Flights...Ottawa Area

[wkla13]

Interested to see which airport Ottawa area DISers fly out of...Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Syracuse??? We flew out of Montreal with Air Transat the last time we visited WDW. I was just checking it out and the Air Transat prices are already super high for March Break 2015. Thoughts?

 

[minnie mum]

DD lives in Ottawa and flies out of different airports depending on the destination. For Florida she flies out of Syracuse, usually on JetBlue. Haven't checked 2015 prices though.

 

[thr33boys]

We fly out of Syracuse. The savings are too hard to pass up. We can usually get 5 round trip direct flights for $1100.

 

[wkla13]

That's a great price. I know it is going to be pricey to hit WDW during March Break but we have seen flights for 4 already topping $5,000....yikes!

 

[thr33boys]

That's a great price. I know it is going to be pricey to hit WDW during March Break but we have seen flights for 4 already topping $5,000....yikes!

Yes, we go in the off season and tend to pick our weeks depending on what dates offer the best savings for the cost of the flights. For March break, we usually stay local or visit family within a few hours drive.

 

[wkla13]

We usually stay home for March Break too but thought we would give it a shot before DS1 turns 9. My biggest concern with going to Syracuse will be the weather....we have to weigh that in as well in March. Our boys don't know that we are planning this trip...we are thinking of surprising them for Christmas and then they will be able to help us plan our FP+ selections before our 60 days is up.

 

[mama_scraps]

We fly out of Buffalo or Syracuse, depending on how good a deal we can get. We're flying from Syracuse on JetBlue this Nov.

 

[ccudmore]

Also check Allegiant Air out of Plattsburgh NY. 3 hour drive from Ottawa. I've seen fares as low as $79 return taxes in but typical fares vary depending on demand. They fly into Sanford Airport in a Orlando which means you need a car but both Plattsburgh and Sanford airports are so small you're in and out in a matter of minutes.

 

[Nagle]

As we live in Brockville, our first choice is Syracuse. The flights are almost always less expensive.
The other big plus for us is crossing the border by car at Alexandria Bay is soooo much calmer and more pleasant than doing so at any of the airports these days.

 

[Gigi22]

We won't drive to a distant airport, we hate driving that much. The last two times we went to Florida, we flew YOW-YUL-FLL once and took the train from Ottawa to Dorval, then flew YUL-MCO once. For the second trip, we couldn't get a connecting flight from YOW to YUL that was early enough to let us make the flight to MCO.

 

[bankr63]

Ottawa direct to MCO whenever we can. Much prefer the convenience and speed of a direct flight over saving a few $$$. Have also connected through Toronto once (added about 4 hours to the travel process due to delays) and direct from Montreal twice with hotel stay over the night before.

I agree that cheaper flights can be had from the US, but the US airlines are so late in posting their flights I don't like to wait that long. Might try Plattsburg or Syracuse one of these years tho.

The trick for March Break, especially in Ottawa where WJ and AC have only one daily direct flight, is to book the day the bookings open (about 330 days out in Canada). Our last YOW-MCO flight for 4 was about $3k but prices quickly climbed in the days following. The computers adjust fares automatically based on supply and demand, and supply is always short of demand for the March break weekend.

 

[badiggio]

Always fly from Ottawa,usually with an American airline.it's not as fast as direct, but pretty fast none the less,for one stop, and quite a bit cheaper.Get customs out of the way here and the rest is smooth going.

 

[ottawamom]

In the fair weather months we drive to Syracuse (United on Aeroplan points), Buffalo (Southwest) or soon to be Rochester (Southwest)and fly out of the States. There are usually 5 of us and the savings are worth the drive. This December we will just be 2 so we are flying WestJet direct out of Ottawa. The price difference wasn't worth the drive, hotel etc.

 

[Best_Vacation_EVER!]

We always try to do direct out of Ottawa. Its mostly been with Westjet. We've used Air Canada a couple of times when the price/schedule were the best option --- but we have no plans to do that again now that all flight legs from YUL/YYZ to MCO are Rouge flights. My DH is very tall and the new smaller spacing and closer seat pitch on those planes makes AC a high price/low service option that goes to the bottom of the list.

We looked at Jet Blue but once we factored in the cost of the gas, time to drive and additional kennel fees for 2 dogs (due to the timing of the flights would add an extra day on the beginning and end of the trip) the savings weren't really there.

It makes the trip so much more convenient for us to do the direct flight. We plan early and book early so we book as soon as we see a price we feel feel is a good value. Our December flights for 3 of us were $1200 which we were happy with. As long as Westjet stays service oriented with comfortable seating (not like the sardine can experience on AC Rouge) we'll keep supporting them.

