Airfare changing anyone else's plans?

[captainkidd]

Our trip is booked and all paid for, except for return airfare. I'm seriously considering canceling this summer though. Airfare is through the roof. We live near Boston and have 3 airports to fly from. Flight down cost $1,000 for the 5 of us. Flight back is gonna run us even more.

I just can't stomach what the oil companies are doing to the economy. Literally, choking it to death. I'm feeling like part of the problem if I contribute to this insanity. The government tells us we need to put money into the economy to get it back on track. How can we do that when it costs $3.60 for a gallon of gas, or it costs a family of 5 over $2,000 to fly to Orlando? To think, just 3 years ago, we could all fly to Orlando for about $600 round trip.

 

[Disney_Belle]

I've checked SW daily since the day the fares became available. I bought going down at $169. They've only gone up to $184.

We go every July or August and I've never seen airfare from SW or JetBlue as high as it is this year.

I just booked my flights from PVD to SNA (Orange County) for April to go to Disneyland and the flight there I got for $189 on SW. I too, waited to book my return flight. I saw it jump from $189, to $199, to $204 then to $219, which is when I booked. I looked again a day later just to see, and it was $227. Now it currently stands at $273 before taxes and fees.

My sister in law just got flights from Hartford to Orlando non stop on Jetblue for $94 one way, but this is also for March.

Don't cancel your trip just yet. Hopefully it can get lower so you can go. We had to drive home from WDW in February due to the emergency with our house, and all flights out had been booked because of the 100's cancelled flights out of MCO they were trying to make up for. We had 4 days until we were supposed to fly home and there was another storm due to hit that day. We rented a car and drove home the 22 long hours because we needed to get into our house asap before any more water damage was done, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it may be. However, with 5 people, I can see how it may be a bit too much.

Good luck and hopefully the fares come down soon!

 

[IndyDisney]

We're driving from western PA. The cost of fuel and hotel rooms on the drive still beats flights and rental car, even at $5.00 a gallon.


For some reason I'm having deja-vu. Didn't we go over this back in '08/'09?

-Indy

 

[mrerk]

I think there is some price gouging going on, especially on the northeast to FL routes. They have dropped so many flights that the ones that are left run mostly full, which drives up prices.

I can fly to CA for $400 less than I can fly to FL! How is it I can fly twice the distance for a little more than half the money?

 

[me_stitch]

I booked 6 round-trip tickets from Portland, OR to Orlando for $2250, I figured with gas going up I better get them while I can rather than pay more later.

 

[Raven66]

We usually fly but not this year, we are driving. It will be about a 15 hour drive. I'm still hoping airfare goes down.

 

[Ghall]

Wish I didn't have to pay so much for airfares, it's costing us €5185.00 ($7000.00) to fly direct from Dublin to Orlando in July for 5 people! Never had to pay that much on previous trips!

 

[BeachClubNut]

Our trip is booked and all paid for, except for return airfare. I'm seriously considering canceling this summer though. Airfare is through the roof. We live near Boston and have 3 airports to fly from. Flight down cost $1,000 for the 5 of us. Flight back is gonna run us even more.

I just can't stomach what the oil companies are doing to the economy. Literally, choking it to death. I'm feeling like part of the problem if I contribute to this insanity. The government tells us we need to put money into the economy to get it back on track. How can we do that when it costs $3.60 for a gallon of gas, or it costs a family of 5 over $2,000 to fly to Orlando? To think, just 3 years ago, we could all fly to Orlando for about $600 round trip.

thats not a bad price I paid 656 jet blue for 2 of us first week in Feb and I purchased 5 months out. Boston - Orlando 1000 for 5 seems average.

 

[Ghall]

Return flights from Dublin to Orlando for four of us going in August cost 3,500 EUROS!!! My husband says this might have to be the last year we go to WDW. I hope not . . . . . . . .

Are you flying direct? It's not cheap to fly from Dublin anymore! Can't believe it cost us over €5000 for 5 of us to get to Orlando with Aer Lingus but looking forward to flying out of Terminal 2 this year!

 

[Unomas]

The airfare is making me sick. With taxes and fees it will cost just the two of us $1,000 round-trip in December. I paid $150 round-trip a couple of years ago. Sickening. I really hope something changes soon - before I have to buy my tickets.

Also waiting on AirTran to release December dates....

