Last Minute Flying

Ok, so you want to go to WDW and you want to go tomorrow or next week or within a few weeks.  NOW even.  There are lots of things I want to go over but for here and now, let's talk about flying last minute.

Generally, expensive.  If you can plan ahead, swell!  But if you are reading this, you want last minute deals.

Try the tried and true from previous posts:

www.kayak.com (everyone but Southwest)
and
www.southwest.com.

Try not to fall over in shock at last minute fares.  If you are within three weeks of travel, it will be much more expensive, and within one week, top dollar.

Are there any alternatives?  Yes and Sort of.  Ok, there is an alternative, but the sort of comes into play with flexibility again.

www.priceline.com

These is one of my favorite last minute hotel booking sites.  Car rental site too!  If you need a flight, you can do this too and it will, most likely, get you there cheaper.  There is a catch though.

Let's look at the site.  Priceline has flights available with the airline listed and connection.  Prices are pretty much what you would get from the airline site directly.  It looks like kayak.com or expedia.com.

IF you are willing to spend all day going (or early or late or ? whenever they have availability), then hit the box for up to 40% off (this is on Priceline) and you bid. The catch  is that you can't request a non stop or time of travel or airline.  You can request a 1 or less stop flight to your destination.  If you are ok with possibly two flights (and a change of planes) to get to MCO (Orlando airport code), then go for it.  The fine print is that you can't really tell it where the two flights go on it's path to MCO or even what time of day it leaves.  The time of day is IMPORTANT.  You tell it a day, and it could be anytime on that day.  Your flight might not leave until 7 at night, getting into Orlando around midnight.

Why is a connection a problem?  Because if you are in Dallas, it could send you to Chicago or Denver or even Los Angeles, change planes and head to Orlando.  You could have a long layover.  What ends up on the discounted sites is the leftover empty seats.  There is a plane somewhere, usually, with an empty seat to Orlando and the airline wants to fill it.  You start from somewhere.  They fly you to that plane with an empty seat, and then you fly to Orlando.  This could take much longer then a non stop or even a scheduled connection (though double check connections on the airline sites too.  They have some random connections as well) from a directly booked flight.

You won't know the route the flight is going to take until after you book it and pay for it, non-refundable (that last part is very, very important.  You click buy and that flight is YOURS, no refunds).

The good part?  You can get to Orlando, CHEAP, usually.  Buyer beware for the length of travel time to get there and time of day you get there.  If you are loose though and can take a day to get there, and you want to go last minute and you want to fly (and all day at the airport is still less stressful then all day driving but that is just me) there, check out these sites.

Another site,

www.hotwire.com

used to be buyer beware, hidden flight information until you purchase but I am thinking that perhaps they have gotten many negative reviews for this as now for flights ( I still LOVE Hotwire for hotels and car rentals), it looks a lot like Expedia in the listing of what is available.

The last site for last minute deals that I really like but destinations are hit or miss, so not a sure thing to get to Orlando specifically is:

www.travelzoo.com.

Sign up for their weekly newsletter (comes out on Wednesdays- The Top 20), as it is much fun to dream and go last minute to places.  They cover all of the USA but deals can vary week to week as to destination or mode of transport.  They run deals quite often on flights.

Ready to drive yet?  More on that later!