airfare to orlando in 4/05
 

Planning ahead for trip to Cocoa Beach area in April 2005 which will be school vacation for my daughter and would want to use the Orlando airport to arrive and depart. We've already put a deposit down on a great rental home in the Cocoa Beach area. I've been scouting the airfares for all airlines. I'm wondering if I should book now vs waiting in the hopes that the fares may go down??? When we went to Orlando this past April we lucked out because JetBlue had just more or less arrived in Boston and the airfare was unbelievably low....I'm certainly not seeing those fares for next April. Any suggestions when to book?

Thank you in advance!!

Another planner like myself!! I drive my family crazy. Yes, I think you might be looking a little too early. Just checked Air Tran -- they are offering $64 each way fares from Boston to Orlando in the September timeframe, and Song is offering $67 nonstop from Boston (www.flysong.com). Some websites will email you when they have a low fare to a destination that you are interested in. From Orlando, we use Air Tran a lot, as well as Southwest. There is also an airport in Sanford that is trying to be competitive. Air Tran won't even quote fares that far out. I think that once the summer is over, fares may come down in general. But if you are like me, that won't stop you from checking every day!

Don't know what airfares are like normally to/from Boston, but I do know you are coming right at the beginning of Spring Break. So things tend to be much higher..hotels and airfare. It's a little soon for deals to be offered, but if you do see something, i would jump on it, because once the college kids get back in the fall..they will already be searching for the Spring.

I know Southeast airlines is out of Sanford and flys to the Northeast.

I would jump on those spring fares from east coast to Orlando! I waited til mid-Sept.- early Oct. last year to book from D.C. to Orlando around Easter/spring break and I paid alot for waiting. I don't even want to think about how much it cost me- so much that we had to use frequent flyer points for two of the 4 tickets, and it was still over $450 for each of the 2 we bought (caveat: we did not want more than one stop, and ended up paying a bit more for nonstop so we could use the 3 FF awards and be on ehte same flight together). I agree w/alliegator, go for it if you see something good because IMO it will change and go up in the fall. AS I said, that was from DC- we checked all 3 DC area airports.

at jetBlue.com they are showing fares as low as $79 each way (comes out to be $175 roundtrip) for dates in April, 2005 between BOS and Orlando (MCO). Higher fares on other days. You might need to be a bit flexible on your travel dates, if you can.

Thanks for all your suggestions. Unfortunately, we cannot be flexible in our dates in April due to my daughter's vacation . We did get the $79 fare from JetBlue this past April, but we did not go during a school vacation week. Right now they are posting fares anywhere from 156 to 236 one way on their website for the week we are looking at. Song is even higher. I'll sit tight for awhile and see what happens. I'll also check out what flights are offered to Sanford. Thanks again!!

I feel for you. This is exactly what I have encountered to Orlando, not being able to be flexible w/dates to to the kid's spring breaks. As I wrote previously, for our flights, the fares got worse in early fall. Let us know what fare you end up getting. Others are also posting asking for this info and some of the replies point out really cheap fares, although when you are locked into certain dates around spring break my experience has been that those cheap fares do not exist.

Check with the airlines you'll be considering and see if they refund or credit differences in price if they go down between the time you book and when you fly. Delta does with their regular flights, but I don't know about Song. Good luck and enjoy Cocoa Beach (don't forget to take your daughter to RonJons Surf Shop - she'll love it!).

Did you cosider the majors? Why the assumption that the LCC will always have lower fares? There was a great article in the New York Times about how the budgets are not the cheapest option in many, many cases.

Check-out the regular sites like Orbitz and Expedia. Check-out the individual airline's sites, and you may be surprised.

Believe me...I have checked the major airlines sites, expedia, travelocity, orbitz, side step, etc. I am doing my homework quite early!!! Major airlines are way up there, ie., round trip for 3 from Boston $1600 as compared to roughly $1100 if I go with JetBlue. Thanks for the suggestion of checking to see if refunds or credits are available if fares do go down. Again, thank you for your responses!

If you don't have to use Orlando, then you can check the fares to Tampa. Departures from MHT or PVD would be additional option.

<b>cammy114</b>,

would you mind posting dates and cities? I'm seeing fares between $200-300 per, so I'm not sure where you are seing $500+ fares.

Boston to Orlando 4/16/05; returning to Boston on 4/23/05.

***AAFrequent Flyer - let me know where you are seeing those rates for my dates!! I am also being choosy - I do not want 2 stop overs, 2 hour layover somewhere, etc. I have a husband who hates to fly, so I try and book direct flights when at all possible.

Orbitz, Expedia and I'm sure others are showing $235 plus fares for the dates you want. They all do include 1 stopover.

Good luck! :-)

I would wait at least til january. You wont have a prob finding a good deal a few months before, besides SWA only goes a few months ahead of time. You can fly SWA from Manchester or Providence, depending where you live in Boston. SWA has alot of specials to FL come up, you should get on their weekly emails. right now, its 49.00 one way from PVD to MCO(orlando).