When to book a flight

[DarthVader]

So, now that we're (hopefully) moving into a post-pandemic situation, I'm hoping to get advice of when to book our flights from Bos to MCO?

Our vacation is scheduled for 02/19/2022 and we return home on 02/26/2022 (Saturday to Saturday). I'm seriously thinking of moving our arrival back a day to Friday or departure to Sunday. Either giving us an extra day (the sunday departure) or saving some money on the flight and giving us an extra day. It appears that friday flights are a tad cheaper

Anywhoo, I see for Jetblue the time frame is open to book, but the prices are absurdly high, I mean 4,000 dollars. I'm not sure if that's there Feb vacation price here in the Boston area, or that I'm terribly early. I think perhaps both, I've seen airlines really jack up the price during school vacations and its probably way too early to book a flight.

So that begs me, when do you think its best to book the flight to try to achieve maximum savings?

 

[Schweino]

You can google "Cheapest time to buy a flight" and I believe the rule of thumb is between 90 - 120 days out. This time frame gets cheap due to airlines wanting to solidify/fill out the route to make sure the route makes sense to keep (from what I understand). I personally experienced this with Southwest from Omaha - Got roundtrip for 2 to Orlando for $400 on the 87th day from departure. 10 days later - 560.

 

[38053WDW]

I book my flights as soon as I know my dates and the flights are available.
I fly Southwest Airlines.
I booked my Disney vacation for late August in late March. Flights opened for my dates April 1st. I booked them April 1st.
I booked my Disney vacation for mid November in mid May. Flights open June 10th. I'll be booking them June 10th.
With Southwest Airlines it does seem that the lowest prices are the day the flights open and then they go up up up and then down some but not to as low as when they were first released so unless there is some reason that I have to wait I book asap.

Shifting to a Friday likely will not help much with the price.
Monday-Thursday tends to be when airlines have the most reasonable prices.

Also with that being President's Day week you can expect higher flight prices.

Queen ... Me too! I go SW and actually book my vaca sometimes around it.. First check Disney reservation Calendar month (all green days) and As soon as SW releases their Winter rates on June 10th - Trying to go back in December .. I'll check that day and find the "wanna get away" rates for Dec Calendar month and book the lowest ones and usually they are Non Stop!

 

[yensid67]

Have you thought about taking AMTRAK!? Something different than flying, and different experience!

Boston BACK BAY-KISSIMMEE...$628.00 for 2 adults

OR
Travel to LORTON VIRGINA for the AUTO TRAIN to SANFORD...$644.00( 2 adults and 2 row SUV)

I know you are asking about flights but I thought I'd throw Amtrak in to show what's available as an option!

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Queen ... Me too! I go SW and actually book my vaca sometimes around it.. First check Disney reservation Calendar month (all green days) and As soon as SW releases their Winter rates on June 10th - Trying to go back in December .. I'll check that day and find the "wanna get away" rates for Dec Calendar month and book the lowest ones and usually they are Non Stop!

Because my sister is a teacher we have to go during the summer, school break, or what we pick a Thursday to Monday and she just takes personal days on Friday and Monday. We try to book flights for weekdays instead of weekends.
We are going Wednesday to Monday in August and Thursday to Monday in November.
I always make sure to book my hotel before my airfare.
We always do nonstop HOWEVER Southwest changed our August flights so they stop in BWI. Its annoying but not terrible. Now if they do that in November it could be actually problematic since we have such a short window and cannot just leave earlier/later etc.

 

[38053WDW]

Because my sister is a teacher we have to go during the summer, school break, or what we pick a Thursday to Monday and she just takes personal days on Friday and Monday. We try to book flights for weekdays instead of weekends.
We are going Wednesday to Monday in August and Thursday to Monday in November.
I always make sure to book my hotel before my airfare.
We always do nonstop HOWEVER Southwest changed our August flights so they stop in BWI. Its annoying but not terrible. Now if they do that in November it could be actually problematic since we have such a short window and cannot just leave earlier/later etc.

I hear ya .... we ran into this as the kids got older.... we would work with their teachers and give them plenty of notice that they will be out as we tried to go around fall break .. funny thing is now they are both in college so we are working around college fall breaks !! Professors don't give "make up days" - lol!! Have fun!

 

[capecodhome]

I am having the same issue with flights that same week. My sons birthday is during February Vacation and with his High School schedule can only travel during vacations. Both Providence and Logan the prices are ridiculous. At this point, unless southwest prices are half of the other airlines we will be driving down. Thinking of taking the auto train down. Then we only drive to DC and get on train with our car and wake up in Orlando. That is running about $750.00 Which is the price of 1 Jet Blue round trip. Even if gas goes up to $4.00 a gallon and we stay overnight it ends up saving us $1500.00

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I hear ya .... we ran into this as the kids got older.... we would work with their teachers and give them plenty of notice that they will be out as we tried to go around fall break .. funny thing is now they are both in college so we are working around college fall breaks !! Professors don't give "make up days" - lol!! Have fun!

We went every November growing up. We used to do our homework on pool days.
Never had a problem missing classes until college. Most professors were fine with it as long as I did the assignments but one year ONE professor was strict about attendance and would allow you to miss 1 day. I would have missed 2 but it being a 5 day per week class you'd think I could have caught up pretty easily.

 

[Runbevo83]

Step 1, don't fly out of Boston. Fly out of Manchester, Providence, or Hartford.

Book Southwest and book ASAP.

Southwest flights through the end of the year go on sale 6/20.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Southwest flights through the end of the year go on sale 6/20.

6/10