Flights to DLR area airports from Chicago ?

[PoohsFan1]

Hi everyone,

We finally booked our trip to DLR yesterday . We will be staying at VGC from 6/6-6/13 and we are beyond excited about it. This will be our first time to the West Coast parks, however I have a question about flying there from Chicago. A little bit of background about us, we are WDW vets who visit those parks regularly once if not twice a year. It will be myself, DH, DD12, and DD9 (at time of trip). My question is, when we look for flights heading to Orlando, we know what is a good range of price to look for per different airlines. But as you already know, we are total newbies when it comes to DLR therefore, we are not sure what to look out for. Of course we still have 7 months before our trip, and still have time to watch out for airfare, however we are not sure what would be a good range of prices for flights. I was wondering if anyone of you wonderful DISers out there who live in the Chicago area or in the Midwest can help me with this. For example...if we see flights ranging from $200 - $250 per person is that a good price and should we jump on it, or are there flights that will be much less. We are used to booking flights that are less then $100 per person each way....just not sure what to expect when flying out to DLR. BTW we are open to which airport we will fly in and out of (SNA, LAX, etc). Thank you to all that could help us with this.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hi everyone,

We finally booked our trip to DLR yesterday . We will be staying at VGC from 6/6-6/13 and we are beyond excited about it. This will be our first time to the West Coast parks, however I have a question about flying there from Chicago. A little bit of background about us, we are WDW vets who visit those parks regularly once if not twice a year. It will be myself, DH, DD12, and DD9 (at time of trip). My question is, when we look for flights heading to Orlando, we know what is a good range of price to look for per different airlines. But as you already know, we are total newbies when it comes to DLR therefore, we are not sure what to look out for. Of course we still have 7 months before our trip, and still have time to watch out for airfare, however we are not sure what would be a good range of prices for flights. I was wondering if anyone of you wonderful DISers out there who live in the Chicago area or in the Midwest can help me with this. For example...if we see flights ranging from $200 - $250 per person is that a good price and should we jump on it, or are there flights that will be much less. We are used to booking flights that are less then $100 per person each way....just not sure what to expect when flying out to DLR. BTW we are open to which airport we will fly in and out of (SNA, LAX, etc). Thank you to all that could help us with this.

When we're planning air travel, I just keep an eye on Travelocity or Kayak for airfares.

 

[Aimee810]

I watched flights for almost a year from IL and we ended up paying a little over $400 each. Flights to Cali, even LAX, are not as cheap as Orlando.

 

[dcraythorn]

I don't live near you, but live in Utah. I just booked a March trip and the tickets flying from Salt Lake City to Long Beach were $186.00. Flying into SNA or LAX, were over $250. I think if you can get airfare for $200 to 250, I would take it.

 

[PoohsFan1]

Thank you everyone for your responses, you really helped me. I will just keep checking airfare as time goes on. I was just wondering what to look out for and what would be the norm.

 

[dsny1mom]

We make two RT flight a year to DLR. We only fly into SNA since we found it about 15 years ago. Clean easy and the cloest to DL. What you save in costs flying into LAX you spend in time and transportation to and from LAX. We haven't tried any of the smaller airports as I am pretty picky about my flight times and SWA and United both have early in and later out direct non stop flights.

I find SWA usually has the best prices since they don't charge for checked bags. If you can find a RT flight from/to MDW or ORD via SNA for $200-$250 jump on it. That would be a GREAT price based on 2012 prices in Oct and July. SWA will adjust to a lower price if one comes along at no charge. The only down sides to United besides the luggage fees is they don't do full refunds if the prices lower(they charge a fee first) and they only fly out of ORD.

dsny1mom

 

[runmommyrun]

Fellow Chicagoans here. We are in the same boat... Making first trip to DL in early June. Very excited! We are budgeting $400 round trip (although we are not returning from LA, but PHX). I've been watching and not overly thrilled with rates. Not as cheap as I hoped. We fly round trip to Orlando for $200-300 round trip. Not seeing similar rates yet. We will fly out of MDW, so Southwest is probably what we will take. I'm holding out for a bit ( SWA only booking through May 31 now, so I don't have rates anyway!).

 

[PoohsFan1]

We make two RT flight a year to DLR. We only fly into SNA since we found it about 15 years ago. Clean easy and the cloest to DL. What you save in costs flying into LAX you spend in time and transportation to and from LAX. We haven't tried any of the smaller airports as I am pretty picky about my flight times and SWA and United both have early in and later out direct non stop flights.

