Flights from Western Canada to Florida

[DIS~n~JAN]

Hi everyone, (again, so many questions)
Has anyone booked any seat sales around here? The cost of flying from Calgary for a family of 4 is outrageous!!! West Jet $2971.00 and they're talking about going up again. I have started looking at flying from Great Falls, Montana but I'm wondering if that would be worth the hassle? Disney trips would be easier to plan if you didn't have to spend so much just getting there.
Anyways, thanks everyone who responds. The info on this site is greatly apprieciated

 

[Belle2002]

From what I have seen, west jet has the least expensive flights, the only seat sales are to LA right now. I don't think the prices drop much until september ($299 each way to orlando) which is still less than air canada.

 

[seema]

I live in Ottawa. It is significantly cheaper flying from "large" nearby US cities to other "large" US cities, than it is from Ottawa to other US cities (including those in Florida) - for Ottawa the "nearby" cities are Syracuse NY or Burlington VT. Nearby small cities such as Massena or Watertown NY do not really provide much in the way of savings. From Toronto, many people use the Buffalo airport. The savings can be up to 40%.

What I would suggest is use various web cites (either general travel oriented such as expedia.ca or travelocity.ca or sidestep.com (which has a section for Canadians)) or various airline web sites (such as united.ca or usair.com - the latter airline does not have a web site for Canadians - therefore all prices quoted in US dollars). Insert the origin city as Calgary, as any nearby US cities you can think of, and see what happens.

If you do go to a US city, and want to leave a car there, you may want to stay at a park, sleep, and fly hotel - where one can park at the hotel for "free". The link is:

http://www.parksleepfly.com/index.php?trackID=813414&referredBy=esoverture

PS-It is likely that the cheaper intraUS fares will be available in US cities which offer the park/sleep/fly option.

 

[Feralpeg]

Southwest is always running wonderful deals. Is it possible to fly to a city in the US that is close and book a deal into Orlando. For instance, Southwest currently has $99 deals from Kansas City to Orlando. I have no idea what it would cost for you to get to Kansas City, but something like that might be an option. Also, I recently read a post saying that it is much cheaper to fly into the Sanford airport than into OIA. Just a thought.

 

[Albertan mom]

Hello fellow Albertan!!
We are also looking at flying out of Calgary, but in September. Our WestJet flights for a family of four is $2925.00. That is definately the most expensive part of our holiday, so I check the fares every few days! At least WestJet has non-stop flights, which is great. Out of curiousity I checked to go to LAX and going to DLand instead. The cost was HALF!! It was only $415 per person, return, including all taxes!! $1660 total! When we went to DLand last May, it was 'kids fly free' so that was great, our flights were only $1000 total for all four of us. Keep hoping something like that comes up again! I will let you know if I see any cheaper flights!

 

[Timon]

We've flown to Orlando from Calgary 5 times now. We've flown United, American & Continental. The cheapest we've found was $500 which was such a fluke, the next day they were back up to $650. We flew for $600 and the most expensive was $651.

I have been looking for the direct WestJet flight for our October trip almost everyday for three months now. It just keeps getting more expensive everyday! I am hoping it comes down a little in the next few months or else we will be paying $799 per flight! We've flown through many cities to get to Orlando and I really want a direct flight now!!! To leave at 10am and get there by 5 pm is awesome! Normally we have to plan for almost a full day just to travel there and then back again!

Unfortunately, there is no big US city within a decent driving distance from here unlike a lot of eastern Canada. I've looked at all the nearby US airports and the savings were just not good enough to justify driving 5-9 hours!!

Crossing my fingers but with the fuel costs up and the competition down, we may be out of luck

 

[yxe dad]

Hi, first time posting but thought you might want to try using America West airlines. Some dates in Sept are going for around $333 usd + taxes. A rough conversion workes out to around $550 cad. It's not great but if the dates work for you you can save around $700 cad. I've used them a few times to fly from calagry to vegas and and find them to be o.k., but you will need to change planes in Phoenix, and that tends to be a little crazy. I understand your need to look for cheapier airfare, most of the time I drive from saskatoon to calgary/edmonton to save more $$$. I got lucky for my upcoming Jan06 trip with my familiy, I upgraded my westjet mastercard to the gold airmiles/westjet and my total miles needed dropped from 24000 to 6800. Saved alot of miles for the next trip later in 06.

 

[lisa and john]

We were able to fly for $508 incl all taxes from Edmonton to Orlando and back through Miami to Edmonton during March break this year! We booked the tickets 2 months in advance through United, so there are some deals out there! Good luck!

