Too Late for Low BUF SW Fares! Flying out of... Toronto??

[amie416]

Our late-February 2018 was going to be called off for medical reasons, but now it's back on again! Of course, that means I've already missed out on my usual opening-day SouthWest fares out of Buffalo and it may end up being cheaper to fly out of Pearson. I usually fly SW out of Buffalo because I like the service and the free checked bags... but it just doesn't make sense at these prices.

Does anyone have any tips for flying out of Toronto? AirCanada or WestJet? Delta with a connection? SunWing??

AirCanada Fares are currently around $500 return, with WestJet a bit more than that. Should I wait for a sale?

I'm so out of my element...

 

[starvenger]

I'd wait for a sale. I've never taken SunWing so I can't comment on how that experience would be. Don't forget about Transat as well. Or maybe you intentionally did

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Is it REALLY going to be cheaper?
I live in WNY and flew out of Toronto to go to Hawaii because the flight was cheaper however getting up there cost me money and a crapload of time!
In the end I decided it would have been more worth it to pay the extra money to just fly out of BUF.
Also you may not be too late to get decent prices.
The prices go up and down honestly every few hours every day at least that is what I have found.
If you can hold off a bit then I'd say check multiple times peer day for the next few weeks and see if you can catch the prices when they are lower.
Also I've found that unless you are flying at a peak time the debut prices are stupid high and then they come down.

 

[TommyJK]

what are your exact dates you're looking for?

Last trip down we used Air Transat and the cost was good and the flight was ok in general.

 

[amie416]

I'd wait for a sale. I've never taken SunWing so I can't comment on how that experience would be. Don't forget about Transat as well. Or maybe you intentionally did

I do prefer to fly with the major airlines, mostly because they have more planes and more options in the event of a delay or cancellation... but I've flown Transat before, and it was fine. Of course, after that stunt they pulled in Ottawa, I'm probably looking elsewhere.

 

[amie416]

Is it REALLY going to be cheaper?
I live in WNY and flew out of Toronto to go to Hawaii because the flight was cheaper however getting up there cost me money and a crapload of time!
In the end I decided it would have been more worth it to pay the extra money to just fly out of BUF.

It's kinda like that for us, but in reverse... We live in Toronto's East end, so it's 1.5-2 hours drive to Buffalo, and we end up paying $100 USD to do a sleep-park-fly deal. As long as we can get a moderate savings for flying SW, we do like to fly from there though. It helps that we can stop at Trader Joes and Target before we drive back home.

I'll keep my eye on the fares though... is there another airline out of BUF that you like? Is JetBlue good? I'm seeing cheap fares on Frontier, but I don't think I want to go with them.

what are your exact dates you're looking for?

February 22 - March 11

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

It's kinda like that for us, but in reverse... We live in Toronto's East end, so it's 1.5-2 hours drive to Buffalo, and we end up paying $100 USD to do a sleep-park-fly deal. As long as we can get a moderate savings for flying SW, we do like to fly from there though. It helps that we can stop at Trader Joes and Target before we drive back home.

I'll keep my eye on the fares though... is there another airline out of BUF that you like? Is JetBlue good? I'm seeing cheap fares on Frontier, but I don't think I want to go with them.

I guess if the savings is significant enough for you then its worth it.
There is no other airline that I'd recommend.
Often Jetblue and Delta are twice as much as SWA.
I would not do Frontier or Spirit and to my knowledge they only fly out of the Niagara Falls airport and don't fly into MCO at least not from here.[/QUOTE]

 

[dancin Disney style]

Most likely SWA will drop the price. No guarantee but I've been flying with them for over 10 years out of BUF and the prices go up and down. Booking on opening day is no longer always the best. This year I booked in January for Canadian March break and got 2 RT tickets for under $600 CAD.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Is it REALLY going to be cheaper?
I live in WNY and flew out of Toronto to go to Hawaii because the flight was cheaper however getting up there cost me money and a crapload of time!
In the end I decided it would have been more worth it to pay the extra money to just fly out of BUF.
Also you may not be too late to get decent prices.
The prices go up and down honestly every few hours every day at least that is what I have found.
If you can hold off a bit then I'd say check multiple times peer day for the next few weeks and see if you can catch the prices when they are lower.
Also I've found that unless you are flying at a peak time the debut prices are stupid high and then they come down.

It usually is much cheaper for us to fly from BUF. I live west of Toronto and the drive from my house to BUF is 90 minutes but to YYZ it's 30 minutes. The additional drive time adds and hour but you have to arrive at YYZ for any flight at least 2.5 hours prior. The lines to check in are LONG on a good day, the bag drop areas are chaos and the security lines are also long and slow. Then you will have a long walk to the gate. So when you add it all up the amount of time is nearly the same.

