We are SO excited!!!! We are flying MIL from Iowa from March 17th-20th. She is going to stay with the kids Friday through Sunday and DH and I will be going to New York!!! We have never been away from the kids before, and we really need this. It will be for our 8th Anniversary :) Also we will only be a few hours away in case Malachi gets difficult or anything.

We already have tickets to go see Phantom of the Opera on Saturday at 2pm. We just realized that we are going up there on Saint Patty's Day. DHs fav holiday I think ! LOL So we can stay out all night, not have to wake up to kids. Can sleep till the show. Then go out Sat night too. Did I say how excited we are? lol

Anyway, we need to get MILs plane tickets still. DH saw one for 168 when at work. Not even 2hrs later and it jumped up A LOT! Does time of day matter? Is there a better time to check?

If anyone happens to be bored and plane ticket savvy... she is coming from Des Moines and flying into PHL or Baltimore. Whichever ends up cheaper.

Thanks for any suggestions :)

ps... we are excited ;) lol

I'm certainly not savvy, in fact, I think quite the opposite. However, I recently found when booking a flight for my son that I could buy a cheaper ticket directly from the airlines own website, rather than through the travel.coms.

i wouldn't put myself in the savvy categroy either, but, when we bought tickets to FL over the holidays, the tickets were cheaper in the am. The prices got higher as the day went on. I didn't find that the prices from the airlines were lower, but you might want to try Southwest. I'm not sure if they service where you are flying though.

We had AAA book the flight, and when the prices went down in the am, she was able to cancel the original tickets, and get the lower price. I know you can't do that if you buy online.

I'm certainly not savvy, in fact, I think quite the opposite. However, I recently found when booking a flight for my son that I could buy a cheaper ticket directly from the airlines own website, rather than through the travel.coms.

Same here. I spent days searching online for the lowest priced ticket I could get and eventually gave up. I decided to try once more, but by calling directly. I got a ticket almost half the price of what I found online.

Thanks guys. We did find a cheaper price at the airlines site directly. But then it went up. DH is gonna try again in the morning. :)

Shoot - I checked the Des Moines airport and they don't fly direct to either of those cities. Direct is always a good thing. :smirk:

It's too bad there isn't a Southwest hub there. :(

PHL has a lot of airlines that come in there - of those, these are the carriers that operate out of Des Moines (which seems to be a small airport)

American Airlines
Continental http://www.continental.com/
Northwest http://www.nwa.com/
Midwest http://www.midwestairlines.com/MAWeb/
United http://www.ual.com/
Delta http://www.delta.com/home/index.jsp


I'd just check each site and see if they have any airfare specials going on, and price them out :)

It's cheaper to fly out on certain days, too - if you change the dates you will see that I think Fridays are more expensive than Saturdays (or vice versa)

I still haven't purchased our tickets for when DH and I go to Vegas in April. I keep checking back every day since flights and prices change so often. Sounds like you guys will have tons of fun!!

Try www.travelocity.com and www.orbitz.com. PP suggestion of the ailines website is also good, since they usually will run website only fares. An alternative airport is a good idea for coming and or going. I had a friend use www.priceline.com with good results, though he was buying in mass quantity - flying his entire family (10+) to Baltimore from Chicago. They made one connection through Detroit. That might be the best way to go (cheapest) if your MIL doesn't mind not flying direct.

According to dh, who flies regularly, since you have until March there is really no rush to purchase. You just want to buy at least 2-3 weeks out. Keep checking the fares (daily on a couple of websites) regularly in between Amity postings :D HTH