Flight tickets to DL and Helping me afford Disney!~

[Yackerz]

Two things,

1.) What is the cheapest that you ever seen a flight to get to Disneyland from the East coast, say Pittsburgh Pennsylvania? I could even drive to another airport like Newark if that would be cheaper. I was thinking of flying into Vegas sometime and then maybe driving to California from there. It may be cheaper. What do you think? I wanted to see the Grand Canyon too sometime in my life, so maybe that is a way of doing it.

2.) I need your help in affording to go to Disney / pay the bills for this year lol. I can win free gas for a year if you help me by voting for me on Facebook! Top 3 Vote Recipients make it into the final judging round for creativity on their pictures. My picture is of some yummy beans.
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[daffodilklown]

I would suggest going on travel websites like expedia.com or travelocity and try different combinations of flights, cities, and days of the week. That is how you can get the best idea of what you should expect to pay.

[JMazz]

If flying into Vegas is an option, try the ultra cheap regional carrier Alligent Air. They have some very strange routes, but if you have the time/flexibility, you can try what is often known as a "hacker fare" (a term for using different legs of a trip for routes that do not fly thru to your destination). You will have to spend a day or two in some random city in the middle of the country and get a hotel room.

I have used them before. And it was quite an adventure!

Use this map from their website to see if this helps!
Interactive Route Map | Travel Is Our Deal™ | Airfare & Hotel Packages from Allegiant

[Yackerz]

If flying into Vegas is an option, try the ultra cheap regional carrier Alligent Air. They have some very strange routes, but if you have the time/flexibility, you can try what is often known as a "hacker fare" (a term for using different legs of a trip for routes that do not fly thru to your destination). You will have to spend a day or two in some random city in the middle of the country and get a hotel room.

I have used them before. And it was quite an adventure!

Use this map from their website to see if this helps!
Interactive Route Map | Travel Is Our Deal™ | Airfare & Hotel Packages from Allegiant

hahaha... sounds like an adventure! Yes, I'll look into that. Good thought!


Do you or anyone else know if I rent a car in Las Vegas at the airport if I can return it to the airport in Anaheim? Thanks!

Eric

[DisneyIPresume]

My brother did it for really cheap one time. He's from Houston and he had to make multiple stops. Something crazy like Houston to Atlanta to Phoenix to John Wayne.

[DonaldMissingPants]

be careful though, some airlines have a REALLY cheap fare but they add "fees" for baggage and services and so the price may be the same or more expensive than the other airlines. go to skyscanner.com, they have an intuitive way to search for flights

[Yackerz]

be careful though, some airlines have a REALLY cheap fare but they add "fees" for baggage and services and so the price may be the same or more expensive than the other airlines. go to skyscanner.com, they have an intuitive way to search for flights

skyscanner looks like a good website!

Jmazz, I checked out your suggestion. From where I live near Pittsburgh, it makes sense to go from Youngstown to Orlando for less than $100 for a flight! Awesome deal. To get to Las Vegas, it's quite a crazy flight switching fiasco. Something you wouldn't want to do. I don't think it is even much cheaper. Maybe $50 tops.

[ghosty4]

I paid $99 each way from Philly to LAX but that was at least five years ago with a 4-6 month advance purchase. Check travel sites often!

[swampymarsh]

Flight pricing depends on the price of jet fuel. Go when oil is cheap.

Also try priceline, if you could do it last minute you may be able to fly for $75.

[1Disneylandfan]

The travel industry can be like the stock market, it can be a gamble. They sell so many seats or rooms at a certain price and once those are gone, they do the same thing again but up the price for the exact same class of service seats on a plane and rooms in a hotel.

Now when sites like Priceline and Hotwire come in is when they haven't met the quota or numbers they need for either that particular flight or for a specific time period when it comes to a hotel. So they will discount a few seats or rooms to be able to sell them and at least get some money for them instead of getting nothing.

In general if you know exactly what you want, it is ALWAYS better to book as far out in advance as you can because those prices are generally the lowest your going to find. People say but their is always Priceline or Hotwire. Yes there is but not if an airline or hotel doesn't need to sell anything to them and it may well be in the time frame your looking at.

[swampymarsh]

In general if you know exactly what you want, it is ALWAYS better to book as far out in advance as you can because those prices are generally the lowest your going to find.

^^^ is generally incorrect. Airlines ticket prices do not go up as the date neard. They follow a upside down curve. Starting high, go down, and come back up. More complex it can go up and down mulitple times, a simple example of this is a "w".

