Southwest fare ? MCO or TPA home

[riu girl]

We are planning on flying BUF-MCO, spend a week in WDW then a week at a beach south of Tampa. We are considering flying home from Tampa instead of Orlando.

Does anyone have any idea whether it is cheaper to fly home from MCO or TPA? Are Southwest tickets cheaper is you book a round trip vs. 2 one way tickets (BUF-MCO, TPA-BUF).
I checked some dates on southwest to compare flying home from TPA vs. MCO and the prices seem about the same. But I will be looking at flying home on Dec 31 so the prices might be higher then dates I am able to check now on their web site.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
Suzy V.

 

[mommic32]

Hi... I just got off the phone with SWA to check on the same thing but we are traveling in May, and this is what I got out of our discussion" She quoted me a price from Pittsburgh to Orlando and then depart from Tampa to Pittsburgh at $220.60/person . If I were to fly directly from Pittsburgh to Orlando and have the same round trip home it is at a cost of $188.60/person so for a difference of $128.00 for the 4 of us.. My only question is how far is Tampa to Orlando is it even woth the drive? I will post that and see if anyone knows......

 

[ducklite]

It's about a 90 minute drive from TPA to MCO.

Anne

 

[mommic32]

Thank You..... I just posted a question asking that same thing!

 

[riu girl]

For us, we will be south of Tampa (I'm not sure how far, exactly). We will be staying in Siesta Key for a week after Disney. I think I read somewhere that it is about 60 miles south of TPA? So if the difference is only $128, I would fly out of Tampa. We will also be flying home Dec 31 and would like to arrive in BUF early (we then have a 3.5 drive from the airport to get home). SO just to make things easier for us, I would fly home from Tampa.

But in your case, you have to decide : a 90 minute drive to save $128? Is it worth it to you? If you don't have much of a drive from your home airport it might be. Let me know what you decide.

Suzy V.

 

[CRCrazy]

Just an FYI - you will almost always pay more on Southwest if you call - they save their lowest rates for the Internet only.

The lowest rate for each flight will be either the Internet Only Rate, or the Promotional Rate - both of these are one way rates, so you will not pay more to fly home from a different airport, unlike most regular airlines.

I don't know about Buffalo - but from Manchester, the fares are usually pretty similar to Tampa or Orlando, unless they are the Featured Destination that week. In fact, sometimes the lower fares are sold out for Orlando, but still available to/from Tampa!

So - If you are definitely using Southwest - I think you are safe in assuming that you won't pay more even in December to fly home from Tampa.

Thanks Southwest!

 

[mommic32]

Just wanted to update you all..... I just booked on Southwest for all 4 of us going from Pittsburgh to Orlando round trip for $707.60. It actually saved me $174.80 by doing it online..Verses going from Pittsburgh to Orlando and flying home from Tampa to Pittsburgh.(We live about 45 min from the Pittsburgh airport) And we are also flying non stop and thats wonderful to us! I figuired we will leave Clearwater early and head to Orlando and fly home from there, to me it's more money to spend in Disney World!!

 

[cbrfan]

It sounds like you'll be close to the Sarasota/Bradenton airport. Did you check fares from there?

 

[riu girl]

CBRfan, or anyone else:
What can you tell me about the airport in Sarasota? In fact, we will be just miles from it and it sure would be easier to fly Sarasota-BUF instead of having to drive up to TPA.

Does anyone know of any airline that flies from Sarasota to Buffalo? I live in Canada and am not familiar with US domestic airlines.

Suzy V.

 

[cbrfan]

I know Air Tran, Delta, Northwest and Continental all fly the SRQ/BUF route. Air Tran doesn't have their Dec. rates posted yet. They're a low-fare carrier and we fly with them whenever possible. They fly into MCO, too.

 

[riu girl]

Thanks so much for the info. I will have to take a look at Air Trans web site. Sorry I meant to post Dec 31 2006 (flying home from Florida), not 2005.
Thanks again for the advice.

Suzy V.