Flights from Hamilton/Toronto or Buffalo

[Lexiesmom]

Hi - I'm just starting to think of planning - and thought I'd check here to see if any of you have already recently done this research by chance.

Looking for the best place/price to fly out of.
I live in Hamilton, so options are Hamilton, Toronto, or Buffalo.

Last time, after much research, we chose southwest out of buffalo. And stayed at a days in across the street the night before. (was winter and I was paranoid of a snow storm)

Does anyone know if this is generally still the best option? Of course I'd prefer Hamilton for the convenience but imagining its more expensive?

Does the time of year make much difference between the three? We haven't made a decision yet, but won't be in hurricane decision.

thanks so much for any tips/thoughts!

 

[Norton figment]

Depending on when you are looking there are direct flight out of London too but only once a week. I think it’s Saturday’s now.

London is such a great small little airport I love flying out of it.

 

[SaraMc]

We live in Hamilton too. We still fly out of Buffalo and often stay at the Days hotel.

 

[FishyMom]

I have to agree with flying out of Buffalo. We're in Guelph and have flown either SW or JetBlue from Buffalo, depending on the times we want to fly. Much cheaper, even with the exchange. Much easier airport to deal with as well.

 

[Etch]

Some things to consider with Westjet out of Hamilton...

1. It's a seasonal flight that typically operates from November to mid-June.
2. You didn't mention how long you think you might go for, but these flights only go out Sunday (starting Nov. 2018) and come back Sunday so you are locked into a week stay for sure.
3. Price wise i've seen it as low as $300 CDN return but it typically sits around $400CDN return or more.
4. The 12:00pm flight time with a 3:11pm arrival is great for those with kids who don't want to get them up super early or get to Disney super late. (I realize that some people like to leave early in the morning so they can hit a park that day) YYZ flights to MCO are either early morning or late afternoon/evening if traveling on the weekend.

If booking Southwest out of Buffalo pay close attention to the exchange rate and "foreign exchange fee" (probably 3%) that your credit card charges when comparing flights.

Hope this helps!

 

[Donald - my hero]

I have to agree with flying out of Buffalo. We're in Guelph and have flown either SW or JetBlue from Buffalo, depending on the times we want to fly. Much cheaper, even with the exchange. Much easier airport to deal with as well.

OOH another Guelphite! We keep trying to fly out of KW but WJ screwed us last year and then this year i noticed they didn't even fly to MCO?!?! When they cancelled our flight after we booked it and 1) didn't tell us & 2) changed they day they flew and pushed it until 2 weeks later, they had simply re-booked us on the next available flight -- no idea why they thought that would be acceptable Ended up having to fly out of Pearson (but they did bump us up a level to include free baggage for our troubles) but based on the fact that the day we did go there was a freezing rain storm that delayed & cancelled a bunch of flights out of YYZ & grounded some out of Buffalo we were happy that WJ allowed us to leave a day early, no charge

 

[Etch]

Some things to consider with Westjet out of Hamilton...

Also, I forgot about the customs difference....

Toronto - You will pre-clear US customs at YYZ

Buffalo - You will obviously clear customs when you drive across the border

Hamilton - You will need to clear customs upon arrival in Orlando. If you are staying on site and taking DME your checked baggage will not be automatically taken to your resort. You will have to pick it up and either take it with you on the bus or drop it off at a transfer point to be sent to your hotel after you clear customs.

 

[Mumketeer]

Scarborough, here so even YYZ is a hike.

 

[goldie09]

For me it comes down to price. Driving to Buffalo, staying in a hotel overnight (depending on flight times) costs money. You have to keep an eye on pricing, I'm checking my dates for mid-late August and when you factor in a relatively unfavourable exchange rate, flying from Toronto paying directly in CAD is actually cheaper...

 

[Mumketeer]

For me it comes down to price. Driving to Buffalo, staying in a hotel overnight (depending on flight times) costs money. You have to keep an eye on pricing, I'm checking my dates for mid-late August and when you factor in a relatively unfavourable exchange rate, flying from Toronto paying directly in CAD is actually cheaper...

Totally agree with you cheaper to order a limo from where I am when you factor all the other costs.

 

[migel]

I'm near Hamilton but typically fly Southwest out of Buffalo (2-3 times per year). I prefer early morning flights so there's no line up at the Border. I can usually make it to Buffalo airport in just under an hour. I've also flown Allegiant out of the Niagara Falls airport. Very cheap flights, but you are charged for each bag, carry on, seating preference, etc. Flights are limited to certain days of week, but a decent option. It's a tiny airport and even closer to home than Buffalo.

