourth thru the seventh, and I went ahead and booked thru Delta. Prices were the same for the flights thru Delta Tickets as well as Expedia and Travelocity. The main reason I went ahead and booked is because I wanted to make sure I could get on the choices of flights I wanted-early morning on Wed. to use the whole day and night at the parks, and late Saturday evening for the same reason. Even though I got excellent prices ($99 per person one way), I was willing to pay a little more if necessary to make the rest of the trip go smoothly. Also, we have United Skymiles, and I didn't realize that Delta and United have a reciprocity program going, so we got sky miles on our United plan, even though we used Delta!

 

[dcfromva]

farleyman

trip(from BOS).

I don't know where you live, but I thought I would throw this one out. Had you considered SWA from either Providence or Manchester?
I just did a quick check PVD-MCO Dec7, MCO-PVD Dec 14, 269 per person RT incl taxes.

WOW!
I just did a quick check PVD-TPA (tampa), Dec7, and TPA-PVD Dec14 102.00 per person Round trip including taxes. Sheesh!
I don't know how far you are from PVD--but that is a great deal!!
Tampa is only about an hour's drive to WDW. We have made the trip many times and it isn't really that much farther than MCO to WDW.
BTW--these seats tend to go really fast.

-DC

 

[farleyman]

Only about 40 minutes or so from PVD. Trip to MCO is actually more expensive than from BOS, but to TPA, geez, those are great prices!!
Ok, with TPA in mind, another question. We are planning on renting a car for the week. This will be my first time doing so(my apologies for lack of knowledge in this area). Most rental places offer unlimited mileage correct? So, driving from Tampa to Orlando shouldn't be a problem right? (i.e. lots more money, etc.)

Many, many thanks to everyone for all the help!!!

Jim

 

[dcfromva]

farleyman,
You would have to ask your specific Car rental agency.
If you are a member of Disney Club, you can get a free Emerald Aisle membership (National Rental Car) and a discount on your car rental. I usually reserve car on-line and it tells the complete price with all the taxes. I don't know if it is part of the Emerald Aisle membership, but so far, the quotes always comes back unlimited mileage.
We love Emerald Aisle level service--you reserve a car in advance and then you just walk over to the Emerald Aisle and pick a car and then check out at the drive through window. Of course, you may be able to find better discounts through the SWA site (they will also tell you if it is unlimited mileage or not) or another site.
Here's National:
link to National Rental Car

Here's a link to SWA to give you an idea of the relative cost of rental cars:
link to SWA travel center

Happy planning!
-DC

 

[Rpsemont]

farlyeman
I fly out of Hartford but always watch BOS, PVD and other airports. If you go on travelocity and check "my dates are flexbile" you will see the best fares and they should show if they're lower from PVD or other airports and whether they're into Tampa or MCO. the trick is, to get the lower fares, you may have to modify your dates. When you see the fare click through to the rules to see if the extend to Dec. We are patiently waiting lower fare for a trip we want to take in Nov. Last year, we bought our Dec tickets on 7/31 for $75RT BDL - MCO. Then in JAn we bought tickets for $102 RT for a March trip. I'd wait a little longer, unless youdecide to go for that PVD-TPA. As far as car rental, we always do priceline. And as far as I know it is unlimited miles.

 

[farleyman]

Thanks again everyone for all your help. I ended up taking the advice for Tampa, and just booked roundtrip tickets from Providence on Southwest for 205.00 TOTAL(for both my wife and I). Awesome!


--Jim