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

 

[Bill From PA]

In past years we tended to take a direct USAir flight (#675 if memory serves) out of Allentown Pa, (ABE) to MCO. The airport is closer to Wilkes-Barre than is PHL and the cost was competitive. This flight is no more. We can still drive to PHL and get a direct to MCO for $168, exactly as last year from PHL, but it's a 2.5 hr drive and $58 in parking fees. Instead, we're paying $232 each to hop from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (AVP) to PHL to MCO. Hope this helps.


Bill From PA

 

[Poly Pal]

From Hartford, Delta Express is still operating the same number of daily flights. For non-holiday / school vacation times, you can still get fares of about $198 RT. Sometimes you can even get a fare as low as $138 RT when they offer a special.

You aren't the Tim Barker originally from Eugene (mom: Mary & dad: Jim) are you?

Good luck with your article. I read the Sentinel everyday on-line.

 

[tink2dw]

What I don't like is from the NW of the USA it's really hard to get a good fare of any kind to Orlando. Say I hear that Delta has a $150. round trip to Orlando,But when I input the required data I Get back $495 or more times that by 3 and it's a huge amount of the Budget. Too much for us!! I need fares that are $200.or less to be able to make the trip!

Please don't say go to Disneyland. Disney World isso much more fun,I love having 4 parks to play in!!

Then plan less days?? It takes over 9 hours to get there,[if you can get a flight with small lay overs] and home that cuts 2 days off just for travel. On a 3 day plan that gives you 1 day in orlando on a 7day we get 5 days. When you are paying a fortune for airfare you want to get the most out of your vacation so to get 10 days in orlando we need 12 days.

By the time you figure,hotel,car,food,airfare,it's cost prohibative!!

 

[Tess]

You will be paying dearly for a direct flight from Detroit Metro and they do seem a bit more limited.

Over the last couple of years I've noticed a definite decline in the availability of direct flights to MCO from DTW. We used to fly NW because it offered a 7:00 a.m. flight from DTW to MCO that arrived at 9:30 a.m. or so. It was great! The prices were very competitive with other airlines and you were rewarded with a wonderful flight time.

Last year when we attempted to book this flight, we found the cost was through the roof--or at least in our opinion. We had been paying between $180 and $210 for this particular flight. When we checked the rates, we found this flight ranged from $260 to well over $300! Ouch!

Since the NW flight was pricier than we liked, we began searching for flights priced in the $200 or less range. We happened upon flights out of Toledo, Ohio on Delta that fit the bill. Not only is Toledo nearer to our home, but certainly much less congested than Detroit. Granted, the flight times were early (which we like) and not direct, but we weighed the cost factor versus losing an hour or two of WDW time and felt it gave us more bang for our buck!

NW seems to be continually escalating the cost of its fares despite the downturn in economics. Would we like to fly our preferred 7:00 a.m. direct flight? Of course, but why pay more just to arrive two hours earlier when we could realize a savings and therefore have more to enjoy while vacationing.

As an aside, we've found that Delta is much more accommodating than NW. While we've never experienced a bad situation with NW, we've just found the staff on Delta to be much less ill-tempered than those employees of NW. Further, Delta hasn't lost our luggage during our several trips with it. We can't make the same claim about NW even though the flight was direct!

We have been traveling to WDW, almost yearly and one year twice, since 1993. We've flown AA, Delta, NW, and Spirit. If you need anything further, feel free to contact us and I hope you receive the information you need to complete your story. BTW, we enjoy reading The Sentinel while vacationing in Orlando.

 

[KimandBrian]

I live in Kansas City and I have noticed that we don't have many direct flights to MCO. On our last trip we had tickets on a direct flight with Delta, but they ended up canceling that flight and we had to connect in Atlanta. Vanguard Airlines has started direct flights to Orlando so we might give them a shot on our next trip.

 

[Erin12303]

2/2000-Delta Express from Albany, NY to Orlando was NS flight and very reasonably priced.....then they discontinued direct non-stop service.
We switched to US Airways Metrojet for 2/01 and 5/01 and that was reasonably priced also....then Sept 11th caused Metrojet to stop from Albany.
Now the only non-stop option is Southwest airlines which does have some nice specials.

 

[josierac]

We are lucky enough to live near a major airport and we haven't had a problem with flights. We use Continental 99% of the time.

 

[esulerzy]

I have always flown US Air (MetroJet) from BWI to MCO - direct flights were around $160-$180. Since MetroJet stopped, it is harder to find direct flights from BWI. There are only a few airlines that currently offer this service - As a matter of fact, I just booked with Air Tran from BWI to MCO for $178 for my Oct. 2002 trip.

The one-stop flights now from BWI seem to be priced on the high end of my scale but not unreasonably so. However, one-stop flights take approximately 4 hours - my Air Tran flight is 2 hours -- a HUGH difference when you are going on vacation. Hope this helps!