Ottawa to Orlando flights

[uandmfan]

Hi

We are starting to plan for next winter and I waited too late to see what seat sale prices are from Ottawa. Does anyone know?

Alternatively, any suggestions on how to save on airfare by flying out of a different airport? We'd like to stay within about a 2 hour drive. So far, it doesn't seem like flying out of the US is worth it as we need a Saturday to Saturday flight.....

thanks!

 

[bankr63]

Next winter flights would not yet be announced by most airlines. In Canada it is generally at 10 months, most US airlines release their schedules and start booking even closer to the date. AC had a seat sale today that was for flights through mid-June starting at $210 (1W).

Only alternative airport for Ottawa right now at 2 hours is Montreal. Come next winter Ogdensburg is set to start direct flights to Sanford (North Orlando) and is only an hour's drive. Best alternative airports for Ottawa at more than 2 hours would be Plattsburg or Syracuse (about 3 hours), Toronto or Rochester (about 4 hours), Buffalo (6 hours).

 

[uandmfan]

Thank you! I'll watch for seat sales. I know the flights aren't released yet but wasn't sure of what prices to watch for.

We will likely have to consider air transat out of Montreal too.

I didn't know about Ogdensburg. Thanks a lot for that information. Very interesting!

Thanks!

 

[ginkybiloba]

Our last trip to Orlando was January 2013, and we paid around $1400 for 4 tickets (direct flights YOW - MCO). That was with WestJet. In January 2011, we paid around $1200 with Westjet for direct flights. This year, we are using Airmiles and only had to pay the taxes ($600 for all 4 tickets). However, I was only able to get a direct flight on the way down; coming back we stop in Montreal. There isn't much choice when you use Airmiles so you have to take what you can get. In terms of timing, I found the best seat sales were in mid-November (for travel in January).

Good luck!

 

[dis_guy]

As far as when flights become available, we usually fly on United out of YEG and right now they have the schedule for early December on their website. Delta and American are similar, IIRC. Christmas will be up for booking in a few weeks. I think AC and WJ are pretty much the same, too. Others like Southwest and JB will be much later.

I'll start checking in February for our early January 2017 trip. Oh, and if you see a decent fare, best grab it. Lately the prices usually go up and very seldom go down after being released, at least for the "legacy" airlines.

 

[badiggio]

Winter is tricky.We usually fly with united or other American airline,from Ottawa with 1 connection,for about 350 return Canadian.Once we flew from syracuse at 217 return pp,so that was worth the drive for the 9 of us.I've never seen a flight to Orlando worth the drive to Toronto or Montreal that you couldn't connect to from Ottawa,that was cheaper and if so,not by much.This time,we flew AC direct from Ottawa for 500 pp return at Christmas time and it was worth it.We flew back on the 29th,the day of the storm ,and was happy we weren't stuck at the airport like so many others because their connection was cancelled and if not ,the treacherous drive back to Ottawa.

 

[ottawamom]

Air Canada and WestJet both have direct flights to Orlando starting in late October ending at the end of April. I flew December 2014 (early) and we had a direct flight on a Sunday evening and a direct flight home on Friday. We paid about $480cdn each. I've been checking early pricing for that same time period for Nov, Dec 2016 and it has varied between $500-600. They will have seat sales in Sept, Oct to fill those planes (at least they have in the past). Two years ago I booked way too early and missed out on saving $100 per ticket. It's a balancing act between availability and the real good deal. West Jet hasn't opened up their flights yet for early December so it will be a while longer before I can consider what to do for this year's trip.

 

[Kogo Shuko]

It all depends on the time of year, too.

If you're planning on going in January or February, the cheapest flights we could find this year (without waiting for a sale) was about $380CAD winter, which wasn't that much of a hike from last year, considering how crappy our dollar is. Mind you, that $380 flight is United. That's for 4 weeks from now, mind you. Who knows what will happen with our dollar and the price of things come next winter. =/

 

[uandmfan]

Thanks for all the information! I'd be happy with something in the $380 range return for sure, up to about $500. If we can keep it to $2,000 or less for all four of us then it's not really worth driving to Montreal and flying out of Ottawa is so much easier. Unless we find a good seat sale with one of the US airlines out of Syracuse or something that is. Fingers crossed. At least I know what to aim for now!

Yes, the dollar is killing us for sure

 

[bankr63]

Although with oil trading at about 1/3 of its peak price, you would think that flight prices would be falling regardless...