Driving to US for cheaper flights?

[c&m]

We live in Richmond, B.C., only 10 minutes away from Vancouver Int'l Airport. However, we only fly out of Seattle. Saves us so much money. We are leaving for Las Vegas on Thursday night for the long weekend. Our airline tickets were $218 pp. Flights on WestJet and AC were more than double that flying from my local airport.

Friends of ours are leaving tonight for Orlando and are going to Seattle as well to catch their flight.

 

[Disneydaddycanada]

We are doing the same for our up coming trip to wdw. We live in durham which is east of Toronto and driving to Pennslyvia to do some shopping for a day and half then drive 1 hr to pittsburgh airport flying with southwestern for 3 + and infant in lap $606 return non stop. Its a 5 hr drive but westjet was charging $2056 out of Toronto.

we used airmiles last Dec and had to change our dates to accomadate airmiles. Then we had to settle with a flight that departed disney at 6:00am on boxing day. It is not fun having to get a 1 and 5 yr up at 2:30am to get to the airport 3 hrs before departure. On top of that the taxes was $800+ and they charge a $40 booking fee. What a joke! I guess that is another thread...

We booked a hotel in Grove city PA using the airmiles so that is free... With the CAD dollar so strong and the competition between the airlines in the US for customers I think more people will be driving over.

Like my wife said to me... We can go on almost 2 trips if we fly from the US...

 

[MrMarv]

$618.00 R/T from LA/Montreal is ridiculous!!!

$322.00 from LA/Albany plus $90.00 R/T on Amtrak from Albany/Montreal=savings of approximately 200.00!!

My goodness!!!

 

[shoppgirl]

We are taking our girls on their very first trip (and airplane ride) to Disney in August. I looked at air out of Toronto, and it was over $2700 for the 4 of us. As much as I would love the convenience of flying out of YYZ which is only 20 minutes from my house, I could not justify paying so much for air when I know I can get it much cheaper out of Buffalo. Back in January I found air on Jet Blue to MCO for $1000 for the 4 of us and grabbed those seats without hesitation. I love the planes Jet Blue uses too (small and roomy 2+2 configuration with personal TV sets) so I am really excited about the choice I made. The drive to Buffalo is not bad at all (1 hour), border crossing is painless and I hear what a wonderful little airport BUF is!

 

[hematite153]

We always say we're going to fly out of Syracuse...but it's only happened once (whereas, we've flown to wdw from home twice and we've booked tickets again for Sept).

The stress of the drive was exhausting and the savings weren't as significant as for others because my DW travels for work and we have piles of frequent flyer miles.

But, I think when we have kids (and when we're looking for more than two tickets) the cost savings will cancel out the inconvenience of the drive.

 

[MrMarv]

What's the longest you've ever had to wait to cross the border in either direction?

 

[Disney_Mama]

Well I just booked a flight to Fort Lauderdale for June. To fly from Fredericton on Air Canada for 3 is $2957.00. To fly out of Portland Maine with Jet Blue, about 4.5 hours away is $740.00. Guess which flight I chose. Even with the high gas prices and parking at the airport I'll be saving at least $2000

 

[Charleyann]

Well I just booked a flight to Fort Lauderdale for June. To fly from Fredericton on Air Canada for 3 is $2957.00. To fly out of Portland Maine with Jet Blue, about 4.5 hours away is $740.00. Guess which flight I chose. Even with the high gas prices and parking at the airport I'll be saving at least $2000

I am flying to Ft. Lauderdale from Portland, Maine. I got my flights for $99 (nov 29th )each for two of us plus tax! I live in the Fredericton area and the cost was !

Flying back out of
Orlando on Dec 29th for $119.00. Not bad over Chistmas. So, round trip was $218.00 plus tax. I had a credit of almost $200! Hotel is keeping my car for a month! Gas, not bad with my car....

Well worth the savings!

Charleyann

 

[hematite153]

What's the longest you've ever had to wait to cross the border in either direction?

