Flying to MCO from Fargo, ND, anyone?

[cinderelly1010]

My family of 4 (2 kids, who will be 4 and 2, and DH) and I are planning a trip in Dec. 2014 with 4 other family members (from a different state). It seems my options are pretty limited because of our location...but that's not stopping me! My dilemma is this: being that there are only 5 airlines that fly out of Hector Int'l, one of which is Allegiant, which I just learned flies into Sanford and not MCO, so that's out. The others are Frontier, Delta, AA, and United. All of which either connect in Denver, Minneapolis or Chicago, yay Any tips to when airfare goes down for those specific airlines in my location or is it pretty much a crap-shoot like the rest of airline planning?

Would it even be worth it to fly into SFB and get a rental car and drive to WDW or should I bite the bullet and spend more on airfare and fly into MCO and ride the magical express?

I should add that I personally have been to WDW before, but not since I was in HS back in 2001, but we flew out of a pretty popular destination so this was never a problem!

Tips/advice? TIA

 

[ancestry]

Any possibilities of driving to another airport on the departure side of your trip or are you limited to only Fargo, ND?

 

[Minnesota!]

I would look at taking a trip to MSP and flying out of here. Amtrak is pretty cheap, if you don't want to drive/pay to park your car here.

 

[Lyndarella]

Near the airport at MSP there are several "Park and Fly" places to sleep before your flight. For the cost of one night you can park free for a week. They take you to the airport and pick you up there. It saves a lot on airfare especially when you have several people.

 

[littleaussie]

I live near Fargo and have done different scenarios at different times. If considering flying out of msp, I would add up the cost of ticket savings vs cost to drive down there. Typically, the more people flying, the better the savings when you price it, even with a motel stay.

I fly allegiant sometimes and like to fly to sfb. The airport is much quieter and easier to navigate, which is nice. I don't like the chaos of mco.

I rarely buy my tickets further than 2 months out except when I see a sale on allegiant, which happens sometimes. I've found my best deals about 2 months out but your mileage may vary.

I would recommend not flying thru Chicago during the winter. We are returning from our trip today and our flights were cancelled last week thru Chicago due to the cold/snow. I was told by other travelers that Chicago is dicey a lot of the time in the winter. Flights were cancelled all over last week but we were rerouted to msp because they were still flying.

 

[cinderelly1010]

I guess driving to MSP isn't TOTALLY out of the question, but that's a 5 hour drive and possibly a night's stay in a hotel before we even start our venture. I don't think my husband is going to go for that, ha. I'll look into Amtrak, never really thought about it just because of the amount of travel time. That's probably, what, a two day trip (I'm assuming you mean Amtrak train)?

I guess I am limited to Fargo, for now. I'll just have to stalk the airfares for awhile...

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I look forward to anyone else's imput too

ETA: I agree littleaussie, I would like to avoid Chicago (and Denver) in the winter.

The only reason I didn't consider Allegiant was because they don't fly into MCO anymore, and that would mean we'd have to find our own way to WDW. BUT, I think I'd rather rent a car and drive there, than drive to MSP and leave our car. Guess I just have to weigh the pros and cons. Fargo sure doesn't make travel plans easy for anyone. Luckily, the rest of our party is flying out of an area that doesn't have to deal with this, they can just go straight to Orlando and be done.

 

[Collette]

In the last fourteen years, I have flown to MCO ten times. Six were out of Fargo and four out of MSP. Those MSP trips were the first four out of five. When there were four of us traveling, it was cheaper at that time to drive to Mpls and stay at a park and fly hotel. When it is just me, by the time I pay for the hotel and gas, I have covered the added cost of the flight. Plus that drive home is a killer. Not so bad with multiple drivers, but once was enough driving it alone. (I live about an hour from Fargo.) I will cut back on other parts of the trip to fly from FAR.

I work at a school so many of my trips are over our October school break. Delta knows this I think you might have better luck finding a good price in December especially if you aren't going right at Christmas time.

Are you flying Saturday to Saturday or are your days flexible? Right now I could only check a Wednesday to Tuesday on Delta. That was a great price. Saturday to Saturday could be more. And oddly enough for the flights I checked today - and I have sometimes seen this happen before - it was about the same flying out of Fargo as MSP. I know you can't count on that often, but I have seen it before. Especially at a time when MSP to MCO flights were way high.

