Flying from Toronto (YYZ) - what are our options

[biggroofy]

We are planning for Jan 2009. Last month the one-way fare from Air Canada was $157, and now all becomes $260. Should we wait further to wait for last minute deals?

What are other options - Westjet, AirTransat, anymore?

I would not consider flying from Buffalo, because we will be traveling in the winter - any snow storm, freezing rain will screw us up.

 

[michelle1]

I would keep checking with AC and West Jet for a seat sale. Sun Wing often has really good deals but I believe they fly only certain days of the week.

 

[saginaw]

We are flying with Sunwing out of TO on Jan 30/09 for approx $359 taxes in. We didn't really want to fly out of the States if we could get a reasonable flight here.

 

[disneynovic]

There is also Airtransat, but like Sunwing they only fly certain days.

 

[suprgrlx]

When we flew to Orlando from Toronto the first time, we used Northwest I believe. Checking Expedia now, they offer flights from:

Sunwing (by far the cheapest)
Delta
American Airlines
Air Canada
Continental
United
US Airways
Northwest

They don't mention West Jet, though they should fly too. I would keep checking with some of the American Airlines too, since I found them to be much cheaper on our previous trip. Admittedly, that may have changed somewhat, but they're still worth looking into. Good luck!

 

[Calrissian13]

Definitely check with WestJet, we have had nothing but wonderful experiences with them. We didn't wait for last minute deals and spent about $500 return each (that was with taxes and airport costs and whatever else they add on, from Ottawa), but for the service we recieve we figure it's worth it. But who knows, if we had waited we might have saved some money.

Good luck with your quest!

 

[biggroofy]

First, thank you everyone

Next, bad news (?)....DW kept blaming me for not booking our flights earlier. As mentioned above AC costs $146 one-way last month but now costs $257. WestJet costs $168 last week and now costs $257 too

With infant and eldery, we prefer to have a direct flight and not-too-early. Therefore, looks like Air Canada and WestJet are our only options. SunWing has good prices but TOO EARLY (6am flight) which is impossible for us.

Just wondering - should I book those tickets at $257 one-way now? This will cost us over $4K (5 passenger + 1 infant). Does the Air fare increase (almost double) because the seats are selling quick? Or it is a periodic thing that seat sale will recur once in a while (I hope)?

We are looking for Jan 05, 2009 flights - IMO, this should be lower season since school already started.

 

[dis_guy]

Maybe grab the best fare you can now. Industry observers believe that there are big increases coming once the discount carriers are done cutting back. United is phasing out TED totally, Southwest cut 200 flights, Zoom's gone, etc. If prices go the other way you can try to get the lower fares then.

 

[cdnmickeylover]

I would book the flights now.

I know that you've said that you won't fly out of Buffalo but you should at least consider it. My family is flying out of Buffalo and it's my mother who's 71and who will be using a scooter, my brother and SIL and thier 4 kids who are all under 8. There are 7 of them and they are flying for $1400 return - all taxes in.

The savings would be amazing and you can fly Southwest nonstop and they have a nonstop flight in the middle of the day so you don't have to be up at the crack of dawn. Southwest usually has 3 nonstops a day - one early morning, one around noontime and then one at night.

We've flown from Buffalo in January and have never had a weather problem. That doesn't mean that there will not be a problem but if there is a problem it might also affect Toronto as well. Buffalo is also a much smaller airport than Toronto is so it might be easier for your family to get around.

 

[biggroofy]

I know that you've said that you won't fly out of Buffalo but you should at least consider it.

Thank you cdnmickeylover. May I ask a question - where do you park your car when you fly out of Buffalo? IF DW agrees to fly from Buffalo, we need a secure place to park our car - since we are going away for 2 weeks (7-day land + 7 night sea). Thanks!

 

[cdnmickeylover]

We usually park our car right at the airport in Long Term A parking. There is a shuttle bus that takes you from the parking lot right to the door of the terminal. For Southwest you can either do curbside checkin or just go through the doors to the checkin desks (terminals). We've never really had to wait longer than 5 minutes for a shuttle bus to come and we've even had them follow us into the parking lot and direct us to an empty spot.

When we return to the airport there is a shuttle which will take you back to the airport parking lot and they have always dropped us off at our car.

I usually go onto the Buffalo airport website and there is usually a coupon that you can download to save 10% on the parking. We've left our car in the parking lot for a minimum of 4 days and the longest was 14 days without ever having a problem.

We always laugh when looking through the parking lot because there are a lot of Ontario plates there and there always seems to be other Canadians on the shuttle bus with us.

 

[biggroofy]

Thanks again cdnmickeylover. I noticed the difference in price - $1500 vs 4000 for the family 5 + 1 infant.

