Favourite airline out of Buffalo?

[allykat73]

Hi everyone...just looking at booking my first flight out of Buffalo. What is your favourite airline out of Buffalo?

Thanks!

 

[vacation_junkie]

Hi everyone...just looking at booking my first flight out of Buffalo. What is your favourite airline out of Buffalo?

Thanks!

We fly southwest a few times a year out of Buffalo. Love them!

Jet blue is ok too but every time we flew with them they changed our flight times last minute which messed up our rental cars and such.

 

[OnceUponATime15]

My fav out of BUF is Jetblue. That being said.. I just priced Jetblue for my August trip to WDW & it is $100US per person more then for each of us flying out of Pearson return. Add in the fact that our dollar is at 0.91 cents today (before service charges leveled by banks - $360US cost $404CDN on Friday before fees & s/c's. So...... Buffalo is not looking like the better deal at the moment. Thankful I have time to shop around for seat sales & discounts on flights. Hoping the dollar will stabilize & maybe even gain back some ground.



**Edit to add..*. Wanted to be sure of prices, just double checked...

JetBlue is currently $666US Aug 24 return Aug 30 non stop Buf/Mco - that's $723CDN at the current exchange rate... Air Canada same dates is $440CDN non stop Both rates are all taxes & service charges included.

Search was done using the Kayak search engine.

 

[allykat73]

We fly southwest a few times a year out of Buffalo. Love them!

Jet blue is ok too but every time we flew with them they changed our flight times last minute which messed up our rental cars and such.

How does the no assigned seating work out? Ever seen an issue where you can't all sit together?

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We have flown Jetblue and Airtran to/from Buffalo. Jetblue was, by far, the superior experience. Jetblue had a newer plane, more spacious seating, a free checked bag per person, free snacks, and a TV on each seat (a huge plus).

Airtran was an old, dilapidated plane (with chunks of paint visibly peeling from the nose), less spacious seats, no TV's, and baggage was an additional fee. Now....we ended up upgrading to business class which provided us with nice, roomy seats, free seat selection, and a free checked bag, but without that...... .

We have avoided Southwest completely as the open seating policy is generally not for us. I won't say we'll never try them, but for now.....we'll look elsewhere.

 

[amie416]

I'm trying SouthWest out of BUF for the first time this February and again in April. I don't think the non-assigned seating will really bother me that much, but we'll see. I've heard from people who hate the "cattle-call" boarding process. But my pet peeve when flying is being on a plane full of people who bring EVERYTHING carry-on who take up all the overhead bins and block the aisles because they refuse to pay to check their luggage -- I chose SW specifically because the fare includes 2 checked bags. I was able to get fares of $250 R/T each with the dollar at $0.98, but I would probably just look for a WestJet seat sale from YYZ if the price was much higher than that.

 

[vacation_junkie]

How does the no assigned seating work out? Ever seen an issue where you can't all sit together?

We have never, ever had an issue sitting together. And we fly alot as a family on Southwest.

You can pay $12 for early bird boarding if you wish. They will check you in before the normal check-in time. We always do that for our return flight so we don't have to be anywhere to check in at that 24hr mark.

You get a boarding number, not a seat number. The quicker you are to check in before your flight the lower your boarding number.

We've also never paid more the $720 for the 3 of us to fly round trip , direct, taxes included.

Just watch for sales..prices go up and down all the time. Price drops usually happen on Tuesdays.

Southwest you will get a snack and a drink. Its not a long flight and we all have ipads so a tv isn't an issue.

 

[minnie56]

Don't fly very often from Buffalo these days with our dollar and just general rising fares stateside, not as appealing, but when I do,JetBlue is my airline of choice. Not a fan of Southwest...

 

[scrappinginontario]

Southwest hands down! Great prices. Free luggage. Ontime flights. We've never had problems sitting together. Easy to change tickets with no service fees.

Haven't tried JetBlue. AirTran was okay but didn't like paying for luggage.

 

[greenclan67]

We have flown Jetblue and Airtran to/from Buffalo. Jetblue was, by far, the superior experience. Jetblue had a newer plane, more spacious seating, a free checked bag per person, free snacks, and a TV on each seat (a huge plus).

Airtran was an old, dilapidated plane (with chunks of paint visibly peeling from the nose), less spacious seats, no TV's, and baggage was an additional fee. Now....we ended up upgrading to business class which provided us with nice, roomy seats, free seat selection, and a free checked bag, but without that...... .

We have avoided Southwest completely as the open seating policy is generally not for us. I won't say we'll never try them, but for now.....we'll look elsewhere.