 

[disney funseeker]

lisa and john, that is an excellent rate you got in March. We booked through AC for our Nov. trip and are paying $740 after surcharges and taxes from Edmonton.

The cost of flying to Orlando from the West really hurts us since we used to fly for so cheap out of Syracuse when we lived near Ottawa. We are paying more than double now. That is why this might be our last trip to WDW and we will start looking at DL.

 

[lisa and john]

Yes, we reallly lucked out with our rate, disney_funseeker. The $508 was Cdn dollars too! I'm sure we'll never find a deal like that again during March break. It's frustrating since I fly back to Nova Scotia a couple times a year, and it is more expensive to fly there than it usually is to Florida!

I have never been to DL, but it makes sense that it would be much cheaper from here..

 

[DIS~n~JAN]

Hi again just wanted to say, It's helpful to hear how everyone else does things. Hopefully the cost of flying won't go up anymore as they say it will. I'll be sure to post if I find a good deal! Thanks

 

[Mistyhon]

Hi I am in Central Alberta and I am going to WDW in August . Since I live in Central Alberta I can either fly out of Edmonton or Calgary. I found Edmonton to be cheaper I have a family of 5 and were flying out of Edmonton on Northwest . I got my flights for 3000.00 for all of us . However I am also a Travel Agent so I didn't have to pay the service charges butI think it is still cheaper then Westjet . But I would have to know the exact dates but I know the flights I got were definately cheaper then westjet .

 

[Albertan mom]

WestJet is the only one that travels non-stop though,right? I would gladly pay extra for no connections, no layovers, no changing planes, quicker first day of travel and no hassles! But that is just my opinion. The thought of leaving Calgary, and being in Orlando in just over 5 hours is the way to go!! Some of those flights with stops can take 12 hours!! Yikes!

 

[bev r.]

I looked at the Westjet flight from Calgary. The only problem I found was that if you had to make the connection in Calgary, it involved overnighting in Calgary. The earliest I could leave Edmonton was 7:00am, and that's the same time the flight leaves Calgary to Orlando. It appears for those who live in Calgary or very near it, this is a great option.

 

[DIS~n~JAN]

To Albertan mom(sorry about wrong spelling before)
Check www.westjet.com it's really easy to use and it appears they have a seat sale in Sept, for Tuesday flights only not sure if this could work for you. It would be great if it does! It also tells you if it's a straight thru or connecting flight.

To Mistyhon

Thanks for the info That's a good deal you got with NWA. There is 4 of us and it will be $2925.40 non stop from Calgary in Jan/06 with Westjet (crazy)

 

[seema]

If you have Air Canada's Aeroplan Miles, take a short haul award (reward) for 15,000 miles each - to a US city (eg Seattle) in Washington state or Oregon (realizing it is a detour if you are flying on to Florida) - on Air Canada (or alternatively take an award using Air Miles) - and purchase a ticket from there - perhaps from a LCC such as Southwest. You might save a lot of money this way.

 

[Belle2002]

West jet has a seat sale to Orlando, it's not advertised, you can only find it when you actually look up your travel dates, $239 each way from Calgary. I'm totally choked because we paid $299 last week and thought we were getting a deal. They also have $149 each way to LA if you choose Disneyland instead.

 

[Albertan mom]

West jet has a seat sale to Orlando, it's not advertised, you can only find it when you actually look up your travel dates, $239 each way from Calgary. I'm totally choked because we paid $299 last week and thought we were getting a deal. They also have $149 each way to LA if you choose Disneyland instead.

Really? I looked this morning and it was still $299. What dates was that for? (that you saw the cheaper fares)I checked sept28-oct9 and dec2-9 and they were still high.
I will go check again now. That would be good, saving that $240!!
Thanks

 

[Albertan mom]

Just checked. The sale ends today. You must fly on a tuesday. Which means the flight leaves at 12:50am, Toronto at 6:35am, leave there at 10:15am, and get into Orlando at 12:50pm.
Don't like the 12 HOURS part of it. We are leaving on a wednesday or a sunday, so it is nonstop, then it is 5 hours. Much better!

 

[Belle2002]

Really? I looked this morning and it was still $299. What dates was that for? (that you saw the cheaper fares)I checked sept28-oct9 and dec2-9 and they were still high.

Sorry Alberta Mom, you have to travel by Sept. 27, so you may have to wait a bit for a seat sale during your travel dates.