Airline ticket question

[Roco]

Hey, does anyone have any experience in terms of airline prices and when you absolutely need to book, etc for tickets to Orlando airport (from Chicago)?

I may have to wait until mid-May or so and right now I have a price on Southwest quoted at $672 for two adults...if I wait 2 weeks can I expect those tickets (for Aug. 10-16) to increase significantly?

What if I waited until July 15 to buy them??

Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[disney4life2008]

I am in Chicago as well. Southwest is having a sale right now so check your prices again. I have found that if you book 5 or 6 weeks from the date on southwest - the ticket is cheaper. But at a month out - the ticket skyrockets and goes up every week thereafter. Just keep checking everyday.

 

[Roco]

I am in Chicago as well. Southwest is having a sale right now so check your prices again. I have found that if you book 5 or 6 weeks from the date on southwest - the ticket is cheaper. But at a month out - the ticket skyrockets and goes up every week thereafter. Just keep checking everyday.

Thanks! I may do that then...wait until July 6th-July 13th and see what prices they have. The problem is, if I wait that long and find out tix are $2000 for 2 adult tickets...then I am up the river without a paddle! haha

What prices have you typically paid in that time window? The other problem is tickets may sell out because it is a popular time of year...maybe I am answering my own questions...

 

[disney4life2008]

Thanks! I may do that then...wait until July 6th-July 13th and see what prices they have. The problem is, if I wait that long and find out tix are $2000 for 2 adult tickets...then I am up the river without a paddle! haha

What prices have you typically paid in that time window? The other problem is tickets may sell out because it is a popular time of year...maybe I am answering my own questions...

Be cautious - my best advice is to keep checking everyday. Southwest is a challenge because they are not linked up with kayak or other monitoring services. Also, I have found that tickets on southwest are cheapest on Tuesday (that is also the day they release a sale if there is one). From Midway to Orlando - I usually end up paying anywhere between $89 to $171 both ways.

 

[Roco]

Be cautious - my best advice is to keep checking everyday. Southwest is a challenge because they are not linked up with kayak or other monitoring services. Also, I have found that tickets on southwest are cheapest on Tuesday (that is also the day they release a sale if there is one). From Midway to Orlando - I usually end up paying anywhere between $89 to $171 both ways.

What?!? Why am I paying so much then? Granted, I am not flying at 5:00 AM, but still...almost $350 per person seems a lot higher than what you're doing!

Wait, are you using another airline? I pick Southwest because they are usually cheapest. Do you have any other recommendations? Thanks for your time.

 

[disney4life2008]

What?!? Why am I paying so much then? Granted, I am not flying at 5:00 AM, but still...almost $350 per person seems a lot higher than what you're doing!

Wait, are you using another airline? I pick Southwest because they are usually cheapest. Do you have any other recommendations? Thanks for your time.

Nope I only use Southwest and fly out of Midway. Like I said you have to almost keep checking everyday - the price is subject to drop or go up - it varies. I would say because it is so many weeks out - the price will be higher now but once May/June arrives - you want to check the prices everyday. Also, the morning flights tend to be the cheapest with mid day the highest.

 

[Disney Stine]

I normally use a site like Travelocity to check between all airlines and then book on the airline's website. Before I book, I always google promo codes for whatever airline I'll choose (i.e "united promo codes") -sometimes you can get something taken off your total amount! If your dates are flexible, I'd suggest not flying on a Sunday, prices are higher (example - I could have booked on a Sunday to go home after a cruise that would have cost me $400 roundtrip, instead I increased my trip to leave on a Tuesday and the price dropped to $120 roundtrip which meant I could do a three day trip to Disney). The previous posters are absolutely correct about which day you buy your ticket and buying too many months in advance increase the price as well as buying too soon to your travel date (gotta get that sweet inbetween time). Another tip is to use a google chrome browser and search through an incognito screen instead of your normal browsing. Your browsers will keep your records of how often you visit a site like Southwest and the companies actually increase your price because they know you want to eventually book.
Hope that helps!

 

[DisneyCane]

One other thing with Southwest is you are somewhat protected from price drops. If you plan to travel somewhere else (or a repeat trip to MCO) within a year and the price drops after you purchase, you can get a credit for the difference. Essentially you are cancelling the higher fare and buying the lower fare. It is not automatic so you have to keep checking the price to know if it dropped.

Timing airfare purchases is very difficult. They have a very complicated revenue management system that makes the prices fluctuate all the time.

Another tip is to use a google chrome browser and search through an incognito screen instead of your normal browsing. Your browsers will keep your records of how often you visit a site like Southwest and the companies actually increase your price because they know you want to eventually book.

No they don't. As I stated above, they use a complex revenue management system. If the prices rise it is because too many people started to purchase at the lower fare. They are trying to maximize revenue for each flight, not just maximize how full the plane is.

I book 6-10 flights a year between vacation and business and I watch fares all the time. I have never seen prices go up like you describe. I've looked at the same flight for weeks and it stays the same. As described above, Southwest fares have dropped after purchase and I've gotten the credits.

The fares are pulled from a reservation system. The website interface is just an interface to it. The website does not pass information from cookies to the back end.

 

[englanddg]

Hey, does anyone have any experience in terms of airline prices and when you absolutely need to book, etc for tickets to Orlando airport (from Chicago)?

I may have to wait until mid-May or so and right now I have a price on Southwest quoted at $672 for two adults...if I wait 2 weeks can I expect those tickets (for Aug. 10-16) to increase significantly?

What if I waited until July 15 to buy them??

Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks

Here ya go.

http://www.fly.com/Flywidgets/CalendarSearch.aspx

 

[englanddg]

That actually wasn't the site I was looking for...

There was a site that actually had a fare calendar that would tell you the best days to buy based on historical data (and you could choose to buy through them or not)...

I'll see if I can dig it up.

Sorry bout that...

But, as a general rule, 45 days out is around the best time...unless you do a last minute deal (not a counter purchase, and last minute deals are risky if you have a schedule to meet, I wouldn't recommend it).

 

[englanddg]

Ok, I'm pretty sure this is the site that has it...with historical price data after you put in your dates.

http://www.kayak.com/flights

 

[Weather_Lady]

Totally depends on the airline.

If we're flying JetBlue, which releases the cheapest fares first and then raises them as seats sell, we book our flight the second the schedule for our dates comes out. If we're flying on shorter notice then that, we book 4-7 weeks out, and compare fares using kayak (plus the Southwest website, as Southwest doesn't publish its fares on kayak or other aggregators). You can sign up for free e-mail "free alert" that will let you know if fares on a route you're "watching" decrease.

 

[Rob562]

Another vote for Kayak and its sister-site Yapta.com
Kayak gives you an indication of the buy vs. wait based on historical trends.

If you find flights you're interested in, you can save them in Yapta and they will track its price as it fluctuates up and down and will send an alert if it drops below your pre-determined level.

Unfortunately they don't offer this for Southwest, just the other major US carriers.

-Rob

 

[stevehousse]

If u r from Chicago and looking for cheap airfare, check frontier or spirit at ohare. They do charge some bag fees, however they constantly have deals. I was able to book with frontier 69 each way, plus a $15 checked bag fee. For a family of 6, that was the cheapest option. Unfortunately Southwest wanted basically 130 each way!!! And the price has been stagnant for months!!!