I find SWA usually has the best prices since they don't charge for checked bags. If you can find a RT flight from/to MDW or ORD via SNA for $200-$250 jump on it. That would be a GREAT price based on 2012 prices in Oct and July. SWA will adjust to a lower price if one comes along at no charge. The only down sides to United besides the luggage fees is they don't do full refunds if the prices lower(they charge a fee first) and they only fly out of ORD.

dsny1mom

Thanks for the tips...I have read up on SNA and it kind of reminds me of MDW which is my preferred airport to fly out of. Plus I like the fact that it is closer to DLR then LAX is (I have read the nightmare stories about LA traffic ). I will be watching airfare until I find a price that I think will be comfortable enough for us. We have never flown SWA before, however I know a lot of people really like them, and they seem to be much cheaper than other airlines.

Fellow Chicagoans here. We are in the same boat... Making first trip to DL in early June. Very excited! We are budgeting $400 round trip (although we are not returning from LA, but PHX). I've been watching and not overly thrilled with rates. Not as cheap as I hoped. We fly round trip to Orlando for $200-300 round trip. Not seeing similar rates yet. We will fly out of MDW, so Southwest is probably what we will take. I'm holding out for a bit ( SWA only booking through May 31 now, so I don't have rates anyway!).

How exciting!!! When are you going and where will you be staying? It would be great to know that fellow Chicagoians will be in DLR the same time as us . I hope you find the rates that you are looking for and I hope you have a great first trip. I too am patiently waiting for SWAs schedule for June, until then it will be a wait and see.

 

[jeanigor]

Thanks for the tips...I have read up on SNA and it kind of reminds me of MDW which is my preferred airport to fly out of. Plus I like the fact that it is closer to DLR then LAX is (I have read the nightmare stories about LA traffic ). I will be watching airfare until I find a price that I think will be comfortable enough for us. We have never flown SWA before, however I know a lot of people really like them, and they seem to be much cheaper than other airlines.

I prefer MDW for service into/out of Chicago because of its size. SNA is even easier to deal with than MDW. Big thumbs up for SNA.

By this time next month I will have flown from Detroit to Disneyland four times in the last 14 months. Of those eight flights, six will be using Southwest, one United and one Frontier, non direct. I utilize Kayak and AirFareWatchDog as well as check SouthWest's site daily when I am looking for airfare. My trip next month I got for a steal at $170, RT on SouthWest. I cannot recall any of the trips whose airfare exceeded $300.

 

[BethanyF]

Keep in mind ground transportation is considerably cheaper from SNA. We paid a little more to fly to SNA but made up the difference with the lower cost on the ground.

Right now I am seeing a little over $400 on Virgin (ORD to LAX) and a bit less than that on American (ORD to SNA) for our trip at the end of July.
When we went in March of 2011 we paid about $300 ORD to SNA.

I have not flown in to LAX yet. Both times we have gone thru SNA and loved it. 15-20 minutes to the resort and a really easy to navigate airport. Almost like what Midway was before the expansion.

 

[keltiesmom]

I flew I to lax in 2000, I didn't know there were other options back then. We are going to fly into sna this time, it's much closer and with tired kids I think that will be a benefit.

 

[lizdotcom99]

MDW to LAX for me was $321.60 for our December trip on Southwest. Not too bad. I am still looking for air for MCO in February...and have not been thrilled with those prices either.

 

[i love mickey28]

Hi there! We flew United from ORD to LAX in early October and paid a little above $300 RT. We planned the trip last minute, so in the short time that we had a chance to look for airfare, the prices fluctuated -- we saw the lowest being around $280 but as high as $400 so when it got back down close to $300 and also because we were running out of time we booked it then.

We did check fights for both airports here in Chicago (we actually live 15 minutes from MDW!) but my DH wanted to fly United because he travels a lot for work and was able to get an upgrade to economy plus which gives a little extra space. We also checked the different LA airports but they were all around the same prices...and really the ride from LAX to the DLR although not as close as SNA, in retrospect is really not that bad.

I say if you can keep your options open on the airports -- just keep looking for the best price...and hopefully you can find something for way under $300! Good luck!!

 

[Dolby1000]

When we went to LAX in June of this year, SW was clearly the cheapest bet for a direct (non-stop) flight.

If others appear cheaper, you have to figure in extras, like checking baggage and such.

