Seriously? THESE are the choices??

[kristenrice]

If this were a non-stop flight (which it used to be!), it would be 2.5 hours!

Although we are not departing until mid-October, I checked the last Tuesday that SW released and I wanted to cry. I can’t fly out of my home airport and get to Orlando before 4:30pm…and if I want to do that, I have to leave at 7:30am! I guess my only option at this point is to plan on leaving on Monday night and spending the night in a non-Disney resort. I have enough points on SWA to fly for free so I would have to weigh that agains the cost of an additional hotel night. Otherwise, I will fly on Delta to get to Orlando, but even those flights are running $250-$300ish before seats/bags. I have to hope that there are some better options before the next release date.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

We ran into this issue on our last trip. Our only return flight option was at 7am, which meant getting picked up by mears at like 3am with two little kids. Then they moved that time even earlier, to 6am-ish, at which point we moved our flight to the next morning and stayed overnight the last night at the Hyatt in MCO. It worked out, but we wound up booking our upcoming flights out of a different airport this time. They were slightly more expensive but the times were much more convenient.

 

[gmi3804]

I really dislike SWA’s timetable at O’Hare, so I rarely fly them. No way I’m going all the way to Midway (more options there) from the north ‘burbs.

 

[jujubiee4]

I am finding this issue on a lot of airlines. Routes have been cut or have ridiculous layovers
or inconvenient times. Seems the more the airlines "recover" the worst the prices and times.

 

[EACarlson]

View attachment 738810
If this were a non-stop flight (which it used to be!), it would be 2.5 hours!

Although we are not departing until mid-October, I checked the last Tuesday that SW released and I wanted to cry. I can’t fly out of my home airport and get to Orlando before 4:30pm…and if I want to do that, I have to leave at 7:30am! I guess my only option at this point is to plan on leaving on Monday night and spending the night in a non-Disney resort. I have enough points on SWA to fly for free so I would have to weigh that agains the cost of an additional hotel night. Otherwise, I will fly on Delta to get to Orlando, but even those flights are running $250-$300ish before seats/bags. I have to hope that there are some better options before the next release date.

Would you rather have the issues that have plagued SW in the last 6 months? Not enough traffic from GRR to make P2P flying worthwhile, doesn't surprise me. People in PHL complain about the same thing having a SW "hub" about the same distance away at BWI. My personal choice would be to save a lot of points and fly out of MDW or stay at the Hyatt Place across 528 from MCO for 5,000 points when landing later.

I really dislike SWA’s timetable at O’Hare, so I rarely fly them. No way I’m going all the way to Midway (more options there) from the north ‘burbs.

You may be able to find what you're looking for at MKE if you're in the north burbs. I fly MKE-MCO at least once and usually twice a year.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

Looks like Allegiant usually has 1 or 2 nonstops. They don't seem to be booking that far out yet but something to consider.

Do you have any SW (or other airline) points you can use to book something now....and cancel in the future if a better option comes available? Most airlines still have the no cost cancellation policy to cancel/reinstate miles.

 

[EACarlson]

OP stated they were going to fly on points and would fly Delta if paying cash. Looking at flights available from GRR, SW has given up and given it over to Delta.

 

[WEDcryoHEAD]

That seems insane.

 

[sam_gordon]

Is getting to Detroit an option? Looks like Delta has multiple Non-stops (I looked at October 10). And there are a LOT of flights, that even with connections arrive in the morning.

If need be, do Detroit hotels offer a "park and stay" option? So get a hotel for Monday night that has a shuttle to the airport and leave your car at the hotel. You can get an early flight and not have to pay for parking at the airport.

 

[EACarlson]

Is getting to Detroit an option? Looks like Delta has multiple Non-stops (I looked at October 10). And there are a LOT of flights, that even with connections arrive in the morning.

If need be, do Detroit hotels offer a "park and stay" option? So get a hotel for Monday night that has a shuttle to the airport and leave your car at the hotel. You can get an early flight and not have to pay for parking at the airport.

