Getting TO Disney?

[Paulakoala]

Planning on heading to DLR May 14-21 2015. Have PP booked already and a tentative plan to (mostly) avoid Grad Nights. However...we are TOTAL noobs when it comes to plane trips and flying in general. Coming from Canada (Calgary closest airport) and so looks like our only options are Air Canada and Westjet. I've looked at flights to LAX and SNA and the best I can do so far is $2860 for the five of us (two adults, kids 14, 8 and 7). Is that about what I can expect? When's best to book? I've been checking flights and pricing pretty much daily....any advice would be appreciated!

 

[lalasmama]

Forgive my lack of geographical familiarity of Canada, I only know a little about the Vancouver, BC area.... How hard would it be to get to an American airport? That could decrease the price significantly. If that's not an option, could you fly into the closest American airport, and then hop a different flight/airline from there? Jet Blue, specifically, is a very reasonably priced airline that flies into LGB, which is the 2nd closest airport to Disneyland.

 

[McNs]

I would start on some of the 3rd party sites to see what options are available. Try Expedia or something similar, I just checked on google.com/flights. You can change the destination airport to LAX or SNA (Orange County), and it will also show you options with stopovers rather than direct, which can be cheaper.

Once you figure out which airline might be best, you can then keep an eye out for any specials they might have. When doing my bookings, I normally keep an eye on 2-3 airlines, I have a pretty good idea of what a good price is, and when one of them hits it and it is during my travel window, I will book it.

There is no golden rule on the cheapest time to book flights, it is a bit of wait and see, and there will ALWAYS be a cheaper flight for your route after you have booked and paid! I generally stop looking as soon as I have booked, as that is one of those things better not to know!

You have some time before you need to commit, and prices will go up and down, so it is really just a matter of getting familiar with price cycles and specials and pounce when a good one comes along.

 

[KateDrake]

I usually use Kayak as well, because you can set up an alert and watch the price for a while. I just moved to Canada in 2013, so I am still experiencing sticker shock when it comes to booking flights back to the US!

I know Alaska Air flies up here to Edmonton quite a bit, and it seems like you can get a pretty decent price to LAX or SNA through them. They seem to code share with Delta quite a bit. Anyway, it could be worth looking into!

I get so jealous of everyone who can hop across the border to Buffalo or Seattle to get a cheap flight! Alberta is SO. DANG. BIG! I'm from Utah, which isn't exactly small, but I still can't wrap my head around how freaking huge Canada is! That's part of what I love about it though!

 

[tvguy]

Oh, getting to and from Canada from California can be tough. I have family in Calgary and in Saskatoon so have made the trip many times. The available routing changes so much. Have you looked at going Calgary to Salt Lake City to Los Angeles or Orange County? Or Calgary to Vancouver to Los Angeles?

I'm in Sacramento, the last 10 years or so my trips to Saskatoon have all been through Minneapolis. Nothing like going 800 miles past your final destination, to catch a flight to go 800 miles back to it.

In the 1970's we actually had a direct flight from Sacramento to Edmonton.

 

[poohboysmom]

It's been awhile since I bought plane tickets. I was thinking about buying ours about 2 months out - enough time, too early, too late?

 

[DLfan4]

We always drive down to the USA and fly using Allegiant Air.
The nearest to you is Kalispell Montana (which is about 5.5 hrs away from Calgary).

I just checked and they don't fly to LA until june. but, you can fly from Kalispell to Las Vegas and then drive to LA.

I just did search for 2 adults and 3 kids and the total cost to fly for all 5 of you would be $807 total. if you add on a rental car then its another $200.

 

[DLfan4]

It's been awhile since I bought plane tickets. I was thinking about buying ours about 2 months out - enough time, too early, too late?

I would suggest keep checking the prices, and if you come across a good price, then book.

 

[Disney127]

Planning on heading to DLR May 14-21 2015. Have PP booked already and a tentative plan to (mostly) avoid Grad Nights. However...we are TOTAL noobs when it comes to plane trips and flying in general. Coming from Canada (Calgary closest airport) and so looks like our only options are Air Canada and Westjet. I've looked at flights to LAX and SNA and the best I can do so far is $2860 for the five of us (two adults, kids 14, 8 and 7). Is that about what I can expect? When's best to book? I've been checking flights and pricing pretty much daily....any advice would be appreciated!