Gina, as you know, big fan of JetBlue here as well. We have had nothing but trouble with them for our March trip and wished I would have cancelled it and take a refund to book Southwest instead. We had a non stop on Friday March 7th at 8:00 am, got rid of it, and changed me on their own to the 5:35pm flight, my flight home was a non stop on Sat March 15th at 2:00 pm, guess what no NON stops on Sat now at all, changed me to Sunday at 2:00 pm. Got a notice when we were in Florida at Xmas that our flight times had changed again. Had to call them when I returned home. Now I am flying on the 5th of March (a weds and 2 days earlier) and having to come home on a layover on Friday night, because there is no non stops on Sat the 15th. Grrrrr!
That being said, we flew Southwest for the first time in Dec, on Xmas holidays, LOVED IT! We paid for EBCI, flight down we got A, 19, 20, 20 & 22 flight home from TPA, we got A35, 36, 37, & 38 we got row 7 both flights and all sat together. I would fly Southwest again in a heartbeat, and would pay for the EBCI, couldn't beat their price $102 each way, total of $814 roundtrip plus EBCI. Just so you know.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Gina, as you know, big fan of JetBlue here as well. We have had nothing but trouble with them for our March trip and wished I would have cancelled it and take a refund to book Southwest instead. We had a non stop on Friday March 7th at 8:00 am, got rid of it, and changed me on their own to the 5:35pm flight, my flight home was a non stop on Sat March 15th at 2:00 pm, guess what no NON stops on Sat now at all, changed me to Sunday at 2:00 pm. Got a notice when we were in Florida at Xmas that our flight times had changed again. Had to call them when I returned home. Now I am flying on the 5th of March (a weds and 2 days earlier) and having to come home on a layover on Friday night, because there is no non stops on Sat the 15th. Grrrrr!
That being said, we flew Southwest for the first time in Dec, on Xmas holidays, LOVED IT! We paid for EBCI, flight down we got A, 19, 20, 20 & 22 flight home from TPA, we got A35, 36, 37, & 38 we got row 7 both flights and all sat together. I would fly Southwest again in a heartbeat, and would pay for the EBCI, couldn't beat their price $102 each way, total of $814 roundtrip plus EBCI. Just so you know.

That sucks about JB . I'd be frustrated too.

As for SW....I know they have their merits. But they're still the least favourable for us for a variety of reasons. The unassigned seating and lack of onboards TV's are just two of the strikes against them. DH is a BIG guy, so we would have the worry of him being a "person of size" and needing a second seat (seemingly a frequent issue for large SW travellers, but never a problem yet on JB). Then there's the fact that Buffalo is still the farthest airport option (and therefore probably least appealing), and SW doesn't fly from Syracuse.

I am pretty sure DH would rather fly AC or WJ from Toronto rather than SW from Buffalo.....but hey, you never know. If the budget gets tight, we might be forced at some point to suck it up and give it a try. Regardless of their finer points, though, its just not a good fit for us (at least not right now).

 

[BitsnBearsMom]

chiming in..... we like jet blue, southwest, airtran in the past and USair over Christmas was our 'hero' for having flights booked just hours before the flight time and saving our Christmas vacation.

We decided to try Allegiant air out of the much smaller niagara falls, NY airport for our Christmas cruise/trip to Disney - got great prices initially until you added in the luggage fees, seat choice fees and everything else - got to the airport and our 7pm flight was delayed and delayed and delayed (they claimed due to fog but other planes were landing and taking off!!) then at midnight cancelled and told us to get out of the airport and we would be notified as to when the flight was being re-booked for. Cruise left the next day at 4pm and we found out from another passenger NOT the airline that we had been re-booked. Airline didn't notify us until 10am the next day that we had a 1pm flight and by then it would have been too late. At 2:30am when we were told the info we scrambled to find another flight there and made it on the ship with 10 minutes to spare!

Coming home wasn't much better..... 2 hour mechanical delay then once on the plant the seats were the smallest airline seats I have ever been crammed into!! Their customer service also stinks!!

 

[dsneygirl]

chiming in..... we like jet blue, southwest, airtran in the past and USair over Christmas was our 'hero' for having flights booked just hours before the flight time and saving our Christmas vacation.