I am in the Thornhill area too, I guess driving to the border would be something like 1.5 hour drive + another 30 min to Buffalo airport?

I will try to convince my wife - the 6pm flight works great for us. I guess we can leave home around noon, that would still give us plenty of time. If weather is bad (touch-wood) we may leave a day early and stay in a hotel in Buffalo, still cheaper.

**Can we have pick our (pre-assigned) seats in SouthWest?

 

[cdnmickeylover]

The timing is about right. It takes us about 2 hours door to door depending on how long the wait is at the border but we've been lucky and have never had to wait more than 15 minutes or so at the border. If you leave at noon for the 6pm flight you should be fine.

You don't have preassigned seats with Southwest. You checkin online exactly 24 hours ahead of your flight and you will get your boarding pass which will have either A, B or C on it and a number -- eg. A24, A25. You then board is that order -- it sounds much more complicated then it really is. The first 16 A's I think are reserved for the business select travellers and then it's first come first checkin -- you then can pick your seats on the plane. For those travelling with kids under 4 if you don't happen to get an A boarding pass you board after the A's. The planes all have 3 seats on each side of an aisle. There are usually two of us travelling and we've always sat together except one flight when we were at the end of the C's and even then we sat across the aisle from each other.

The price just really can't be beaten -- this September we are flying for the two of us for $318 (that's for two all taxes in) return. We priced it out of Toronto and it was $1252. We've actually flown on Southwest return for $170 for the two of us but I don't think we'll ever see those rates again.

 

[biggroofy]

You don't have preassigned seats with Southwest. You checkin online exactly 24 hours ahead of your flight and you will get your boarding pass which will have either A, B or C on it and a number -- eg. A24, A25. For those travelling with kids under 4 if you don't happen to get an A boarding pass you board after the A's. The planes all have 3 seats on each side of an aisle.

Many thanks to cdnmickeylover You have really made us to think out of the box

I will definitely convince my wife to fly out from Buffalo airport tonight.

No preassigned seats - so it is like watching movie at theatres. Just want to clarify how they determine the priority sequence (i.e. the boarding pass numbers) - do they based your web check-in time, or your physical check-in time at the airport terminal?

One slight concern my DW would ask for sure - we will be on Disney Magic (more specifically - Castaway Cay) 24 hours prior to our return flight. Not sure if we will be able to do web check-in there.

 

[suprgrlx]

No preassigned seats - so it is like watching movie at theatres. Just want to clarify how they determine the priority sequence (i.e. the boarding pass numbers) - do they based your web check-in time, or your physical check-in time at the airport terminal?

One slight concern my DW would ask for sure - we will be on Disney Magic (more specifically - Castaway Cay) 24 hours prior to our return flight. Not sure if we will be able to do web check-in there.

I'm fairly sure it's based on your web check-in time. However, I'm also fairly sure that you could get a family member at home, for example, to do the check in for you 24 hours in advance and when you get to the airport, you'd just have to reprint your boarding passes (same as if you had lost them or your printer didn't work). So you'd get your time 24 hours in advance, even if you couldn't get online. Have a great trip!

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Hadn't thought that it is like the movies but you are right that's exactly what it's like.

It's based on your online checkin time.

I don't know what time you are coming back but there is internet access on the Magic that you can use to check in.

Have you been on the Disney cruise before? Castaway Cay is amazing but remember to wear sunscreen!

 

[biggroofy]

Thanks again cdnmickeylover!

We were on Disney Wonder earlier this year. DD4 loves it except she had a little cold and did not play in the water. We rebooked on board for Magic - Jan 2009.

I am thinking - my preference would be taking the noon flight (12:00pm) at MCO, arriving Buffalo at 2:40pm. This will give us some slack time to shop at Walmart / Target before returning home. Last time, they "kicked" us off the ship around 8:40am, and the towncar dropped us at Disney Swan by 10:00am. So I assume we should be on-time for the 12:00pm flight. What do you say? If we take the next flight (4pm), it will be too much slack time in betwen.

Wonder if Internet access is available when Magic docked at Castaway Cay. It appeared to me that most facilities (shops) were closed when it is docked.

 

[cdnmickeylover]

I think you should be ok for the 12 noon flight out of MCO. We've actually gotten off the ship at about 7:30am and been checked in and in our room at CBR by 9am.

I'm not sure about the internet access while on Castaway Cay although I would presume that it would still be working. The other option is to have someone at home check you in online - we've done this before and it's worked out ok. You just have to "reprint" your boarding passes at the airport but this is totally not a big deal.

 

[biggroofy]

Millions of thanks