reporter looking for a tourist

[tbarker13]

Hello.

Please forgive my intrusion onto your boards. I am a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel.
I am writing a story about the airline cuts that have eliminated quite a few direct flights between Orlando and places like Baltimore, Kansas City, Indianoplis, Chicago, New York, Columbus, Ohio, and Boston. Many of these losses have come from severe cuts in the discout routes offered by Delta Express and US Air's Metrojet.
I am looking for a repeat Orlando visitor who may have noticed the changes. I'm curious to see whether it has been easier or harder to find good deals and direct flights to Orlando.
If you have any thoughts on this, please call me or email me at the addresses below.

Regards,
Tim Barker
407-420-5022
800-347-6868 x5022
tbarker@orlandosentinel.com

 

[MCazer]

Tim,

I live on Long Island, have racked up quite a few frequent flyers miles on Delta with an American Express Card, as well as my husband on his. We always fly Delta (or used to anyway). Last year on Nov 1st I believe, they got rid of their direct flights to Orlando from McArthur. Well I was livid, I don't think going from a 2 1/2 hour direct flight to a 5 -6 hours trip. Getting on and off a plane with car seats and strollers in Atlanta and then having to run for another flight with 2 small children is fun.

Want to know what I did? I called Delta and got a refund, then I took my money, called Southwest and saved myself over $250 by switching. You want to know how nice it was to get front row seating on Southwest because I have young children? How nice it was to get on the plane first and exit the plane first? It was wonderful. I have flown 3 more times since last October, and yes they were both on Southwest. What will I do with my frequent flyer miles you ask? Well I will use them soon, and yes I will have to transfer in Atlanta one way, and in Cincinatti the other way, but they will be free, and on my next trip, time is not of the essence.

I was and still am, VERY MAD at Delta. The direct flight was always packed when we took it. I think they scre..ed themselves with some of their loyal customers. They are losing ground to Southwest and Jet Blue out here in New York, and they would be wise to add at least one direct flight each way from MacArthur. I don't know of any parent on their way to Disney that wants to change planes with kids in tow.

Well that's my 2 cents worth.

 

[Humpbacks1962]

Please post somewhere in your report that many of us feel insulted by Disney's claims that most guests were not taking advantage of ee mornings and preferred characters in the resorts! I am sure they did not ask anyone who took advantage of it, but merely the ones that never did.

I visited WDW last year, a month before the attacks and as each previous time, I enjoyed ee mornings. But this year I have added some days to our vacation to spend at Universal, to enjoy the front of the line access priviledges. We will still stay at WDW later on, onsite, and already feel disappointed in not being offered special perks as a resort guest.

I had no trouble finding direct flights, but I booked my August flight very early (in January). I found good deals at Universal's Hard Rock Hotel using the Entertainment book rate, but am very disappointed in Disney's annual pass rates and am still waiting to see if a better offer comes along before then.

Wanda

 

[TandyR]

I couldn't find any resonable flights direct from Boston to Orlando. In order to have our airfare withint our budget we have to fly through Memphis, TN to go to Orlando and though Minneapolis, MN coming back home. It seems crazy that I have to go all the way over to Minneapolis, MN in order just to go up the east coast in order to get tickets within my budget. By the way my budget was $1000 for two adult and two children to get from Portland, Maine to Orlando...I couldn't make that budget at all going out of Portland so we decided to take the bus to Logan $125 for the 4 of us and fly out of Logan for $900 so we still went over our budget by $25, we are taking the bus to get to make it cheaper and we still have to take these crazy connecting flights.

So you can see I am a bit ticked about the whole thing, but at least I am going to be at Disney for a week and enjoying the sun rather then in Maine during the mud season.

 

[patsal]

The "connecting flights" out of Buffalo are usually in NY and PA, we have found a severe shortage of available flights and because there are so few flights there is a deep increase in cost. We have always flown out of Buffalo and never paid more than 189.00 per person rt. This year we are paying well over $250 per person, getting there much later (since all the am flights were sold out before December). We are leaving on June 29th and returning July 13th. Because of our difficulty finding airfare and availability for our vacation dates and flilghts that don't make us lose two days of our vacation, we are going to drive to Orlando for Easter 2003. The cost will be minimal, there will be no need to use a rental car company and I won't have to worry aboout losing the time on my vacaation because of someone elses schedule. At least the kids will get to see things they never have before by driving! If I'm going to lose the two days anyway I may as well drive.

 

[MrsPotts]

I purchased 8 tickets at Thanksgiving for $108 each round trip for a trip in March. But these were to Tampa and then we drove over. We were staying off site anyway so were planning on renting cars already. It was really a great bargain at the time. It was on AA and we had a plane change in St. Louis.

Now my husband and I are going back in July without the kids!! This time we are flying on Southwest and got a non-stop flight directly to Orlando. We took advantage fo the "Friends Fly Free" offer SW is promoting right now. It came up to $264 total round trip for the two of us. Not bad, considering there is no plane change in St. Louis.

