Flights booked YEG - MCO

[chimo2u]

Well, I pulled the trigger and booked my OCT 30 DEP/ NOV 14 RETURN flights.....WOW! i've never had to pay the crazy prices I paid for this trip! I ended up doing it backwards because I found a decent deal for outbound flights on Wednesday and booked them....thinking I could keep an eye out for decent return flights, not realizing that NOPE.... those flights would now be in US dollars as my itinerary was ORLANDO to EDMONTON, and west jet charged in USD for one way flights originating from Orlando!!
oh well, what's done is done....we are now booked and the schedule isn't the greatest, but it's done..... I paid $362 each outbound from edmonton to Orlando, and then $998 (for 2 flights) for our return flights in USD.
overall, about $1,900 when all was said and done, if not a tad more due to the exchange rate on the return flights..... yikes!!! I'm so frustrated though looking every day for flights and not having any decent pricing, I just decided to finally book it and be done with it..... I guess it means I'll be paying a bit more this trip, but at least it's done! and the plus side is we are sitting in PLUS seats going home, so at least We will get a meal, an alcoholic drink to calm our nerves, and some extra leg room! LOL just happy it's finally booked!

 

[LorraineBaines]

Which airline did you book for your outbound flights? We will be flying YEG to MCO next May...not planning on booking until the new year most likely, but I am already researching flight options.

 

[briellemary]

Wow when are you flying? I'm flying YEG-MCO the end of sept and paid 490cad all said and done...

 

[briellemary]

Sorry, just Re read and saw the dates. That's pretty crazy. I'm assuming you're flying direct with westjet at a price like that?

 

[prairiesarah]

I can relate - cannot believe how expensive flights are this year. I just booked a few weeks ago and paid $890 return for DH and I on Delta from YQR (Regina) and my ds was a bit less - I think around $750 (he was flying down with his grandparents earlier than we go). Our total was just over $2400 CDN for the 3 flights.

 

[chimo2u]

We're flying West Jet.... unfortunately, nope those aren't direct flights, actually the schedules are quite awful! I've never had to have such long layovers in the airport before, either.....out bound, we have a 3 hour wait between the Toronto/Orlando leg... and coming home we have a 7 hour wait between our Toronto/Edmonton filght!!! Since we bought plus seats on our return flight, hopefully they may be able to get us on a better flight once we land in Toronto at 09:30am on our return flight/ otherwise, maybe my brother (who lives 20 min from the airport) can come for a quick lunch visit before we have to fly out at 4:30 PM!!! i've never flown such awful schedules before either, but it's what we have to do this year, I guess! maybe November is not the best time to visit for future trips! I've had good luck before in Sept and in January/FEB!!!

 

[briellemary]

That's awful! Sorry to hear that. On the bright side, you're going to Disney!!

 

[dis_guy]

Yeah, it's too bad that it worked out this way. I wasn't optimistic about your chances for a low airfare for that time. I know our flights ($608 CAD pp) did nothing but go up since we booked them (Nov 8-15). I think most of us who do "the MCO run" regularly have had at least one experience like yours, but hey, it's done! Now you can relax and enjoy all the rest!

 

[chimo2u]

Hi dis_guy yes... I've been looking since last fall and haven't seen prices drop, I finally got tired of looking and just booked it. My husband refuses to fly anything but Canadian airline, so that doesn't help either.... regardless, I am happy that as you say I can now relax knowing it's all booked!
It seems to me, we are always paying $650 to $850 for our Florida flights now per person....the last time I got a decent deal sub $400 was in FEB 2011! I guess it is what it is nowadays! at least I'll be in Disney!

 

[dis_guy]

My husband refuses to fly anything but Canadian airline, so that doesn't help either....

That's really too bad. From out here United is almost always the best deal for us.

 

[brandyleeann]

It sucks how much airfare costs - it really adds to the price of a vacation, before you do any of the fun stuff! I have already booked our flights YEG to MCO for Feb 25 to March 5 2016. I know we are a long way out, but this year we booked closer and paid close to $1000 per person. This time our fights are $800 per person (CAD) and I think it is a great itinerary. We fly United through Houston with only about 1.5 hour layover. Our last trip we went through Calgary with West Jet and I found it to be a huge hassle to have to clear Customs/Immigration there, rather than outbound from Edmonton. We vowed to always go direct from Edmonton to a US layover (as south as we could get as I understand that weather delays in mid-west/Chicago can be a challenge).

