Best airline to get to WDW

[misskari]

I am looking at booking airfare for an Oct WDW trip for 5 adults. On these boards I see a lot of people have Southwest Airline credit cards. Does Southwest have cheapest flights? Or is it that they (at some point in time) offer 50,000 points, as some people have mentioned?

I hear that tues around noon are the cheapest fares but beyond that I'm clueless on airfare rates. Any tips are very much appreciated!

 

[Ms.Mouse]

I love Southwest...We ended up making reservations on Jet Blue this time because my DIL likes Jet Blue BUT...This airline is always changing their schedule so you can't count on the time you're taking off or coming home...This time it's to my advantage because instead of leaving Orlando at 1:50 as planned, they just changed our take off to 4:30!!!!...I like that you don't have to put up with this with Southwest... My schedules have always remained the same with them....EACH TIME we go Jet Blue, our time gets changed several times...I think from now on, it's Southwest for us....BTW, price is usually comparable with the two.... Hope this helps.

 

[kaite]

We always fly Tuesday to Tuesday (usually early morning going, late evening coming home) because we can get the cheapest rates for the best value (if you don't land until 12 or later your first day, you've basically wasted a Disney day/night that you're paying for a room). It really just depends on where you're flying out of. At our airport, one airline used to have a monopoly on flights directly to Orlando, so there really was no other choice (we don't like layovers). In our experiences, $360 was about the best fare (per person round trip) we ever saw; now that another airline flies directly to Orlando, we're ecstatic to get airfare for 260.

My best advice to you is not to jump on a particular fare too soon. Check back DAILY because the rates change and they change often. On any given day the rate may be 40 dollars cheaper or more expensive than it was the day before. I know that on American Airlines, you can put a particular rate on hold for 24 hours. They say 6 weeks out is the best time to buy, but we never wait until it is that close. Good luck!

 

[ggtexs]

great advice!

 

[stacielee]

Southwest will give you a credit if the fare drops. Southwest lets you take 2 bags for free. Both of those reasons are why I fly SW almost every time, unless they don't fly where I need to go.

 

[MillauFr]

Depends on what city you are flying from. The JP Powers customer satisfaction rankings had JetBlue and Alaska on top.

 

[Aliceacc]

It depends on a million variables, from where you're flying, to when, to which day of the week to how lucky you are.

I checked the prices on www.kayak.com every day for months; it was $1474 for the five of us for the Jetblue flights I wanted from NYC to MCO.

One day I checked, andit was $1224, so I booked.

The next day it was up to $1474.

I prefer Jetblue to Southwest, because i like knowing I can book my seats ahead of time.Maybe when my kids are older, that won't be as much of a concern, but right now it matters to me.

And, while I don't think this applies to Southwest, make sure you keep an eye on baggage fees. Many airliens (though not SW or Jetblue) charge $25 or more for any bag you check. That doesn't automatically make them more expensive, just that it's another fee you'll want to factor into your calculations

 

[Maggie Lizer]

I fly out of Baltimore, which is a Southwest hub. I think there are very few direct flights on other carriers, but the majority of flights from BWI to MCO are direct, non-stop. That, in addition to the fact that each person can check 2 bags for free, are what get me on SWA for most of my trips.

 

[jerseygal]

One of the ONLY airlines, to the best of my knowledge that has NO CHANGE FEES!!!!

Also, 2 FREE bags is great per customer!

Still don't know why though they insist on this "silly" system of "lining up" by boarding category instead of just allowing the customer to "choose" a seat when booking????? SILLY in my opinion, but otherwise we always have a great experience!

 

[leebee]

Reasons to like Southwest:

50,000 rapid rewards points "deal" when signing up for their credit card when they run the deal. It says "two free flights" but since you purchase by legs, it's really more than two trips, depending on destination. (For example, DH, DD, and I are going RT PWM to DAY for a family wedding this summer for 33000 points, leaving a bunch still in my account.) We have learned that both DH and I can each have one personal and one business card, so we have been stockpiling points for awhile now. Points don't expire, and as they post to your rapid rewards account as soon as you meet the deal requirement (sometimes nothing, sometimes charge $2000 in 3 months), you can cancel the card almost immediately. Yes, you pay an annual fee, but I think paying $49-$99 for 50000 miles is a deal.

