Flying to Florida over New Years. Book now or wait?

[volcs0]

The whole family is meeting up in Florida over New Year's. Our travel dates will be from end of December to first week of January. The cheapest flights I see now (using every search engine I can find, especially http://www.mobissimo.com/search_airfare.php) are around $350-$400 for there and back (usually on AirTran or Jetblue).

We're flying from BOS, and we're trying to fly into FLL or PBI and back from MCO (Orlando). We could also flight out of PVD instead of BOS. I look every day, and the prices remain about the same. In fact, I'm afraid they will get worse.

Since it is 2.5 months away, is there any logic in waiting to book? Is it likely that new flights will be added? Might JetBlue open up a new flight, and I will see those magical $79 prices one lucky morning?

We don't do a lot of flying, so I don't really know how the game works. But since there are six of us, finding a $200 flight vs. a $350 one would be tremendous...

We've also looked into driving and Amtrak. Though Amtrak is much cheaper ($600 each way for the whole family), my wife says she would sooner leave me than have to watch our 2 and 4 YOs on a train for 29 hours. Driving would be a wash because it would require 2 nights in a hotel, and we really don't have the days to spare on the way back.

Advice?

Thanks.

sam

[jimbrady]

They will get worse. Deals could come up near the end, but are you willing to risk it?

[rz]

book now

[karsen]

Book now. Flights to Florida will only increase in price over the Holidays.

[Chupa Chupa]

Forget about potiential price increases, finding a seat on a plane becomes nearly impossible the closer you get. By T-giving you'll be lucky to get a seat next to the rear lavatory.

[saleenl]

Use Farecast to help you make an educated guess about fares increasing or decreasing. Although it only handles round trip predictions, you can at least get an idea of the pricing trends for your various cities.

[trisho.]

Have you tried pricing each leg of the trip individually as a one-way through different carriers? Sometimes it's cheaper. This is actually the way I've done it my last 2 or 3 trips to Orlando from New Yorkk City (JFK). The usual carriers are either JetBlue or Delta for me and I saved about $20 - $30 or so each time.

Also, clear out your browser's cache and cookies or try a different one. The search engines on the airlines' sites cache what your normal flights are and sometimes up the price on you because they now know it's a preference.

[Ombligo]

I think your close enough to book now but look up your info at:

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

You cannot book through them but they combine different carriers and options that can sometimes make sense.

I'm trying to decide whether to book a Wash DC trip in march now or after Jan 1. I'm getting prices of around $200rt from Tampa now. I don't see it getting much cheaper.

[volcs0]

Saw $89 web-fares on Air-Tran, so I grabbed them. They popped up out of nowhere...so, I jumped when I had the chance.

Thanks for the responses.