Massachusetts School Vacation 4/16-4/23 Ridiculous Airfare prices, advice needed

[jenos0524]

My advice for anyone in MA on school vacation, is to Rent a car, leave Friday Night, then you will arrive in Orlando after about 20-24 hours. On way home Leave on Saturday and get home on Sunday. My wife is a teacher in MA and that is your best option. The train sounds great at $150 a person but if you have 4people it is $600. If you rent a car for the week it will cost around $300, upgrade to a larger SUV and still only pay $4-5 hundred. Plus you will have the car to go outside of the parks if you wish. As much as I would have loved to go during April, I booked my trip for August. Orlando kids go back to school 8/15 and I am arriving 8/16 for 10 days! My wife will get back home a week before her school starts and it will cost half the price as it would be if we went in April. Good Luck!

 

[NeverEnufDisney]

The only caveat to August is to have a tolerance for high temperatures with high humidity. If you don't mind that, then absolutely you can save money and have less of a crowd to deal with.

 

[jenos0524]

The only caveat to August is to have a tolerance for high temperatures with high humidity. If you don't mind that, then absolutely you can save money and have less of a crowd to deal with.

I will admit I was originally upset about going in August, but the more I started to plan for it, I realized 10 days would be better than 6/7. That will allow us to spend more time at the pools/water parks. Also allowed me to book flights on Tuesday to Orlando and Thursday Back to Boston for cheaper prices than weekends. Plus it is my daughters first trip so we can go at her pace, and not be in a rush to do everything at every park in 1 day. My goal is to be at all the parks early.. go back to hotel for lunch/downtime and then get back to parks at night as it cools down some.

 

[DarthVader]

My advice for anyone in MA on school vacation, is to Rent a car, leave Friday Night, then you will arrive in Orlando after about 20-24 hours. On way home Leave on Saturday and get home on Sunday

That wasn't something I really wanted to do. I have two kids and that would be very hard on all of us as we drove non-stop. The drive home would be even worse. What I also didn't like is losing 4 days of our vacation for travelling.

 

[jenos0524]

That wasn't something I really wanted to do. I have two kids and that would be very hard on all of us as we drove non-stop. The drive home would be even worse. What I also didn't like is losing 4 days of our vacation for travelling.

I didn't want to do that either so I choose to go at the end of August instead. I would suggest the train but that too is a 24 hour each way trip. Last time I flew to florida I ended up going during Feb vacation and flew down on a Monday and home on a friday to keep it cheaper. But that short of a vacation was horrible and I prob wouldn't do that again!

 

[draybook]

Agreed, I'm NEVER going to go to WDW during school vacation. 6,000 dollars for a family of 4 is highway robbery. The cost of gas goes down, yet we don't see any savings in airfare. The cost of gas increases, airlines are quick to add fees/surcharges.

I can understand the concept of supply and demand but charging over 1,000 per ticket per person round trip is greed pure and simple.,

True, but you have to take into account how much gasoline an airplane uses during each flight. Then you have to consider the crew salaries....

 

[KilleriMac17]

Y can do what I did 2 years ago, it was a lot cheaper to fly out to Los Angeles and stay onsite at Disneyland. This year since my kid is homeschooled now, we are driving down and going before school vacation as well.

 

[DarthVader]

True, but you have to take into account how much gasoline an airplane uses during each flight. Then you have to consider the crew salaries....

So you're saying that paying the salaries and the cost of gas is the reason why on one week the cost of a flight to Orlando is 1,000 for a family of four and on another week its 5 times that cost? That really doesn't make too much sense especially consider that the cost of fuel is at an all time low.

 

[draybook]

So you're saying that paying the salaries and the cost of gas is the reason why on one week the cost of a flight to Orlando is 1,000 for a family of four and on another week its 5 times that cost? That really doesn't make too much sense especially consider that the cost of fuel is at an all time low.

No, I'm saying that you can't minimize how much it costs to run these aircraft. Jet fuel runs about 90 cents per gallon right now, or close to it. Most commercial airliners hold between 6-10k gallons on a flight. If a plane holds 300 passengers and the average ticket (just for this scenario) is 300, then you're talking about 9k dollars. Now subtract the cost of gas, pay your pilots, stewardesses, and maintenance crew.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Agreed, I'm NEVER going to go to WDW during school vacation. 6,000 dollars for a family of 4 is highway robbery. The cost of gas goes down, yet we don't see any savings in airfare. The cost of gas increases, airlines are quick to add fees/surcharges.

I can understand the concept of supply and demand but charging over 1,000 per ticket per person round trip is greed pure and simple.,

You seem to have your finger on the pulse of what it takes to run an airline. I'd recommend starting your own then you could fly in your own private jet.

 

[DarthVader]

You seem to have your finger on the pulse of what it takes to run an airline. I'd recommend starting your own then you could fly in your own private jet.

If you want to front me the money, I'll be more then happy to do so

 

[DarthVader]

o, I'm saying that you can't minimize how much it costs to run these aircraft.

I'm not questioning the cost overheads of airlines, but they are making record profits, as per threir reported financial statements, yet the prices have not retreated. I can live with 200 to 300 airline tickets but when those same tickets are jacked up to 600 and beyond in the Boston area simply because that location has school vacation. That's a problem. I'm driving to Albany (a 2.5 hour drive) and that airline cost is in the more normal range that I mentioned. If the overhead costs were crushing as noted, wouldn't all locations have high prices?

 

[Hakunamatata]

If you want to front me the money, I'll be more then happy to do so

I would but then I would have to raise prices of services I provide to my customers and one of them might start accusing me of unethical profits on a message board somewhere.

 

[draybook]

I'm not questioning the cost overheads of airlines, but they are making record profits, as per threir reported financial statements, yet the prices have not retreated. I can live with 200 to 300 airline tickets but when those same tickets are jacked up to 600 and beyond in the Boston area simply because that location has school vacation. That's a problem. I'm driving to Albany (a 2.5 hour drive) and that airline cost is in the more normal range that I mentioned. If the overhead costs were crushing as noted, wouldn't all locations have high prices?

Don't think I'm excusing their process, I'm really not. I always fly Southwest out of Memphis because their prices seem to stay the same year round.

 

[DarthVader]

Don't think I'm excusing their process, I'm really not. I always fly Southwest out of Memphis because their prices seem to stay the same year round.

Southwest was the best price to be sure. For a variety of reasons we opted for Jetblue out of Albany as I mentioned.

 

[Bryan Slater]

We booked our vacation over six months before our trip. We waited on the flights because the prices were high and we'd heard they drop as you get closer. They're still in the range of $600-$1000 per person which is ridiculous. Anyone who has previous experience with this timeframe have any advice? Should we keep waiting and hope it drops? We have eleven that will need tickets so if it doesn't drop we may need to rent a vehicle and drive down. Thank you in advance.

Check allegiant airline. I got mine out of Pa non stop for 200 and 40 for baggage. If you have any questions or need advice just message me and I'll be happy to help.

 

[MrDee]

When we flew during February vacation last year, our family of four flew down on the Friday morning prior to vacation and returned home on the Thursday of the school vacation week. The kids missed one day of school, but it saved us a few hundred dollars.

Totally agree here. If altering your plans by a day here or there is possible, it can be totally worthwhile. Also, and most of you aren't going to like this, but we've even gone down the week BEFORE school vacation starts. Saved MASSIVELY this way. Yes, the kids missed school, but in most cases we were able to get all of their homework in advance......but we've also gotten the stern eye from each school Principle for doing this....and one teacher that refused to give us the homework in advance. No apples for her!