Westjet prices have dropped

[phabric]

I booked Sept 19-26 for $418/pp Toronto- Orlando much cheaper than AC or Westjet. We have direct not stop flights. They told me since it is a short flight, it will be a hot snack ie croissant sandwich, not many airlines gives you free food.

You can call and pay extra to pick you seats. Regular seats are $15/way and extra leg room is $35/way. I paid the extra to make sure we are together as we are travelling with a 2 year old. Their plane has 3 seats across on each side of the plane.

Their flight might leave at 6:30am and arrive at 9:30 you will be at Orlando before AC or Westjet leaves Toronto.

 

[glendalais]

wow just checked out sunwing and our $4600 flight from TO went down to $2100 from to, only thing is that we have to leave at 6:30 am and have a stop on the way back.

What is eveyones experience on this charter. How crammed in are you, I have very long legs.

The thing to remember about charters is that, for whatever reason, they don't always have their passengers clear US Customs before departing Canada. I know the Air Transat and CanJet flights to Orlando are notorious for this (sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, it's a little bit of a shot in the dark), not so sure about Sunwing.

If you don't clear Customs/Immigration in Toronto, you would need to factor in at least 1.5-3 hours on the tail end of your flight to do so in Orlando (depending on how many international flights are arriving at that time, 3.5-5 hours if you have the unfortunate chance of arriving at the same time as a Virgin Atlantic flight from the UK).

 

[phabric]

The thing to remember about charters is that, for whatever reason, they don't always have their passengers clear US Customs before departing Canada. I know the Air Transat and CanJet flights to Orlando are notorious for this, not so sure about Sunwing.

If you don't clear Customs/Immigration in Toronto, you would need to factor in at least 1.5-3 hours on the tail end of your flight to do so in Orlando (depending on how many international flights are arriving at that time, 3.5-5 hours if you have the unfortunate chance of arriving at the same time as a Virgin Atlantic flight from the UK).

Flights leaving Toronto to the US go through a different gate area of the airport. You have to go through US Custom/Immigration then go through the airport screening area. My DH had a 6:30am flight to the US. He was at the airport at 3, US Custom/Immigration did not open up until 4-5am. There was a HUGH line waiting for them to open up.

International departure go through a different gate area and just go through airport screening.

 

[glendalais]

Flights leaving Toronto to the US go through a different gate area of the airport. You have to go through US Custom/Immigration then go through the airport screening area. My DH had a 6:30am flight to the US. He was at the airport at 3, US Custom/Immigration did not open up until 4-5am. There was a HUGH line waiting for them to open up.

International departure go through a different gate area and just go through airport screening.

I know that. I'm just saying that, on occasion, the charter airlines will depart from the International Area rather than the U.S. Departures area, even though they're heading to the U.S. (they either list the flight's destination as Nassau or other Caribbean destination, or charter planes from an airline that does).

In those instances, since the U.S.-bound passengers don't clear Customs in Toronto, they have to do so in Orlando.

 

[fraservalleymom]

Out of curiousity, I was checking fight prices last night. I have always heard how much cheaper it is to fly out of Seattle vs Vancouver. But it wasn't until I saw it with my own eyes that I actually believed it! WJ wanted ~$2800+ for our famliy of 4 but drive 2.5 hours south to Seattle and we would pay ~$1200 for a similar flight. That makes me sick. Even if we stayed in Seattle one night on way down and coming home, we would obviously still be way ahead even staying at the fanciest hotel.

 

[Kat&Dom]

Out of curiousity, I was checking fight prices last night. I have always heard how much cheaper it is to fly out of Seattle vs Vancouver. But it wasn't until I saw it with my own eyes that I actually believed it! WJ wanted ~$2800+ for our famliy of 4 but drive 2.5 hours south to Seattle and we would pay ~$1200 for a similar flight. That makes me sick. Even if we stayed in Seattle one night on way down and coming home, we would obviously still be way ahead even staying at the fanciest hotel.

I know - it is crazy and doesn't make sense that there would be such a price difference but even here in Alberta, sometimes there is $100-$150 difference in flight prices per person between Calgary and Edmonton. I actually booked our flights to Orlando out of Calgary flying on American Airlines for $345 CAD each with all taxes in November. Westjet and Air Canada wanted $700 for the same flight but with worse flight times. A friend of mine is flying to Vancouver in September to go on an cruise and her flight on Westjet will be $321 CAD unless some amazing seat sale comes on - crazy that I can fly to Orlando for $24 more.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

The thing to remember about charters is that, for whatever reason, they don't always have their passengers clear US Customs before departing Canada. I know the Air Transat and CanJet flights to Orlando are notorious for this (sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, it's a little bit of a shot in the dark), not so sure about Sunwing.

If you don't clear Customs/Immigration in Toronto, you would need to factor in at least 1.5-3 hours on the tail end of your flight to do so in Orlando (depending on how many international flights are arriving at that time, 3.5-5 hours if you have the unfortunate chance of arriving at the same time as a Virgin Atlantic flight from the UK).

When we have flown Air Transat before we cleared US Customs in Toronto. Although that was way back when they were located in the old Terminal 1, so not sure their set up since moving to Terminal 3. However when they were still business and each time we flew with them, on Canada 3000 we would always clear US Customs when we arrived in Orlando. Now it wasn't so much the waiting in line that was a problem, it was more of the situation with our checked bags. What I didn't like is that after we 1st picked them up we had to then pick them up a 2nd time in the main terminal. So I thought that was time wasted when we could have picked up our rental car and got to WDW a lot faster. Plus just before going into the terminal we had to go through another security screening and I thought to myself what's the point? We went through all of that in Toronto and we just cleared US Customs.

 

[toesmom]

wow just checked out sunwing and our $4600 flight from TO went down to $2100 from to, only thing is that we have to leave at 6:30 am and have a stop on the way back.

What is eveyones experience on this charter. How crammed in are you, I have very long legs.

The thing that turned me off of sunwing is their return flights left mco after 11pm and would arrive in toronto after 2am which is really hard with little kids...

 

[phabric]

The thing that turned me off of sunwing is their return flights left mco after 11pm and would arrive in toronto after 2am which is really hard with little kids...

I guess it depends on your dates for the flight times. Our flight out Sept 19 from Toronto is 6:30 - 9:30am and returns Sept 26 is 10:30 -l:25pm. Since this is a charter you have to go for a week.

 

[brighteyes]

I guess it depends on your dates for the flight times. Our flight out Sept 19 from Toronto is 6:30 - 9:30am and returns Sept 26 is 10:30 -l:25pm. Since this is a charter you have to go for a week.

We used Sunwing for our flight in December and we had a 6:30 am flight too. We returned on a 10:30 am flight from Orlando.

The seats were crammed and I am a short but a little overweight. However, it was only 2 hours so I dealt with it. We also sat at the very first seat so if you did this you would have more leg room.

 

[sjsjbrook]

well it pays to watch the rates of flights. Last night I managed to get the lowest fare I have seen in 10 years from Air Canada toronto to Orlando. My flight isn't until 2011. With prefered seating it was 532 each return and taxes included.

I was so excited, we were sure our flight was going to cost more than our cruise.

 

[grantclaire]

Same with us, we got AC flights from Toronto to Orlando staying over New Years for 292.00. Return. The cheapest we have paid in years.