Flying out of Chicago

[Minerva]

Can anyone give me an idea of what they've paid to fly out of Chicago to MCO? We're not going until November so I've got some time but I'm not sure what a good fare is as this is our first trip.
Thanks

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

We flew out of Midway on 11/27/04, which was the Sat. right after Thanksgiving. We got what I thought was a great deal at 148 per person round trip non-stop (this price was the base price, not including tax and the other fees they throw in there).

Hope that helps,
Tink

 

[horner5]

When we flew out of Midway, our round trip price per ticket is usually $175-$180 per person for a nonstop flight through ATA. That is for January and February flights. I'm sure you can do better for that time period, but I'm not a gambler with flights, so when I know we're going, I usually book right away if it's reasonable. We take advantadge of the Park Stay and Fly program with the hotels around Midway since we're from Michigan.

 

[EdDome]

I'm holding reservations for June 2005 at $175 for ATA out of MDW.

 

[ctrezek]

I just got airfare from Disney for $188 roundtrip per person for June 2005.
Correction, my air is $176. per person total.

 

[dj2]

american out of o'hare (leaving in a few days!) at $176 after all taxes and fees. bought tickets a few months ago. thought i'd be able to get it down to $150 like last year (with spirit), but didn't want to risk losing out and paying more.

 

[Trekker]

Over the past several years for us it has been anywhere from $125.00 to $175.00 RT out of midway.....

 

[GRAYWIFE]

Spirit Air out of O'Hare...non-stop...roundtrip...Feb 2nd to Feb 9th...$157 per person.

 

[inkkognito]

Ed (and anyone else holding ATA MDW to MCO flights), check the flight info. They have eliminated ALL direct flights to MCO starting in Feb.!
Barb

 

[Minerva]

We flew out of Midway on 11/27/04, which was the Sat. right after Thanksgiving. We got what I thought was a great deal at 148 per person round trip non-stop (this price was the base price, not including tax and the other fees they throw in there).

Hope that helps,
Tink

Oh my gosh! That is exactly when we'll be leaving this year except that Saturday is the 26th this year. Which airline was that? I was starting to get worried that flying out that weekend was going to make it impossible to get round trip for under $200 a person which is what I budgeted and I cannot change the dates because my daughter's birthday is the 27th and we're going for her birthday.

 

[Minerva]

Ed (and anyone else holding ATA MDW to MCO flights), check the flight info. They have eliminated ALL direct flights to MCO starting in Feb.!
Barb

Shoot and I was thinking they were looking like my best option but I really don't want to have to change planes. The last time we flew over a holiday it was going to and from my parents in Corpus Christi, TX at Christmas 2 years ago. We fly Southwest when we go there and have to change planes in Houston and being in 3 airports both ways around a holiday is just not a lot of fun especially since we have an hour or more trip just to get to MDW to start out. That makes for a long day with changing planes and wandering through an extra airport. Southwest does fly nonstop from MDW to MCO, hopefully they won't change that as they're probably my next best option for a decent fare flying over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Thank you everyone for your help!

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Right now, American Airlines ( http://www.aa.com ) has nonstop roundtrips between Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) and Orlando International (MCO) for as little as $112.90 nonstop for some departures this month. And American has lots of roundtrips through early December for under $200. I played around a bit on their website, and I repeatedly saw $176.90 or a few dollars more than that.

Ted ( http://www.flyted.com ), a part of United Airlines, offers similar roundtrip fares between ORD and MCO.

I book several roundtrips between ORD and MCO each year. If your flight involves a date that is likely to be very popular, such as the weekend when spring break or winter break begins for most Chicago schools, book as early as possible -- the fare will almost cetainly go up. For example, for our cruise in March 2004, I booked 331 days before our return day. The fare was $198 roundtrip. The fare kept going up and up, and was over $1,000 roundtrip a month or so before we flew. For "ordinary" days, watch for a good airfare. I consider $179.90 to be very good. Sure, the fare may go down if you wait, but it could go up and stay up.

Keep in mind that the day of the week and the time of the day can make a huge difference. It sometimes really pays to fly a day earlier and stay in an airport hotel the first night.

Finally for flights between Chicago and Orlando, I almost always avoid connections. By the time you factor in the ground time in the connecting city and the second flight, you're losing around 3 or even 4 hours. That's the difference between having a day that includes fun and travel and a day that's essentially only travel.

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

Ed (and anyone else holding ATA MDW to MCO flights), check the flight info. They have eliminated ALL direct flights to MCO starting in Feb.!
Barb

Thanks for letting us know, Barb. Oddly, my late March flight is still showing a direct flight from Midway to MCO. My guess is that they just haven't gotten around to changing it. Now I will have to change the towncar pick up time when ATA gets around to letting me know we have a layover.

I am so sorry I booked with ATA right before the rumors surfaced about them leaving Midway. We paid $500 per ticket rt non-stop and now we end up paying that crazy high price and stopping off who-knows-where, anyway -- probably Indiana?

To Minerva, our Nov 27th flight was with ATA. Please do yourself a huge favor and avoid them. Good luck with your airfare though!

 

[inkkognito]

Yep, it looks like all of the connections will go through Indy. I have heard rumors that they may do code sharing with some of Southwest's direct Orlando flights, but no confirmation...we'll see. My husband has called them and the agents are clueless. Our flight the weekend of Jan. 21st is fine going out, but WAY earlier coming back. At least both are direct, unlike Feb.
Barb

 

[Minerva]

To Minerva, our Nov 27th flight was with ATA. Please do yourself a huge favor and avoid them. Good luck with your airfare though! [/QUOTE]

Thanks, I'm going to keep watching things and see what happens. Hopefully Southwest will come thru for me when they get their fares up for November.

Good luck to all of you with ATA flights. I hope they don't get your trips off to bad starts!

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

I have heard rumors that they may do code sharing with some of Southwest's direct Orlando flights, but no confirmation...we'll see. My husband has called them and the agents are clueless. Our flight the weekend of Jan. 21st is fine going out, but WAY earlier coming back. At least both are direct, unlike Feb.
Barb

I guess that is what I was hoping for in regards to our March flight with ATA. I was thinking that since it's busy busy Easter weekend, that there will be so many flights out of Midway to MCO, that they will code share, rather than send us thru Indy. The whole idea behind me booking the flight so far in advance was to get a direct flight and I was willing (and did) pay a high price for it -- and ended up with uncertainty and most likely, a stopover.

I could be wrong, since I don't know much about airlines, but if your flight times change more than 90 mins or 2 hours, don't you have a right to a refund or free flight time change?

Thanks, Tink

 

[ParkFreak]

Going Jan 31 - Feb 3, started planning the trip in October and flights on Spirit were about 155, dragged my feet and finally checked back in early December to see how much waiting was going to cost me. . .Surprise! It actually went down to 112 round trip including taxes and everything! I like to think it happened because I was in WDW at the time I made the reservation

 

[dj2]

I could be wrong, since I don't know much about airlines, but if your flight times change more than 90 mins or 2 hours, don't you have a right to a refund or free flight time change?

if they change your flight to one with a change of planes, does that qualify you for a refund?

 

[debbiedana]

On 1/4/05 I paid $122pp rt on Spirit out of OHare for 1/20/05-1/25/04. Southwest was $115 out of Midway for the same dates. I don't think I've ever paid more than $170 rt from either OHare or Midway.