Flights from West Coast

[Valjean13]

My friends are thinking of joining us in Orlando in May. We live in Ontario, they live in BC, so I don't know much about the best airfare for them. They live in the interior, so they will either be driving to Vancouver or Seattle. Can anyone help with best airlines in terms of price and schedule? I noticed a lot of the cheaper flights are overnight. Any charter airlines that are good? Should they be booking asap, or can they wait a bit for DINGS, etc?
Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

We flew southwest from Seattle and it was $197 each return! If they are in the interior they might get a good deal from Kamloops-Seattle - it might work out the same price as gas and a hotel in Seattle. Tell them to look into that. We did that back in 2000. I didnt want to chance driving to Seattle in the snow.

 

[I Run Long]

Yeah definitely Southwest or Alaska. Would be a lot cheaper if they could get to Seattle and fly out of there. We took Alaska last year from Seattle and it's nice because they are a direct flight and they got us into Orlando at around 4:30pm local time.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

If they are flying out of Vancouver, many of the US carriers should be available to them. Unfortunately I don't believe there are any direct flights from Vancouver to MCO, so most will have at least one connection. If they drive and fly out of Seattle, I believe Alaska and Delta are the only airlines that fly non-stop to MCO.

We usually fly NWA out of Edmonton at 8:00 am and our arrival time in Orlando (with one stop in Minneapolis) is usually around 4:30-5:30 pm, so that will give you an idea of the travelling time.

Bonny

 

[so_are_you]

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/prego;jsessionid=4BC13CA63EE2F6CEDE1D1A881A9B210B
play around with this it will tell you thebest price and times and all the airlines

 

[MouseFaninQueue]

Living in the interior (or Northern BC, depends on your perspective) it was cheaper for us in 2006 to drive to Seattle, grab a hotel and fly out of Seattle than it was to fly out of Vancouver or any of the interior airports. Plus Seattle had MUCH better flights out for timing and availability than Vancouver. Several of the flights out of Vancouver will hop over to Seattle, change planes then head to MCO. So if you can go straight to Seattle it is easier.

If they live near Prince George, as of May 1, 2008 Horizon Air will have direct flights to Seattle on a daily basis.

Also, if they drive to Seattle I found going through customs in a car is usually easier than at YVR. Especially with kids.

Another nice thing about flying out of Seattle: It is a domestic flight so you don't have to be there 2 hours ahead, only 1 hour. Couple that with the better times and it is a real bonus. I'm flying out of YVR this time (due to being easier with other parties in our group) and we have to be at the airport at 4:30 AM and won't get into MCO until 5:30pm after a stop in Seattle. That's not going to be fun with little kids who will be up half the night before excited about going to WDW!

 

[Valjean13]

Thanks everyone! They live in Kamloops, which is expensive to fly out of, so Seattle sounds like the best option for them. (the Kamloops to Seattle flights are seasonal only, during ski season.) I'll let them know, and tell them to use the flight tool so_are_you suggested - it looks really helpful.

 

[Terri.M]

Seattle is the way to go! We saved over 800.00 when we went to WDW in 2006 going from Seattle instead of Vancouver. Westjet flies to Orlando now but their 1/2 price "sale" is still double what you'd pay from Seattle!

 

[so_are_you]

they can check out of bellingham too its even closer
ORRR we are flying out of Edmonton it was $1379 total for all 4 of us on united in dec
kamloops to seattle and kamloops to edmonton are pretty close to travel time (I think)
ok maybe not I just checked its 4.5 hours to drive to seatac
and 8 hours to edmonton airport

 

[lisalonglash]

We're in the Lower Mainland and are flying out of Seattle direct return to Orlando in mid-October on Alaska Airlines for $335 each total. We got the flight times we wanted (red-eye going and dinnertime coming back), thanks to our wickedly awesome Disney-affiliated travel agent getting those flights for us

If they're willing to drive down to Seattle, they can get some great flights to Orlando! It takes about 2.5 hours to drive from S. Surrey to SeaTac, so if they drive down to Vancouver, stay overnight somewhere cheap by the US border, spend the day in White Rock on the beach, then drive down to SeaTac for an evening flight - it's like two vacations in one! lol

We did check via Bellingham and Vancouver too, but found that (a) the flights were more expensive than flying out of Seattle; and (b) there were no direct flights to Orlando.

