crazy flight prices

[PensFan]

Ended up paying $600 for YYZ-MCO for end of August. Really didn't want to pay that much but was also worried the prices would steadily increase. Upside is that we're flying with WestJet (who I've never had any issues with) and our arrival and departure times are ideal.

I bought tickets YYZ-MCO 2-3 days after they become available for booking and paid "Total airfare: CAD 1,517.82" for 3 people ... so around 500 per for Aug 17th - Aug 26th

I've never really ever seen a better price for direct from YYZ-MCO then about $475-500 in the last 6-7 years through either westjet or air canada and these are always the prices when you book early!

Maybe people with some balls wait and wait and wait but flights to MCO are ALWAYS FULL from YYZ, so the odds of cheaper seats or seat sales are pretty much nill so I've always booked early and have always been happy with my cost of about $1500! When working flights into my budget I always figure 1500 and ive never been disappointed nor have I been surprised!

 

[bellasmom10]

Which airline did you book with?

 

[PensFan]

Which airline did you book with?

That was through WESTJET

I've flown to Florida probably 10 times in the last 7 years ... and I was always booking through AirCanada but now that they have changed the flights from YYZ-MCO over to ROUGE AND being I had an opportunity to fly WestJet to Halifax last year I opted to take them! AirCanada never did me wrong but ROUGE just sounds horrible and I had such a nice experience on WestJet that I plan to fly with them more and more if flights are available and they fall into that price point of about $500

 

[DVCanadian]

Ugh. I am so frustrated right now. The flights times out of Ottawa in September are pretty much crap and expensive crap to boot. I really want to book asap as I'm waiting on our flights before booking anything else. I have nothing booked at all for this vacation and we're supposed to go on it in two months!

We have found the same. In and around $600 per person to fly near the end of August from Ottawa.
We also like to fly from Syracuse but it is just as expensive.
Now, any flight under $500 is a terrible times or takes 19 hours to get there!
Last year was $300 per person from Syracuse (return). Just checked JetBlue again now and it is $600, not including the exchange!

We've decided to drive this year.

 

[Nutbean]

We have found the same. In and around $600 per person to fly near the end of August from Ottawa.
We also like to fly from Syracuse but it is just as expensive.
Now, any flight under $500 is a terrible times or takes 19 hours to get there!
Last year was $300 per person from Syracuse (return). Just checked JetBlue again now and it is $600, not including the exchange!

We've decided to drive this year.

I ended up booking non-stop flights with JetBlue out of Syracuse today for $1015.84 USD total for the four of us. I was expecting to pay around $1400 CDN total to fly out of Ottawa based on the last few years prices but so far this year, it was going to be at least $150-$200 more than that for flight times that sucked (3 hour layovers, 9+ hour flights, arriving in Orlando at 10 or 11pm, etc. Seriously...what is up with that?!)

Even with parking, gas and the horrible exchange, we should still be within the $1400-$1500 CDN range flying out of Syracuse. It adds another 2.5 hours drive each way to the airport but the flight time will be shorter not having any layovers (no non-stop flights out of Ottawa in September) so the total travel time should even out. Plus, I like getting customs out of the way at the border.

Anyway, just glad it's done.

 

[DVCanadian]

Nice. Admittedly our prices are high due to the dates we are flying. I'm glad someone can find decent prices.

 

[bellasmom10]

That was through WESTJET

I've flown to Florida probably 10 times in the last 7 years ... and I was always booking through AirCanada but now that they have changed the flights from YYZ-MCO over to ROUGE AND being I had an opportunity to fly WestJet to Halifax last year I opted to take them! AirCanada never did me wrong but ROUGE just sounds horrible and I had such a nice experience on WestJet that I plan to fly with them more and more if flights are available and they fall into that price point of about $500

Thanks for the info. We have a cruise booked for next August. I have only heard horrible things about the new rouge service. We will likely fly out of Buffalo or use Westjet.

 

[Kiren]

I've been looking into flying from Victoria to SNA for a trip that we are tentatively planning. Flying from SEA to SNA on Southwest was 670.00 for three people. Flying WestJet from Victoria to SNA was almost 2000.00! It's ridiculous. We are looking at Southwest for our cruise in April and I'm excited for it!

 

[LemonNeko]

I just booked with Southwest for January. It was 460 USD out of Buffalo or $960 out of Toronto for two people. Even with the exchange and parking (I could get a ride to Toronto) its $300 cheaper.
Allegiant was even cheaper but I read so many bad reviews I didn't want to take the chance.

 

[cath1979]

in 2013, i got fligh from yul to mco at 250 .. i'm glad to be able to buy them a 400$ this years..I I got that deal beacause i was checking every single day, two time a day at kayak site..one hour it was a price, next one, 200$ more.. the same flight with air transat is a 600 right now

 

[starvenger]

Finally booked flights for October trip. Going YYZ-MCO, and have to stay an extra day after the cruise, but cost was $1730 for 4 on WJ and the price was about $500 more (min) to fly out Sat aft/evening. Hotwire blind booking will cost us less than $100 for the night and I was renting a car to drive back anyway, so it was more cost effective to do this.

 

[starvenger]

Forgot to mention that I used my MBNA world travel points to book the trip. Same concept as all the other reward points programs, but obviously I wanted to maximize my points and so treated this like I was purchasing normally.

 

[TommyJK]

I'm planning on going in Feb from Toronto and I see I can either fly direct from YYZ for $435pp (Via AC), Or via Buffalo with 1 stop (at LGA) for ~$250pp (via Delta, after USD exchange).

Wrestling over the decision on cost vs. convenience (~$700 difference after you factor in gas to/from Buffalo for a family of 4)

Gonna keep watching prices for a while though as I'm not in the "sweet spot" when prices are supposed to be lowest yet......

 

[hardis5]

We are doing Detroit this time out and again broke down and are flying out of Cleveland next Spring rather than Buffalo. We just could not pass up $76 US return (all-in) direct flights. Buffalo I was looking $175 US for a non-direct flight. At more than $500 CDN (roughly $374 US) for not great departure times out of Toronto, there still are a few significantly cheaper flights to be found within a 2-4 hr drive of the GTA even with the lousy exchange.

The way we look at, one can drive for 4 hrs and for roughly $100 CDN pp, save an additional 16 hrs of driving (and $200 US pp). We've drove many times but the time/$ equation to us makes the US (non-Buffalo options) attractive as cheap as they still can be found at times. We looked at Allegiant, but the limited times/days out of Niagara had us go with the other no-frills carrier.

 

[BabyHabs]

I booked flights, YSJ - > YYZ -> MCO for March break next year for $553/pp. I was super happy about that.

 

[quandrea]

Air Canada is at that for my March dates right now. Thinking of locking in.

 

[TK-4]

Bit further of a drive but flying out of Cleveland (about 5hrs from Toronto) is also an option and prices are much cheaper than YYZ or BUF.

 

[TommyJK]

Ya. For the day I'm leaving in Feb flight out of Cleveland is $125 USD (taxes in) which is rediculously cheap, but I' not willing to make that long a drive for it.

Bit further of a drive but flying out of Cleveland (about 5hrs from Toronto) is also an option and prices are much cheaper than YYZ or BUF.

 

[starvenger]

I've done this drive before as I've some friends in Cleveland. Apart from some 402-like periods of nothing the drive is alright, but I don't think it's worth the drive to save money on a flight, no matter what the price.

 

[SaraJR]

consider driving to buffalo im flying southwest, we get 2 free checked bags each + our carry on round trip for 2 people came to 601CAD we will be in Orlando before noon on arrival day and don't leave til 720pm back to reality