 

[pigletto]

We usually fly Jetblue or Southwest out of Buffalo, but recently flew Frontier into Tampa as well. If the price is comparable, I will always choose Buffalo. It’s closer for me, but only by an hour so that’s not a big deal. The big deal is that it’s easier to clear customs and I am not a fan of Pearson. Buffalo is so small and easy to navigate. It was a no brainer to use Buffalo when we started going in 2018.. it always worked out cheaper out of Buffalo. I don’t know that I’ve seen it cheaper out of Toronto even factoring exchange but I am flexible when I book, and I haven’t compared peak fares. Staying at the Days Inn with the duty free deal for $75 usd also gives up to 14 days parking for free too, so that’s a big plus.. cheaper than parking at Pearson for us.

 

[Raimiette]

I live in Hamilton but it's always been the highest priced airfare by far during the last few years when I've checked.

Prior to this year I flew out of Buffalo for every trip (with an overnight stay at a park-and-fly hotel) because it still worked out to be cheaper with exchange but this year specifically, flying out of Toronto ended up being the cheapest route. I actually quite prefer this because it's just a quick bus ride to the airport for me. Saves me both time and money.

I will say though, the Buffalo airport is much nicer to fly out of than Pearson as it is quite a bit smaller (Hamilton would be even better for this lol)

 

[kiford]

Does anyone know if this is generally still the best option? Of course I'd prefer Hamilton for the convenience but imagining its more expensive?

I've tried a few times to fly out of Hamilton (we live in Kitchener) but usually the time of year we want to go either there are no flights or they are Saturday only. Sometimes Saturday-Saturday can work but other times not, so we usually just end up out of Pearson. My dad, who lives in Hamilton, nearly always flies out of Buffalo (not to WDW but to other places) because the flights are just so much less expensive even including an overnight stay and meals and he says that the drive is easier to Buffalo than to Toronto.

 

[stfxkid]

DW, DS and I juts booked Frontier out of Buffalo direct to MCO for our September trip.

$95 each round trip Round trip $283 total.

 

[grantclaire]

Hi, We live close to Pearson and like to fly WestJet with points and a companion fare, but I have flown out of Buffalo on Southwest with some great fares. This past Feb got flights one way to Fort Lauderdale for 59.00 USD non stop. Mid afternoon flights on a Sunday so we drove down the day of. It the weather is good for driving it is a nice airport to fly out of.

 

[lizzyb]

We fly from Buffalo. It's always been cheaper and we can drive the day of (only takes about 45 min longer to get there over Toronto).

 

[DisneyDragon365]

Depending on when you are looking there are direct flight out of London too but only once a week. I think it’s Saturday’s now.

London is such a great small little airport I love flying out of it.

How cheap have you gotten from London for direct flights? When my friends and I looked at flights for September (one is in school in London so we thought it'd be less of a drive vs home-london-home-toronto) and the only flights we saw were London-Toronto-Florida (it worked out to being cheaper to fly from Toronto Minus the extra driving time )

 

[nat1234]

Last August I flew Southwest out of Buffalo. But Southwest hasn't released their flights for November and since I'm going the weekend after the American Thanksgiving I was concerned about waiting to book my flights. I went with Westjet out of Pearson. Using the dates that Southwest has released so far, it was going to cost me more to travel on Southwest, factoring in the exchange, than Westjet. I do have to admit though that I do like the smaller size of the Buffalo airport.

 

[DisneyDragon365]

Last August I flew Southwest out of Buffalo. But Southwest hasn't released their flights for November and since I'm going the weekend after the American Thanksgiving I was concerned about waiting to book my flights. I went with Westjet out of Pearson. Using the dates that Southwest has released so far, it was going to cost me more to travel on Southwest, factoring in the exchange, than Westjet. I do have to admit though that I do like the smaller size of the Buffalo airport.

We were looking at using either WestJet or Air Canada, for our flight, Maybe Delta if we can get a good deal. I guess it’s going to come down to where we get the deal, our other friend lives in Windsor fairly close to the border there so we could always leave the car with her, if we flew from Detroit, I haven’t flown to FL since I was 10 maybe, -and that was because we were with a family who didn’t like the long drive- my family usually drove but since we’re 3 girls this trip and only have a 2 week window we want to make the most of our trip.