Airfare to LAX

[3LittlePirates]

My family and I do not fly much. We usually drive to Disney World for all our vacations. This summer (late May/early June) we are looking at going to Disneyland We are a family of 5 do I know airfare is NOT going to be cheap! I have found Southwest airfare from Dallas to LAX for around 300 per person. Do I book now or hold off in hopes it will be cheaper...since we do not fly often I just don't know!

Thanks!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Also look at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana (SNA). It is even closer to Disneyland than LAX.

 

[taaren]

You may find better responses on the Transportation Board.

Nice thing about Southwest is that you can get a credit back if the price for your flight goes down, reusable for the same people within a year.

Did you also check flying into SNA (John Wayne Orange County) or perhaps even San Diego? SNA is closer, and SAN is only about an hour away from DLR, and its very easy to take Amtrak up to Anaheim, or you could spend a day or two checking out the San Diego Zoo or one of the many attractions there at the beginning or end of your trip.

$300 RT per person sounds pretty decent to me, but Southwest also runs sales fairly frequently depending on whether or not your particular flight is selling (eg. I bought my last set of airfare from the West Coast to MCO from Southwest on Day 1, and my outbound trip dropped multiple times with various sales because it was a day/flight apparently nobody else wanted but the return flight just kept going up in price since it was a high travel day).

 

[CluelessDisFan]

I like to use Bing.com for travel because it will make suggestions on to wait or buy, and gives you price charts. Also we're looking at flying into San Diego, because from Detroit it's cheaper to go there. Not closer but definitely cheaper.

 

[undertheradar]

You should post on the Disneyland board. We liked flying into Burbank much better than LAX.

 

[bumbershoot]

There are 5 airports local to Disneyland. LAX, SNA, LGB, BUR, and ONT.

I do not consider San Diego (SAN) to be local, as it takes at least 1.5 hours driving legal speeds to get from downtown (where the airport is) to Disneyland. And that's highly dependent on what time of day you get in and if there are events happening at the park. The train (Amtrak's Surfliner) is pretty amazing, but you have to get from the airport to the train station, then from the Anaheim train station (which is, bizarrely, in the parking lot of the Angels stadium) to your resort. (you can use ART or a cab for that...there are cabs waiting there at the train station, though as you walk off the train it looks like you are in no-man's-land).

Be SURE you have transportation fully priced out before you make the decision to go with an airport that is not LAX or SNA. Disneyland Resort Express (run by Gray Line, and is a coach bus) only goes out of those two airports. Super Shuttle goes from many others, but has a very different pricing structure for SNA and LAX than it does for the other airports. (and if you are pricing with SS, choose your hotel to tell them where you are going, do NOT enter the zip code, as using the zip code results in higher prices) I like Karmel Shuttle recently. Just don't choose an airport because it's cheaper, only to find out that your transportation costs will be much higher.

 

[Boston Tea Party]

We always fly into Ontario. The airport is small and easy to get around. The drive to Anaheim is a ways, but my mobility-limited parents would prefer a user-friendly airport and longer drive as opposed to LAX and a shorter drive.

 

[jessica52877]

We fly from Atlanta and $300 is a great deal! We like to fly into LAX and rent a car.

 

[mcraige]

I live in DFW and feel your pain. We flew to WDW in November, and actually flew out of Austin, since the airfare was $180/person less. My sister is going to DLR tomorrow, and is also flying out of Austin, since airfare is considerably cheaper than flying out of DFW.

Keep in mind that if you fly Southwest out of DAL (Love Field), you will have a stop-over somewhere.

Based on experience, $300pp is very reasonable, unless you can find a Virgin American flight for $99pp each way.

 

[tinkerbell9227]

I would wait.

We have been looking for airfare to LAX in february since late July and it's currently the lowest its been ! I think we will be buying in the next couple of weeks. We're at about $250 per person right now (From Milwaukee, Chicago is more $) when I started looking it was around 350 a person!

Also, I don't know about how close it is to disneyland.. but my husbands family is from Los Angeles area and they use Ontario airport a lot. So far I haven't found it to be cheaper, but you might look into it !

I bought airfare to LAX three years ago the week before thanksgiving for thanksgiving week and We got a steal on it! My husband actually called expedia and they guy did a "package" by giving us 1 night in a motel (we didn't use it) that brought the price way down! Something else to think about you can do that on their web page too.

 

[clutter]

Be SURE you have transportation fully priced out before you make the decision to go with an airport that is not LAX or SNA. Disneyland Resort Express (run by Gray Line, and is a coach bus) only goes out of those two airports. Super Shuttle goes from many others, but has a very different pricing structure for SNA and LAX than it does for the other airports. (and if you are pricing with SS, choose your hotel to tell them where you are going, do NOT enter the zip code, as using the zip code results in higher prices) I like Karmel Shuttle recently. Just don't choose an airport because it's cheaper, only to find out that your transportation costs will be much higher.

Agreed. We did a southern CA trip this summer, and it was the price of car rentals that cemented using LAX for us. We did more than Disney (Sequoia NP, San Diego, LA), so we needed a car. The rental costs were significantly less out of LAX than the other airports.

 

[3LittlePirates]

Thank you guys for all the advice....Decisions, decisions

 

[PatMcDuck]

I fly to DL 1-2 times a year, from NJ. Of course, I have options of JFK, Newark, and Philadelphia.

Usually Philly is the cheapest. Find out alternative airlines, I recently found out about Virgin Atlantic. Not sure if they fly out of a city near you.....

I always TRY to fly into John Wayne. But I have done LAX too, and will fly into LAX in August.