who do you fly???

[birdmom]

We took Delta on our last Disney cruise, but my friend took Jet Blue, after the cruise we were able to drop our luggage at a delta truck right at the port and never saw it till we got home, on the other hand my friends had to load her on the bus drag it to the airport...... unload then check it in with Jet Blue ouch!!!!! We are booking our air fair for our up coming Sep. trip and would love to know who else takes your luggage at the port, as well as who you prefer to fly! There is no way we will fly with a company who does not have porter at the port~

 

[YenSid1222]

Port Airline Check-In is available to Guests flying on the following airlines:

American Airlines
Continental
Delta Air Lines
Northwest
US Air

 

[Barbossa]

We flew American and enjoyed check-in and baggage check at the cruise terminal, an incredible convenience. (Though our bags didn't arrive at our destination when we did! )

Our DD is peanut allergic and AAL has one of the better policies regarding the serving of peanut snacks. Their fares were good too.

 

[DrCavin]

FYI, you must purchase DCL transportation to use the airline check-in.

 

[ashman]

I think the answer is going to vary from location to location depeneding on who is the dominate carrier. In the past it has been Delta for us.

 

[plutospup]

USAirways...it gets us to MCO with the least amount of hassles. Better yet, it flies out of an airport close to our home!

 

[poohs4me]

We ussually choose by price. However, if price is equal we either choose Continental or Delta, but I recently flew United and was very impressed with the optional upgraded leg room seat. We also look at where we connect (we hate Dallas), the amount of layover time and the departure and arrival times.

Do you really have to use DCL ground transporation to take advantage of the port check-in? I would even pay to avoid the hassle of lugging the luggage.

 

[meagan9848]

I fly Jetblue wherever I go

The comfy seats and TVs make up for hauling the bags along. Granted, we always have a rental car.

 

[Sue (mom of 3 boys!)]

Southwest for us! Saves us big $$, and flies direct from an airport close to us.
My kids are big enough to carry their own bags-if they were little, my opinion may be different...

 

[BCV02]

Southwest for us! Saves us big $$, and flies direct from an airport close to us.

Same here! We just grab a porter, tip him a couple of bucks and let him do all the bag dragging.

 

[Big Willie]

We always chose Southwest even in the odd chance that someone else has a lessor fare. There are numerous Norfolk to Orlando direct flights daily.

1. I refuse to fly in the day of embarkation the cruise or to fly out the day of disembarkation. So, we have to handle our luggage regardless of airline choice.

2. Why Southwest? The ease of making changes without a massive fare change. With the children involved in multiple sports and activities it is the norm that we have to move vacation dates. On Southwest there is no change fee and normally no change in fare. In 2005 my nephew's Little League All Star team did pretty well. We figured by mid July they would be finished but they kept winning. Fortunately they had no games scheduled until the last day of our vacation. We tried to fly him back to Virginia from Las Vegas "one day early." USAIR wanted $850 extra just for one 11 year old boy. Last year we needed to move up our Disneyland vacation three days. We were on Southwest and we changed all ten reservations without paying any extra amount.

Sure there are those who dislike the the open seating policy. I laugh at those who belittle Southwest seating and how some people line up at the airport. These distractors are the same ones who get to the port at 9:30am and stand in line to be the first onboard. But that's the beauty of life. "To Each, His Own."

 

[Barbossa]

I love Southwest and use them for most of my business travel. But DD is allergic to peanuts, so no-can-fly SW for Disney cruises. I had heard that SW was considering going peanut free, I asked a flight attendant if that was true. She acted as if I was from another planet.

 

[YenSid1222]

Of course when your Southwest flight is cancelled or overbooked and they don't protect you on another carrier like the majors do...we will all wave good bye while you wait for the next flight with open seats. Oh, and for those low fares they have had due to their hedged fuel...its running out...in todays paper they are already talking about ways of finding additional revenue because they will not make their 15% growth for 2007 at current momentum. Its coming down the pike...you reap what you sow.

And why hate DFW? It is by far the easiest major airport to connect in the whole US! Skylink makes it so you can be at any gate in the airport within 20 minutes (not to mention it is an absolutely FUN ride...your kids will think they are already at WDW on it..then there is the really cool view too). Plus, there are so many options out of DFW if something does go wrong, you still have lots of other flights leaving heading where you want to go. That is one of the most important things to consider when you are connecting.

 

[Barbossa]

And why hate DFW? It is by far the easiest major airport to connect in the whole US! Skylink makes it so you can be at any gate in the airport within 20 minutes (not to mention it is an absolutely FUN ride...your kids will think they are already at WDW on it..then there is the really cool view too). Plus, there are so many options out of DFW if something does go wrong, you still have lots of other flights leaving heading where you want to go. That is one of the most important things to consider when you are connecting.

We took AAL and it was great. However, our baggage didn't arrive when we did (DFW to SAN), they delivered it to our house the next morning. We guessed that it was due to the size of DFW, that the baggage trucks couldn't make it to the other terminal on time (we had a 50 minute layover). Is this true? No knock on AAL, but this was the only time in my life that my luggage didn't arrive when I did.

Btw, my DS had a blast on the Skylink. Disneyland's monorail has nothing on that shuttle!

 

[dreamcometrue]

since we are picky and want a red-eye, nonstop, from LAX to MCO, we only have two choices...Delta and United. I will book one of those, probably whichever is cheaper, although I like United better!

 

[YenSid1222]

We took AAL and it was great. However, our baggage didn't arrive when we did (DFW to SAN), they delivered it to our house the next morning. We guessed that it was due to the size of DFW, that the baggage trucks couldn't make it to the other terminal on time (we had a 50 minute layover). Is this true? No knock on AAL, but this was the only time in my life that my luggage didn't arrive when I did.

