Airfare woes...

[smvdelv]

Can I vent??????
Every February vacation we go to Disney. Now, I know that I should expect a higher fare because it is school vacation week and all, but Delta is getting ridiculous!
If you check fares during any given month, they are running $205 r/t out of Boston, non-stop to Orlando.

BUT....
Airfare right now for ONE WAY from Boston is $277.50 for February 12, 13, and 14 !!!! ONE WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have always been on the phone at midnight to book my flight down (the night the flight becomes available) and in past years, I have succeeded in getting decent fare.
Last year, I got $112 going from Boston to Orlando, and then had to pay $294.50 to come home!!!!!!! That fare never went down!

I guess I will be trying to get a better fare with Southwest out of Manchester. I have never flown with them. Can anyone give me any pointers on how to go about booking with Southwest?
Is it possible to get a DECENT fare with them (under $250 r/t for school vacation week?

Thanks for listening to me vent.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I think you will do better closer to your departure date. We have always found we get better fares if we buy tickets about 3 months out.

 

[Nanajo1]

SW posts its fares at 6 months out. Right now it is listing Aug departures. My DS used them from PVD and it was okay.
We are going in Nov and needed to get 6 adults and 5 children on the same flight. It was a problem trying to book on-line, every time we found a good rate it would disappear before we could book. We ended up buying at an inflated rate only because we needed a non-stop. This was on Delta. American had no morning flights out of Boston. I called and they said there are not planning any either. We always flew AA at 7am to MCO.

 

[KennyK]

Hi smvdelv,

We use Southwest out of Islip, on Long Island all the time. If you are trying to book flts south for this April, Good Luck, especially for discounted fares. They dried up about two months ago.

The key to using Southwest which you can book on line at their web site is to plan ahead. Watch their schedule posting and when their schedule for the dates you want become available. Book it. That will make sure you will get the best prices. You can also sign up for their discount notification using email.

We check all airlines using Expedia or Orbitz for fares. Then we check the airlines sites and choose the best that fit. This year we are flying two one-way fares from NY area to Orlando, to get the best price. We are using Airtran going down and Delta coming back.

Also from personnal experience I find that ticket prices seem to fall during the week from Monday to Thursday. I never book tickets on Friday through Sunday.

Good luck on finding discounted flts, it's not going to be easy at this point in time.

Kennyk

 

[sanilacjack]

Yesterday on this board someone said that Delta had a great fare from Detroit to Orlando. Went to Delta.com and went through their check out system and the fare was amazing.
Granted this was for Dec. 03' but the price was 131.00 round trip.
I did spend some time choosing our seats. Entered my credit card, started to process and than a screen tells me our server is busy please close your broswer and try again. I had another browser open so I used that. In the matter of 5 minutes the price jumped to $356.00. I was shocked. So I called customer service. Even though it was a "Web Problem", they would not honor the previous fare. They said something about if you take to much time, their system will time out and that that is what happen to me. Went to travelocity and got the same fare but had to play 5.00 extra. Oh well. I know it is a little early to buy tickets but felt 131.00 was pretty good. Good luck with you search. I understand.

 

[dbond]

We watch fares to MCO all year long, they do vary considerably. You can set up your favorite routes with Travelocity and they will send you emails with the best fares they find for your favorites. I also use Orbitz to see what's the best rate going out there. Best Fares.com is another great source, but you have to purchase a membership with them. We don't have good luck with Southwest from our origination airport, and I really don't like how they don't book as far in advance as I would like, so I can't offer any advice about them. I'm curious though, why do you book your trips one way? I've always found that booking RT with a Sat night stay gives me the best fares going in almost all situations.

 

[Mickmse2002]

I saw the $131 Delta fare yesterday on Orbitz and took advanyage of it. We got 5 roundtrip seats from Detroit to Orlando in August for a total of $136 each. When we checked the fares a few minutes after that they were back up $300. We got lucky........for once!

 

[dvc guy]

The fares should could down a little, Delta's new low cost carrier SONG will start selling tickets end of March. I would NOT wait till you are 3/4 months out ,as fares over school breaks only go up, not down.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

If you are traveling around a holiday, book as soon as you can at at decent rate, then watch it all year, if it drops, they will give you a travel voucher for the difference, but as far as I know, this only applies when you book through their websites or the 800 numbers. I almost always fly American, we book our tickets for 11/28-12/3 at a price of 179.00 - Laguardia to Orlando, they dropped to 149.00, American is sending us the difference in travel vouchers!

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

ClarabelleCow
If SWA's fares go down, you just rebook at the new rate using the funds you have as a credit, then they hold the excess for one year.


dbond,
I don't have a problem with SWA's reservations system. I feel 6 months is sufficient to make plans. That is just MHO. Your thoughts on rt Sat. night stay are a great rule of thumb, but, often doing it one way on different carriers works out. One of the other reasons I like SWA is you don't need to stay over a Sat. night to qualify for their inexpensive fares. I guess this is a "to each his/her own" type of thing.

 

[Hollie in NH]

We fly Southwest out of Manchester all the time and love them. If I were you I would book as soon as possible. Check out their website. They only have a few non-stop flights and the cheap seats sell out quickly - $79-99/one way. If you wait you end up paying twice as much for the same seat.
Many times a year they have promotions but we have found they sell out fast and not much of a choice in flights.