help from fellow Hoosiers..

[DISNEYFOURME]

Thought I would turn to my ever trusty friends here for some help.. We live in NW Indiana and will be flying to Orlando in February. We usually fly there about twice a year. For some reason these flights are exceptionally high. It started us thinking of trying some of the other airports like Indy or South Bend. Wondering if anyone has had experience with either and what other airlines fly out of them. Typically we fly Southwest out of Midway.. occasionally Airtran. What is strange is we could have flown cheaper near the holiday .. who would of thought Valentine's Day was a big travel time?!

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

I'm not a Hoosier, but I travel to the Indianapolis/Bloomington area on business a few times a year. The Indianapolis airport is a nice facility, and I can't remember ever having an issue with lines at either check-in or security there. LOL, my only problem is that my GPS maps are out of date and my unit always gets lost near the airport because of some changes to the highways since my maps were published.

Southwest flies from there, and even has a daily non-stop to Orlando at mid-day. Looks like your Valentines day week has flights in the $140 range.

 

[delmar411]

We fly out of Indy. It's a nice small clean airport and super easy to navigate. There is also economy parking very close to the terminal with shuttles to the terminal itself. (I believe economy parking is $9/day)

Southwest, United, Airtran , Delta all fly out of there. Several others as well.

 

[Kidanifan08]

We live in the Indy area and fly out of IND exclusively. It is a really easy airport to get through. SW and Airtran are the only carriers with direct flights to MCO, and SW is starting to cut back on those. We like SW due to the lack of baggage fees, but Airtran often has better times for us and more daily flights.

There is a parking facility west of the airport called park, ride and fly and they cost about the same as the economy lot at the airport. They drop you off at the terminal and pick you up when you return. We are parking there on Saturday for our Airtran flight to MCO!

 

[mgroshans]

We live in South Bend. Flying out of here will be very expensive! Although, Allegiant flies out of here, but to Sanford. We have flown Air Tran out of Indy, pretty cheap.

 

[montrealdisneylovers]

We live in South Bend. Flying out of here will be very expensive! Although, Allegiant flies out of here, but to Sanford. We have flown Air Tran out of Indy, pretty cheap.

How is Allegiant as an airline? How is Sanford Airport? Do you have a good shuttle to Disney?

 

[amym2]

We live near the Indy airport and typically fly Airtran to Orlando. I believe they have 3 non-stop daily flights each way. Southwest also has a couple, but we usually prefer Airtran's times.

Ditto on the suggestion for Park, Ride & Fly. We've used them for years and have always been happy. You drive in, they tell you where to park, and the shuttle picks you up immediately. It's so much better than waiting for a bus at the economy lot, especially when you are leaving cold Indy weather and don't want to take heavy coats. When you return, you call for pick-up (or often don't have to) and they take you right to your car. Easy! Check to see if you can find coupons, I think there are usually some in the Entertainment Book.

 

[DISNEYFOURME]

Thanks for all the input..guess I will play the waiting game a little longer. Cheapest we could find was $189 one way per person (there are 4 of us) and that goes back and forth to $200+ out of Chicago. i wasn't sure about the smaller airlines (like Allegience Air) out of the Indiana airports. I would have better options, as far as price, if I didn't have to worry about taking my kids out of school for more days. Wondering how close people wait to their trip to pull the plug on their flight? i usually book right away. Drives me nuts that so many different paid prices are all sitting in the same flight!

 

[DISNEYFOURME]

Ditto on the suggestion for Park, Ride & Fly. We've used them for years and have always been happy. You drive in, they tell you where to park, and the shuttle picks you up immediately. It's so much better than waiting for a bus at the economy lot, especially when you are leaving cold Indy weather and don't want to take heavy coats. When you return, you call for pick-up (or often don't have to) and they take you right to your car. Easy! Check to see if you can find coupons, I think there are usually some in the Entertainment Book.

thanks for replying! We love Park, Ride and Fly for our flights out of Chicago! Glad to know they also have them in Indy! Will be sure to remember that!