We decided to try Allegiant air out of the much smaller niagara falls, NY airport for our Christmas cruise/trip to Disney - got great prices initially until you added in the luggage fees, seat choice fees and everything else - got to the airport and our 7pm flight was delayed and delayed and delayed (they claimed due to fog but other planes were landing and taking off!!) then at midnight cancelled and told us to get out of the airport and we would be notified as to when the flight was being re-booked for. Cruise left the next day at 4pm and we found out from another passenger NOT the airline that we had been re-booked. Airline didn't notify us until 10am the next day that we had a 1pm flight and by then it would have been too late. At 2:30am when we were told the info we scrambled to find another flight there and made it on the ship with 10 minutes to spare!

Coming home wasn't much better..... 2 hour mechanical delay then once on the plant the seats were the smallest airline seats I have ever been crammed into!! Their customer service also stinks!!

Oh my god that must have been so stressful.

SW is our 1st choice (we have redeemed many flights with the rewards) no issues with seating. At the worst just 1 row apart. Also the ease of change/cancellation is so easy.


We had a terrible experience with Air Tran in Sept. They assign seats at checkin and we were all over the plane. DS was not with either adult. We've never had that issue with SW. Finally got it sorted it out but it was very stressful and we were one of the last families on the plane.

 

[greenclan67]

Funny we flew Alleginat in March 2011 & had a great experience. We paid $69 for flights and before they started charging for carry ons and more for luggage. Would only fly them again if it was extrrmely cheap though. Small seats for sure.

 

[lizzyb]

We love jetblue!

 

[shaycamp21]

We LOVE Southwest. We have flown SW out of Buffalo and Detroit. I live how you can change or cancel without a fee. And being allowed two checked bags for free isn't too shabby either! We use SW for all of our US travel.

Flew AIR TRAN (prior to them being owned by SW) a couple times and our flight times always seemed to be delayed and we had one horrible experience where we ended up missing our flight because the line ups were so long (we were in line for over 2 1/2 hrs) and they had over sold seats.

We never have flown JetBlue but would highly recommend SW !

 

[BitsnBearsMom]

Funny we flew Alleginat in March 2011 & had a great experience. We paid $69 for flights and before they started charging for carry ons and more for luggage. Would only fly them again if it was extrrmely cheap though. Small seats for sure.

I think as long as you don't have to attempt to deal with their customer service and the flights go on time you are just fine! Took me a week and a half of calling and leaving messages - once a day, then twice a day then finally 3X a day until they finally figured out I wasn't going away and returned my call. When they did call the woman apologized and told me that their customer service was horrible!! Ended up getting a credit from them for flights, luggage and seat selections and have booked a return flight to Sanford for the May long weekend..... booked exit row seats this time! Will give them another chance but this won't ever be my first choice for an airline!!

 

[robnoxious]

Well...I have experience with Delta, Southwest and soon, this summer, JetBlue.

Delta...never, ever, ever again. They couldn't pay me enough. Long story short, we were delayed, delayed and delayed leaving BUF for no apparent reason, for a 4 day weekend trip, that is not ok. On the way home, we ended up being bused back to Buffalo from NYC when they delayed and canceled flights in the airport for 12 hours!!! Customer service was appalling to say the least.

We have flown Southwest to MCO and it was great. Flight was about an hour delayed departing Buffalo but no real complaints. We didn't have a problem getting seats together but the "cattle call" boarding is something I didn't particularly care for.

This summer we are giving Jet Blue a try. For the marginal price increase between Jet Blue and Southwest, we chose Jet Blue, mainly because of pre-assigned seating. (that and the TV's on board)

Whatever airline you choose out of BUF, I can assure you it will be cheaper than flying from Toronto!!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Whatever airline you choose out of BUF, I can assure you it will be cheaper than flying from Toronto!!

I would have agreed with you on that until this year.

Our dates are August 17th to August 31st.

JetBlue from Buffalo (nonstop flights) is $745 return. Per person!!!

JetBlue from Syracuse was $430 pp when we purchased in November (now almost $600). We had enough TrueBlue points to knock $400+ off the total for our family, which brought the prices down to something reasonable.

Without our TrueBlue points, flying from Toronto would have been cheaper.

 

[Happy2BGoofy]

I have traveled with Airtran and Jetblue, never with SouthWest.

I will always take JetBlue hands down. Never had a problem in the 6 times I have traveled with them.

As for prices, the best time to buy is as soon as they get released. I have purchased flights as low as $275.00. Best way to find out when they get released is by downloading their app on your phone (I have an iPhone) and check to book a flight to see how far you can buy it. Right now you can only purchase as far as Sept. 3, 2014.

I understand that some people might not have the ability to purchase too far in advance but this is the only way you can secure cheaper prices.

Happy travelling!