No change fees, and refundable airfare. If you buy your tickets using money, if there's a fare drop, you can change that leg of your travel and the cash reverts to a hold account, and you can use it again, within a year from original purchase date for the same traveler, with no fees assessed. If you bought the ticket using rapid rewards points, they points just go back into your account with no limitations on re-use, and no fees. Delta wanted $200 for a change fee. Um, no.

Two free checked bags. No questions asked, as long as they meet size and weight limitations. We can take plenty of snacks to Disney without additional charge. A friend took her DD to college using SW; they each packed their weekend clothes in their carryon, then each had 2 free suitcases full of her DD's stuff for school. This'd cost $100-$200 on most airlines.

36-hour check-in. Yes, you pay for it ($12.50 per person) but I like not having to take my computer while on vacation, or not having to remember to check us in online.

Prices. Southwest often has the best prices on airfare, especially if you don't live near a major airport. I can't touch airfare out of Bangor, but Southwest now flies from Portland, ME. Makes it VERY much more affordable to do the 2 hour drive to the airport. Boston is a more affordable alternative, but it's a 4 hour drive without traffic, meaning a hotel is usually necessary somewhere along the way (although airfare from Bangor is so outrageous, it's cheaper to pay for the gas, hotel, and airfare from Boston, Portland, or Manchester than it is to fly several people from BGR).

Anyhow.. that's why we like SW. I can't complain about basically free airfare!

 

[mgsquared]

I just recently booked JetBlue because we will be flying from NYC and they had the most reasonable direct flights (we actually paid quite a bit extra for certain flight times so I am very disappointed to read on here that they get changed!!!).
When I added the 25$ baggage fee for each of us to the price of delta and the others- it wasn't cheaper anymore. So definitely keep an eye out for those! Pretty much any carrier except Virgin, Southwest, and JetBlue.

 

[Gracie09]

I just recently booked JetBlue because we will be flying from NYC and they had the most reasonable direct flights (we actually paid quite a bit extra for certain flight times so I am very disappointed to read on here that they get changed!!!). When I added the 25$ baggage fee for each of us to the price of delta and the others- it wasn't cheaper anymore. So definitely keep an eye out for those! Pretty much any carrier except Virgin, Southwest, and JetBlue.

We fly jet blue often. There was one time the flight change was considerable and they let us pick a new flight and booked it with no additional charge. Usually the change is like 15 minutes.

 

[momto3gr8boys]

I just recently booked JetBlue because we will be flying from NYC and they had the most reasonable direct flights (we actually paid quite a bit extra for certain flight times so I am very disappointed to read on here that they get changed!!!). When I added the 25$ baggage fee for each of us to the price of delta and the others- it wasn't cheaper anymore. So definitely keep an eye out for those! Pretty much any carrier except Virgin, Southwest, and JetBlue.

I have never had them get changed for more than 20-30 minutes. And the nice thing about JB out of JFK is that there are so many other flights if something does go wrong with yours. Delta and AA often only have two a day to MCO.

The other plus with JB is their points program. With the family pooling and no expiration date changes, we now can actually take advantage of using points for flights. I just booked two tickets on JB for August to take my son to school using points - I never would have been able to do that under the old system.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Ariel484]

Southwest's flexibility with canceling flights is the biggest reason why we try to fly them almost exclusively now. A couple of years back my husband had to pull out of a trip last minute due to some health issues, and we were booked with United. After trying to jump through their hoops to get some of his airfare back (getting a doctor's note and faxing it in), nothing ever happened and we ended up losing the entire ticket. We would have only gotten a percentage back even if we'd managed to get in contact with the right person (which became so difficult that we decided it wasn't worth the effort). So it's just a little easier to deal with Southwest - we canceled a flight from them hours before take-off and STILL got the entire amount credited to us.

And also...no baggage fees, got the credit card, they don't change the schedule as much (United has burned us with that a few times), prices are pretty decent if you keep checking, etc.

 

[mgsquared]

Thanks for the reassurance on Jetblue! It was 50$ per person more to arrive at MCO at 15:00. Anything cheap would have arrived super late.