People who fly to Disney World...HELP!

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I know my maximum price. My main concern is that I will reserve the room and then go to book my flight a few months before my trip and the flights will be astronomical.

IMO it would help to know a few things:

1) Where are you flying out of--there may be posters who have flown enough times out of a certain area to give you tricks and tips along with understanding if there are certain lower cost airlines that aren't at your airport(s) like for example posters suggesting Southwest when you don't even have Southwest airlines at your airport(s) if that were the case.

2) What is your maximum price--while that may seem personal it can help with options such as airline, airports (if there are some options out there), being realistic in terms of flying, etc.

3) Time you may be wanting to travel--that can impact pricing if say you wanted to go on a very busy week and flights could be high for that reason alone. Granted you said you're open but it may be something to look further into.

4) Flexibility in travel--for instance can you travel during the week which may be lower in cost depending on several factors. If flying in a day before or flying out a day after originally planned could significantly reduce the airline costs would you want to do it.

 

[FutureDisneyEventPlanner]

IMO it would help to know a few things:

1) Where are you flying out of--there may be posters who have flown enough times out of a certain area to give you tricks and tips along with understanding if there are certain lower cost airlines that aren't at your airport(s) like for example posters suggesting Southwest when you don't even have Southwest airlines at your airport(s) if that were the case.

2) What is your maximum price--while that may seem personal it can help with options such as airline, airports (if there are some options out there), being realistic in terms of flying, etc.

3) Time you may be wanting to travel--that can impact pricing if say you wanted to go on a very busy week and flights could be high for that reason alone. Granted you said you're open but it may be something to look further into.

4) Flexibility in travel--for instance can you travel during the week which may be lower in cost depending on several factors. If flying in a day before or flying out a day after originally planned could significantly reduce the airline costs would you want to do it.

The prices I've been seeing have been in the $300 range. Which seems pricey to me as I flew cross country for that price. I am flying out of Omaha. I booked my resort reservation for now in September, which has me coming into MCO on a Tuesday and flying out on a Saturday. I tried many different date options and this seems to be the cheapest so far.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The prices I've been seeing have been in the $300 range. Which seems pricey to me as I flew cross country for that price. I am flying out of Omaha. I booked my resort reservation for now in September, which has me coming into MCO on a Tuesday and flying out on a Saturday. I tried may different date options and this seems to be the cheapest so far.

I'm in Kansas City so really not too far from Omaha. That said I haven't flown out of there so I'm not sure what the pricing normally is. I did a quick search on just Southwest and it looks like Omaha is cheaper than Kansas City for September. Kansas City was an average of $153 each way whereas Omaha you could get it for in the $130s each way.

What I can say is $300 RT was a good price for us flying in September 2017 out of Kansas City. Actually originally it was $372 PP RT but a little over a month after we booked it (which was on release day) the fare dropped to $298 PP RT. It is possible the fare was cheaper after that but we didn't rebook as we were flying me on Companion Pass and with that you had to cancel the Companion Pass's ticket and rebook it and it was a hassle IMO. Now this was a bit ago though so don't count on my experience for nowadays lol. We flew Southwest Airlines which is our preferred airline.

It can be dependent on airlines for sure but I suspect right around our area isn't necessarily competitive when it comes to Orlando though again haven't flown out of Omaha. Tuesday would likely help in terms of pricing and I've seen leaving a place on Saturday be cheaper than leaving on Sunday.

In terms of flying cross country for that price--try not to focus on that. Airlines don't necessarily do pricing like that. They do it based on markets, other routes like connecting airports, desirability of destinations, etc.

We thought it was funny but it is slightly different than your case. Anyways we were flying Delta to Hawaii back in September 2016. In terms of how much points a flight cost it was the same amount of points to get from Kansas City to LAX as it was to get from Kansas City to LAX to Oahu, Hawaii!! Sometimes it just doesn't make sense with what we would charge lol.

What I would probably do is continue to keep an eye out on flights. Southwest does not show up in flight pricing watches (like using Kayak(.com) but other airlines would. Keep in mind travel times that can impact pricing and if non-stop options are there.

