Are airfares changing where you want to go.

[boyblue]

Boy, If I had to cancel one of those vacations it would be Orlando. You can almost always find a unit Orlando, even spring break if you look early enough. Save it for next year. But, as I'm sure you are aware, New York is a different story. It seems to me that the Manhattan Club (where a I presume you are staying) is showing up less and less on line.

I have been on the lookout for a friend for a hotel in New York, and it is hard to find anything for less than $250.00 a night in town, more like $300.00 plus.

We were at the Manhattan Club last April for a week and my family of four LOVED it. There was no way I could have afforded a hotel for a week for all of us. Wonderful, wonderful trip, in fact our favorite vacation, timeshare or not.

JMHO
Gayle

Ditto for us. NYC is the first place that we visited that we're planning on going back to.

 

[Amy]

I canceled our summer Jackson Hole exchange a couple of months ago when airfare from any airport within reasonable driving distance to Jackson Hole came to roughly $800 EACH person for flight times that would work for us! Since we have to buy four tickets I was stunned at the sum. I considered flying into Salt Lake City but the savings wasn't enough to make up for the extra drive with a 1 year old and a 4 year old. When I had looked into airfare when I had confirmed the exchange the fares were around $450 per person.

 

[ciscogizmo1]

Well... we've been doing driving vacations for a long time. We usually do at least one or two driving destinations and one or two flying destinations per year (we usually vacation 3 to 4 week per year). I do use frequent flyer miles whenever possible especially to high price destinations like Hawaii. But for Orlando I like to pay and earn miles via flying. I did struggle a few weeks ago to find a flight to Orlando. To get a decent fare I had to rearrange our schedule a little and pull the kids out for 1/2 day to do it.

I don't know if you use American Airlines but I use to get great rates with them to Orlando (via Dallas from California). This time I had to pick Delta as they had airfares $400 cheaper than American.

Another thing I noticed since we travel strictly during school holidays you pretty much need to book 11 months out. It just doesn't work to wait anymore for a better airfare.

Good luck...

 

[John Cummings]

We have a confirmed exchange through SFX at the Manhattan Club in NYC for this coming July. We plan on tacking on a few more days at a hotel because I don't think one week will be enough to do all that we want to. We are looking very forward to it and expect it will be one of our best trips ever. We have never been to New York City before.

 

[johnmfaeth]

Hi John,

You may want to look at a bed and breakfast in brooklyn heights (just over the brooklyn bridge in brooklyn). Interesting place to sightsee for a day - I recently posted about a friends walking tours there.

Another great option is Secaucus, NJ with 15 minute express bus rides to midtown manhattan and great savings (especially on weekends).

Have fun!

John

 

[boyblue]

With Manhattan Club in points I would recommend that if it is available and if you can spare the points, 9 or 10 days is best for the big apple.

 

[John Cummings]

With Manhattan Club in points I would recommend that if it is available and if you can spare the points, 9 or 10 days is best for the big apple.

I do not have points. My exchange into the Manhattan Club is just a 1 week straight exchange,

 

[John Cummings]

Hi John,

You may want to look at a bed and breakfast in brooklyn heights (just over the brooklyn bridge in brooklyn). Interesting place to sightsee for a day - I recently posted about a friends walking tours there.

Another great option is Secaucus, NJ with 15 minute express bus rides to midtown manhattan and great savings (especially on weekends).

Have fun!

John

John,

Thanks for the info. We prefer to be closer in where we can walk to most everything. Price is not a big factor.

 

[NTHC]

After watching airfare for a month or two at the end of last year, we grabbed 6 tickets to the Caymans for Spring Break for $295 each. We had seen them as high as $478. I think they typically are all over the spectrum, but DH checks daily once we book a condo and just grabs what he feels is going to be the lowest we will get.

We have been happy so far and airfare hasn't kept us from traveling where we would like to.


Cindy

 

[Carol C]

We have a confirmed exchange through SFX at the Manhattan Club in NYC for this coming July. We plan on tacking on a few more days at a hotel because I don't think one week will be enough to do all that we want to. We are looking very forward to it and expect it will be one of our best trips ever. We have never been to New York City before.

When are you going in July, John? I have July 4 lined up at Manhattan Club...but I'm hoping to find someone to swap me if they have Aug 8 or 9.

Anyway, if folks end up going in July maybe there could be a TUGgers' get-together! :whoopie:

 

[Twinkstarr]

Flights are definitely getting more expensive.

Here's one that blew my mind though...a car rental in Orlando or Tampa for Easter week starts at $400 for the week. That's gouging in my opinion. I can usually get a mid size for around $175.

I got a full size from Alamo for 6 days at West Palm for $431(via Costco discount). They oink you in FL during Easter time, I forget how much we payed for the week before Easter a few years ago, but they could turn the cars around fast enough at the Tampa airport. DH was blowing a gasket because it took over an hour to get the car!

