What happened to direct flights?

[dclpluto]

Like you said Southwest has cut a lot of flights to mco from philly. Now I look American is cheaper than Southwest to mco. Spirit is pretty cheap but only 2 flights a day.

 

[dclpluto]

We are also flying out of Cincy and our flight down was eliminated and we were moved to an early flight. It seems like only two non stop flights out of Cincy now.

Cincinnati home of the famous skyline. Can't get any where I'm from.

 

[Farro]

Guess we are lucky flying from O'hare - United alone has 6 direct flights to Orlando almost everyday!

 

[scard192]

fewer non stop flights from the Boston Area too and a lot of them are 6-7AM which is tough for us with how far we live from the airports

 

[NH-to-FL]

Same situation out of Manchester, NH. Southwest now has one non-stop headed south to MCO. Most frequently at 6:30am! That makes for a very early morning. I know because I just did it last week. There used to be three non-stops, early, midday, and evening. Then it went to two. Now one. I could go down to Boston and switch to JetBlue which has many non-stops but I don't like the drive and the crowded airport. And I prefer Southwest. On the plus side, with a 9:40am arrival you get a good part of the day in Florida. Provided you can stay awake.

 

[mousehockey37]

It definitely sucks that there aren't more direct flights. For some reason, the connectors are a big thing now. I understand with some airlines, though, that they have their hubs. Delta is an Atlanta hub. JetBlue is a Boston hub, so finding flights that don't connect there are tough. So that's something else you need to factor in.

 

[writerguyfl]

Note: In the airline industry, "direct" and "non-stop" are two different things. That probably doesn't matter much here but it will if you call an airline and don't understand the difference.

"Non-stop" is self-explanatory. But, "direct" means the flight has the same flight number but will make one or more intermediate stops. And a "direct" flight might require you to still change planes at that intermediate stop.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Sold out flights do not mean the airline will keep them. Sold out is not equal to "making money" and that's what they look at.

If the sold out flight requires them to sell the seats at below cost it's gone in favor of flights that make money.

What happened is your non-stop flight was not making money

 

[mkoerner]

Southwest is down to only one nonstop some days, EWR to MCO. Although SW was never big at EWR, it is still less than before.

I still booked, I got $60 each way in February. DD is going to WDW in January, she got $50 (!!) each way! I never thought I would see $50, the lowest I ever paid before this was $59 on Delta Song (man I loved Delta Song...)

We also found several direct flights to MCO from Newark, and paid $150 each. Much less than PHL and more flight options to choose from for our dates this week. Remember though, tickets were purchased several months ago.

 

[MillauFr]

Who cares about direct flights? I always choose the non-stop option even if it costs more. I don't see much advantage of choosing a direct flight over a connecting flight. You still have to stop at a connecting airport on the way to your final destination.

 

[kydisneyfans]

We lost both Delta flights to Orlando from Cincinnati a few months ago. Both our trip down and back were eliminated. Weird since I had just booked a few days earlier and had trouble finding seats together, the plane was almost full 4-5 months out. Could be because Frontier started a 2nd daily flight from Orlando to Cincy?

We are now booked Cincinnati to Melborne with an Atlanta layover going down, MCO to Cincy coming back with an Atlanta layover. We notified Saturday the Melbourne flight time has changed from an hour and 20 minute layover in Atlanta to 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Now I wish we would have just planned to drive.

 

[KELLY]

We fly SW out of Manchester every year. Granted I just booked last week for a trip in two weeks. But Normally we book once they are released. I did get non-stop but we are leaving Thursday to Thursday. That normally isn't a option as my work week is Sunday to Saturday. There was only two non-stops a day one first thing in the am and one in the evening out of 12 flights a day. I paid 266.00 a flight not counting early bird check in. This is the most I have paid in a long time. But it was also last minute.

 

[Dis703]

What the?? $100 or $120 round trip?? That's amazing!

We never pay more than $100RT anymore from NJ/PA to MCO. I've seen SW come up as low as $120 but with times that were't ideal for us. We mostly fly Frontier nonstop and occasionally have used American for one way to get the time we are looking for. Cheapest we flew for was $50-$60RT twice last year.

 

[Shanti]

I visit Disney about every couple years, which is for the most part the only time I fly.

This year, in scheduling a flight from Philadelphia to Orlando, Southwest had 13 flights everyday from "Philadelphia to Orlando", with only 3 direct. Most involved changing planes or more than one stop. This is for a 2.25 hour flight!

Other airlines had the same situation or were ridiculously expensive.

For those more attuned to travel and the industry, is this probably par for the course from here on out, or is this a temporary change in the industry?

I got a direct flight for my sister and I for a reasonable price through Southwest, so it worked out, but I got up at midnight to schedule and barely got it.

If this is the new norm, any tips for planning? For this August I looked as to when flights would be available, and was on and ready right on midnight.

It's part of the decline in airline customer service in the pursuit of profit maximization. It's more cost-effective for the airlines to provide fewer nonstops.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I fly from Buffalo NY with SWA and have been flying to WDW most times I go for the last 10 years.
I used to find that there were only a few flights a day and only one was nonstop.
Now there are a number of flights to choose from at usually at least 3 nonstop.
Oddly enough the earliest and latest nonstop tend to be the least expensive too.
I often opt for the early nonstop which gets me there somewhere between 8:30am-9:30am depending on the time of year.
I'm going in a little over 3 weeks and snagged a nonstop that gets me there at 9:15am for $83.
For the way home I used points. So price wasn't bad either.
Perhaps its very dependent on where you are flying from.

 

[LadyBeBop]

We lost both Delta flights to Orlando from Cincinnati a few months ago. Both our trip down and back were eliminated. Weird since I had just booked a few days earlier and had trouble finding seats together, the plane was almost full 4-5 months out. Could be because Frontier started a 2nd daily flight from Orlando to Cincy?

AUGH!!!! I hope not. I really don't trust Frontier, Allegiant and the other non-frills airlines regarding their on-time reliability.

There are some of us who will pay a little more to ensure making their destination in a timely manner.

Yes, I know Delta flights may be cancelled up to flight time. But Delta usually has options to get us to our destination a few hours later. With Frontier and Allegiant, it may be days before we take off.