 

[delmar411]

We live near the Indy airport and typically fly Airtran to Orlando. I believe they have 3 non-stop daily flights each way. Southwest also has a couple, but we usually prefer Airtran's times.

Ditto on the suggestion for Park, Ride & Fly. We've used them for years and have always been happy. You drive in, they tell you where to park, and the shuttle picks you up immediately. It's so much better than waiting for a bus at the economy lot, especially when you are leaving cold Indy weather and don't want to take heavy coats. When you return, you call for pick-up (or often don't have to) and they take you right to your car. Easy! Check to see if you can find coupons, I think there are usually some in the Entertainment Book.

I've never had trouble at the airport lot. We pull in, park right there at the first bus stop, it's got a heater in it. The shuttle comes every couple mins and when you come back that's the first drop off. We're normally out of the lot before the shuttle is.

My main concern is the timeframe to get to the airport after going to an offsite lot to get the car because I'd have to drop the kids/DH at the airport then go park the car and then go get the car and then come back to the airport to get the family and luggage. Is that not as much of a hassle as I've envisioning it to be?

 

[Kidanifan08]

Wondering how close people wait to their trip to pull the plug on their flight? i usually book right away. Drives me nuts that so many different paid prices are all sitting in the same flight!

The price variability of airline tickets drives me crazy too! I have found that the prices seem to be the best when they are first released. On occasion, the go down, but more often they seem to go up. We usually book as soon as we can. I just purchased our flights for our July 2013 trip over Thanksgiving, as the prices were less than $300 per person, which is good for Indy. If the price does go down, I call Airtran or SW and they will give me a credit to use within 1 year of the original booking date.

I've never had trouble at the airport lot. We pull in, park right there at the first bus stop, it's got a heater in it. The shuttle comes every couple mins and when you come back that's the first drop off. We're normally out of the lot before the shuttle is.

My main concern is the timeframe to get to the airport after going to an offsite lot to get the car because I'd have to drop the kids/DH at the airport then go park the car and then go get the car and then come back to the airport to get the family and luggage. Is that not as much of a hassle as I've envisioning it to be?

I usually park near the first stop, as well. That works great because there is usually a seat on the shuttle at that stop. We have been using Park, Ride and Fly during our winter trips. You can just drive to their lot with the whole family and luggage and they will take everyone and everything to the terminal. There is no need to drop people or luggage off first. The last time we used their service was when there was a freezing winter storm while we were at WDW. We used their concierge service that time. With the concierge service at Park, Ride and Fly, they will clean off the vehicle and warm it up before you get to the lot. If I had parked in the open lot at IND, I probably would never have gotten my car open, due to the ice. That was definitely a lifesaver! The concierge level pricing is close to the Economy pricing at the airport.

 

[MM1102]

We've flown Allegiant from Fort Wayne a couple times, and you can also fly them from South Bend and Gary. I think they are fine and Sanford is an easy airport compared to Orlando, but you need to consider: they don't fly every day, so you have to go when they are going; bag fees and other extras can add up; and there is no Magical Express to Sanford so you have to rent a car or pay for a shuttle. We are in north central Indiana and usually fly Southwest from Indianapolis or Midway, depending on times and fares. We are flying AirTran from IND next April.

 

[dvcbrad]

I'm a native NW Hoosier (Hammond) and my mother still lives in Crown Point, so I'm familiar with the area, but am a northern suburbanite now, but so here's another thought ... Milwaukee. It's a bit further, and probably the same driving distance as Indy, but I've found some good fares from there at times and it's also a nice, smaller airport with accessible parking and easy to get through. I was using AirTran a lot, but haven't done that since the merger with SW, so don't know about fares now. Just another option to consider.

 

[DISNEYFOURME]

but so here's another thought ... Milwaukee. Just another option to consider.

We did think about Milwaukee as well. We are huge Packer fans so getting them to leave Wiaconsin may be hard..lol. My biggest fear is that February weather is still scarey so driving farther at that time of the year could suck.

Fortunately today SW dropped the price of our flight to MCO to $120!!! I quickly booked our flights! However we haven't gotten that lucky with a return flight..we may have to STAY in Disney!!