DTW is only a 2 hour drive from GRR, if you wanted to I'm sure they have hotels with Park and fly options. I've done it at ORD, MKE and MSP with both Hilton and Hyatt Properties. A quick check on parksleepfly.com shows options for $90-175 for a one nights stay and parking for a week.

 

[gmi3804]

You may be able to find what you're looking for at MKE if you're in the north burbs. I fly MKE-MCO at least once and usually twice a year.

I don’t like the times from/to MKE.

 

[sam_gordon]

DTW is only a 2 hour drive from GRR, if you wanted to I'm sure they have hotels with Park and fly options. I've done it at ORD, MKE and MSP with both Hilton and Hyatt Properties. A quick check on parksleepfly.com shows options for $90-175 for a one nights stay and parking for a week.

Economy parking at GRR is $11/day, so $77 for a week. Unless OP was getting dropped off/picked up at the airport, it could be beneficial to use a parksleepfly option, drive to Detroit Monday night and shuttle to the airport Tuesday morning. I'd do some serious consideration of it.

 

[kristenrice]

Is getting to Detroit an option? Looks like Delta has multiple Non-stops (I looked at October 10). And there are a LOT of flights, that even with connections arrive in the morning.

If need be, do Detroit hotels offer a "park and stay" option? So get a hotel for Monday night that has a shuttle to the airport and leave your car at the hotel. You can get an early flight and not have to pay for parking at the airport.

DTW is only a 2 hour drive from GRR, if you wanted to I'm sure they have hotels with Park and fly options. I've done it at ORD, MKE and MSP with both Hilton and Hyatt Properties. A quick check on parksleepfly.com shows options for $90-175 for a one nights stay and parking for a week.

Yup! DTW is definitely on my list of possibilities. A one-way car rental is about $50, I have enough Marriott points for the SpringHill Suites (right by the airport...stayed before...perfectly doable), and even the listed options for SW out of DTW are better than the options out of GRR. My birthday is the 16th so the idea of driving over to Detroit after having a nice birthday dinner is actually a bit of an appealing way to start my vacation.

It's such a toss up at this point (and still hypothetical since our DVC stay is Oct 17-24) because I can fly on SW for free (points) but if I have to pay for an extra night in a hotel, that negates the "free" part of it. On the other hand, I could pay to fly on Delta, so it's going to boil down to which option is going to be more convenient and/or more cost-effective. I am honestly not too concerned about flying SW on my return leg. If something goes awry at that point, at least my vacation is over and I can deal with it. I just do not want something going wrong at the beginning of the trip. That's why I am OK with paying for the one-way ticket TO Orlando. I really do not want to pay OOP for a round-trip when I'm looking at around $400+ for something that could be done on points.

 

[kristenrice]

Economy parking at GRR is $11/day, so $77 for a week. Unless OP was getting dropped off/picked up at the airport, it could be beneficial to use a parksleepfly option, drive to Detroit Monday night and shuttle to the airport Tuesday morning. I'd do some serious consideration of it.

I live 10 minutes from the airport...so, yes, I would be getting dropped off/picked up. I love watching the planes fly right over our house . That's actually why I will do a one-way rental car from the airport. I will schedule a morning pick up and then I have all afternoon to use it for whatever. Then, I can just drive it to Detroit and drop it off at the airport the next morning when we arrive for our flight. When we fly home to GR, DH picks me up at the airport.

 

[sam_gordon]

Yup! DTW is definitely on my list of possibilities. A one-way car rental is about $50, I have enough Marriott points for the SpringHill Suites (right by the airport...stayed before...perfectly doable), and even the listed options for SW out of DTW are better than the options out of GRR. My birthday is the 16th so the idea of driving over to Detroit after having a nice birthday dinner is actually a bit of an appealing way to start my vacation.

