Anyone from Cincinnati-how do you find flights?

[Stitch1404]

Just wondering if there is anyone from Cincinnati, Ohio who knows how to get a good flight deal to Orlando. Even booking really far in advance I can never find anything, we always end up flying out of Dayton (1 hour drive for us). If anyone has any tips or advice I would greatly appreciate them!

 

[mrsmom]

I have never had any luck getting flight out of cincy. Its too expensive!! We go to Indy or dayton too.
Kim

 

[Esmerelda]

I recently got great airfare in late April/early May for my upcoming trip to Orlando on USAir for $121 RT per person out of Cincy! I'm an avid watcher of Bestfares.com. No...I do not belong to their site...I just watch their airfare updates. If you pull up their main page and go to the quickfare finder and then just pull up your too and from cities...you can track down some great airfares. BUT...if you catch one..you have to be prepared to jump on it. We even had to add 2 days onto our trip but it all worked out great.

Best of luck to you,
Esmerelda

 

[party_of_five]

We fly out of Louisville or Indianapolis

 

[erikthewise]

I'm from Dayton, and all I can say is "Thank you for supporting our airport".
I'm aware of the situation in Cincinnati and sympathize, but don't have a solution other than Delta going out of business. That cure is probably worse than the disease.

I once drove to Columbus to take a flight through Cincinnati to my destination, and was grumbling to the person sitting next to me about having to do that to get a decent fare. It turned out he was from Cincinnati, and had driven to Columbus to take the flight back through Cincinnati!

 

[Stitch1404]

Esmeralda...thanks for the tip about bestfares. I'm definitely going to check that out!

erikthewise...yes, we defintely support the Dayton airport! We fly about 2-3 times per year and every time it is out of Dayton. Airtran runs direct flights out of Dayton to Orlando that leave early in the morning and don't come home until the evening. We love this because we feel like we have 2 extra days in Disney! It's also really important for us to have non-stop flights. They are also relatively inexpensive but their customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

I just don't understand why Cincinnati airport is so darn expensive! It is only about 25 minutes from us while Dayton is an hour. But we do like the fact that Dayton airport is so small. It makes it a lot easier on us lugging two kids and all the stuff they require!

 

[Esmerelda]

I'm sitting here chuckling...because I live right outside of Dayton and always fly either Columbus or Cincy to get better airfare...go figure...LOL

The last time I flew out of Dayton was probably 3 years ago...even my honeymoon last year was out of Cincy on AAA. We got 1st class seats for about $600 each to Miami.....

hmm...all the folks in Dayton go either south or northeast to fly...and all the folks in the south either go north or elsewhere....how darn bizarre is that!

its a small world afterall....its a small small world...

Esmerelda

 

[erikthewise]

We love the Airtran DAY-MCO nonstops also! So far we have not had any problems with customer service, in fact quite the opposite.

The first time we took these flights (2003) I bought two business class upgrades for our family of 4 because DW had never sat "up front". I didn't notice until after I left the counter that the gate agent had given us upgrades for the other two seats as well! When I did online checkin for our return trip, I found he had also given us four upgrades for the return trip!! (That was 8 upgrades for $70!) While I don't expect anything like that to happen again, we are now loyal customers.

When flying other places Cincinnati occasionally works for us, but to Orlando it's always Airtran. Even if lower fares are available elsewhere the combination of 25 miles away, great flight times, and nonstop is impossible to beat.

 

[maddi]

Try Kayak.com...I've caught good flights out of Cincy and Surrounding areas. It will list the cheapest airline and rate and where to book it. I live equally between columbus, dayton and toledo but got a great price out of Detroit (96.50) round trip to Florida. If you are like me, you don't mind driving a little north to save a $100 per ticket.

 

[maddi]

PS. I once had a customer rep tell me the reason Cincy is so expensive on thier tickets is that cincy is a hub for different airlines. That they sell other airports (DAY, CMH, TOL) cheaper so they have full flights to the hub. The hub flights are almost always booked full so they don't have to lower the fare to fill up the planes. Kinda makes since unless you are using Cincy. Think about it...someone who flies in from TOL gets to pay a fraction of what you paid in Cincy to go the same place and flies farther.