Cheapest way to fly to Florida

[proud_canadian]

Hi guys,

We are planning a budget trip this Sept, and are wondering the cheapest way to fly to Florida. We are hoping to stay at windsor hills, but are open to flying into Tampa, or out of Buffalo or Niagara or anywhere in a reasonable driving distance from the GTA.

What is the cheapest way to get there?

If you fly out of BUF, what airlines should we be looking at? We've never flown out of the US before.

Thanks!

 

[sean-1966]

Look at Southwest, Jetblue and Airtran. They are the cheapest out of Buffalo. I prefer Jetblue because they have the little TV's in the seats.

 

[MedicGoofy]

Hi there

You definitely want to be flying out of BUF right now....so much cheaper, you pay less taxes. I have been flying out of there for years. I wouldn't think of flying from T.O or even Hamilton anymore.

I have been flying with Southwest and Jetblue mostly, as they seem to have the best prices.....and if you continue to check AFTER you book and you notice your airfare has dropped, you can get a voucher for the difference. Great if you will be flying within the next year (which I usually do). Airtran is beginning to be somewhat of a contender as well.

PP is def right, I love the TV's the have on all the headrests on the jets. It's nice to pass the time watching TV. I am finding tho, that Jetblue is NOT offering nonstop flights anymore, they all have layovers in NY or BOS....at least Southwest has more nonstop options at no extra cost.

Hope this helps

 

[ccudmore]

Also try checking the Air Transat web site. I've seen fares as low as $29 each way (before taxes) from Pearson to MCO on their site.

 

[minnie56]

Sunwing too...I luck out with AC and WJ a fair bit as well. Just booked another trip to MCO this April one way for $158 incl taxes with AC.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[webworm]

We live in Oakville and are on the gulf coast now for March break. We live in Oakville and flew out of Youngstown Ohio which is just over a 4hr drive. We flew with Allegiant into Clearwater airport and paid $124.00 rt including taxes. Total 4 tickets $496.00 and renting a lovely 4 bedroom home with pool and hot tub 10 minutes from the beach. We have flown out of Buffalo, Detroit and Pittsburgh. Sunwing wanted $2700 for March break.

 

[Sue M]

I wish I could find good fares from the west coast to the east coast, but not so much. On T.V last night they had a travel seg. on YVR having the highest prices in the country
So I try to fly out of Seattle as much as possible. It's about half the cost. Even factoring in gas & hotel it's way cheaper.

For a NY trip in June, I had to suck it up and fly out of YVR. $658 RT

I can fly from Seattle to MCO for $325 RT.

 

[stefanospops]

We have flown several times with Jetblue. A PP said they do not do direct flights to Orlando, but they do. We just got back a week and a half ago and paid about $200/pp return,taxes in. The price on my flight to Orlando actually decreased by about $180 from when I first booked to when we flew so Jetblue gave me a credit for a future flight (but I had to call in to get the credit).

As another poster said, don't rule out Toronto either. When I went once the weekend of US THanksgiving it was cheaper to fly with Sunwing than it was through Buffalo.

Also, check out Spirit Air. I have never flown with them but the fly out of Niagara Falls, NY.

 

[corster]

Even the legacy airlines have cheaper fares out of Buffalo, plus some of them will let you book in Canadian Dollars (which can save you a few bucks now that the currency is higher)

Check:
http://www.southwest.com for Southwest
http://matrix.itasoftware.com for Everyone else (Try YYZ as Sales City to see CAD prices, keep BOS as sales city for USD prices).

Anything you find on ITA's site can be booked with the airline directly or with the travel agent of your choice. Southwest does not publish their fares anywhere other than their own website, hence their flights won't show up on ITA.

ITA is an amazing resource though, I strongly suggest using it for fare comparison, no matter where you are flying to/from.

 

[maryliz]

Gone are the days of those awesome $49 and $59 flights on Southwest that included FREE baggage. Or the time I got Air Tran one way for $148 all taxes in for FOUR of us.

Been checking for August ... a few weeks ago could get great flights on Delta out of Detroit ... $700 + baggage for 4 of us ... DH's vacation wasn't approved yet so had to wait. Tonight I got $84 pp plus taxes each way ... Delta on way down and AirTran to come home. Total for both flights, all taxes and seat assignment ... $780 for 4 of us.

I'm that it ended up being under $200 pp return. I booked now because I suspect that gas prices are gonna soar and so are the airfares. We just drove down a few weeks ago for our cruise so I'm quite looking forward to NOT spending 4 days on the road to get there and back.

 

[DaniB]

Last year we flew JetBlue BUF to MCO for under $700 CAN (round-trip, family of 4). Toronto couldn't beat that.

This year JetBlue's prices round-trip (2 adults) is $579. I paid AirCanada $840 for this flight. A bit more expensive ($261), but we won't have to drive to Buffalo, stay overnight there & back, and drive home again.

Yesterday AirCanada's tickets dropped $90. Slightly up today but that round-trip is now only $798.

 

[elainesj]

Figure out all the airports within reasonable driving distance and all the possibilities and start a dpreadsheet to compare prices

If you fly midweek, the budget airlines often have great deals - typically for Wednesday flights.

Doesn't work for me (my vacation days are a bit more precious than that) so I they don't enter my calculations.

I fly out of Detroit and this is what I have seen:

Delta nonstop flights - $300 or so pp seems to be the average price
I stumbled across a great sale one day and got my tix for $150 pp. It then dropped to $120 pp a few days later and I refused to keep checking after that as I was happy with the price I got. BTW, this was around Cyber Monday time and about 2 months before my flight.

Spirit nonstop flights - about $300 or so pp once you count in taxes and fees. Even for Wednesday flights, their specials were about $79 each way which worked out to $200-$300 total. I stuck to Delta because their flight times were better for me.

All other airlines like AA and United, etc...
Their flights would sometimes be as low as $200 or so but involved 1-2 stops which I wasn't interested in (again my vacation time is rather precious right now. A few years ago when my time was more flexible, it wasn't a big deal).

Price out the different options and keep track of fares for a few weeks to get a general feel and then you'll know if you scored a good deal. Remember to add in gas and accommodations if you are driving to an alternate airport to get your total cost so you're comparing apples to apples.

 

[stuartdenley]

I suggest you the real consolidator which provides Cheapest Flight Tickets to world wide destination only at H&S

 

[4orm]

If you aren't looking for 'real' credit for a while I know people who've 'churned' credit cards for free trips. Both husband and wife both apply for 2 credit cards that include free miles and have a free trail year (no fee for the first year). Then you usually have enough miles for a couple free flights. I think some cards are offering 15000 aeroplan miles free right now x 4 = 60000 points. You can get direct flights on certain days for 25000 each way.
If you don't mind the credit hits, it's a possibility. I, myself, treasure my score and probably wouldn't ever do it, but it is a possibility.