It's such a toss up at this point (and still hypothetical since our DVC stay is Oct 17-24) because I can fly on SW for free (points) but if I have to pay for an extra night in a hotel, that negates the "free" part of it. On the other hand, I could pay to fly on Delta, so it's going to boil down to which option is going to be more convenient and/or more cost-effective. I am honestly not too concerned about flying SW on my return leg. If something goes awry at that point, at least my vacation is over and I can deal with it. I just do not want something going wrong at the beginning of the trip. That's why I am OK with paying for the one-way ticket TO Orlando. I really do not want to pay OOP for a round-trip when I'm looking at around $400+ for something that could be done on points.

If you're renting a car, maybe go DTW> MCO and then MCO>GRR on the return?

Time is money, so getting an early flight out of DTW and you can be at the parks by 1p-2p vs not landing until 430p at the latest (assume at least 90min - 2 hours to get to the parks), it may make paying for the hotel and one way flight worth it.

 

[StarSeven7]

Have you checked Allegiant or Frontier? I'm originally from GR and my family all lives there still and they flew both Allegiant and Frontier nonstop from GR to Orlando last week. Allegiant flies into Sanford from GR. Did Southwest ever fly from GR? I don't remember that ever being an option! We took them once from Flint back in 2014 I think but I don't think they even fly from there anymore. I always fly from Detroit since that's closer to where I live now. We just stayed overnight and flew out the next morning 2 weeks ago! We were still able to use Airlines Parking which is our favorite parking at DTW and the hotel only cost us a bit more than the parking for 9 days would have!

Allegiant also flies from Flint which is a bit closer than Detroit, especially since the airport is on the west side of the city!

 

[kristenrice]

If you're renting a car, maybe go DTW> MCO and then MCO>GRR on the return?

Time is money, so getting an early flight out of DTW and you can be at the parks by 1p-2p vs not landing until 430p at the latest (assume at least 90min - 2 hours to get to the parks), it may make paying for the hotel and one way flight worth it.

^^THIS is one of the top options right now
I booked the one-way rental car (pay at pick up) for around $60 and I booked a suite at the SpringHill Suites on points which can be returned to my account if I cancel.

We are keeping our eye on a non-stop flight on Delta which is currently around $220 and would get us to Orlando by 11:30am. My friend has a $150 travel voucher to use up with Delta and she also has about 20K SW points so she is very agreeable to flying Delta to MCO and SWA to GRR. For me, it will depend on what the schedule looks like with SW.

 

[kristenrice]

Tomorrow is the day! I have to work all day (0500-1700) but I am on the edge of my seat! I just do not know what to do at this point.

My dad despises SW's boarding procedure and he would much rather fly Delta. My friend has the $150 voucher with Delta and enough SW points for a one-way ticket so she will probably do one way on each anyways. I just cannot decide if I want to fly on points on SW or pay $350+ out-of-pocket on Delta (and probably get a non-stop flight). Right now, we are 99% sure that we are going to drive to Detroit on Monday night and fly out on Tuesday morning. Delta from GRR is going to connect through DTW anyways (and probably be more expensive) and SWA will be a 6+ hour itinerary from GRR so I am not holding my breath for great choices from GRR.

 

[R&RsMom]

I can confirm there are multiple sleep-park-fly options just north of DTW. We have done this several times. Pretty sure some are Marriott, but don’t know if you can use points with the parking option. I would just stay away from the cheapest ones; we did that once and not again.

 

[kristenrice]

I'm shocked!

The stars aligned....

1) The fares are LESS than $200 each way
2) The times are actually reasonable! We can arrive in Orlando before 2pm!
3) We can fly out of GRR!!
4) We had a few options for flights home, but chose to depart around 6pm with a 2 hour layover (*last year, we had a 4-hour layover). There was one option to stay until 7 pm, but that only had a 50-minute layover and that cuts it just a bit to close for my comfort.

I paid on points and still have almost 10K left in my account. My dad bought WGA fares with EBCI and paid just a bit over $400 total. My friend will be booking hers later today, and she is going to take SWA both ways since she has enough points to book one of her legs on points. Even if she opted to use her $150 voucher with Delta to take the other leg on Delta, she'd be paying MORE than by flying with SW. The flights on Delta in/out of GR that line up with the SW times are over $400 one way!