 

[chimo2u]

That's really too bad. From out here United is almost always the best deal for us.

Does United still have old rickety planes with no inflight entertainment? That's what put us off when we flew United through Chicago in Jan 2008/ things could've changed by now and worth another try perhaps in the future.
I've not flown this schedule through Toronto before, customs should be interesting I have to try and remember how it's done, lol!

 

[dis_guy]

Does United still have old rickety planes with no inflight entertainment? That's what put us off when we flew United through Chicago in Jan 2008/ things could've changed by now and worth another try perhaps in the future.

Going through Denver, you'll likely be on United Express which might be a Bombardier regional jet or an Embraer. I personally would not connect through Chicago. Terrible airport and really unpredictable weather when we usually go. Same goes for Toronto, in my opinion. I prefer Houston (especially the overnight flight if it's on the schedule) which at least gets us below the snow belt on our first hop. It's usually an A319/320 to IAH and B757 or B737-900 from IAH to MCO. Usually no screens, I'm afraid, but we always have our iPads or laptops with all the entertainment we need on them, so we really don't care. Even if we have the entertainment systems, we rarely use them or just leave them on the map screen. I certainly wouldn't call the planes rickety, though. I used to work in aviation and have no problem with any of the United planes I've been on. Nothing could be as bad as the DC-9s and B727s that Air Canada had years ago, you could feel a draft from the emergency doors on those old crates!

 

[brandyleeann]

My experience with United has been positive and they now have the United App for ipads that give you free access to movies, games, etc...while on board.

 

[dis_guy]

My experience with United has been positive and they now have the United App for ipads that give you free access to movies, games, etc...while on board.

Ours has been overall very positive too. Here are two examples.

On one trip I totally forgot to select seats so on our flight connecting in DEN- all four of us were split up and we had no seat assignments for our next flight to MCO. All I had was the advice to see the gate agent at DEN. Once there I approached the desk and told her who we were. She smiled and said she was expecting me and that I should have a seat and she would call me. While waiting it was announced that our flight was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers. I was beginning to doubt we would even make the flight. Finally someone went for the bait when it got to first class tickets for the next morning, free hotel, and $200 per person to cover food/entertainment for the evening. At last she called me up and I asked if we were bumped. She just said that we wouldn't be bumped because we were Canadian and their usual compensation would not work for us as we did not reside in the US. We were given 4 seats together in the extra legroom section and that's when we became regulars in that section.

Two years ago in March we were on the 6:30 AM flight connecting through Houston. After our takeoff time came and went, the captain came on and said that there were storms along our route and they were waiting for approval for a route change, which may require us to get off the plane if the fuel load had to be adjusted. Later he came on and told us that the route change was approved and our fuel would be fine but that we were now waiting for fog in Houston and couldn't take off until we had a landing spot there. Once Houston gave us the green light we had to get the plane de-iced as it was covered in frost from sitting on the ground all night. Needless to say, we were very late getting into IAH and had missed our connection. I went to the nearest customer service desk and was surprised that the line wasn't longer, as you might expect with thousands of people stuck because of the fog. While waiting I was amazed at the negativity in that line. One young woman on her cell phone was cussing up a storm about how this was ruining everything for her and it was really all about her, you sure could tell. Once I got to the front I handed the rep our boarding passes and simply said we had missed our connection. She handed me 5 new ones for the next flight to MCO in less than two minutes. I asked, if that was it, and she just said yup, and that she wished more people would just stick to the business of getting going again instead of complaining about the situation that nobody could really do anything about anyway.

I've had some great phone reps as well and have had very few poor experiences with UAL, well, except for that lady at MCO in 2014 during the "great carry-on crackdown" in March. Now, she was just rude. Wouldn't even use the sizers to check bag sizes, just gate checked every single carry-on bag that was larger than a purse that anyone had.