Flights from Maine

[ftilley]

We are from Nova Scotia and are going to drive to either bangor or portland to fly to Orlando in September. From where is the best airline and when should we book to get the best prices available. Are there a lot of sales from Maine to Orlando?

 

[OntFamily]

check out Manchester, NH. It's a little farther south, but SouthWest flies out of Manchester.

Also, if you're willing to drive from NS to Portland, also check out Boston (just a couple of hours south of Portland).

Use www.kayak.com to find the best airfare

In my initial check for you, I found air fares as low as $181USD per person (including all taxes and fees) -- Sept 13 - 20

 

[tribus121]

portland is only a few dollars cheeper than Bangor ( about $12 )and not worth the extra 5 hrs drive I have flown many times out of bangor but there are no direct flights and you have to make conections . Closest airport with direct filghts is boston .one tip about flying out of bangor is to spend a night at a hotel in bangor and most will let you leave your car and transport you to and some times from the airport and the hotel will be cheeper than the parking at the airport .I would not wait to long as the flights out of bangor are small and if you wait to long you may not have much choice as to flight times and conecting airports I also use www.kayak.comto compare prices and airports but a allwase book direct with the airline bangor should be at least $ 275 cdn cheeper if you feel lucky you could wait and see fi you could get a ding flight on SW out of Manchester NH

 

[aynt79]

Portland has been cheaper than Bangor. Since Jetblue came in to Portland, the other airlines have matched their prices. Most prices I have seen from Portland have been around $230.00, while Bangor has been closer to $300.00. Portland is actually only about 2 hours from Bangor.

If you are willing to travel a little farther, we have gotten rates from Manchester on Southwest (nonstop) for just a little over $100.00 per person. You can download their Ding software to get news of special limited fares. Normally we have gotten the best SW fares 1-2 months out. Manchester is a really nice airport, much better than driving to Boston.

 

[Charleyann]

Round trip out of Bangor to Orlando go for approx. 208.00. That is what some of my family members paid for this coming Christmas Trip!

Charleyann

 

[Jeanne B]

I'd suggest JetBlue out of Portland, Southwest out of Manchester or you could look at NS flights from BOS and take the bus from Portsmouth to Logan, parking is free, tickets are around $38 pp, kids ride free.

I've never had much luck getting good airfare from Bangor (although others seem to) which is why we almost always fly SW out of MHT.

 

[Waseller77]

Airtran starts out of Portland in June and will have non-stop flights to/from Orlando on Saturdays. The prices are about $99 each way. If you plan to travel on Saturdays, I would fly from Portland. We have always flown from MHT too (mainly for the non-stop flights), but after driving from NS, I wouldn't want to go much farther than Portland!

 

[ftilley]

Thanks so much for the valuable information. I will look into manchester, portland and bangor.

 

[RainbowsMist]

We're from Nova Scotia too and just returned in March. We drove to Boston and flew non-stop with Delta. The whole experience was wonderful.

Non-stop is the only option for us as I am not a fan of flying.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

We're from Nova Scotia too and just returned in March. We drove to Boston

That is a really long drive! Did it really save you enough money to make it worth it?

 

[Jeanne B]

That is a really long drive! Did it really save you enough money to make it worth it?

I took it from her post that money isn't so much the issue as is having a non-stop flight. I don't think there are any non-stops to MCO from BGR or PWM so BOS and MHT are the only options for someone who only wants a non-stop flight, with the exception of the new Saturday AirTran flights out of PWM.

 

[RainbowsMist]

That is a really long drive! Did it really save you enough money to make it worth it?

Our airport is 45 minutes from our house...but we chose to drive 11 hours to Boston in exchange we saved $3000! I'd say it was worth it. We are a family of 5 and flying from Nova Scotia to Orlando would have cost us anywhere from $3500 to $4800. When I read these boards and saw how cheap the prices were out of Boston it was a no brainer.

We purchased our tickets at the 330 day mark and paid $1400 CAD for 5 ($252 USD each). My parents met us in Florida and they paid $1200 for the 2 of them from Nova Scotia

I'm sure others got a better deal than we did, but that was a heck of a deal for us! I'm curious what others have paid for a direct flight flying from that area non stop (Boston, Portland, Manchester etc.) for 2 weeks in March. We're looking towards next March and they are quite a bit higher. The cheapest I can find is $318 USD each. I'm hoping they will come down in price.

 

[Jeanne B]

I've never paid more than $150 r/t flying from BOS or MHT but we've never flown in March.

 

[Waseller77]

I'm curious what others have paid for a direct flight flying from that area non stop (Boston, Portland, Manchester etc.) for 2 weeks in March. We're looking towards next March and they are quite a bit higher. The cheapest I can find is $318 USD each. I'm hoping they will come down in price.

I think it is safe to predict that Airtran will be roughly $217 roundtrip from Portland to Orlando next March. They have non-stop flights on Saturdays, but you can fly any day of the week with 1 stop.