*Hopefully some of that helped..at least a bit lol

 

[Iowamomof4]

We're flying out of Des Moines in May and are paying about $253 RT per person on SW (price doesn't include Earlybird Check-in, which we also purchased).

 

[FutureDisneyEventPlanner]

I'm in Kansas City so really not too far from Omaha. That said I haven't flown out of there so I'm not sure what the pricing normally is. I did a quick search on just Southwest and it looks like Omaha is cheaper than Kansas City for September. Kansas City was an average of $153 each way whereas Omaha you could get it for in the $130s each way.

What I can say is $300 RT was a good price for us flying in September 2017 out of Kansas City. Actually originally it was $372 PP RT but a little over a month after we booked it (which was on release day) the fare dropped to $298 PP RT. It is possible the fare was cheaper after that but we didn't rebook as we were flying me on Companion Pass and with that you had to cancel the Companion Pass's ticket and rebook it and it was a hassle IMO. Now this was a bit ago though so don't count on my experience for nowadays lol. We flew Southwest Airlines which is our preferred airline.

It can be dependent on airlines for sure but I suspect right around our area isn't necessarily competitive when it comes to Orlando though again haven't flown out of Omaha. Tuesday would likely help in terms of pricing and I've seen leaving a place on Saturday be cheaper than leaving on Sunday.

In terms of flying cross country for that price--try not to focus on that. Airlines don't necessarily do pricing like that. They do it based on markets, other routes like connecting airports, desirability of destinations, etc.

We thought it was funny but it is slightly different than your case. Anyways we were flying Delta to Hawaii back in September 2016. In terms of how much points a flight cost it was the same amount of points to get from Kansas City to LAX as it was to get from Kansas City to LAX to Oahu, Hawaii!! Sometimes it just doesn't make sense with what we would charge lol.

What I would probably do is continue to keep an eye out on flights. Southwest does not show up in flight pricing watches (like using Kayak(.com) but other airlines would. Keep in mind travel times that can impact pricing and if non-stop options are there.

*Hopefully some of that helped..at least a bit lol

I use the Hopper app and it says that flights may lower in the next few months so I'm going to keep my eyes peeled! Thanks!

 

[brownhaired_girl]

We have become huge Southwest fans in our household. I signed up for 2 SW credit cards in June/July 2017. My mother did the same. We each got our Companion passes. We used those points and conpanion passes for 18 months (CP expired 12/2018). During that time it cost me $11.20 RT for each flight to MCO. We flew to Aruba and paid $78 RT each. There were 4 of us flying most times. I’m not sure how you feel about Credit cards but if you pay in full each month there is a Dis group on the Budget board that is incredibly friendly helpful ( I love credit cards). No judgement or drama in that group. I’m pretty sure SW flies out of Omaha.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I use the Hopper app and it says that flights may lower in the next few months so I'm going to keep my eyes peeled! Thanks!

No problem!

Best of luck to you on getting some good deals

 

[marmar]

I booked my resort then went over to airline site to book with my frequent flyer miles. The miles needed were triple what they would’ve been if I traveled a day later. So I called Disney and asked if I could move my resort ressie one day later. It was so far in advanced and there was availability they moved my ressie . I then booked the frequent flyer flights.
Disney is much more flexible than the airlines

 

[1911]

I book flight first then resort.this allows me to shop the best days/price to get the flight as cheap as possible at the time I am looking.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I booked my resort then went over to airline site to book with my frequent flyer miles. The miles needed were triple what they would’ve been if I traveled a day later. So I called Disney and asked if I could move my resort ressie one day later. It was so far in advanced and there was availability they moved my ressie . I then booked the frequent flyer flights.
Disney is much more flexible than the airlines

I think you're talking about 2 different things:

1) Flexibility in changing your plans

2) Pricing structure of frequent flyer miles

Disney wasn't being more flexible than airlines in your case...they just had rooms available during the dates you wanted to shift your vacation. If there was no rooms available there's no flexibility for Disney; it's simply a matter of physically having rooms available. In terms of airlines SWA is one of the better ones because of no change fees and ability to get a travel credit should the passenger need to cancel their flight or should the fare be reduced. Flexibility there may be the ability to switch your flight to a different day with a lower point price without change fees. SWA, however, may or may not be the better priced or better flight times.