Here are some tips on how to save on your flight to Disney…
Book Online – Airlines now charge an extra fee if you book over the phone. Book online when you can.
Book on a Tuesday afternoon – This is when airlines post their best prices for the week. Never book on a Friday or weekend if you can help it! – Megan
Book Around 2 Months Out – Flights are typically cheaper between 6-9 weeks before your flight.
Check Other Airports – If you live close enough to drive to another airport, check the price of the flights there too. It might save you a couple hundred dollars to drive a hundred miles to another airport.
Fly During Off Peak Times – People don’t want to fly early or late in the day, which makes the tickets for these ‘red eye’ flights cheaper.
Fly on Tuesday or Wednesday – Flights are typically cheaper on these 2 days.
Check Online Deal Sites – Sites like Expedia and Travelocity sell flights cheaper than the airline’s website. Just keep in mind that Southwest does not sell through these sites.
Newsletter – Sign up for your airline’s newsletters to be notified of upcoming sales.
Price One Flight First – Regardless of the size of your party, always search for the prices for one traveler first. Airline search results show you the lowest price available for the number of people in your party, so even though there may be two seats left at $250 per person, they’ll jump to the next price point where all the people in your party will fit. I booked 2 of our tickets on one order and 2 on another with a different site. – Holly
Price Both One Way and Round Trip – It’s never a bad idea to check if the one-way prices are cheaper. We flew to Florida in March for our Disney cruise and we booked both flights separately. Flying to Orlando from Seattle is always expensive, but we saved $164 each by booking Alaska one-way for the flight down and Frontier on the way back. That’s a HUGE savings for our family of 5. – Jennifer
Yapta.com – They will email you when your flights reach the price point you want, and after you purchase the tickets it will email you if the price drops, and you’re owed a voucher from the airline for the difference. – Amber
kayak.com – You can pull up a little chart on past prices for that time you want to fly. We changed out itinerary by flying one day earlier and saved 75 dollars per ticket. – Chris
Check Airport Hotels for FREE Parking – Some hotels will offer FREE parking for the duration of your trip if you stay with them the night before your flight departs. This might be a huge savings verses what you would pay for parking at the airport.
Southwest Tips
Southwest is my favorite airline. Not only do you get 2 FREE bags per passenger (under 50 pounds each), but they also run there flights on sale constantly. In order to make sure you never miss a sale announcement, make sure you sign up for the Southwest Newsletter.
Southwest does not assign seats. It is first come, first serve. You can pay $10 extra per person per way and be allowed to board ahead of other passengers. The first to board a Southwest plane is those needing assistance, followed by business members and frequent flyers and those that have paid a fee to board early. Then comes the families with children 4 and under followed by the rest of the passengers in order of when you checked in. So if you don’t qualify for early boarding and don’t want to pay the fee, make sure you check in online as soon as they allow you to.
If a better price comes out for your flight on Southwest, they will issue you a credit between the sale price and what you paid. You will have one year to use this credit. You will have to keep an eye on the sale prices though because they won’t do it for you.
Also keep in mind that if you are flying Southwest, they only sell through their own website. You won’t find them listed on Expedia or Travelocity.
Reader Tip
If the next flight is in a 2-3 hour window we will ask them how full the flight is and if at the boarding desk they are looking to bump a couple of seats we will do it. What do you get if you get bumped you ask? Well the airline will usually comp you tickets to fly anywhere in the USA for free for each seat and they will keep families together so if you have 2-6 seats you all can wait for the next plane. They are open ended and good for a 1-2 years (depends on airline how long) with no black out dates. If you have the chance to do this you have your airfare paid for your next trip!
If you have tips on how to save on flights, please let us know.
Want to find out how to find even more money in your budget? Be sure to check out all the articles in the your fund series.
Hi! I am a vacation planner with Destinations in Florida. These are great tips on saving on airfare. I have also seen occassionally specials on Groupon or Living Social for discounted airline gift cards that could be used toward flights.
Consider applying for the Southwest Chase credit card. Check the Southwest website for the offer. After my first purchase using the credit card, I received 50,000 reward points. We were able to get 3 round trip tickets to Orlando and still had points left for future flights. The offer changes frequently; sometimes you only get 25,000 points. Check back often, until you get an offer you like. There is an annual fee but it is well worth it.
Never fly Spirit Airlines. We got the introductory $40 RT flight to Orlando on Dec.13th for a 10a.m. flight in March (on their website). When we showed up to the airport, we were informed that Spirit never had the 10:15 flight and they offered to book us on their only flight at 4. We lost a half day.
Any calls to their 800 number either got you someone who couldn’t speak English or had an incomprehensible accent. Out of over 20 phone calls on that morning, we were hung up on EACH TIME.
You are allowed only one personal item 16x14x12 for free. Carry on prices start at $33 (+$5) each way. Checked? Don’t even ask.