 

[lumpydj]

I wish we didn't have to depend on airlines to get us places, but we really are too impatient to drive, plus we're limited on vacation time and don't want to spend the majority of it driving. However, I just booked our October trip on JetBlue from Hartford to Orlando and was able to get non-stop flights at good times for $244 pp round trip. Usually, I can get below $200 but I was expecting this trip to be a bit higher with the oil prices. Oh well, luckily we can still fit it into our budget. :lookaroun

 

[thewhitequeen]

I think a lot of people are going to be driving this summer. I also believe Disney sent out free dining pins for the peak summer months because they anticipate lots of cancellations and need to get people to stay in their parks. They are predicting gas to be $5.00 per gallon so my guess is some will cancel.

 

[NewfieFan]

Don't get me wrong - No one should feel bad for us. I'm damn grateful we get to take a trip anywhere.

It's just too bad that because of what's happening with oil prices, our already weakened economy is getting less help than needed.

I was just joking with you! I'm sure it sucks when you have to pay more. Although, I do smile to myself when I hear people in the US complain about airfare. It's actually painful what we have to pay up here. We spend most of our vacation budget just getting there. We've looked at prices even flying out of Toronto and the money that would be saved would be enough to upgrade us to a nicer resort and then some!

 

[mousebymarriage]

I was shocked by the airline prices when I did a bit of browsing yesterday. We are planning to drive down from NJ at the end of June but, I just wanted to see if maybe, just maybe it would be cheaper to fly if I was lucky enough to snag a good deal. I checked a bunch of airlines and even tried sidestep.com (we have used them before and gotten some good deals and never any issues using them), all the flights were basically over $300 pp round trip. Then I checked Jetblue and was so surprised when I saw $211 from Newark to Orlando. The flight was scheduled to leave after 9pm and arrive in Orlando around midnight (kind of a waste to pay a night at a hotel when you probably won't check in until after 1am or later if the flight is delayed but, that was a good airfare vs. what I have seen recently). So I mention it to DH and he looks slightly interested then he says "well what time is the return flight", and guess what I can't find that info., then stupid me remembers that JetBlue lists their flights each way so the $211 is pp ONE WAY! The best return price I could find for the day we want to leave was $141 pp. So that would make flying for us via JetBlue $352 pp round trip plus taxes and fees. The other airlines were pretty much the same in their pricing.
So for our family of 4 to fly it would cost us=$1408 plus taxes and fees.
We would also have to rent a car because we are spending a few days with family on the Florida gulf coast after we spend a few days in Disney.

Even if gas hits $5.00 a gallon it's still cheaper for us to drive.

 

[mickeysshoes]

I was also taken back by the prices this year and the lack of flight choices. Hike the prices and reduce the number of flights. Thank god I had credits to use with JetBlue from our flight delay last year. It took off 50% off the flight itself. So I was able to get 4 round trips from IAD to MCO for $800. If not i would have had to look into switching from the Boardwalk to the WL to save money to cover the flight!!! plum crazy.....

 

[lisak09]

Are you flying direct? It's not cheap to fly from Dublin anymore! Can't believe it cost us over €5000 for 5 of us to get to Orlando with Aer Lingus but looking forward to flying out of Terminal 2 this year!

Yes we're flying direct. We flew direct last year after a couple of years with one stop flights and it definitely makes a difference. One year we stopped at Manchester on the way home. We were already exhausted with jet lag and then the flight to Dublin was delayed by hours. Horrendous! Although the flights were so expensive this year, if we hadn't opted for direct we would've only saved about €300. Think it's worth the extra for direct.

 

[disneygirl1]

All I can say is I am GLAD that we booked our airfare back in the beginning of February for our upcoming Aug/Sept trip!!! The flights we booked at $78 are now up to $213!!! That's a pretty steep jump in a months time!

 

[accord99cutie]

All I can say is I am GLAD that we booked our airfare back in the beginning of February for our upcoming Aug/Sept trip!!! The flights we booked at $78 are now up to $213!!! That's a pretty steep jump in a months time!

Same here!! We booked back in January and paid 660 roundtrip for 3. The same flights today go for over 1200!!

 

[jformica]

We're heading down the first week of August from Upstate NY. We're either going to drive, or drive some of the way then take that train from D.C. that you can bring your car on to Orlando. Either way, it won't cost us more than $500. If we drive (which we've done in the past) we'll do it in 21 straight hours. Nothing could prevent a disney trip for me and my family.

 

[JohnnyDollaz89]

we just paid 297 round trip Jetblue from JFK to Orlando leaving at 6AM July 8th thats not too bad

 

[Wilt Dasney]

What's really bad is it isn't just the oil prices that are spiking the fares, it's the demand! Somehow people are still buying airline tickets even though gas, food, etc. are all going up at the same time. They'd go down if the demand wasn't there.

Could be everybody obsessively buying tickets as far out as possible, trying to avoid the higher prices (and thereby contributing to them)? Just a thought.