Best of luck to them finding a great deal

 

[joech]

Does anyone know why tickets to Orlando for Christmas time are so expensive right now? Does anyone have any knowledge of when the best time is to buy tickets. Does anyone know of past history of the cost of tickets. They would cost us $700 for one person. We need help because we booked Airmiles tickets for two of us and we need two more tickets that we will be paying for ourselves. Thanks

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Does anyone know why tickets to Orlando for Christmas time are so expensive right now? Does anyone have any knowledge of when the best time is to buy tickets. Does anyone know of past history of the cost of tickets. They would cost us $700 for one person. We need help because we booked Airmiles tickets for two of us and we need two more tickets that we will be paying for ourselves. Thanks

You just have to keep an eye out for seat sales ... right now our tickets for our October 2008 trip are still at around $700 per person too. We bought our October 2007 airfare in January 2007, however this year we also added a trip to the World in January and May, so haven't purchased our October tix yet ...

 

[drag n' fly]

Does anyone know why tickets to Orlando for Christmas time are so expensive right now? Does anyone have any knowledge of when the best time is to buy tickets. Does anyone know of past history of the cost of tickets. They would cost us $700 for one person. We need help because we booked Airmiles tickets for two of us and we need two more tickets that we will be paying for ourselves. Thanks

Tickets to Orlando from Calgary are so ridiculous this year considering you cannot even get a direct flight from Calgary at that time of year! We bought tickets on United, Calgary (Depart Dec 18 Rt Dec 28) to Tampa with a layover in Denver (no eastern storm concerns). The cost for all five of us return including taxes was 2360.00cad! We will spend 4 days doing Busch gardens, Aquatica etc and then head to our home resort before the cruise

 

[so_are_you]

Tickets to Orlando from Calgary are so ridiculous this year considering you cannot even get a direct flight from Calgary at that time of year! We bought tickets on United, Calgary (Depart Dec 18 Rt Dec 28) to Tampa with a layover in Denver (no eastern storm concerns). The cost for all five of us return including taxes was 2360.00cad! We will spend 4 days doing Busch gardens, Aquatica etc and then head to our home resort before the cruise

you might want to think about driving 2 hours north to edmonton the price on United is $377 all in everyday up to Dec 25

Details $377 United YEG to MCO
MCO to YEG
ORD
ORD
Wed, Dec 24
Mon, Dec 29
7:05a-4:50p
6:15a-12:26p
7h 45m
8h 11m
Coach
Coach

 

[joech]

We bought our tickets last April for the 2007 Christmas trip (dec 15-29) and our cost per ticket was $773.78 returned. Then they had a seat sale for the same flight for $506 in December right before we left and we ended up with $800 credit from Westjet. Now the ticket for this christmas is over $1300 returned per person and that is extremely expensive. We could have go to Hong Kong or somewhere exotic for the same price. Don't get me wrong, I love flying with Westjet, but I just don't know how they determine the price of their tickets.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

We bought our tickets last April for the 2007 Christmas trip (dec 15-29) and our cost per ticket was $773.78 returned. Then they had a seat sale for the same flight for $506 in December right before we left and we ended up with $800 credit from Westjet. Now the ticket for this christmas is over $1300 returned per person and that is extremely expensive. We could have go to Hong Kong or somewhere exotic for the same price. Don't get me wrong, I love flying with Westjet, but I just don't know how they determine the price of their tickets.

We only fly WJ in Canada (won't even go near AC) and always fly on a US carrier to the US ... much cheaper and they usually have much better flight schedules - at least from Edmonton