 

[Twinkstarr]

I canceled our summer Jackson Hole exchange a couple of months ago when airfare from any airport within reasonable driving distance to Jackson Hole came to roughly $800 EACH person for flight times that would work for us! Since we have to buy four tickets I was stunned at the sum. I considered flying into Salt Lake City but the savings wasn't enough to make up for the extra drive with a 1 year old and a 4 year old. When I had looked into airfare when I had confirmed the exchange the fares were around $450 per person.

We exchanged the cruddy week that was deposited into II for 2008 that came with our Starwood purchase for Marriott's SummitWatch in early June(kids are out 6/5, and we had to work around DH's MBA schedule). We got $400 RT on Delta(direct flight into SLC). I booked very soon after we made the exchange.

Also I have it tagged on YAPTA, just in case the price goes down:hysterical:

I'm already watching for Thanksgiving trip.

 

[Twinkstarr]

I got a full size from Alamo for 6 days at West Palm for $431(via Costco discount). They oink you in FL during Easter time, I forget how much we payed for the week before Easter a few years ago, but they couldn't turn the cars around fast enough at the Tampa airport. DH was blowing a gasket because it took over an hour to get the car!

And that was after the long wait in line at the desk.

 

[John Cummings]

When are you going in July, John? I have July 4 lined up at Manhattan Club...but I'm hoping to find someone to swap me if they have Aug 8 or 9.

Anyway, if folks end up going in July maybe there could be a TUGgers' get-together! :whoopie:

I am going in the 3rd week of July.

 

[jjking42]

When are you going in July, John? I have July 4 lined up at Manhattan Club...but I'm hoping to find someone to swap me if they have Aug 8 or 9.

Anyway, if folks end up going in July maybe there could be a TUGgers' get-together! :whoopie:

we are also there for july 4th

 

[kamumma1]

I am trying to trade Marriott rewards points for vacation packages - airfare + hotel. Sure helps to not pay airfare for 4. Also got a great car deal on hotwire.com. Much cheaper than anything else I could find.

 

[mamiecarter]

YES

Major impact on travel plans!!!!

 

[Mjpierce]

Cheap flight to Sarasota

We are teachers and also have 2 school-age children, so we are limited to the February and April school vacation weeks. We usually travel in February, when a warm vacation is a welcome respite from our Rhode Island winters. Last year we got hammered when I came up with a February exchange into Umbrella Beach on Anna Maria Island with only a few weeks to go. Somewhere around 550 p/p after all was said and done.
I decided I wasn't going to have that happen again, and bought airfare into Palm Beach, (going to Turtle Reef), for this year's Feb. vacation as soon as it came available. I ended up paying about 300 p/p.
Then on a whim I checked for t/s availability during the April school break, and up popped a beachfront unit on Anna Maria. I went to check the airfare, mostly because I figured that would quickly end my ideas of a second FL vacation. Bingo- A direct flight from Boston to Braedenton/Sarasota, at perfect times for both the going and coming flights, for 201 p/p. I was floored, and then I quickly booked.

If you do the math you find out that I will have ended up paying less this year in airfare for the four of us for two trips to Florida than I did for the one trip last year. :whoopie: In fact I think the two car rentals this year will end up costing less than the one car rental last year.

 

[mdmbdumont]

We are fortunate to have SWA

Rental car rates sometimes are more for a week in MCO or PHX then the total airfard for 2 or 3 of us to travel by air to the location. We must vacation more in off season or plan way ahead. We do have specific weeks we shoot for, due to conflicting college and high school breaks for sons, but so far it has been manageable.

 

[dougp26364]

We have some great exchanges coming up this year but are considering canceling some of them due to the high airfares. With a family of five it adds up fast.

We might even drive from Dallas to Orlando for spring break.

We might even have to cancel or July 4th reservation at Manhattan club.

I have three weeks in the bank with Rci and i can see some good exchanges for 2009 but i am reluctant to book because of airfare

anyone else starting to change their plans

Fortunately for in our situation it's just the two of us but yes, airfare has me rethinking some of our vacations. We're fortunate in that we can take 6 weeks per year and that's what hurts a little more than the actual airfare. Despite the increasing cost of fuel airfare is still a relative bargain. I can still find airfare to FL for less than $300 per person and I saw rates for $158 per person if I'm willing to make the 3 hour drive to Kansas City (tempting but I hate that drive coming home).

In 2008 we will have two trips that are drive to destinations for us. In 2009 Im debating doing the same. The savings in doing so is the cost of the airfare and the cost of the rental car. Combined that's usually around $800. Of course there is the cost of gasoline to get us there and back which cuts into that savings considerably but it's still a significant savings over a two or three trips.