The return flight from Orlando was delayed for hours. After four hours we asked about compensation for a hotel and food (airport was closing) and the boarding agent called the police, ripped our boarding passes out of our hands and we were escorted by the police from the terminal and left stranded. At no time were we rude or loud. NEVER FLY SPIRIT.
I used to be a travel agent. I can tell you that booking a flight as early as possible is not always the best idea. You will always find the cheapest fares about 6-12 weeks before you need to fly. Unless you are flying a route that is constantly booked up, wait as long as you can.
Monday nights are when most fare sales are released. To get a good deal, check on Monday night, usually around 9-10 pm EST because you may find a fare that will sell out by morning. When an airline is trying to push a higher fare, they will put that higher fare out Wednesday – usually 12am EST. Then they wait & see if the other airlines match the hike over the weekend. So booking a flight between Wednesday – Monday is always going to be more expensive.
Many airlines (like Southwest and Alaska Air) will give you a credit if you buy tickets and the price goes down. I suggest you check on the website before you book to make sure this is the case.
Wednesday is the cheapest day to fly. The second cheapest days are Tuesday and Saturday.
Also, it’s never a bad idea to check if the one-way prices are cheaper. We flew to Florida in March for our Disney cruise and we booked both flights separately. Flying to Orlando from Seattle is always expensive, but we saved $164 each by booking Alaska one-way for the flight down and Frontier on the way back. That’s a HUGE savings for our family of 5.
For cruises, book as early as possible. Like as soon as they get the dates out and you know you can do it. Cruises work differently than airlines, the cheaper prices will always be at least 14 months before the sailing date. We booked our Disney cruise in January 2011, it sailed March 2012. We saved $6200 by booking right after the dates were released. That’s right, $6,200.00!!!!
Some other great tips…. if you happen to be awake in the middle of the night book then…. A friend of our flies everywhere all the time and told us this great tip. We search for days to check out flight prices… went on at like 1am on a wednesday morning…saved us $300 (total on the cost of 3 tickets). Also if you are military.. Delta offers two free bags for you and your family whether you are flying for military business or personal :)
For our up coming Disney trip I was waiting (less than 5 days) to get my SW gift card from swagbucks and the price jumped up, So I bought our flight back since that price stayed the same but waited to get the flight there. Sadly the price kept going up so I ended up adding an extra day to our Disney trip to fly down a day earlier. I only ended up saving about $10 but I would rather have an extra Disney day then know I paid over $200 a person to just to get there.
Thanks so much! We’ve booked our Disney trip for September but no flights yet. This is such a huge help!
Book on Tuesdays. Read an article about airlines and their competitive pricing….it drops on Tuesdays….anytime on Tuesdays. And if you fly with kids please follow the flight crews instructions. There are rules for a reason and you do NOT get to inconvenience the rest of us. Thanks.
We usually book only two months ahead of time. The only time we don’t do this is the last time when our family of three plus 2 other people all wanted to be on the same flight.
I find kayak.com helpful. You can pull up a little chart on past prices for that time you want to fly. We changed out itinerary by flying one day earlier and saved 75 dollars per ticket.
I agree with Amber earlier is not better. If you book NOW for travel 4 or 5 months from now you will pay a premium price. As the dates get closer, say 4 or 5 weeks the airlines will have better, more competitive prices up.
Also, book your flight on a Tuesday afternoon. This is when airlines post their best prices for the week. Never book on a Friday or weekend if you can help it! I just booked our tickets to Disneyland this afternoon and the tickets were $65 cheaper than what they were priced at just yesterday.
Buying your flights early isn’t always the best deal. I find that flights are cheapest about 2 months out. But if you are flying during a busy time this may not hold true.
To let someone else watch prices for you, try Yapta .com. They will email you when your flights reach the price point you want, and after you purchase the tickets it will email you if the price drops, and you’re owed a voucher from the airline for the difference. I have two $40 vouchers for Alaska from my last Disneyland trip because of Yapta.
You can also book through EBATES :D. We just did for our vacation out to California.
After reading several travel blogs, I used this tip to save our family of 4 about $100: regardless of the size of your party, always search for the prices for one traveler first. Airline search results show you the lowest price available for the number of people in your party, so even though there may be two seats left at $250 per person, they’ll jump to the next price point where all the people in your party will fit. I booked 2 of our tickets on one order and 2 on another with a different site … both of which were through MyPoints, so I’ll even get the points from booking!
I did this about 3 weeks ago with southwest got two at 69.00 and the last at 110.00 they will tell you to do this over the phone as well. I personally think Southwest is the best airline. I also noticed two days later the flight price dropped and now I have a small credit on my account. Yeahhhh
We just flew Southwest to Disney and we had a 4 month old. Southwest also checked our stroller and carseat for FREE. And BOTH times offered to give us a seat (it wasn’t full) for the baby. Each time the plane landed, the stroller and carseat were right outside the door waiting for us!
That’s great! I bet it made things a lot easier!