SW does go to two other LA area airports, but LAX was always the cheapest. We paid $359 (flew out on Saturday, returned on Friday).

I also like flying out of Midway better than O'Hare, it is smaller, has fewer delays and the parking is cheaper and not as far (only 1 bus to take as opossed to a bus and a monorail for long term parking).

Just my $.02.

OWD

 

[runmommyrun]

Thanks for the tips...I have read up on SNA and it kind of reminds me of MDW which is my preferred airport to fly out of. Plus I like the fact that it is closer to DLR then LAX is (I have read the nightmare stories about LA traffic ). I will be watching airfare until I find a price that I think will be comfortable enough for us. We have never flown SWA before, however I know a lot of people really like them, and they seem to be much cheaper than other airlines.



How exciting!!! When are you going and where will you be staying? It would be great to know that fellow Chicagoians will be in DLR the same time as us . I hope you find the rates that you are looking for and I hope you have a great first trip. I too am patiently waiting for SWAs schedule for June, until then it will be a wait and see.

I've seen some of your posts recently and laugh because we are looking for the same info! We will be in DL for 4 nights just before you and then off to Aulani. FYI... Southwest just opened their June schedule. We opted for MDW-SNA. It was about $20 more per ticket than LAX, but we figured ground transport would be cheaper and it is supposedly much closer to DL. Have a great trip. We are getting so excited! (Except that I'm cringing looking at the Hawaii flight prices. Ugh. I'm so use to spending airfare for FL that it is a shock to the system (and checkbook!)).

 

[PoohsFan1]

I've seen some of your posts recently and laugh because we are looking for the same info! We will be in DL for 4 nights just before you and then off to Aulani. FYI... Southwest just opened their June schedule. We opted for MDW-SNA. It was about $20 more per ticket than LAX, but we figured ground transport would be cheaper and it is supposedly much closer to DL. Have a great trip. We are getting so excited! (Except that I'm cringing looking at the Hawaii flight prices. Ugh. I'm so use to spending airfare for FL that it is a shock to the system (and checkbook!)).

I saw the differences between LAX and SNA too. We figured that flying into SNA is really a wash, even though we will pay a bit more, the airport transfers are cheaper then at LAX. Unless of course we can find much cheaper flights flying into LAX, then of course we will probably jump on those instead .

How exciting for you....we thought about doing an Aulani/DLR trip as well, that was until we saw the flights from LA to Hawaii . DH and I figured that when the girls are old enough to stay home by themselves (or away at college), we will then go. Have a great trip and here is some that you find really good flights to Hawaii...I'm so jealous .

 

[tksbaskets]

If the price is comparable go SNA! LAX has been a nightmare for our and SNA was very easy in and out.

TK

 

[zddPaul]

LAX can often work better if you want a car, you want to save money and you don't mind LA freeway traffic. There have been times I've saved $150 per ticket for 4 tickets and another $150 on a car rental. I don't mind the driving and the extra hassle of having to take the shuttle to get the car (no on site rental companies), especially if I'm saving $750.

Ontario and Long Beach are both reasonable options too. One tip about about Ontario. There is an Avis less than a mile away from the terminal right next to the runway that is not technically an airport location. I've rented cars there for less than 1/3 the price of airport locations. You can either send a person to hike there from the terminal or take a short cab ride.

SNA is great though. Not a glorified bus station like Midway, just a modern, convenient, manageable airport. Too bad the prices are usually high.

 

[Lucille1963]

SNA is great though. Not a glorified bus station like Midway, just a modern, convenient, manageable airport. Too bad the prices are usually high.

Midway has come a long way, it is far from a glorified bus station. I live between O'hare and Midway, and I prefer Midway just because there is more to do and better things to eat while I wait for my flight.

 

[runmommyrun]

Midway has come a long way, it is far from a glorified bus station. I live between O'hare and Midway, and I prefer Midway just because there is more to do and better things to eat while I wait for my flight.

Agreed. Midway isn't what it used to be! Ten years ago it was a bus station and I hated flying out of there! But after the rehab, I now go out of my way to fly Midway as opposed to O'Hare. (We also live on the SW side so it makes more sense for us). It is actually a great airport now. Never having been to SNA, I assumed it would be similar to MDW. At the end of the day, I just want to get on vacation as soon as possible with as little hassle as possible. For me MDW is the better Chicago choice. Now for LA.... that I'm still not sure, but I'm choosing SNA!