We leave in 71 days and I traditionally try to book at 65 days out. What are your money saving strategies? We fly out of CVG in Cincinnati.
I book early and watch flights and constantly modify for cheaper flights on Southwest.
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I always feel like SW works out cheaper because they don’t charge for bags, and no cancellation fees. They also allow you to rebook if the price of the ticket drops. I never been lucky enough to score one of those $49 flights, but still feel they work out best for me overall. I think a lot of people use credit card cash back and reward offers.
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I use my chase rewards to book Southwest, but if Spirit has super cheap flights we just take a backpack down there. In May my DH will fly SW with 2 free suitcases and the rest of us will hop on Spirit, so sometimes we divide and conquer to save $.
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Do you use google flights? When I know my dates, I start checking there and play around with the price graph, etc. You can set a tracker for dates as well. I don’t trust the trackers though, so I typically check google flights a couple of times a day over a period of time to get a sense of price changes. I also know what a “good” price is for me to MCO, so if I see that on my dates, I pounce.
You can also filter by things that are important to you–carry on costs, nonstop only, which airlines, time of day, etc. They don’t track Southwest, though, which is obviously a favorite for some here.
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Fly into Tampa…Airport is much more manageable (prob half the size of MCO) and it’s only another 40 mins further (its about 75 mins away total vs MCO about 35 mins total) than MCO is from Disney…We have saved as much as $300pp and when you go with 6 people, it’s a HUGE savings, even if I have to pay $100 for a van to take us to WDW…
Also, for a typical Sat-Sat trip, we might fly out on Friday night and get a cheaper hotel room for that first night and that not only saves you money, but also gives you a full first park day on that Saturday
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Google Flights is a great tool. The matrix feature is really helpful if your dates are somewhat flexible.
SW is still king in terms of refund/future credit.
But if you travel a decent amount, AA, UA, DL all have liberal change policies now and you can use the credit difference on your next flight (note their policies, typically a year from original booking date but always check first)
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Just be aware that the lowest fare category (UA calls it Basic Economy) typically does NOT offer fee-free flight changes.
And as you note, flight credits typically expire a year from your original BOOKING date (not flight date), and you must FLY by the expiration date (not just rebook by that date).
So, for example, if you book today for a (non-Basic) flight on February 1, 2025, and then switch to a flight that’s $100 cheaper, you’ll get $100 flight credit in your account. That credit would expire on March 15, 2025 (a year from today), and you’d need to apply it to a different flight, departing March 15, 2025 or earlier—or lose the credit.
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You can modify? How did I not know this?
LOVE that idea!
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Yes. You can always modify a Southwest flight for free. I’m sure you can modify other airlines as well.