Southwest Service Changes in Flint/FNT

[MIChessGuy]

As I was arranging my late August trip to Orlando, I came across some service changes made quite recently to Southwest's service out of Flint. All of their Florida service is now gone. Apparently the MCO run is coming back on a Saturday-only basis starting in June, but this is still a blow to Michigan travelers who had grown accustomed to that daily nonstop to MCO. Allegiant has commenced nonstop service on the FNT-SFB route as a sort of consolation prize; however, that flight is not daily and uses somewhat older aircraft (MD-80s). If you have a Florida trip coming up before Southwest resurrects FNT-MCO, and you are okay with Sanford, you may wish to consider Allegiant. There is also nonstop service from DTW on Delta, Spirit and Frontier.

Incidentally, the deal I got on Southwest's FNT-MCO roundtrip in late August was $194 all-in, which I found far more appealing than the Spirit/Frontier deals at DTW since with those you have to add in the carry-on fee, the luggage fee, the seat fee, the ticket fee, and who knows what other rubbish they may be thinking up.

 

[Sandi]

They announced the change in November, but it just became effective last week. http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/11/southwest_airlines_cuts_flight.html It used to be worth driving over there from East Lansing to get a direct flight. Not so much anymore. We use Lansing, Grand Rapids, Flint, and Detroit depending on price and likely weather. Flint will be out of the mix for awhile.

 

[kristenrice]

That explains why the non-stop flight from FNT-MCO in October went from $141 to $227 one way. Our return flight also went from $141 to $225. Fortunately, we booked back when the window first opened. My parents and sister (and family) decided to keep their FNT itinerary as is. My family of 4 has decided to take a flight with a plane change and fly out of Grand Rapids the night before.

 

[maxiesmom]

I was tempted by the non stops out of Flint in October, but even with connections flying out of GRR gets us there sooner and back home later.

 

[Srbright]

We found this out to our dismay as well. 2013 and 2014 we took the non stop out of Flint only to find out for this year that FNT is now much more expensive and no non stop flights.

We did get DTW for $95/each way which wasn't horrible.

Stacy

 

[kristenrice]

I was tempted by the non stops out of Flint in October, but even with connections flying out of GRR gets us there sooner and back home later.

When we were initially planning to fly out/in via FNT, I bought 7-day tickets for the family because the flights typically departed early (like before 8am!) and returned late. Well, not this time... The non-stop departs at 12:55 and returns at 2:30. I looked for an earlier one but they all had long layovers and cost more, which would not be worth the extra 1-2 hours we could add. I found one that leaves GRR on Friday night at 6:30pm. It has a brief (70 minute) stop with plane change in Chicago and lands in Orlando at 11pm. I moved us to that one instead and booked us in the Hyatt at the airport that night so that we can have at least a 1/2 day in the park on Saturday.