Feedback please: Southwest/JetBlue/AirTran

[mommylo]

Hi Fellow Canadian,
I'd like to find out which airline to use to go to Orlando for Christmas. Please give me your feedback for the 3 airlines that have direct flights from Buffalo. Much appreciated.

 

[SaraMc]

Well Ive flown Jet Blue and Southwest.

Jet Blue is good now that they have the direct flight, however its only one direct flight a day so depending on what time you want to be in Orlando this can make or break your choice. I prefer them over Southwest because I actually get to pick my seat at time of booking. However thier prices can be tricky. It seems the farther you book out the cheaper the price can be.

Southwest was nice. They dont have tv's in their seats like Jet blue does however I belive they have more than one flight that is direct to Orlando every day. They give out snacks like jet blue does. Last year DS was 6 months old when we flew them and he loved thier plane crackers.. which are basically ritz crackers shaped like planes. Southwest made us sign a waiver that if anything happened to our gate checked stroller that they were not to blame, which Jet blue never had us do. It did get one tiny stress mark possibly from the cold on the snack tray but all in all it came out fine.

We are flying Jet blue on our next trip simply the time it arrives in Orlando and the fact we have a existing credit with them helps

 

[mommylo]

Well Ive flown Jet Blue and Southwest.

Jet Blue is good now that they have the direct flight, however its only one direct flight a day so depending on what time you want to be in Orlando this can make or break your choice. I prefer them over Southwest because I actually get to pick my seat at time of booking. However thier prices can be tricky. It seems the farther you book out the cheaper the price can be.

Southwest was nice. They dont have tv's in their seats like Jet blue does however I belive they have more than one flight that is direct to Orlando every day. They give out snacks like jet blue does. Last year DS was 6 months old when we flew them and he loved thier plane crackers.. which are basically ritz crackers shaped like planes. Southwest made us sign a waiver that if anything happened to our gate checked stroller that they were not to blame, which Jet blue never had us do. It did get one tiny stress mark possibly from the cold on the snack tray but all in all it came out fine.

We are flying Jet blue on our next trip simply the time it arrives in Orlando and the fact we have a existing credit with them helps

We have a 9-year old and a 5-year old who is autistic, so direct flights are a must. I checked the prices of airfare from Toronto for Christmas and it's really ridiculous (about $3200 for 4 of us!!) JetBlue and Southwest don't have prices for Christmas yet but AirTran does. It's a real dilemma.

 

[mkmommy]

I have flown Southwest and Air Tran, if you are staying at a Disney resort, I vote for Air Tran, the Resort Airline CHeckin is the best thing, you check in for your flight at the resort and then go straight to security at MCO.

I tend to fly Southwest down, as they have more direct flights down and AirTran back so I can use the Resort Airline checkin. Service wise they are pretty much the same.

 

[iluvwesties]

I Flew Air Tran down on March 4th and Jet Blue home on March 14th and they both have WDW Resort Airline Check-In

I prefer Jet Blue of the 3 airlines you have listed (I have flown with all of them)

Jet Blue have great service, roomy seats, free snack and soft drinks, built in seat satellite TV's and seem a little superior to Air Tran or Southwest

Hope this helps, Good Luck in deciding

iluvwesties (aka Carol)

 

[NancyK]

I have flown Southwest and JetBlue.

I like the cancellation policy on Southwest - there is no change fee. You don't get money refunded, but you do get a credit that is good for travel for 12 months from when you booked it. I believe that Jet Blue has a change fee of about $35 per person?

As mentioned - Southwest has more direct flights. So, if a flight is cancelled due to weather, you have a better chance of rebooking a direct flight. This happened to us in January. We were flying JetBlue home to Buffalo, winter storm, and flight was cancelled completely. I did not want to take a connecting flight through JFK, so we ended up staying 2 extra days. Not that I minded being stranded in Florida. But if our flight had been on Southwest, we would probably have been able to rebook on a direct flight later that same day.



JetBlue's TVs are the best - really helped to make the flight go by faster. JetBlue has resort airline check-in and that's a really nice feature.

So - I guess it depends on what's important to you. I favour Southwest because of the cancellation policy/number of direct flights. If JetBlue had more flights out of Buffalo, I would go with them.

 

[dancingmomca]

We have flown Southwest 3 times. At least 3 direct flights to Orlando from Buffalo per day plus the first flight arrives in Orlando around 9 am so you can get in a full day of sunshine. Frankly for a flight that is around 2 1/2 hours I don;t mind if the extra frills aren't there. The seat back televisions are usually only functional after the safety blurb on takeoff and seem to stop about 20 minutes before landing. If it was an international flight or longer than 4 hours then it would be another story.
Another plus about Southwest is the ability to change flights without penalty. So far for an upcoming trip in May I've changed the flight pricing three times. Now two of my university aged kids are coming for 3-4dayof a 10 day stay for the cost of the original 2 tickets( would have paid for them regardless but oh how I do like to think I've got a bargain.
Figuring with the recent publicity on Southwest, they are now the safest airline to fly as they have been under the microscope. Noticed all american airlines are now under scrutiny for lapses in safety and am sure the Canadian ones are too.
To date our flights have been on time, staff friendly and no advance changes in schedule. Would be nice to fly out of Canada but those taxes are something else....also the parking.

 

[mommylo]

Thank you for all your advice. We are flying with Southwest in July because their fare is the cheapest and there should be no big issue with cancellation. I am kind of concerned Southwest only have booking up until August 22 and JetBlue until October. I guess my next question will be for you veteran travellers is when will they post their Christmas booking schedule? Thank you.