 

[Nagle]

Direct flights out of Ottawa certainly would make things much better. The last time we did fly out of Ottawa in December 2012, I had booked through AirMiles well in advance for direct flights to and from Orlando (West Jet).

A couple of weeks before our trip we got an email that there was a flight change and we needed to contact AirMiles. Unfortunately it was not just a change in times, our flight down to Orlando had been cancelled and we now had to take a flight connecting through Pearson. I cannot express strongly enough how much I hate connecting through Toronto on flights to the USA.

Now we had the pleasure of going to Toronto, schlepping our bags through to security, waiting hours for the connecting flight (which was late) and getting to Orlando after midnight instead of 8:00 PM.

That trip reinforced how much I prefer flying out of Syracuse even if we have to connect at an airport in the States. In my experience customs and security are much more pleasant and relaxed crossing the border at Alexandria Bay NY. Syracuse airport is only an hour and forty minutes from our home in Brockville where Ottawa is just over an hour. Parking in Syracuse is $8 per day and flying out of Syracuse usually means I can stop in at the Dino BBQ

I81 can be treacherous at times, but really no worse than the 416 up to Ottawa.

All things considered, I will fly out of Syracuse any chance I get over flying out of Ottawa.

 

[Best_Vacation_EVER!]

That's unusual. We've been going yearly since 2003 and never had our direct flights changed to connecting ones --- as always YMMV... We've had the times changed slightly but nothing that would cause us a major issue.

Again, if Westjet stops providing a service that's acceptable then we'll stop using them. It's just not been our experience at this point.

 

[bankr63]

That's unusual. We've been going yearly since 2003 and never had our direct flights changed to connecting ones --- as always YMMV... We've had the times changed slightly but nothing that would cause us a major issue.

Again, if Westjet stops providing a service that's acceptable then we'll stop using them. It's just not been our experience at this point.

This happened to many of us in 2012. The direct flights weren't cancelled, but they moved the evening flights to morning flights. People who were already booked had their flights switched to connecting flights through Toronto, but you could call and have yourself switched to the (much) earlier morning flight at no charge. We needed to stick with our Friday evening flight, but we did get our Ottawa/Toronto connection bumped up so we could have more time to clear customs/security in Toronto.

On the actual day of the flight we were also delayed and had our departing gate changed 3 times. Started to feel like cattle being herded throughout Terminal 2. However, we were off in good time and made it to the happiest place on earth in plenty of time to get the party started!

 

[Josh Hendy]

We flew out of Dorval once, out of Rochester once, and the last time we drove from Ottawa down to Philadelphia because the the tickets were SO much cheaper than anything available from the nearer airports. We were already very familiar with the drive from Ottawa to Philadelphia so it didn't bother us traveling that far. On the way down we stayed overnight at Syracuse and shopped at Carousel Mall, on the way back we drove directly home from Philly.

My approach in booking all of the above trips was, once the dates were fixed according to the family's various schedules (school/work/etc.) I started checking expedia almost every day, looking at ticket prices from all of the airports within one day's drive including YOW, YUL, SYR, BUF, Binghamton, Scranton, Burlington, Albany, etc. After a few weeks of getting a feel for the prices, but still over 1 month from the departure date, I would book the flight and then start looking into parking lots, airport hotels, etc.

We never had problems with cancelled flights, or having really bad connections (Pearson!) or flying at terrible times of the day/night.

 

[SydneyFalco]

This happened to many of us in 2012. The direct flights weren't cancelled, but they moved the evening flights to morning flights. People who were already booked had their flights switched to connecting flights through Toronto, but you could call and have yourself switched to the (much) earlier morning flight at no charge. We needed to stick with our Friday evening flight, but we did get our Ottawa/Toronto connection bumped up so we could have more time to clear customs/security in Toronto.

On the actual day of the flight we were also delayed and had our departing gate changed 3 times. Started to feel like cattle being herded throughout Terminal 2. However, we were off in good time and made it to the happiest place on earth in plenty of time to get the party started!

I didn't know this was a thing. Our December, 2012 flight was messed-around with, too. In our case about six weeks out, and then again three weeks out. The cust rep I talked with said they were losing their runway priority to other airlines.

We have a Westjet reservation for this November and we're nervous it might get played with again -- was this activity confined to 2012? Is it something they've addressed, I hope? We didn't like having to scramble last minute last time to get everything fixed. Also, our new reservations are amazingly ideal: direct in the morning going to Orlando, direct back late in the evening on our last day.

As for the original question, it's just me and the wife, so we've never bothered to make the trek to another airport. These days, for the two of us, even Jet Blue only promises to save us about 150 for the both of us.

 

[shenaniganzz]

Direct out of Ottawa and with WestJet whenever possible!