Airfare Question--updated in initial post

[nicolewi]

I don't know if anyone can give me advice on this. 

I think I blew it on airfare. When I first booked our trip (for early March), fares were pretty low. Decent, at least. Basically our only choice is Southwest. But, things I read said not to book too early; better fares generally could be found by waiting longer. So, now, the outbound flights are really high, and have been for the past few weeks. Return flights are still okay. 

There are six of us, so this is a big expense. Are they likely to drop again? Any idea?? 

I could save a LOT by flying out on Friday instead of Saturday, but that would be a giant PITA. We were planning to take the shuttle thingy right from the airport to AoA on Saturday. Not sure how we would work things if we flew in on Friday and just wanted to spend the night somewhere cheap.

UPDATE: I booked our flights! Super exciting. We are leaving on Friday instead of Saturday, and now I am happy about it. We still save $ even with another night of expensive hotel, and actually it will be great to have all of Saturday free instead of worrying about when we would arrive and whether we'd make it to dinner on time. 

[alleinesein]

Nov 9, 2018 1:12:59 GMT -5 nicolewi said:

I don't know if anyone can give me advice on this. 

I think I blew it on airfare. When I first booked our trip (for early March), fares were pretty low. Decent, at least. Basically our only choice is Southwest. But, things I read said not to book too early; better fares generally could be found by waiting longer. So, now, the outbound flights are really high, and have been for the past few weeks. Return flights are still okay. 

There are six of us, so this is a big expense. Are they likely to drop again? Any idea?? 

I could save a LOT by flying out on Friday instead of Saturday, but that would be a giant PITA. We were planning to take the shuttle thingy right from the airport to AoA on Saturday. Not sure how we would work things if we flew in on Friday and just wanted to spend the night somewhere cheap.

Get a cheap hotel room at the airport and fly in a day early if it going to save you a decent amount of $.  You do not have to put the magical express tags on your luggage so you can just book it and bring your bags with you when you hop on the ME to your resort.  They will load your luggage on the resort bus and you can leave them with bell services for the day.

All they ask for is basic flight info when you book the ME.  Just tell them that your flight is arriving on Saturday and you will be fine.  

[nicolewi]

So...what would we do? Use airport shuttle or something to go to a nearby hotel, sleep, and then return to the airport the next day and take ME from there to our Disney resort? Just in case. I'd still rather find a way to just get there on Saturday.

[cherh]

There’s an app I like, Hopper, you can put in where and when you’re planning to fly. The app will look at flight trends and tell you whether to buy now or if they predict the airfare to drop again.

[mainelyfoolish]

Is there availability to add on that Friday night at your Disney resort? Or any other Disney resort? Two standard rooms for one night at an All Star would be cheaper than an AoA suite for one night and you could still ride the ME when you arrive. Disney will transfer your luggage between resorts.

As far as airfare, I would buy the round trip tickets now with the Friday departure if the price for that plus the extra hotel night is cheaper than the Saturday airfare. Since SW doesn’t have change fees, you could change your flights to Saturday later if the price on those drops. If your Friday night hotel reservation is for room only, you can cancel it up to 5 days in advance.

[kittycatlove]

We had the same problem. I actually missed the opening prices for our day, and from what I understand they jumped like $200 per ticket in less than 6 hours and haven't dropped since. We're coming from Chicago area, and I think because it's still cold here that the prices won't drop. We ended up booking a connecting flight, but no plan change (which I hated to do since direct is only 2.5 hours). But it saved us over $150 a ticket. Maybe that's an option?

[buckeyegirl]

Not that this helps you a ton now but Southwest usually offers some of their best prices when flights are originally released.  It doesn't pay to wait with that airline.  However, I would book the flight you're leaning towards now and then watch the prices.  You can always book and cancel the original flight and get your money back.  Again this only works with Southwest.  

We booked our flights for the first week of April the day the calendar was released.  They did drop slightly once about a month later and we rebooked for the cheaper price. 

[kittycatlove]

buckeyegirl, Yep that's exactly what happened to us (we're flying Southwest). I'm hoping that the flights we've booked will drop and we can rebook a bit cheaper.

[mainelyfoolish]

Nov 9, 2018 11:10:40 GMT -5 buckeyegirl said:

You can always book and cancel the original flight and get your money back.  Again this only works with Southwest.  

I don’t know how well OP knows Southwest’s rules, so I’ll clarify: if you pay with cash (not rewards points) and you change your flight to a lower priced flight, your refund is a credit against future travel for each person and it expires one year from the date the tickets were originally booked. If the family isn’t planning any additional travel on Southwest, the travel funds are useless (they cannot be transferred).

[buckeyegirl]

Nov 9, 2018 11:56:06 GMT -5 mainelyfoolish said:

Nov 9, 2018 11:10:40 GMT -5 buckeyegirl said:

You can always book and cancel the original flight and get your money back.  Again this only works with Southwest.  

I don’t know how well OP knows Southwest’s rules, so I’ll clarify: if you pay with cash (not rewards points) and you change your flight to a lower priced flight, your refund is a credit against future travel for each person and it expires one year from the date the tickets were originally booked. If the family isn’t planning any additional travel on Southwest, the travel funds are useless (they cannot be transferred).

Sorry I usually book with points and they credit the points back no issue, I wrongly assumed it worked the same way with cash.  Thank you for the clarification. 

[nicolewi]

Thanks, all. Yes, when I first booked our trip is also when the flights were first released. Kicking myself for not booking right away!!! I'll look into my options a bit more.