I have yet to meet anyone that likes YYZ. I've got several friends that are crew and even they hate it compared to other airports.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

It usually is much cheaper for us to fly from BUF. I live west of Toronto and the drive from my house to BUF is 90 minutes but to YYZ it's 30 minutes. The additional drive time adds and hour but you have to arrive at YYZ for any flight at least 2.5 hours prior. The lines to check in are LONG on a good day, the bag drop areas are chaos and the security lines are also long and slow. Then you will have a long walk to the gate. So when you add it all up the amount of time is nearly the same.

I have yet to meet anyone that likes YYZ. I've got several friends that are crew and even they hate it compared to other airports.

My post was from the perspective of a WNYer and did not realize the OP was not from the area. My point was is it really that much cheaper to fly out of Toronto because I hated it and found it not worth it at all. So basically I agree with you that BUF is so much better lol.

 

[pigletto]

I do prefer to fly with the major airlines, mostly because they have more planes and more options in the event of a delay or cancellation... but I've flown Transat before, and it was fine. Of course, after that stunt they pulled in Ottawa, I'm probably looking elsewhere.

We've flown Air Transat and it was no better or worse than Southwest, with a slight edge to Air Transat for not having the ridiculous no seat selection policies.
And the stunt that Air Transat pulled? Exact same thing happened to my family coming back during an electrical storm from Europe. Couldn't land in Pearson and Hamilton would not let them off the planes because they didn't have customs officers to clear the passengers. They held them for 6.5 hours. This was Air Canada. There were also Westjet planes and AirItalia and American Airlines on that Hamilton tarmac. The AirTransat story gained a lot of traction but it was by no means an isolated incident.

 

[iluveeyore]

I'm trying to book right now for my son and his family (who live in Niagara Falls, Ontario) to come down here in December, and I'm still waiting and watching SWA prices out of Buffalo - they fluctuate so I check often, but usually I can still get a good deal two months out or less, so I would watch and wait if I were you and you still want to fly out of Buffalo.

 

[alohamom]

It usually is much cheaper for us to fly from BUF. I live west of Toronto and the drive from my house to BUF is 90 minutes but to YYZ it's 30 minutes. The additional drive time adds and hour but you have to arrive at YYZ for any flight at least 2.5 hours prior. The lines to check in are LONG on a good day, the bag drop areas are chaos and the security lines are also long and slow. Then you will have a long walk to the gate. So when you add it all up the amount of time is nearly the same.

I have yet to meet anyone that likes YYZ. I've got several friends that are crew and even they hate it compared to other airports.

Same goes for me, we are west of Toronto just north of Milton so about 30 minutes to the airport BUT with traffic it can be up to an hour whereas Buffalo is only just over an hour for us.

OP-have you tried the "Hopper" flight app or checked on the ITA Matrix? Tuesdays and Wednesdays are traditionally the best days for flight fluxuations

 

[iluveeyore]

Another thing to keep in mind about SWA - if you need to change your dates, you can at no penalty cost, or if you see your flight drop in price after you book, you can re-book it online and get a credit for another flight within a year. If you need to cancel, that gets kept as a credit as well.

 

[dancin Disney style]

My post was from the perspective of a WNYer and did not realize the OP was not from the area. My point was is it really that much cheaper to fly out of Toronto because I hated it and found it not worth it at all. So basically I agree with you that BUF is so much better lol.

LOL.....I just took it as a WNY'er (having done the reverse of what we do) thinking that the added distance/time was foolish. To some for sure it is foolish. I'm all about getting more vacation time and that means being budget conscious. Getting airfare for under $200 per person just doesn't happen here. A great sale fare from YYZ to MCO would be $350....the average is probably more in the $450+ range.

 

[Eeyore's the Best]

Within a few hundred dollars I would pay MORE to fly out of Buffalo on Southwest than from YYZ, and I live in Peterborough and it takes 2.5 hours for us to drive there. For so many reasons, many many times we have been able to get Southwest credits for fare drops, the free baggage, the land border crossing instead of customs at the airports, the smaller airport, Which Wich , the shorter security and baggage lines compared to the gong show that is Toronto, cheaper hotels and parking. Look for your flights on a Tuesday afternoon, they always seem to be the cheapest.

 

[amie416]

OP-have you tried the "Hopper" flight app or checked on the ITA Matrix? Tuesdays and Wednesdays are traditionally the best days for flight fluxuations

No, I haven't... but I just checked out the ITA Matrix, what a great resource! Thank you!

 

[Cottager]

With the introduction of Frontier Airlines starting in December with direct flights from Buffalo to Orlando, along with the recent addition of Spirit airlines' direct flights to Orlando in Niagara Falls, we should hopefully see some competitive pricing back in the Buffalo area with Southwest and Jet Blue! One benefit with discount airlines like Frontier and Spirit are the sporadic crazy discount codes that pop up. Last week, Spirit had Niagara Falls to Orlando for $25 each way. They also had Detroit to LAX for $25 each way. Frontier also has some crazy discounts from Detroit to Orlando so we should expect the same out of Buffalo. Most of these are last minute trip discounts which we never see with Southwest. They jack up their pricing when you are approaching 2 weeks out.