Airtran

[hippiechick72]

We will be at WDW from 6/14-6/20. I haevn't bought airline tix yet. So far Airtran seems to be the cheapest. Anyone have any discounts for Airtran? We are flying from Akron/Canton, oh. Usually flying out of Cleveland is cheaper, but I can't find anything. There are 5 of us and I'm hoping that there is a good deal out there that I haven't seen yet.

Thanks!

 

[AndreaDM]

Sign up for their emails and become a FB fan, you'll be bombarded with their deals. We fly out of Akron all the time, such a great airport.

 

[disneychic2]

We live 10 minutes from CAK and love flying out of there. So much nicer than Cleveland. Airtran is who we usually fly with as well. I watched a segment on Rachel Ray last week about when to buy airline tickets and the expert on her show said there is a "sweet spot" when you get the best fare. I always thought the earlier the better but he says to keep checking and often closer to time for the flight they will reduce the price if the plane is not filling up quickly enough. Obviously don't wait until a couple of weeks prior, but he said it varies. Why can't airlines just give us a fair price from the get go and stop all this now you see it now you don't airfares??? Good luck to you in your search for a deal!

 

[vsimeone]

Another CAK neighbor here. I'm 3 miles from the airport. I flew AirTran to Orlando twice last year out of CAK. It is so easy and such a nice flight. I would highly recommend it!

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[BelleBeautyandtheBeast]

Another fan of CAK , and we have used Airtran out of CAK. I would just keep checking. IIRC the best time to book is between 90 and 21 days prior to departure.

When we flew to MCO in October it ended up being way cheaper to drive over to PIT. Nice airport, no complaints but obviously closer to home makes things much easier.

Have you tried the Bing Travel predictor thing? Not sure how accurate it really is but it is fun to see what it says. http://www.bing.com/travel/flights Right now it says fares are holding steady with 75% confidence for your dates/airports.

Happy airfare hunting

 

[RumpleMom]

I'm thinking the unrest in Egypt is causing the cost of oil to rise, so airfares will rise too. I like to book with Southwest at a price I can live with, and then watch for a lower price to rebook. The credit I have is always a compelling reason to fly SWA again and book another trip to WDW.

 

[DiznyDi]

Another fan of CAK here. Hello neighbors! FYI: Airtran will now honor the price if ticket prices go down as long as seats are available. A phone call was all it took and we saved $132. on our December flights (4 persons). Credit was put into our account, we used the credit to book our May flights.

 

[tinkmom2]

It's too bad flights aren't available for October yet. I hate to see how high they are going to go!

 

[maggiew]

Another fan of CAK here. Hello neighbors! FYI: Airtran will now honor the price if ticket prices go down as long as seats are available. A phone call was all it took and we saved $132. on our December flights (4 persons). Credit was put into our account, we used the credit to book our May flights.

This is nice to know. I don't think it was always like that, was it? I have been putting off buying tickets for my July trip, but this makes me feel a little better.

Maggie

 

[hippiechick72]

Thanks everyone. We've never flown out of CAK. It was always cheaper to take Southwest out of Cleveland. Not this time though! Southwest doesn't even go nonstop now. Canton is much closer, so this makes me happy. I already get their emails, but the only special they have for FL right now is flight before the end of May I have searched every dang travel website there is and everyone gives me the exact same price. So much for trying the sites trying to win my money. Somebody really should lower their price. lol

I have also searched Pittsburg and it was only $30 cheaper, which is not worth the 90 minute drive or the gas there.

I also called Airtran to double check on the credit info, they said that they do give you a credit for the difference. With that credit you can use it towards another flight or baggage fees. I guess that makes me feel a little better

 

[Soon2B4]

Thanks everyone. We've never flown out of CAK. It was always cheaper to take Southwest out of Cleveland. Not this time though! Southwest doesn't even go nonstop now. Canton is much closer, so this makes me happy. I already get their emails, but the only special they have for FL right now is flight before the end of May I have searched every dang travel website there is and everyone gives me the exact same price. So much for trying the sites trying to win my money. Somebody really should lower their price. lol

I have also searched Pittsburg and it was only $30 cheaper, which is not worth the 90 minute drive or the gas there.

I also called Airtran to double check on the credit info, they said that they do give you a credit for the difference. With that credit you can use it towards another flight or baggage fees. I guess that makes me feel a little better

I'm surprised. I haven't found SW to ever be cheaper out of CLE. We usually end up flying Continental. Our last trip, Airtran was a little cheaper, but by the time I added seat assignments, it wasn't worth the drive down to CAK. (We are only about 15 minutes from CLE) But, we did use Airtran one time out of CAK and we had no complaints.

