low cost airlines in Syracuse NY

[MAGGIED]

Has anyone heard of any low cost airlines coming to Syracuse? - we just lost 2 more - our options are USAir, Contin, Northwest for flights to Orlando - and its hard to find a direct if at all...............

 

[akghutton]

I haven't heard of any coming to Syracuse, but if you drive down to Rochester, Airtran is very reasonably priced and has direct flights to Orlando. We've used them on our last two trips and have been very happy with their service. Good Luck!

 

[siobhan1997]

We always use Jetblue when we fly from Syracuse to Orlando. Good fares compared to the ones up her in Canada and the plane changeover at JFK is painless.

 

[Alexander]

We are flying Delta out of Syracuse in April. It was actually a better deal than JetBlue which has gotten very expensive out of Syracuse.

The key to booking flights that are reasonable out of Syracuse is you have to book EARLY. We booked our flights for April 7, '06 on May 23, '05. As far as I know there are no direct flights from SYR to MCO. TransMeridian was the only one, and they actually flew into Sanford not MCO.

Although we now lost Independence, their flights were not really that cheap, and they were not direct. You could fly to Washington for a cheap fair, but then the connecting flight to Orlando was pricey.

They are not going to find and keep any reasonable airlines until they settle the regional airport dispute with the two towns that the airport property sits on. It all boils down to money and paying the towns taxes. Destiny would have put Syracuse on the map, and probably helped the airport a ton, but Driscoll seems to have put an end to that.

We have flown Rochester and Buffalo many times because it is just that much cheaper. In fact we fly American out of Rochester for President's week. It was almost half of what we could find out of Syracuse.

 

[JudithM]

You might want to try AirTran out of Rochester or even Southwest out of Buffalo or Albany. It is ashame that flights in & out of Syracuse are so expensive compared to Albany, Buffalo & Rochester.

 

[suzannef]

does anyone know what the airport parking rate is at The Rochester airport?

tia
Suzanne

 

[DonnaL]

Maggied,

I sympathize with you......I live only a couple miles from a regional airport which is serviced only by USAirways and Delta with no direct service. Our last several trips we've been driving to Phila. to get SW direct flights......not to mention the MUCH lower cost. Our last trip in December was only $116.90 round trip. Can't beat that!! SW also has the WONDERFUL policy of giving credits for a ticket if the price goes down. We've got $240 in credit just waiting for our next trip in October. It's a 2 hour drive straight down 476
and a few miles on 95N for us, but, well worth it. We don't even take our own car and worry about parking for the week. We just get a rental the afternoon before we leave (from our local airport) and then drop it at PHL and do the reverse for the trip back. It's actually cheaper than parking for the week at PHL. So, it just might be worth your while to drive to Albany and catch SW from there.

You could also go to Buffalo.......I think it's about the same distance from Syracuse. Check whichever has the best times and prices......

 

[Alexander]

Binghamton and Ithaca even have better prices than Syracuse sometimes. If you go to Kayak and enter SYR as your departing airport, it will also search those airports for you and list the least expensive flights. Depending on how many tickets you are buying, it can be a substantial savings and worth the drive. It doesn't search ROC or BUF, but you can change your departing airport to ROC and it will.

It is amazing how much cheaper JetBlue is out of ROC than SYR. April spring break this year is a difference of $700 for a family of five!

If you are interested in Southwest , you have to go to their site directly. Kayak doesn't search them. It is easier and shorter to get to Buffalo than Albany from Syracuse, but sometimes Albany will have flights when Buffalo is sold out.

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

I have to admit to a cynical snort when I read the thread title. I loved TMA, but flew NWA out of Binghamton last year for less. Ithaca is close to us, but their rates are still higher than for Binghamton. Preferring to do things the hard way, I recently played around on the websites for the airlines I could find offering service from CNY to Orlando. Rochester came up with the best fares for almost every airline I tried. I hate the thought of driving all the way to Buffalo or Albany, just to spend more hours in the air - changing planes, too, of course. Heading down wouldn't be so bad because we're going to WDW! but coming home would be dreadful. Given the hassle of getting to an airport with reasonable fares (and even those aren't all that "reasonable" in my book), I've decided to drive down again this summer. Unless I find fares under $100, it's just not worth it. DD wants to eat dinner at Farnsworth House in Gettysburg again, anyway - just twist my arm there!