So many things affect it - days of the week flying, time of day you are willing to fly, etc. Since I have done this for several years, I have usually watched flights a year ahead to get an idea of what I might have to pay. Then when the first days open to book, I watch daily. When it is at a price I am willing to pay for the days I want to fly and the times I want fly, I buy. Then try not to look again! There are times I was glad I bought when I did and others I wish I had waited. It fluctuates so much that it is difficult to tell anyone when is a good time.

Some say Tuesday through Thursday are good days to watch the airlines. But then I've had something good pop up late on a Saturday night and during my lunch at work. Flights can change within hours so if you see something you like - be ready. Keep checking - a lot! I wish I could give you some more concrete information. You're right. It's a crap-shoot!

I haven't done any research with United, American or Allegiant flights. I have considered flying through Chicago, but I'm most comfortable at MSP - and that area if I should happen to end up there overnight for some reason. I have family who have flown Allegiant and rented a car. They said by the time all of the extras were added on to their Allegiant flights, they probably could have flown Delta.

If you do connect at MSP - or anywhere for that matter - be sure to choose a flight with plenty of connection time. I've taken the Fargo-MSP-Memphis-MCO route two or three times because I missed my connection. This last time I had 1 hour 6 minutes between flights. The gates between the landing from FAR and departing from MSP are quite often/most always a distance apart. This time we landed a little late. I quickly made a bathroom stop, grabbed a sandwich to go and hurried to the next gate just in time to board.

Good luck!! What a fun trip to look forward to!!

 

[cinderelly1010]

Thanks Collette! I think I am leaning towards flying out of FAR via Delta and connecting thru MSP (in the event we get stuck there on the way home, we can always drive home if we have to). It seems that if we were to fly via Allegiant, after the price of the ticket, baggage fees, and rental car, it would probably be close to just flying one of the bigger airlines. Since we have two small kids, I'm not trying to make this trip harder or longer than it has to be.

Another thing I was thinking of doing is signing up for a travel credit card and using the bonus points to buy a ticket to help with costs and then use the interest free period to pay for the remainder of the trip. Another thing to research...

I think we are leaning toward the week right before Christmas because that is the only week some people in our family can go. Have to wait a couple more weeks before I can price those dates out!

 

[DisneynBison]

My family flew FAR to MCO last year on Delta through MSP in Jan. Worked great. Honestly the cost difference for us doesn't come close to making up for having to drive to the cities stay a night and park the car. We won't not fly out of FAR. I watch for January times but and I wouldn't pay more than 400 for the trip. I think we were 280 last year purchased in the fall. Taking the risk on allegiant out of FAR here next week but flying into Tampa, it was crazy cheap as we booked on the day they announced the flight.

flew to Dallas last weekend out of MSP and the only good thing about it was our direct flight wasn't messed up by the weather my wife and I both we didn't like the drive and hopefully don't have to do it again anytime soon for travel but you understand how hard flights out of FAR were to get last weekend I am sure.

 

[cinderelly1010]

Oh, I know! My MIL was here for Christmas/New Years and flew from OH. Her connection was in Chicago and was part of that whole weather debacle. Luckily, she made it out of Fargo before the second round came through. Scares me to fly through Chicago (or Denver for that matter) in the winter!

What really grinds my gears about this whole airline thing is I used to live outside of Vegas and the flights were always on the expensive side when we lived there. Now, I get all kinds of airfare emails about cheap flights in/out of Vegas. Grrrr......

 

[DisneynBison]

Do not count on Amtrak out of here. It is very very rarely on time and sometimes hours and hours late.

If you don't want to mess with driving from Sanford you can also get Happy limo to tote you around in anything from a minivan to a stretched limo. We do this even flying into MCO as the kids like it and it is just a perk we enjoy. Around 300 round trip + tip. From the Tampa area it is $500 to $600 which gets a little expensive.

 

[cinderelly1010]

Yes, I have witnessed that...my in-laws usually travel on Amtrak to come visit us, and they almost always are delayed at some point.

 

[tinkermom23]

Curious as to what you decided and how it worked out! We always have really bad luck flying out of Fargo but my brother loves it. I'd rather drive the 4 hours to the cities and not have so many problems with the flight.