 

[GinnyEmma]

Love flying out of Canton! It is the most efficient traveling we do!

 

[emma'smom]

MY DH flies Airtran out of CAK weekly for work. We fly it to Orlando as a family and find it pretty efficient. The airport is manageable and parking reasonable.

We also fly SW occasionally out of Cleveland. However, for Orlando we find that SW is usually cheaper and has more flights out of Columbus. So we just drive down the night before, stay in a cheap hotel and take the first morning flight out.

 

[AndreaDM]

Wow didn't realize how many neighbors we had on the Dis! Howdy! We are also less than 10 min from cak.

 

[Massillon Dad]

I drive there: all the time, but for 90 min it would need about 90 mph driving

 

[Order66]

CLE hasn't had any good prices to MCO in about 2 years. There is no competition. Continental is the only airline out of Cleveland that even offers non-stop to Orlando anymore. And that will go away after the merger and United ends up dumping CLE as a hub.

In 08 we flew Continental for $158pp round trip. In 09 we flew from CAK on airtran for $79 down and SW for $99 on the return because they had a better flight time and they still had 1 non-stop per day. Last year SW dropped most of the non-stops, except 1 on Sat during peak travel times and it never went below $135 each way for our June trip. When I saw $59 each way, non-stop, out of Columbus I grabbed it. It was worth it to drive and pay for 10 days of parking, add a night to our trip and still come out $100 ahead. I checked daily to switch it to CLE for a fair price.....and it never happened.

I've been watching for May/June flights for months. Continental is expensive + luggage fees. Southwest has horrible times for us, is crazy higher than Continental AND all connecting flights. It's likely going to be Airtran for us this year. I'm sorry I didn't grab the flights for $92 and have watched it go up for weeks. Their sales to FL are only through March. I guess I'll have to keep waiting just a little longer. Last year I didn't even purchase June tickets until late Feb.......so I guess I'm getting anxious over nothing.

Forgot to add. CAK is a great little airport. So I have no problems using Airtran from there, even though CLE is 15 minutes away.

Come on sales out of CLE/CAK!!!

 

[Soon2B4]

In January we flew non-stop on Continental out of CLE for $217 pp.(3 tickets all fees/taxes-not luggage fees) The difference for us on Airtran was less than $100 total. We didn't feel that was worth the drive. Plus, we would've paid for parking for 9 days. We had a friend drop us off at the airport, so parking was free. That wasn't even factored in the $100 so the savings was even less.

 

[hippiechick72]

The last time we went to WDW was in 08. We flew nonstop with Southwest for $198pp out of cleveland. I just purchased tix for June at $255pp for Airtran out of CAK. UGH! I guess it wasn't too much more, it was aggrivating,because the tix were a lot cheaper a few weeks ago, but I couldn't get scheduled for sure until a few days ago. We were waiting on a date for our daughter's dance recital. I am going to keep my eye on prices, since Airtran will credit any price differences.

Shopping for airfare is my least favorite thing to do. I have many more important things to do, ya know, like make my ADR's.

 

[RachaelA]

In January we flew non-stop on Continental out of CLE for $217 pp.(3 tickets all fees/taxes-not luggage fees) The difference for us on Airtran was less than $100 total. We didn't feel that was worth the drive. Plus, we would've paid for parking for 9 days. We had a friend drop us off at the airport, so parking was free. That wasn't even factored in the $100 so the savings was even less.

That was our issue. We used to live in Akron so we usually flew out of CAK. (I actually flew from Boston to CAK once a month when I was in college on Airtran because it was so cheap). Now we live in Geauga County and the price difference on from Continental (out of Cleveland) versus Airtran (out of Akron Canton) wasn't worth the drive and parking (since we get a ride to CLE and get one free bag per person with our Continental visa).

That being said I looooove CAK. Its so new and clean.

 

[PirateDad]

I too loved flying AirTran out of CAK, but the issue I noticed when booking last year was that they only had one non stop per day to Orlando (at least they did last summer when we flew). We booked earlier than we normally would have to get the non stop flight. They also charge extra to pick your seats (an essential when flying with smallish kids and a senior citizen like we did). Well worth it though for the convenience and ease of parking and check-in, IMHO.