I have on more than one occasion ended up waiting in line at a border crossing for 4 hours. (Only once while trying to come home, but, many times while trying to cross into the US.) The catch is, the crossings I use are usually under an hour, but, you can't anticipate when they'll have received some tip that leads them to search EVERY car very thoroughly.

It's actually this uncertainty that makes us stress about driving to Syracuse. Do we risk missing our flight and only allow an hour for the border? Or, do we go down the night before (thereby adding a hotel cost and reducing the savings)? Or, do we allow the four hours and just arrive at the airport way before our flight?

 

[Mickey Fanatic]

We are flying for the first time out of Buffalo, for A LOT cheaper than Pearson. We usually use DH's Aeroplan points but in-laws are coming so this made a lot more sense. It is only a half hour more drive and getting around Buffalo airport is a lot easier than Pearson.

I went to Boston last month and the return flight in Buffalo was $300 compared to about $1700 in TO. With the great exchange it was a no brainer!

 

[ntsammy5]

This is an interesting thread. We went to Hawaii in 2003 and flew Air Canada out of Pearson even though I live 20 minutes from the Buffalo Airport. The flight was less expensive by about $500 each and the times were better. What has happened over the last 5 years?

 

[shoppgirl]

What's the longest you've ever had to wait to cross the border in either direction?

The longest I have ever waited was about 90 minutes, but that was during the height of cross border shopping when the loonie was at or above par with US. Now that the hype has died down somewhat and we're at par, if not a little lower, the wait times have come down to a respectable 30 minutes max, averaging 20 minutes. Once I get through customs at the land border, it's smooth sailing after that at the airport. All you need to do is get through security and I am almost positive the security lines at the smaller Buffalo airport are shorter than at the larger Pearson airport.

 

[rewok]

Last year, I got such a good price on tickets out of Montreal (320$pp), it wasn't worth it. But this year, cheapest from Montreal with horrible hours was 530$pp, 650$pp for "god hours". Flying out of Burlington, VT, I paid 280$pp with great flight times. Had I bought 1-2 months before, it could have been only 200$pp for JetBlue direct flight,

The 2 hours drive is surely less fun than the 15 minutes taxi ride to Dorval, but I saved over 700$ total. At those prices, I would've stayed home!

Now if only Plattsburgh airport could ramp up and offer more flight. it's only 1h15 from home...

MrMarv, did you went with Albany/Amtrak idea? Is the train station close to the airport? And the train hours are very limiting, not sure it is so convenient.

 

[MrMarv]

I haven't been to Montreal in over a decade (shame on me!!!!), but with that $618.00 airfare being far higher than I imagined, I'm definitely not going to fly to Montreal---those airport fees and other government fees are ridiculous!!!!

I'd just as soon fly to Albany and spend the night there, and take Amtrak the following morning, leaving at 11 AM and arriving in Montreal around 8 PM.

Our terribly weak dollar has made Canadian hotels far more expensive than they were even 2-3 years ago, but that airfare from LAX/YUL is nuts!!!

 

[Melmac]

Since we live in Windsor (right across the river from Detroit), it has been years since I have flown from Windsor or Toronto. This usually happens if I am flying for business but for personal trips, we always fly from Detroit. Bonus: it's only about a 30 minute drive to Metro Airport!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

We always fly from Syracuse. So much cheaper than Ottawa or Toronto. Gotta love JetBlue.

 

[SherylWrites]

out of Detroit. $55 flights on Spirit Air beats $200 flights on Air Canada any day. It's a two hour drive but saves us a ton of money. Plus the airport in Toronto is mayhem on a good day. Detroit's is very simple.
Our international airport in my city has flights to Orlando but they are an arm and a leg.

 

[Lluianae]

We are from Winnipeg and are driving to Minneapolis to fly to Orlando. This is the first time for us and a co-worker does this every time they go down, and they say its worth the trip.