Anyone fly Southwest from Cle to MCO?

[mominwestlake]

My sister and her family (7 total) want to join us At Disney World March 2011.
Right now, the cost of air per person on Continental would be about $400 with tax and fees. Southwest fares for March aren't out yet. If you have flown SW from Cle to MCO- is there a direct flight? Do you think it will be better than $400 a person?

Is there a trick to booking airfare- a certain day, 9 months out vs. 6 months out, etc? She is looking at $2800 total for her dh, herself, and 5 kids.

 

[Zoesmama03]

If they have direct flights from Phoenix I'm sure they may have some from there as well.

I

 

[tbone20102]

Southwest use to have a direct flight from CLE to MCO, but when I booked our trip for Oct 2010 the direct flight was no longer available. We are flying from Columbus to MCO direct and it beat the Continenal rates by almost $150 per person. You may also want to check Airtran. I have flown out of Akron (CAK) to MCO countless times and have never had a problem.

 

[Zerosinthecloset]

Just a note, direct and nonstop are not the same thing.

 

[deva]

I live in Cleveland. SW occasionally has one nonstop flight, but most often you need to swtich planes. We fly Continental almost exclusively to get a nonstop flight. Your still have plenty of time to get airfare and just need to watch the prices EVERY day. Subscribe to travelocity and fare compare to get updates when prices drop. Right now, prices are high all over due to airlines cutting flights and I think the Continental/United deal has caused Continental prices from Cleveland to go up. Based on what we've paid recently and what I've been looking at for our next trip, anything $230 or less is probably good price. Under $200 and I would book for sure. Just for comparison, last summer we paid $118 round trip, this summer it was $228. Usually SW and Continental are close to the same price unless you get a great internet rate with SW

 

[Order66]

Yep, SW no longer offers non-stop service from CLE to MCO for 2010. They have all connecting flights. Who knows what '11 might bring? This year the best rate I had seen for our June trip was $134. Normally we take Continental out of CLE for the non-stops, but they were also around $250pp + bags.
I decided to book SW out of Columbus....3 choices of non-stop flights per day and I got a great rate of $59 pp (each way). Even paying $75 to park for 10 days and a tank of gas to get there and back I still saved over $400 from flying from CLE.

Also watch AirTran from CAK. They often have $79-99 fares and do offer non-stop service to MCO. For Continental I have found that 90-60 days out is the best time to get a good rate. Also flying on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday. For SW just keep checking their sales which normally come out on Tuesdays. Continental will often adjust their prices to match SW from CLE. I agree that anything $200 or less is a decent price for CLE. Last year I paid $150pp.

regards

 

[feezle]

+1 for Airtran out of CAK. We live in Youngstown and we would rather drive to Pittsburgh than fly out of Cleveland. Too expensive. Of course, if you live in Cleveland, that wouldnt be an option. 9 times out of 10 it is CAK.

 

[BLLB]

Southwest does offer non-stops out of Cleveland during busy periods. We flew non-stop to MCO in 2010 during Spring Break/Easter week. We got our best price by booking the day the flights were released.

You may want to check the Transportation Board section of the Dis. They are on top of everything transportation related and are very helpful.

 

[Fire14]

My sister and her family (7 total) want to join us At Disney World March 2011.
Right now, the cost of air per person on Continental would be about $400 with tax and fees. Southwest fares for March aren't out yet. If you have flown SW from Cle to MCO- is there a direct flight? Do you think it will be better than $400 a person?

Is there a trick to booking airfare- a certain day, 9 months out vs. 6 months out, etc? She is looking at $2800 total for her dh, herself, and 5 kids.

i'm 98% sure they have dropped direct flight from clev to mco. fly from columbus to mco direct a lot. i pd around 232.00 r/t for my june trip leaving on wed coming home on sun

 

[Fire14]

I decided to book SW out of Columbus....3 choices of non-stop flights per day and I got a great rate of $59 pp (each way). Even paying $75 to park for 10 days and a tank of gas to get there and back I still saved over $400 from flying from CLE.

FYI try checking out fast track for parking at airport might b cheaper than airport parking

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I would suggest she fly out of Akron. Over the past 4 years we have found that the flight prices out of Akron were way cheaper than CLE.

I just looked and Airtran flights for Feb 2011 (March fares are not out yet for airtran) are running $245 a person for a non stop flight. We have been lucky enough to get flights for as little as $120 to as high as $180 out of Akron on Airtran. We fly in Feb and Sept to Florida. Usually I have seen the flight prices be $59 to $79 each way to MCO.

We live in Elyria and drive to Akron and its not a bad trip at all. Best of all since it is a smaller airport you can park your car, and be through security in less than 20 minutes!

My sister and her family (7 total) want to join us At Disney World March 2011.
Right now, the cost of air per person on Continental would be about $400 with tax and fees. Southwest fares for March aren't out yet. If you have flown SW from Cle to MCO- is there a direct flight? Do you think it will be better than $400 a person?

Is there a trick to booking airfare- a certain day, 9 months out vs. 6 months out, etc? She is looking at $2800 total for her dh, herself, and 5 kids.