Did we overpay?

[donkthemagicllama]

Just booked flights from Calgary to Orlando in September... wound up taking United due to their times, and paid around $750pp. We could have got it lower (around $600) if we were willing to take unpleasant (to us) times, but either of those seem pretty steep. It would have been $900pp for the WJ direct flight (and it would have meant a day less in WDW).

Historically, we've used airmiles etc. and not paid attention to how much they cost, but we didn't have any this time. We were all excited and booked, but I wonder if we should have held out for lower rates.

 

[FunDisneyMom]

I think airfares are outrageous. I think we will drive next time.

 

[dis_guy]

In my opinion, I think you're overpaying a bit. That's almost exactly what we paid from Edmonton last Christmas, on peak days. For September I'd think they might be cheaper. On the other hand, you have the flights you want and along with it some peace of mind. Have a great trip this fall!

 

[donkthemagicllama]

yeah, it seemed a little much... in our haste to book it, we didn't think too rationally. I made the mistake of reading about the rates people are getting out of Buffalo, and it's got me jealous! That's a downside of living in Alberta I guess.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

yeah, it seemed a little much... in our haste to book it, we didn't think too rationally. I made the mistake of reading about the rates people are getting out of Buffalo, and it's got me jealous! That's a downside of living in Alberta I guess.

There is definitely no comparison (when it comes to price) for flying from a US airport and flying from a Canadian airport.

Our flight dates are August 26th and September 2.

From Syracuse, NY, our flights were $284 pp ($853 total) on JetBlue. Direct flights both directions, includes all taxes and fees, one free checked bag per person, free seat selection, and free snacks.

Same dates out of Pearson? Sunwing (a discount charter) is $1466 ($489 pp). Air Canada and Westjet are both $2104 ($701 pp) .

I am so very grateful that we are within a 3 hour drive of an easy-to-navigate American airport. Otherwise, there would be no Orlando getaways for this family.

 

[Disney-Chick]

We are in Nova Scotia and the flights can be costly. I know when we went down for our wedding my DD flew with my parents and the price was over $600 (Dec. 29th). We only flew once and now only drive as it is 36 hours but saves us a lot of money. The other up side is that we are able to stop along the way at other places to visit. We were planning a trip to DL this year and would have flew out of the States but that trip has been put to the side for now.

 

[chimo2u]

I fly from Edmonton, AB, and have been looking at the cost of flights ALL year....I hadn't seen them drop at all.....sticking around the $349 per leg/ PP price range.....At Christmas, I got a 15% off pin code from Air Canada, and I booked our return flights for Oct 7 from MCO to YEG......decent schedule (leaving at 13:50 pm) so we don't have to wake at O'Dark hour to head to the airport, we can have a leisurely wake up, and breakfast, maybe even a last swim....we have a car picking us up from Hard Rock Hotel and taking us to the airport......those flights with the discount cost me about $950 for the 3 of us.....yes, I'll have 3 bag fees at $25 each on top of that too....but I didn't let that concern me, it will be money found at the end of the trip.

GOING flights.....I wanted a schedule that would get us there fairly early (early afternoon if possible) I really liked West Jet's schedule leaving the night before ( Sept 27) and then commencing again in the morning (Sept 28) out of Toronto...getting us there by 1:20 pm. I decided to book that schedule when they finally had a spring seat sale ..... We will spend the night at the Gateway Sheraton that is right inside the airport and in the same terminal that West Jet drops us off in....I got a GREAT price for the night. This way we will be refreshed for the next day, and arrive in Disney as early as we can flying from the west coast (no direct flights this time of year, and other flights had us doing a 4.5 hour layover in Toronto airport.....from 6 am to 10:30 am...yuck!!!) We fly out of Toronto at 10:30 am and arrive in Orlando at 1:20 pm......this leg cost us about $1,000 for the 3 of us, so our total airfare for 3 was $1950.....or approx $650 each......not bad considering how up and down flight prices have been this yr!!! I am just happy to be booked with great schedules!!!

I think the days of cheap $99/ or even $175 per leg tickets I got in '08/'09/and '11 are gone!!! I may have to look into Disney LAND next time coming from the West Coast, airfare to the EAST is crazy expensive!!!! Sorry for the long-winded answer, but I wanted to share what I had found so ..... in a nutshell, it looks like you are right on par with what others will be paying this time of yr.! Have a great trip!