 

[dopeyluvsgrumpy]

I've flown Airtran and Southwest and I must say Airtran was 100% better. Airtran gves you an assigned seat where Southwest was a free-for-all to get a seat not fun with kids! Plus both times I flew Southwest they oversold the plane and had to try and convince people to wait and fly out the following day! We had great experiences with Airtran though...both times we flew out of Detroit and DS4 loved that they had the disney channel on sat. radio!!!

 

[mommylo]

Any Stories from someone traveling during Christmas, good or bad? Thanks.

 

[MECH8T7]

Any Stories from someone traveling during Christmas, good or bad? Thanks.

We went to WDW shortly after Christmas (12/29) last year and came back a week later. We flew via Southwest.

The flights were fine and we didn't have any problem getting seats together for our family of 5 even though the flight was sold out each way. For the flight down, we obtained our boarding pass exactly 24 hours before our departure and had an A category pass. For the return leg, I forgot to try to get the boarding pass as soon as the 24-hour window opened but, because we were travelling with young children, we were able to board after the A category boarding pass holders.

We booked our flights on the day -- and, in fact, the very minute -- that the Southwest booking window extended into the Christmas holiday period. Can't exactly remember when that was. We paid $69 per person the way down and $169 per person on the way back. I booked each leg as a separate reservation to have more flexibility for managing the reservations if we wanted to make changes or if there was a subsequent "Ding" fare, with the outgoing leg booked a few minutes before the return leg. I suspect that I could have paid $69 on the return leg too if I had done it as part of the same reservation as the outgoing leg. (The price moves up as the plane fills up and I think the price on the return flight probably went up during the short time it took for me to complete the booking on the outgoing leg.)

Hope this helps.

 

[TreesyB]

What I like about Southwest, that isn't available with Air Tran or Jet Blue, is that there is no fee to change the flight. I almost booked Jet Blue for my Oct. flight, but I'm worried about changes in my vacation time, so I'm going to wait for SWA to open its flights.

 

[OatsZoo]

We also flew Southwest. A good thing is if you have children under 4 (and people with a disability too) they let you board before the "A" boarders so you can get a seat together. Although I heard now SW has changed their boarding passes to say "A1", "A2", "A3" etc. as to not have people waiting in a line and sitting on the floor in the terminal. Not sure about it though how it is working out.

Also booking SW in September just for their cancellation policy and also refund policy if you find a cheaper rate (price adjustment) and call them they give you a SW credit for the difference. Which is great since we hope to book a bounce-back while we are there for next Sept) But you have to call, it is not an automatic thing.

Although I did hear get things about JetBlue. But I hear that AirTrans is famous for cancellations, overbooking and delays. Not sure though, we have never used them.

A CM at SW did tell me that flights into October 22 will be released April 17th. But I am still keeping an eye out on their site though.

Good luck! Happy Flight!

 

[NikP]

We also flew Southwest. A good thing is if you have children under 4 they let you board before the "A" boarders so you can get a seat together.

Southwest lets families with small children board after group A as of October 2007. People with disabilities still board first, then A, then families with children under 4, then B,C.

Do people still line up before boarding?

 

[TreesyB]

Do people still line up before boarding?

People line up, but in numerical order. It's all very organized, and I do like this set up better. I personally try to remember to check in at the 24 hour mark. even if I have to get my family to do it on the trip home.

 

[Cdnmommy]

We've booked our flight for this Dec. with Airtran as well. I also checked flying out of Toronto and for the 4 of us it would have been about $2600.00! Through Airtran direct flight from Buffalo is under $900.00 for all of us, and I paid the small amount extra to pre-select our seats. It will the first time flying for all of us so I wanted to ensure our children (5 & 11) will each be able to sit with my husband or I and get to look out the window!

 

[CanadianGuy]

I've flown both SW and JetBlue and my preference is far and away JetBlue.

Every single flight has been awesome (so far) flying from Portland ME to Orlando FL.

Your mileage may vary.

Knox

 

[mommylo]

We've booked our flight for this Dec. with Airtran as well. I also checked flying out of Toronto and for the 4 of us it would have been about $2600.00! Through Airtran direct flight from Buffalo is under $900.00 for all of us, and I paid the small amount extra to pre-select our seats. It will the first time flying for all of us so I wanted to ensure our children (5 & 11) will each be able to sit with my husband or I and get to look out the window!

Hi Cdnmommy, $2600 is actaully cheap for flying out of Toronto, if you can believe it. I called CAA and was quoted about $800/person so would be $3200!! I did check Airtran and they don't have the cheap flights anymore. I am going to wait for the fare to come out for JetBlue or SW.

 

[bababear_50]

Hi yah Mommylo
I'm just not a BUF airport person yet so it's Toronto for us this Dec,,,
I was going to wait and see if Sunwing had any good flights Direct but bit the bullet and booked direct with Air Canada. $ 650.00 each return including taxes.Yes I know it's alot of money but for me it works. Figured that anything direct from Toronto is only going to go up.
Best wishes in finding a great flight
Hugs Mel

 

[MaMudduck]

I've flown all 3.

I like Jet Blue best...for prebooked large seats, tv, free headseats that work.

Next Southwest...staff is friendly and always willing to help, no fee cancellation, but hate the no prebooked seats.

I've like Airtran alot, and i've flown with them to MCO and also Atlanta. I like the fact that you can upgrade to business (if available for $35), I just haven't had much success get direct flights with them.