Any thoughts on this crazy airfare??

[djrmusic]

Hi gang,

I'm trying to take my family to the world at the end of Auguest (24th to 31st). Got the WDW package all set (2 rooms and free dinning - yea!!!) but the airfare is killing me. I can't find anything less than $1300 (We're flying from Buffalo, NY).

Anyone else having this problem? Any tips? We can't drive because we have to get back by 9/1.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Help save a vacation!!

Dave

[SnwhtNdwrfs]

You don't mention how many people? It may also help to be flexible with your dates. I found that flying on Sunday was a killer to the budget. In looking at only one airline, if you would fly from August 23 to 30, it will save you about $100-130 a person. Just a thought.

[MandaBella]

I've been having the same problem. I've been keeping an eye on SouthWest's specials and their DINGs for my upcoming trip. What's great about SW is that if you book now and see your flight cheaper, they will give a credit for the difference.

SW is offering 15% off for part of your dates. You can check into that. Better hurry because you need to book within the next few days I think.

[djrmusic]

You don't mention how many people? It may also help to be flexible with your dates. I found that flying on Sunday was a killer to the budget. In looking at only one airline, if you would fly from August 23 to 30, it will save you about $100-130 a person. Just a thought.

Sorry..4 people (2 adults and the kids (21 and 17). Dates are not flexible because of free dining and college. I think I'm getting killed because we're flying back on Labor Day weekend

[djrmusic]

I've been having the same problem. I've been keeping an eye on SouthWest's specials and their DINGs for my upcoming trip. What's great about SW is that if you book now and see your flight cheaper, they will give a credit for the difference.

SW is offering 15% off for part of your dates. You can check into that. Better hurry because you need to book within the next few days I think.

Same here about SW. However the Ding special has blackout dates for the 28th to the 1st so you can't use the discount.

[HauntedGabe]

I had the same problem last August. Airfare from Chicago to Orlando was just about $400.00 a person. Yet in November it was just over $200.00.

Price out BUF to Tampa/St. Pete. Yep, you'll give up an hour each way however you might be able to knock off a great deal off of each ticket.
Flying in there is almost always cheaper but that hour extra driving time vs. the driving time from Orlando puts some off.

[KingJamesUT]

How about the sanford int. airport, do you have connections to it. My girlfriend flies allegiant from chattanooga to sanford for $29 - $49 sometimes. It's north of Downtown Orlando, but not quite as far as Tampa.

[Winnie]

My husband use to work in the travel industry. He said booking over a holiday timeframe most always makes airfares sky rocket! Sorry I don't have any better suggestions!

GOOD LUCK!

[croc614]

we saved alot of money by flying south west,paid about 210 a person so it was just about 110 for all five of us, and you should try to be a little flexible on your dates because it was alot cheaper for us to fly the day before we had actually planned to go, we saved 100 bucks on top of the extra money we had to pay for the room at disney

[croc614]

1100$ sry

[Goofygirl]

I agree that traveling around the holiday with dates that are not flexible will increase the fare cost. Also keep in mind that as our gas prices skyrocket so does the jet fuel. I have a customer who pays $.50 per kilo to get his goods from the US to The Netherlands and $1.30 per kilo for the fuel surcharge. I would imagine we will see higher airfares if jet fuel keeps going up.

[ToddBreakey]

Unfortunately that isn't "crazy" airfare anymore. My wife and I were looking to fly down in Oct with our daughters. We have 2 free round trips on United so we only had to buy 2 tickets. The airfare for just the two tickets was going to be near $1000 round trip. We have decided to just drive. It will be cheaper.

You are going to get killed because of traveling on a holiday weekend. That is just a part of doing business.

My suggestion, look at sites like Hotwire, Orbitz etc. These are going to have some of the best deals out there. Remember, Southwest IS NOT always the cheapest airline. If they are the only airline flying that direct route, you will pay through the nose.

Allegiant was suggested but they don't have any flights on the days that you want to travel. But if you could put off for one day on each end, you could go down for 89 each and back for 264 each. Of course you would have to travel out of Plattsburgh, NY and Sanford, FL. Not sure how far Plattsburgh is from BUF.

Unfortunately, this is going to be the way it is for airline travel for a while. I work at RDU for one of the fuel vendors and am intimately involved with the contracts involved with the fuel side of things. The most expensive part of a flight used to be the pilots but it has quickly become fuel over the past year. For example, I audited a recent flight from RDU to ORD (Chicago) and the fuel cost alone was over $50,000 ONE WAY!!! Then you have to add in the cost of the pilots, FAs, rampers, ticket agents, office personell, corporate people and you quickly see why the airlines are losing money left and right. ABC did a review of a couple of full flights for Continental Airlines earlier this month, one from HOU to EWR and another from EWR to LAX. Both flights were full with an average ticket price of $143 on the first and ~$175 on the second. BOTH FLIGHTS LOST MONEY!!!! They were full flights!!!

Another thing that has driven the price up is frequency and capacity. Airlines are eliminating flights to some destinations and parking their most ineffecient aircraft. As they park these old B737s and MD80s they are getting replaced by ERJs and CRJs with half the capacity. So the seats are rarer and pricier.

The moral of the story is that as a consumer, we are going to be paying higher fares for the forseeable future. The only thing that will bring prices down is for oil to go down also. But, just like with gasoline prices, we will never see the $29 one way fares from RDU to MCO again.

[GoofyGuy]

Well, I had trouble booking also this year because of the sky rocketing prices. I needed three seats from Boston to Orlando, and I tried from Manchester NH to Orlando. We were looking for NON-Stop flights having a 2yr old with us.
I had a whole spread sheet going until I got lucky one night and bought them on the spot.
American Airlines wanted $1750. Continental $1500. United $1450. Southwest $987. and Jet Blue $795. Friday to Friday. We ended up changing it to Wednesday to Wednesday because we got a way better deal with Delta out of Boston. $188 each round trip Non stop.. With all the fees came to $625. Best price I've seen all year.
So it does pay to change your dates if you can be flexible and fly during the week.

[bigwolf]

Lucky guys !!! I have ad to pay over $5000 for three of us to fly from the UK on 20th Aug.Can't even get a direct flight.Have to go via Miami on the way out and JFK on the way home. Still only a few more days to go.
As for gas prices over here $10 a gallon.

[HdnMickeyGrl]

I always fly Southwest. They usually have incredilbly reasonable faires to Orlando/MCO. I did hae a friend fly into Sanford on a ridiculously low priced fare as well. So check them both out. I think she flew USairs or Delta. And timing really is everything. I think I had planned a trip to Phoenix last year over Memorial Weekend and it was $1000 that same trip two weeks earlier or later was $400. If you're locked into Labor Day you might be locked into those prices as well. I'm flying to Orlando in a month and I got my tickets round trip for $160, $180 when you add all the taxes in. I'm flying from Raleigh.

I also know that some airports have high taxes etc... We used to live in Richmond and becuase of it's location there's some kind of high property tax and all the tickets are insanely high compared to other airports. Maybe you could not only look into a different destination airport but a different departure airport if there is one nearby.

The only downside to switching airports is that if one is truly more convenient or closer you lose time, gas, etc... so you have to factor that in and see if you really save anything.

Good luck!