There are a few deals to be had but you have to really research to find them. I know when I found the first tickets and bought I was pleased. The next day I went back and the tickets were over $200 each for the same flight! It's all a matter of research and timing!

 

[chris1gill]

I just wanted to comment on the Boston market. We have definitely noticed the reduction of direct flights on all carriers (especially Delta) out of Boston. Right now I'm watching fares from Portland, ME to Hartford, CT, over to Albany NY, right now for our November trip (hoping to plan a quick trip sometime between now and then), but the tickets are big money. I'm waiting for Southwest to release their dates, because I know when they do, every other carrier will come down *some*, but nowhere near what we've paid in the past prior to September... Southwest IMHO has the best service, best prices and best schedules... We flew Delta out of Boston last Labor Day weekend to go to Orlando because of the price, but the service was really poor.... We'll stay away from Delta in the future...

 

[Emme]

We always fly Continental and our last trip at the end of Aug. right before 9/11 we paid 180 round trip out of Newark nonstop to Orlando. Now the prices are sooo inflated we are driving in both June and Aug to Disney from New York.

It's crazy how they say that the airlines are loosing money, tell them to lower their flights and maybe the average person can fly again (though do I really want to??)

~Emmy

 

[eller]

We tipically fly Southwest and DH earns rewards throughout the year. We fly to Orlando as often as we can (3 times last year).

The best we can do is go through Kansas City. It's not a bad flight, one stop no plane change and with young children (as you've heard) that's a God send!

We find the best times for flights to and from Orlando is to fly from Portland OR. Go figure! We get into Orlando earlier and can leave later in the day. It still flys through MCI with no plane change.

We flew Delta once. Never again!

We love Disney -- getting there isn't always the easiest!

Lori

5/1997 Off site, 2/2000 Off site, 2/2001 Poly, 10/2001 POFQ, AKL & Magic, 1/2002 ASMo & AKL, 12/2002 CSR & CR

 

[Mrs. Right]

When I bought our tix a couple of months ago I noticed a lack of direct flights. Seems like everything had a connection in Pittsburgh, Atlanta or Charlotte (we're coming from DC). Course last time I flew to WDW it was with Value Jet :.(

 

[sweetheart2576]

We also fly out of buffalo. We are from Niagara Falls. I just got tickets for 2 adult 2 kids for a total of $476. Going down we stop at BWI and on the way home it is a direct flight.

 

[patsal]

Wow, that is a great deal. Right now we are "stuck" with the non-refundables we have. We are planning on driving for our next trip at Easter 2003. If we can find a great rate in the meantime then we will take it, but the plan is to drive.

 

[Feralpeg]

We used to be able to catch a 7am direct flight from Kansas City to Orlando that got us into Orlando by about 10:45. It was great. This gave us time to get to the hotel, check in and still have a great day. That flight is gone and I could find no other direct flights to Orlando or returning to KC on any airline. We are now booked for December on TWA. We have stops in St. Louis both ways. The flight leaves KC about the same time as the old Delta flight, but does not arrive in Orlando until 1:30. Bummer! I hate changing planes and sitting around in airports. I know that the airlines cut back after September 11th, but I was really hoping that they would go back to the way things were when business began picking up. The old Delta direct flight was always full. It was very popular. Thanks for asking!

 

[Ilovedisney]

My husband and I live on Long Island also, and ALWAYS flew Delta
NonStop from Islip to Orlando. Their flight times were great,
and even though you paid a little more than Southwest, it was worth
it to have a seat assignment. Delta's times were a little better
suited to our needs also. We don't have any small children but we
do fly to Orlando at least 5 or 6 times a year as we are DVC members.

We now go to JFK to fly JetBlue. I hate the cattle call for seating
on Southwest. If they only gave seat assignments I would be happy
with them. No complaints other than that. But I fly Jet Blue and
will travel into the city to do so, because their prices are right,
they fly direct, and they give seating assignments.

Delta has lost my patronage as far as my husband and I are concerned.
I think they made a poor choice on this issue.

 

[sharoncity]

We are traveling from Hartford CT on Delta. There were only 2 direct flights down and 2 direct flights back. We are traveling with 2 small children, so connecting flights were not an option. Our flight is $245 round trip. If I flew out of NY - LGA or JFK - I could have saved $75 per person. But we didn't want to deal with the hassles of the NYC airports, so chose BDL in Hartford. I happened to check yesterday and both of our flights have only one remaining seat available. It is going to be packed. Delta needs to reevaluate its business here in the northeast. The demand seems to exist, but they don't seem to be responding to it. By the way, I also looked into Southwest from Hartford, but there were no direct flights for my days (which are not flexible.) I booked the flights in mid January for Apr 25 - May 5.