Flying out of BUF but living in Ontario

[*~PrincessBelle~*]

Just wondering what other people's experiences have been like flying out of Buffalo while living in the Kitchener/Waterloo area. Im thinking about flying in January and I can get a wicked deal with southwest to Orlando for almost 200 less than what I would spend flying out of YYZ. Is it worth the savings? It's still a one hour drive to YYZ and only just over an hour more to get to BUF. I would be driving myself and leaving my car at the airport. Only planning on being gone the 3rd-7th of January. Advice?? TIA

 

[mkmommy]

Buffalo is so much easier than Toronto,it is a small airport and parking is close and less expensive. For early morning flights it is nice to spend the night at a hotel near the airport and then go to the airport.

I am in Guelph and it takes about 3 1/2 hours for us to land in Buffalo on the return flight get our luggage and then drive home. From Pearson it takes for ever to get luggage (last month it was over an hour) and it ends up being 3 1/2 hours to get home also, so for the money saved you are losing nothing but the headache of clearing customs at Pearson.

 

[*~PrincessBelle~*]

Buffalo is so much easier than Toronto,it is a small airport and parking is close and less expensive. For early morning flights it is nice to spend the night at a hotel near the airport and then go to the airport.

I am in Guelph and it takes about 3 1/2 hours for us to land in Buffalo on the return flight get our luggage and then drive home. From Pearson it takes for ever to get luggage (last month it was over an hour) and it ends up being 3 1/2 hours to get home also, so for the money saved you are losing nothing but the headache of clearing customs at Pearson.

Thanks for the advice! I am actually from Guelph too! We are currently out in Calgary but moving back there at Xmas hence the flying out of BUF question

 

[You'vegotafriendinme]

Hi, Just wanted to add our thoughts. We are fortunate in that we're about a 45-minute drive from Buffalo; however, after having flown Southwest from Buffalo to Orlando four times we recommend it to everyone that we know. We have flown WestJet from Toronto too and the cost ($1400 CDN vs $500 US for our family of three) is one reason. The size and ease of navigating the Buffalo airport is another deciding factor for us. We always stay over the night before and use the park & fly package at a hotel (most are just across the street from the airport).
Whatever you decide, hope it all goes very well for you!

 

[ccudmore]

I thought I saw WestJet flights on sale direct from the London airport to Orlando for $59 each way. It wasn't peak season but the deals are available without going to Buffalo.

 

[Tiggs14]

We flew out of Buffalo for the first time this year. The savings add up quickly when you're buying 4 tickets. We did a park and fly package and used the hotels shuttle service. Everything went really smoothly. I'd definately recommend flying out of Buffalo to anyone!

 

[angela1044]

We flew out of Buffalo for the first time last year and it was awesome and we will be doing it again this February. We even drive by Pearson to get Buffalo because we live north of Toronto.

I've flown out of Toronto many many times but it was such a great experience going out of Buffalo. In Toronto, you have to keep your luggage with you to go through customs but in Buffalo you can drop your luggage at the curb. With two small kids, that was awesome.

I don't think you will regret it (unless there is bad weather which is my only fear).

 

[My 2 princesses]

I was going to say if you are only saving 200 bucks, then I wouldn't bother about going to BUF, but then I realised the drive to either airports are almost the same. So in that case, I would fly out of BUF. We are a little west of Pearson airport and we have flown out of BUF twice so far. Way cheaper even if you factor in the drive/gas/hotel etc. We would continue to fly out of BUF if the savings are great.

 

[pilk]

We would fly out of Buffalo anytime we can. It's nice and easy to get around the terminal and security is usually quick.

 

[MikeJ]

I thought I saw WestJet flights on sale direct from the London airport to Orlando for $59 each way. It wasn't peak season but the deals are available without going to Buffalo.

Just for fun I went to the Westjet web site and plugged in some dates. Between now and Christmas I found a $69 southbound fare (in Nov) and an $89 return fare the next week. By the time the taxes get added the total cost for two was $524. We have flights out of DTW next month that only cost us $304. Yes, gas costs are higher and yes, parking will be more expensive but I still prefer to fly out of Detroit for a couple of reasons:

1) It's still cheaper.

2) Westjet only flies on Saturdays from YXU. On our upcoming trip we're leaving on Friday, returning on Wednesday. Doesn't work for Westjet.

3) Not having to clear customs at the airport - especially in Orlando. Enough said.

- Mike

 

[minnie56]

I fly out of Buffalo as much as I can..in the Winter however, not too often. Once it took us more than 3 hours to get there..usually 1hr/15 ...because of snow and my car was encapsulated in ice after 6 days parked there when we came home. The shuttle was out of there fast and had we not had automatic start and waited 15+ minutes to get the doors open, it would not have been fun! Then the wipers snapped off but fortunately there was no precip..anyways, just my 2 cents. They can get socked in pretty bad in the winter.

