AIRFARE INFORMATION

Magic Me Vacations does not generally book airline tickets, but we don’t want you to feel abandoned during this part of your vacation planning. Finding the best airfare takes research, planning, and time. These are our best tips to help you book your vacation flights.

Know Your Prices
Search early and search often. Get to know what prices are typically for where and when you want to fly. I find using the app Hopper or using Google Flight alerts to be a great way to help figure this out and determine if prices may go up or down. The dates you want to fly, time of your flights and availability all affect your flight prices.

 Be Flexible
First thing in the morning and late in the evening tend to be the most expensive options because they are the most desirable. Mid-day may be more inconvenient for maximizing your time at the theme parks, but the flights tend to be cheaper.

Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are typically the best days for lower fares. Check the days around your travel dates. You may be able to save some money by adjusting your dates by a day or two.

 If you arrange your flight so that you will be staying over a Saturday night, you may have a significant airline savings, but hotels are usually more expensive so make sure to compare the trade off - we are happy to provide you multiple quotes to show the differences in pricing for different dates.

 Travel at off-peak times of the year – major holidays, holiday weekends, and school vacation weeks can save you a lot of money in both airfare and hotel rates. If you have to travel over spring break, try starting it a few days earlier or later so your dates aren’t perfectly aligned with it. Also keep in mind that holiday travel also brings lots of crowds to the parks.

 If you have more than one airport within a couple hours of your home, check all possible airports for your best flight options. Also consider flying into Tampa instead of Orlando for Disney World and Universal FL or Los Angeles, Long Beach, or Orange County for Disneyland. The savings of flying further away plus an airport shuttle may be less than flying closer to your location.

No Flexibility
Don’t fret, you can still find a good fare. Use Hopper and Google Flights to monitor for your lowest fare options and alert you when the best time to purchase is.

 Be Brave
If you are really brave, you can consider trying Priceline or Hotwire.

 Priceline
You input your travel destination, dates, number of travelers, and the amount you want to pay, along with your credit card information. Priceline then searches for an airline willing to sell seats at the price you requested. If Priceline finds tickets at your price, they immediately charge your credit card and purchase those tickets. The tickets purchased through Priceline cannot be changed, transferred, or cancelled. Basically, you choose the dates you want to travel, and the airlines will choose flights and times. Priceline says you will travel between 6am and 10pm and arrive by 12:30am the next day (for domestic travel. There is also a chance you will have to make one connection (or more if you choose) to reach your final destination. Tickets issued through Priceline are not eligible for Frequent Flyer miles, or upgrades. I did this once on a trip to Hawaii and flew in the middle of the night. It’s not something I’d recommend doing with children.

 Hotwire
You input your cities and travel dates. You then have several choices and can eliminate red-eye flights and also planes that are not “jets.” Hotwire then returns with a price that is available for flights on those dates. You do not know the carrier, and you do not know the flight times. You have one hour to either purchase those tickets or not. Hotwire does not immediately charge a credit card for the flights. After that hour the search has expired and the flights are no longer available for you to purchase. Once a search expires, a search with the same exact search preferences cannot be conducted until 48 hours later. Tickets purchased on Hotwire are not available for upgrades or frequent flyer miles.