Airfare to MCO is Prohibitive

[gardenrooms]

Yikes! I just started checking airfare to MCO for our trip in July. The only non-stop from SF area is United (and they only have 2 a day) and with 2 little ones in tow we like to go redeye straight through. Well, Thursday morning, the fare was $705 as I recall (it had come down a couple of dollars from Tuesday). I was hoping it would drop some more, because that still seemed awfully high - then in the afternoon it shot up by almost $150!!! I thought wow, did they sell out most of the seats already? Then I saw what happened - they changed the plane, so instead of 289 passengers they now only have seats for about 170 to 190. Ugh! I guess if I get lucky enough for it to drop even a little I had better jump on it! Kicking myself for not having bought those tickets at $705 now that I'm looking at $842!

 

[Pinnochio]

I just saw SF to MCO 7/11 -7/19 rt for $459 on American....there is a 1 hr 50 min layover in Charlotte....

 

[gardenrooms]

Oooh thanks. I'll check it out right now!

 

[gardenrooms]

Our dates are awful. They do have one flight from SJ for $723, I may try to grab that. For our dates, cheapest from SFO are $794 and many of the flights are almost sold out!

 

[cvjw]

I just paid $250 for my son to fly from Atlanta to MCO. One way ticket. Used to pay half that for a round trip ticket! Crazy!

 

[raven69david]

This is what we typically pay round trip for 4 of us. We NEVER go during the summer because it’s too packed, too expensive and too hot. But if you have to go during this time, every major airline jacks up the rates super high as demand goes way up (supply/demand). I like to call it legal price gouging but you ultimately agree to their price if you want to fly to Disney.

 

[Claire-Bear]

I definitely feel that coming from the UK - flights to MCO, compared to most other global locations, are crazy during school holidays. We fly during the "cheapest" part of the school holidays (late August) and our flights for 4 (inc 2 kids) are costing the equivalent of $4800, which was a pretty "good deal" as they've gone up since then (booked as soon as they were released)...which is why this will have to be a once-in-10-years-if-we're-lucky trip..

 

[AnnaS]

We drive half the time. I have been checking prices out of Newark for months. Nothing less than $800 - $900 for the two of us without luggage. We are leaving in less than two weeks. We were set on driving.

I checked again about a week ago - I see price a little less than $600. I grabbed it. I added luggage for me r/t - total $658. Still high compared to a few years ago. But now it seems like a bargain. (DH will have his carry-on).

The last time we flew was in October 2022 but we had a credit from a previous flight (COVID). If this is the new trend, we will keep driving and stay longer (Disney/Vero Beach).

 

[Titanium]

I'd flown a lot when I was in the corporate world but airfares are really off-putting right now.

 

[Pinnochio]

I just paid $250 for my son to fly from Atlanta to MCO. One way ticket. Used to pay half that for a round trip ticket! Crazy!

ouch!....for that i would drive for roughly 6 hours

 

[ShablamE]

Yikes! I just started checking airfare to MCO for our trip in July. The only non-stop from SF area is United (and they only have 2 a day) and with 2 little ones in tow we like to go redeye straight through. Well, Thursday morning, the fare was $705 as I recall (it had come down a couple of dollars from Tuesday). I was hoping it would drop some more, because that still seemed awfully high - then in the afternoon it shot up by almost $150!!! I thought wow, did they sell out most of the seats already? Then I saw what happened - they changed the plane, so instead of 289 passengers they now only have seats for about 170 to 190. Ugh! I guess if I get lucky enough for it to drop even a little I had better jump on it! Kicking myself for not having bought those tickets at $705 now that I'm looking at $842!

Have you tried checking Breeze Airways, I've never used them just read that recently they opened non-stop options from SNA to MCO and they seem relatively affordable. As I have no experience with them I don't know what sort of things they may tack on for fees above what I'm seeing with my sample search in July. Perhaps some others may have experience.

https://www.flybreeze.com/home

 

[shosh1530]

I've also been shocked at recent airline prices to MCO. I've been watching them constantly for about 6 months with the goal of doing either a winter or spring trip.

Booking one way tickets for each direction seemed to offer the best prices for me. I had enough miles on Delta to get one way tickets on the way there and found a great one-way ticket on United for the trip back ($116 from MCO to TUS each, although I paid a bit extra to be able to select seats). I found the lowest prices around the 4-5 weeks out mark and jumped on them. It also helped to be flexible with my dates as the lot of the lower prices were only for travel on Tuesdays/Wednesday/Thursdays.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Not sure if flying into Tampa (TPA) and renting a car is an option for you, but we always check both airports. Lately, flying into and out of TPA has cost less than MCO. We really like the TPA airport - much less hectic than MCO and car rental prices are less than at MCO.

 

[KVH]

For those of you monitoring your selected flights over time to watch for price changes, use Google Flights. Very painless way to watch for price drops.

 

[hrhdhd]

<screenshot deleted>

This is what we typically pay round trip for 4 of us. We NEVER go during the summer because it’s too packed, too expensive and too hot. But if you have to go during this time, every major airline jacks up the rates super high as demand goes way up (supply/demand). I like to call it legal price gouging but you ultimately agree to their price if you want to fly to Disney.

I'd delete that screenshot with your booking confirmation number.

 

[jimmymc]

Delta cost me $450 nonstop from Detroit this May, and that's slowly becoming the norm. Even Spirit is charging $300 or has crazy connections.

 

[Jml813]

Sanford might be another airport option.

 

[dez1978]

I was just looking at flights for June, and good grief. Even sprit and frontier are over 400 pp.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Can I assume you tried the obvious?

• Check Southwest
• Check surrounding airports (SJC, OAK, even SMF)

Edit to add;
We did find that. We looked into flying So Cal to PHX about a month ago for March travel - everything was < $100 each way. I went to book the flight over the w/e and now it's more than doubled. We are still going, but driving (about 6 hours each way - nothing we haven't done before).

 

[kes601]

Sanford might be another airport option.

Transportation from SFB to WDW eats into some of the savings.....