WWYD - What Would You Do?

[apagano]

Situation: After a lengthy delay, our vacation dates have finally been approved by our bosses and we are ready to book our flights much later than we had hoped. We leave Cleveland May 10 and return May 17 (those dates are NOT flexible). I have been watching the fares go up and down for over a month, and it seems that even the "sale" fares are higher than normal.

A week ago, SWA was running a special that would have us flying non-stop from CLE for $405. Unfortunately, we had to wait on vacation approval from DW's boss and we missed out on that fare. It has now gone up to $473 RT!

Right now our best bet is to drive to Akron and Fly AirTran for the "sale price" of $425 total, a bit more than we wanted to pay. This itinerary involves a plane change in Atlanta. AirTran also flies non-stop from Akron to MCO, but the n/s fare is $505 total, which puts us way over budget. The non-stop itinerary WAS $405 last week, but again we whiffed on it because of corporate red tape.

Should I

1) Go ahead and book the AirTran flight with connections for $425.

2) Grit my teeth and wait to see if there's another sale in the next couple of weeks that will allow us to fly non-stop within budget.

Normally I would wait, but we're just two months away and it seems everybody is booking flights to FL these days. What do you think?

 

[melissamomof2]

we are going that same week. we were fully planning on flying out on Sat the 10th, but decided to leave on the 9th and stay 1 night at a hotel near the airport. Our flight leaves after 8 PM and is Non stop. Our return flight is at 8:30 AM on the 17th and is non stop. We paid $191.00 per person, but I think right now they have flights a bit less. I went through the USairways 5% discount link. If you want it, let me know.



Melissa

 

[apagano]

Thanks for the tip. I checked into PIT. It looks like I could save $40 by flying out of PIT, but it's a 2 hour drive and there's still a connecting flight! 2 hours to PIT, plus at least one hour at the airport plus 4.5 hours from PIT-MCO makes it an all-day ordeal that is not worth a $40 savings. There are lots of non-stops from PIT to MCO, but those fares are just as high as Cleveland's.

After seeing this, I am now heavily leaning towards booking ASAP and doing the Atlanta connection.

 

[Beast fan]

I just checked Travelocity and saw flights out of Toledo Airport via Delta or Northwest (with one stop) for $206.50 each.

I tried Toledo once (instead of DTW, which was 1 hr closer) and loved it.

F.Y.I. and Good Luck

 

[apagano]

Thank you both for the info. $206.50 pp out of Toledo comes out to $413 for two of us. Much like with Pittsburgh, the savings of $12 does not outweigh the cost of driving 2 hours to Toledo.

I bit the bullet and booked with AirTran out of CAK, even though it means connecting instead of flying non-stop. I can live with the possibility that fares might drop again in exchange for the peace of mind of being booked at a fare I can live with.

 

[DebbieB]

Saturdays are getting tough to fly. We usually go Saturday to Friday but USAir cut down to 3 non-stop flights on Saturdays instead of 5 other days (PIT/MCO). I just booked Friday May 9 to Friday May 16 for $201 each. Saturday to Friday would have been over $300 each. Good excuse to stay another day!