Btw, my DS had a blast on the Skylink. Disneyland's monorail has nothing on that shuttle!

If you were traveling during the summer and it was a hot day at DFW, sometimes luggage is not boarded for weight issues. I am not a scientist nor a pilot...so I cant explain this well..however, during the real heat of summer for weight and balancing issues they have to go with a lighter load. This can also adjust by the time of day you are connecting. So, they have the choice of taking off people (yeah, can you see the riot?), mail (huge profit center, plus contractually they have to carry it as a priority), or luggage (can hop on a later flight, then just cost of delivering it to the person a bit later). Out of those choices...baggage is the loser. Not a great situation, but they do the best with what they can. Now, some of this is aircraft type related as well...AA uses a TON of Super 80s (what a name...they are far from being "super") which are older and have some more issues with things like weight and balancing. Over the next few years as those are phased out and new 737-800s take their place along with the possibilities of the newer product from Boeing using light weight composite materials, that issue will go away. Isn't that more than you ever wanted to know? It is also possible that there just wasn't enough time on a tight connection for the baggage to make it. But that is a possibility at almost any hub (ATL for DL, ORD for UA/AA, MSP for NW, etc.).

As for Skylink....this sounds weird...but I love getting delayed in DFW now. I can take a couple of laps around the airport on it for instant fun...or get off at the new Terminal D where there is some GREAT local restaurants that have set up shop. It is the only airport I think is great to eat at...well, except for that slice of NY style thin pizza you can get at LGA...yummy!!

 

[Barbossa]

Hey, I was the airplane nut with the camcorder that you met at Maho beach, so plane geek talk is cool with me!

MD-80's (or super 80's) are actually very good airplanes that have pretty good power. They do have a relatively small wing surface and I don't know what their hot-weather performance is. I like them because their seat rows are arranged 2-3, so most seats are either aisle or window. They are getting old, though, and are no longer made. (They were built by McDonnell Douglas, which was bought out by Boeing a while back.) Glad AAL is buying Boeing and not Airbus to replace the MD-80's. Can't wait to see the new 787 Dreamliner, I think they have a winner with that aircraft!

 

[disneycruise05]

If you were traveling during the summer and it was a hot day at DFW, sometimes luggage is not boarded for weight issues. I am not a scientist nor a pilot...so I cant explain this well..however, during the real heat of summer for weight and balancing issues they have to go with a lighter load. This can also adjust by the time of day you are connecting. So, they have the choice of taking off people (yeah, can you see the riot?), mail (huge profit center, plus contractually they have to carry it as a priority), or luggage (can hop on a later flight, then just cost of delivering it to the person a bit later). Out of those choices...baggage is the loser. Not a great situation, but they do the best with what they can. Now, some of this is aircraft type related as well...AA uses a TON of Super 80s (what a name...they are far from being "super") which are older and have some more issues with things like weight and balancing. Over the next few years as those are phased out and new 737-800s take their place along with the possibilities of the newer product from Boeing using light weight composite materials, that issue will go away. Isn't that more than you ever wanted to know? It is also possible that there just wasn't enough time on a tight connection for the baggage to make it. But that is a possibility at almost any hub (ATL for DL, ORD for UA/AA, MSP for NW, etc.).

As for Skylink....this sounds weird...but I love getting delayed in DFW now. I can take a couple of laps around the airport on it for instant fun...or get off at the new Terminal D where there is some GREAT local restaurants that have set up shop. It is the only airport I think is great to eat at...well, except for that slice of NY style thin pizza you can get at LGA...yummy!!

That's a very plausable scenario. There was a show on last week on CNBC about a week in the life of American Airlines. It was pretty interesting. I was shocked to learn that AA transports something like 13 tons of mail a day. This seemed pretty high since it seems like nobody uses the USPS in favor of e-mail.

If AA is getting rid of the Super 80's, it'll be a gift from God. I hate those planes. Those are the ones that connect San Antonio with DFW. 57 minutes of torture. Ick. I'll be excited to see if AA replaces the Super 80's and replaces them with 737-800's. If it uses the new products developed for the 787 Dreamliner (which looks fabulous...I can't wait to fly in one), it should get excellant mileage.

As for DFW...it's by far one of my most favorite airports anywhere. The Skylink is a blast to ride, and Terminal D is the one place I don't mind having to take a layover in. I flew to Germany in January and got delayed at DFW for about 4 hours (long story short, an airplane being cleaned for that long translates to an engine not working perfectly and needing to be fixed...which is fine if they would tell us that in the first place, not that it needs to be cleaned. But I digress....)

I always fly AA. It probably has to do with the tons of miles I have thanks to living in Germany for 4 years and flying back to the States about twice a year. I'll be flying back to Germany in a few weeks (hopefully with a detour to DLP!!!) and have to connect in Chicago. Not bad, but it's no DFW. Thankfully, it's no Atlanta...I have horror stories with Atlanta and Delta.

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

We like flying Sun Country Airlines. For some odd reason they did not post their October flights until the third of this month. As soon as they came out I booked round trip for four. By the sixth the return flight was filling up fast and the price was increasing as well. We paid $238.80 per person , it is much higher now. I was getting a little nervous watching all these sales come and go with other airlines and not taking one of them but it paid off. We will be flying non-stop both ways at the times we really like.

The other carrier we've used is Northwest Airlines and they were very very very high from the start and still are Even when competition was coming out with low fairs they were never close, at least not when I checked which was pretty regular. They do have check-in at the port but I will never pay what they are asking; even for this service.