 

[Drcell01]

Syracuse...not the lowest most of the time!!!

We fly to Orlando 3 to 4 times a year and have found that (insert city name here) is less to fly from than Syracuse. We have traveled to Albany many times to use Southwest and to Rochester to fly Airtran, We are again traveling to Rochester President's Week to use Airtran as it would cost us almost 4x as much to fly out of Syracuse!

In defense of Syracuse, we were able to fly Delta over the Thanksgiving holiday for $138pp r/t with only 2 weeks notice..a rareity I agree!

My suggestion would be to be very patient and check web fares as often as possible! I have found that fares can change several times a day. I was able to find our Presidents week fare on a Tuesday morning for just $99 pp down out of ROC and I am still playing a waiting game for a lower fare to return as the current fare is about $138 pp to return. The airlines usually make price adjustments to fill seats around 30 days prior to departure.

 

[Letsbgoofy]

I have never seen the fares out of Binghamton cheaper than Syracuse! We only live about 10 minutes from the Binghamton airport, so I hate having to drive to Syracuse for a flight. We used our FF miles for our 8/06 trip, but the fares out of BGM are still only $244 for our dates. Syracuse is usually at least $50 cheaper.

Someone mentioned booking early and that seems to be the key. However, we did find last minute deals last August out of Syracuse, under $200.

Jet Blue has never had cheaper seats than Delta for our flights. I would love to try them, but they end up being over $300/person.

 

[Alexander]

Someone mentioned booking early and that seems to be the key. However, we did find last minute deals last August out of Syracuse, under $200.

Last August had some great deals! I found TransMeridian for $79/person roundtrip! We had just come home from WDW, so didn't book the flights and go again.

We always travel President's Week and the 2nd or 3rd week of April. This is when the school's are out and good deals only come if you book 300 days in advance. However, if you are traveling during non-peak times (when school is out, holidays, etc.) you can usually find something that is a decent fare.

The fares I have found out of BGM to be cheaper than SYR are always on Kayak. We are too far from BGM to make it worth the drive, but Kayak searches many nearby airports and that one seems to come up a lot. SYR to MCO in August can usually be found for under $200, so BGM would be about $50 more for that timeframe. I usually look during at Kayak during those busy holiday times.

 

[Letsbgoofy]

I have never heard of Kayak, I will have to check it out.

Tickets out of BGM last August were almost $400!! That's why we broke down and drove to Syracuse.

 

[deltachi8]

Yes, unfortunately Syracuse is usually much more expensive. They need a couple of things badly: the settlement of the tax disputes and competition.

Delta does have some decent fares from time to time, you just have to keep an eye out for them. In August 2004, we flew out of Syracuse for $121 RT on Delta to MCO.

Being in Buffalo, I can recommend Southwest here...non stop flights and if you watch the fares, many times you can get RT fares at $115. Also, there are hotels here that offer Park and Fly rates, where you can drive in the night before, stay the night and leave the care up to two weeks I believe.

Airtran out of Rochester is also recommended...my brother who lives in Syracuse will fly them often.

 

[welovedis]

Airtran is pretty good from here (ROC) also SWA out of BUF.

Parking info for ROC:
Airport Shuttle Lot (Yellow) is $6.00 per 24 hours, the Economy Shuttle Lot (Red) is $4.50 per 24 hours.

There used to another off-airport lot but I see that it is now closed.

If you chose to fly out of BUF, you have a few options :
Stay at a local hotel the night before you leave and use their Park & Fly option. Most nearby hotels let you leave your vehicle, usually up to 2 weeks, for no addt'l charge and will shuttle you back & forth to the terminal. The only downside is the vehicle is in an unsecured lot and if it snows alot you'll be shoveling it out & cleaning it off, etc.. A couple of places we have stayed are the Comfort Suites & the Homewood Suites both on Dick Road within 1 mile of the airport.

Another choice is to park on airport, but the off-airport choices are less expensive. We used Budget (like the rental car) Airport Valet and for a 9 day (but almost 10 days of parking time) we paid about $60. Plus our car was brought to the front & waiting for us. Great service if there is a snowstorm!