Fly or Drive in July

[edwards2301]

I usually just book the airline tickets and just go on but I can't get the airfare to come within $300 of the price of driving to WDW this summer. I have checked everyday for the past month and ONCE I had a great price and let it slip through my fingers. Any suggestions? Are gas prices going to continue to go down? Is airfare going to ever go down? I am traveling with DH, DD6, and DD2. I have even added in a hotel stay on the way down and way back and can't get the prices any closer. Airfare is running over $1000 right now. We have to buy DD2 a ticket on the plane since she will be 3 in August. We will be flying from Indianapolis to WDW.

Thanks

[NJGIRL]

I didn't realize that gas prices had gone down. You may find with the gas prices so high (you are driving a long distance), your hotel rooms, meals you need during your drive, wear on your car and extra time off work to get there....you may be better off flying.

The last time I was in your general area (a few years back when flights were lower) I paid almost $300 to get there from Philadelphia.

How much do you usually pay for plane tickets?
I know that this year I paid about $40 more per person which totals $160 for the four of us. I would have paid more than that for two hotel stays so I just paid the extra airfare. But I didn't like it.

[faline]

It's hard to tell what flights will be. I'm guessng they will track pretty much along with the price of gasoline. As gas prices decrease, airline prices may as well. As gas prices increase, flight prices will increase along with them.

The predictions are for gas prices to track downward over the next couple of months - however, any disturbance can result in a reversal of the downtrent and a push to increase prices once again - think hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, political unrest etc.

[Hog]

I am in the same boat as you, I am driving down from Pittsburgh in October, we are on a tight budget for the trip. From Pit to Orlando it will cost us around $900. To drive i figured $450-$500 MAX! Thats including 1 hotel on the road each way and gas/food. I just can't justify spending more money to fly... I drove 8 hours to Maryland and I hated it and swore I would never drive over 6 hours anywhere... But after seeing the cost of flights I basically had no choice. We are going to use the extra money to go on a little 3 night summer vacation to hold us over til we goto Disney.

I did find flights for around $650- $750 but they all had really bad layovers and the arrival time was all really late at night and departure leaving orlando really early so I would be losing 2 days basically...

But I will continue to monitor flight prices to see if they go down significantly enough for me to fly. But i doubt it.... plan on driving and hope for the best on a flight deal.

[brivers222]

we make the 18 hour drive from michigan regularly.

This next trip will be the first time I have not driven straight through... so i have added in hotel costs into our budget. My nice little Honda Fit gets 40.1 mpg on the highway and i already have a hotel booked in Valdosta, GA for $73 (with tax and it includes a jaccuzzi!!)

so we are saving a lot of money by not flying. Not to mention we don't have to worry about what we can and cant bring on the plane... my car doesn't discriminate against large shampoo bottles. Also, we have a car onsite to go shopping if we really have to!

[edwards2301]

Thank you for all of your great suggestions! I am just nervous that if I don't book a flight now I will HAVE to drive and who knows what gas prices will be in July. Yes, they have dropped about .20 the past 5 days. In my budget for driving I have figured in the gas, hotel down and back and food. I would still be saving about $300 if we drive. We'll see what happens this week with airline prices
Anymore suggestions or ideas please feel free to let me know

[AgentP]

This probably sounds a little crazy, but we are planning on driving next year too, from Maine. We estimate that it will save us at least $700 even if gas prices stay high. But even more than that I have realized that not being at the mercy of Disney transportation will be nice too. We are also going to combine our trip down with a visit to the grandparents in South Carolina so it works out nicely.