[Fantasmico!]

Keep checking sites. Maybe they have a fare tracker you could subscribe to. My sister is going to Orlando from Seattle in November. She has been regularly checking fares and found a huge discount with Book-it. Like $150 less. Just stumbled on it from regular checking.

[1Disneylandfan]

^^^ is generally incorrect. Airlines ticket prices do not go up as the date neard. They follow a upside down curve. Starting high, go down, and come back up. More complex it can go up and down mulitple times, a simple example of this is a "w".

So is supply and demand, season of travel, and 21, 14 & 7 day advance purchase not have any bearing on pricing??

Actually just curious where you get your info from when you referred to a "w" and "upside down curve"?

[ShelbyH]

So is supply and demand, season of travel, and 21, 14 & 7 day advance purchase not have any bearing on pricing??

Yes, that's what causes an inverted U, a V, or W shape. The airline's main goal is to fill their plane to capacity. Some oversimplified hypothetical examples would be:

Flight ABC is not peak season so the price needs to be competitive. They start with a low price and sell a certain number of seats. Then the plane starts to fill but people are still booking, so the price goes up. Ideally for the airline they want that apex to be where the flight sells out. However, as it gets closer to the flight, they still have a lot of empty seats, so they lower the price on those again to attract more customers and fill every seat. That's an inverted U shape. Low, high, low again. The airline would rather sell a discounted seat than have an empty seat.

Flight DEF is during peak season. Tickets are priced fairly high to start with (because the collective market supports that price). When ticket sales start to drop off or competitors get aggressive, the airline lowers the price again. Ticket sales pick up, so the price goes up again until the plane sells out. That's a V shape, high, low, high.

Flight GHI is in mid season, maybe a high demand airport or time. Tickets start fairly high. If they don't sell, the price drops. When they sell again, prices go up. Then drop again if sales drop, then finally up until the plane sells. That's a W shape, high, low, high, low, high.

Other factors finesse this as well. Airlines have a fare code limit. For example, say a flight has 100 seats and 3 different fare codes. The 25 of those seats are designated "cheap," 50 are designated "medium/variable" and 25 are designated "high." Your high seats are going to be things like a fully refundable ticket or that desperation 24 hours before ticket. Cheap ones are economy, medium ones have more wiggle room. This is why you'll see things like "Only X number of seats available at this price" on Kayak/Travelocity, etc. Once those 25 cheap seats are gone, they're gone. However, that doesn't mean that the medium or even high seats can never be cheap. It just varies based on sales, empty seats, competition, and what the market will bear. In that sense, it's a gamble. You can book way in advance and be likely to get one of those 25 cheap seats, only to find that halfway through, the airline discounted its other codes to be even cheaper. Then there was no advantage to booking early. This is very oversimplified, as most airlines have a number of fare codes, maybe a dozen or more, covering everything from a fully refundable ticket to a military or government ticket, web special discount, bereavement fare, upgrade, consolidated fare, frequent flier redemption, restriction, and so on.

Bottom line is that airline pricing is quite complicated and most importantly, each airline has their own pricing code allocation and pricing system as proprietary information. There just isn't a hard and fast rule about when a particular ticket is going to be the cheapest. Just keep checking. And especially check mid-week, Tue. Wed. and Thu. as that's when prices tend to drop.

[JMazz]

Yackerz... there are a few more regional carriers out there that you can use to play the "hacker fare game". It is a mix-n-match. Use more than one for best results.
WARNING: it gets harder the more ppl there are in your party. I do not reccomed this for more than 2-4 ppl. And if you are traveling with someone else, make sure you purchase their segemnts along with yours, lest they be left out half way thru your "hacker fare" itinerary.

As for your rental, yes... you can pick up a car here in Vegas (my current city) and drop off in another city. Just click the "return car in another city" box or use the drop down "return city". Some will add a fee or increase the overall rate.

Tips for renting a car:
do not buy insurance from the rental company if your own insurance covers rentals (check your policy) - you will save some money.

look into renting "by the week" (enter in dates for a seven day stretch) - you can find a cheaper rate from the same company vs. 5 days or even 3 or 4 days.

check many rental sites. As long as you are not using sites like "priceline" and pay ahead, you can reserve now and cancel at any time within the stated rules. By booking as you see the deals online emerge, you can save money. Do not forget to cancel your reserved cars that you will not be using!!!

I will add more as I remember them. Feel free to keep asking questions! There are many helpful ppl here.