We usually fly with Alaska Airlines into SNA because we like the arrival times better than WestJet's. But there is a stop over in Seattle. We used to fly into LAX but prefer SNA - smaller airport and less than 1/2 hr taxi ride to the parks! As for the pricing, this is almost the same price as what we are paying to go in July. We ususally book our flights as soon as we set our Disney dates. I always worry that if I wait too long, then the prices will increase. Once, I purchase the flights, I don't check prices anymore! LOL

Good Luck!

 

[YukonMommy]

I would think you could do better with Air Canada. I live in very Northern Canada and we have flown out of the Yukon to LAX (stop over in Vancouver) for about $480 per person return on Air Canada.

My advice is to check every few days, not every day (as that will just stress you out). You still have lots of time!

Happy Planning and have a magical time!

 

[SMD]

With all of the different routing options, it might be worth it to have a travel agent do the research. I've booked flights for co-workers with 2-4 week notice and would expect to pay $500-$550 per person. I think you will be hard pressed to find a combination of 2 flights (one to the nearest US airport, then another on a low cost carrier) for under $500. In my opinion it's not worth flying into another airport like Vegas and then driving 4 1/2-5 hours (could be more with traffic) just to save up to $1000 on airfare. You're losing a day of your vacation and adding the cost of the rental car, the added time, and the added step where something can go wrong.

 

[Paulakoala]

Interesting options. I will do some more digging and see. Tbh, driving to Montana, flying to Vegas and driving again to Anaheim sounds really appealing if it means we could save a big chunk of money. I've looked at Calgary-Vancouver-LAX but it didn't occur to me to check Salt Lake City. Thanks for the ideas!

 

[endy]

You could also check out flights from Great Falls. Same distance as to Kalispell. Try Air Allengient (I completely messed up that spelling.)
I'm also from Calgary and usually drive down, 25-27 hours, straight down the I15. I'm sure there are motels in Great Falls where you can park free when you stay overnight.
We flew to LAX last May from Calgary for a bit less than $350 return West Jet. SNA is a smaller airport and closer to Anahiem if you can find flights into there.

 

[CalgaryTroy]

Hey Paula

I think the price you got isn't too bad.

We've flown YYC to DL a few times, mostly LAX, but once to SNA ( which was awesome! ).

I strongly caution you against placing too much importance on saving money on flights, I do encourage the frequent checking of different websites to check fares, but the thought of driving for hours with children ( especially across the border ) just is not worth it to me. I won't even accept a connecting flight as I've been burned by missed connections which can put a huge downer on the start of a vacation. Don't get me- I don't have oodles of $$$ and consider myself a very frugal traveler, it's just our time has a value too. For example - a Disney hotel is way too much money for us considering places like Park Vue Inn & BWPPI are actually closer the DLH or PP.
So I'd book as soon as you can, after lots of browsing around, fly direct and into SNA if possible.

 

[IronHeaD]

Me and my family are Disney junkies from Calgary and are AP holders at Disneyland, so needless to say we fly down fairly often. We usually use flighthub.com which searches all the airlines for the best deal flying down as well as return. Our last visit in November cost us $317 per person from YYC.

Hope this helps and good luck!!!

 

[CalgaryTroy]

Excellent site IronHeaD! I like the " flexible dates" tab.

 

[IronHeaD]

Thanks CalgaryTroy....it's worked very well for me!! Don't forget to also check John Wayne Airport as your destination as sometimes that airport is cheaper than LAX.

 

[Paulakoala]

Thanks for the input, everyone. After doing some digging and pricing, looks like driving into Montana and flying won't be an option, at least for this trip. From both Kalispell and Great Falls, the flights only go on Thursday/Sunday in May and that won't work as we already have the hotel portion booked.

I'm gonna try that website IronHead posted as well. Thanks!

 

[Paulakoala]

Hm. I looked at flights on flighthub and then went to the airline's site directly. If I move our dates up by two weeks, we a)avoid Grad nights entirely, b)save $200 on the room reservation at PPH, and c) save OVER $1000 on flights! Downside is no Matterhorn as it's down for refurb....think we can live with that to save $1200.

 

[SweetAlex]

It's really expensive to fly from Canada. I suggest watching for sales and signing up for the airlines emails so you know right away when there is a deal. You have time, so that's always good.

We've always lived close to the border and flown out of state-side airports. We save a ton doing that. When we lived in Langley, we flew out of Seattle, and we just flew out of Spokane for our trip last week now that we live closer the the BC/AB border. It was a 3+ hour drive but we do a park n' sleep, which have great deals for a one night stay and parking for the week.