 

[GrtWtNorth]

Unfortuantely $750 pp is a reasonable rate for flying from Alberta to Florida.

Living in Alberta, we don't have a lot of airports to choose from. Living in Vancouver, I only used the Vancouver airport when flying to Asia. Seattle was always half the price when flying to LA, Orlando or Honolulu.

I'm seriously considering driving to Seattle to get better rates and schedule for my Easter 2013 vacation. Calgary to Seattle is an ambitous drive, but we'll save +$1000 and we can fly direct on Alaska Airlines.

 

[Carina]

I'm seriously considering driving to Seattle to get better rates and schedule for my Easter 2013 vacation. Calgary to Seattle is an ambitous drive, but we'll save +$1000 and we can fly direct on Alaska Airlines.

You could do the drive in one day.... one LONG day, but one day.

We are flying Seattle to Tampa this September. It was a lot less than to Orlando, ( over $500 less for the 5 of us)
We are flying Southwest, again for lower prices, but also better times on the way home - Alaska direct would have gotten us in so late we would have been stuck on the mainland until the next day.

Instead we fly out at 9:30am and 'should' be on the ferry home by dinnertime ( thanks to the time change working in our favor on the way back!)

 

[Sparrow78]

When we went August 2010 we flew wj and our flights were about $550 a person. Next time I am going to look at flying out of great falls as I know a TON of people who do and save huge money to Disneyland so I would think it could be the same to Orlando.

We were supposed to go on the cruise out of la in feb but medical issues made us cancel, so I was trying to rebook for may out of Orlando but the flights were close to what you paid and I couldn't justify that this time around.

 

[dis_guy]

If you're thinking about driving to a US airport, how about Spokane WA? I think SouthWest flies out of there. I've looked at Billings an Great Falls MT on United before and to be honest, saw very little in savings there. The down side is you'll have to settle with connecting flights from these airports.

 

[SmilingGrump]

The BIG problem I see that we have are the taxes on tickets. Not so long ago, tickets from Edmonton to Las Vegas or Phoenix cost around $150-250 total. Now, taxes alone are close to $250. When airlines see that passengers are willing to pay more in taxes then for the ticket, they naturally raise the price of tickets.

I'm sure if you watch ticket pricing, you'll see it cross the 1k mark and beyond, then drop down again so, while your price of $750/person isn't a great deal, it's also not as much as some will have to pay.

 

[dis_guy]

The BIG problem I see that we have are the taxes on tickets. Not so long ago, tickets from Edmonton to Las Vegas or Phoenix cost around $150-250 total. Now, taxes alone are close to $250. When airlines see that passengers are willing to pay more in taxes then for the ticket, they naturally raise the price of tickets.

I'm sure if you watch ticket pricing, you'll see it cross the 1k mark and beyond, then drop down again so, while your price of $750/person isn't a great deal, it's also not as much as some will have to pay.

Taxes and fees vary according to the airports you fly from/through/to. The best airports are the US ones. The worst one is Pearson in Toronto. From Edmonton, flying on a US airline and connecting in the US, the fees and taxes are about $125 for a return flight.

 

[donkthemagicllama]

well, thanks all for putting my mind at ease... if we were to settle for different times, we could have gone as low as $605pp, but we've had some pretty terrible flight experiences, and wanted to make this as painless as possible.

However, even at these prices, I bet our flights will be totally full, so I doubt we're in for much of a change.

We didn't really toy with the idea of driving to Spokane or somewhere else... we've got a 1 and 4 year old, and the flights alone are hard enough!

 

[jeepwreck]

Living in Vancouver I usually drive down to Seattle for flights.. I found that many times the difference in price is worth the drive down.

However last time we went to WDW about 2 months ago, we missed out connecting flights because we have to go through customs in Toronto. One good thing about flying with in the states when it comes to connecting flights there is less stress because your bags connect automatically, which is a great feature when your flights are not far apart.

 

[wdwgirl3]

we haven't booked our flights yet, but it is around 600 pp ,so 1800 total, including taxes to go from Winnipeg to orlando. grand forks/ Fargo is our other options, 3 hours away...but the prices are virtually the same. the next chose is minneapolis.a 7 hour drive and the price right now is 1000 today. is it worth the 7 hour drive,meals,hotels and not having the convienance of being home in 20 minutes after we land? I am thinking not. flights are such a rip off now and I wish they would tell you the ACTUAL price for flights. example: baggage fees