 

[Janice B]

We are flying out of Buffalo this December. We live in K-W. We actaully dont spend the night because I usually can never sleep before we fly anyhow so we get up at 2:00 in the morning and leave around 3:00 our flight is at 8:30 and we have never had any problems. The drive might be a bit longer than flying out of Toronto, but a lot less hasels. This will be our second time flying out of buffalo. We have flown out of Detroit once and enjoyed it. We just look at which airport gives us the best price. When we flew out of detroit we did spend the night

 

[mommylo]

Another Buffalo convert here. We started traveling through Bufflo 3-4 years ago. The more people in your party, the larger the savings. If I need to travel solo, then I would fly out of Pearson though. We just came from yesterday from 5 days at WDW and the airport has just recently gone through some additions with security check points and it was fantastic!

 

[glenpreece]

Just wondering what other people's experiences have been like flying out of Buffalo while living in the Kitchener/Waterloo area. Im thinking about flying in January and I can get a wicked deal with southwest to Orlando for almost 200 less than what I would spend flying out of YYZ. Is it worth the savings? It's still a one hour drive to YYZ and only just over an hour more to get to BUF. I would be driving myself and leaving my car at the airport. Only planning on being gone the 3rd-7th of January. Advice?? TIA

We live out by Oshawa and love flying out of BUF. YYZ is so expensive and a hassle. Love BUF since it's so small and the Walden Galleria is right near by for a quick shop and some cheesecake factory. PLUS it's sooooo much cheaper than YYZ! We are going to DL next week and the cost is $285 cdn rt on airtran whereas if we flew from YYZ it would've been $660 cdn rt on aircanada.

 

[sudwel]

We flew out of Buffalo on the 4th, and back on the 11th. We flew AirTran - and I have nothing but good things to say about the whole experience! I've flown out of Buffalo for work before, but this was my first time on my own nickel, and DH and I were both impressed with the airport and the airline.

Added bonus - not only do you avoid the huge customs line up at the airport and save lots of $$ ($800 US for the 4 of us, return, vs. $1600 return out of Toronto!) - BUT you can do some cross border shopping before driving back into Canada! Our flight landed in Buffalo at 11:30 and by 12:30 we were at the Walden Galleria having some lunch and browsing the sales! We then went grocery shopping before heading back over the border, and were home by 6:00 (we only live 45 minutes from Buffalo)

Darlene

 

[mlegerto]

I highly recommend you driving the extra time and flying out of buffalo. I have flown southwest for years now (because of the price of the tickets) and everyone that I have done it with or suggested it to have had great experiences as well.

If you have an early morning flight and you are uncomfortable with driving in the middle of the night, there is a hotel right across from the airport in which you can stay for the night and purchase a stay and park package (in which you leave your car there and do not pay to move it else where.)

If you are fine with the drive (as I am), go to the Buffalo International Airport website and print off the parking coupon. This will save you a few dollars a day for parking at the airport. There are plenty of buses driving around the parking lot to transport you to the terminal and the price of parking (even before the coupon) isn't that expensive, especially when you compare it to Pearson's prices.

Whatever you do, I hope you have a great trip and hope all our information has helped you make a decision.

 

[Boardwalk_bride]

I'm in Guelph as well, and we prefer to fly out of Buffalo...it literally has saved us over $1000 rather than flying from Toronto. We like to take an early morning flight, so we usually do the "park n fly" in Buffalo. For about $100 US, you can leave your car for up to 10 days (I think) and stay overnight. It includes shuttle to and from the hotel. The ones in Williamsville are cheapest, and than you don't have to drive through the city.

http://www.parksleepfly.com/

 

[Jackie Psarianos]

We always fly out of Buffalo because the savings for us is over $1200. We stay the night before across the street at the Hilton because we have a Hilton timeshare.

For you, it depends on the time of your flight. If it's early in the morning, given that you're flying out in the winter, and you spend the night, you'll probably spend close to the savings in hotel/gas/parking...so in that case I would just fly out of Toronto.

If you leave later on in the day, then that would allot you more drive time which would save you costs on lodging. You still have to pay for gas and parking.

If you drive out the same day you fly out, give yourself double the drive time for the weather and some extra time to cross the border and drive out to Buffalo International.

 

[Tower]

We're also Buffalo travellers. Live in Mississauga and leaving for a Disney cruise Dec 11. Prices are so very much cheaper for sure and, as other have mentioned, customs works out better as well.

We always spend the night in Buffalo beforehand as we have had trouble crossing into the USA before and the delay almost made us miss a flight! By going into Buffalo a day early, you may be at the border extra long, but you're only missing out on some sleep, not your flight!

There are 6 of us travelling so the cost savings are definitely there!

Be aware however that the weather in BUF is more severe than YYZ. On one trip, we were very fortunate to have caught the first (and only) Continental flight out that day both from BUF and Newark. Thanks to a very helpful hotel check-in girl, she highly recommended checking my reservation for the next day due to the inclement weather coming. I'm so thankful for that young gal who did that for us!

 

[Jackie Psarianos]

What were those dates? And did you include the taxes?