FAQ: Flying Out of Buffalo OR Detroit

[BitsnBearsMom]

Great - thanks Lisa!! I think almost everything is organized now except the dog. Will call the kennel today and we'll be good to go!

 

[biggroofy]

Hi everyone,

We are flying out from Buffalo in January (Southwest)! Family of six (grandparents, me and DW, DD1 and DD5) - This will be our first time driving to Buffalo airport and I have a question (debate) with my wife.

Our flight is on Jan 4 (Mon) at 6:00pm. We lived in Richmond Hill and technically speaking we should be very fine even if we leave home around noon. However, Jan 4 seems to be the first day of work/school after the holidays and I wonder if traffic (and border wait) would be bad.

My wife wanted to buy some stuff from Walmart/Target etc - so she suggested to leave a day early (i.e. Sunday). I have objection on that because Jan 3 seems to be the last day of holiday (school holiday, or even someone taking a long weekend off for New Year) and I worry if the border will be super busy (i.e. even worse than Monday).

Any suggestions? I don't mind paying an extra $70 or so for hotel but really concern about the traffic (border wait-time) for those two days.

Any preference on Rainbow bridge or Peace bridge?

Thanks

 

[mkmommy]

Hi everyone,

We are flying out from Buffalo in January (Southwest)! Family of six (grandparents, me and DW, DD1 and DD5) - This will be our first time driving to Buffalo airport and I have a question (debate) with my wife.

Our flight is on Jan 4 (Mon) at 6:00pm. We lived in Richmond Hill and technically speaking we should be very fine even if we leave home around noon. However, Jan 4 seems to be the first day of work/school after the holidays and I wonder if traffic (and border wait) would be bad.

My wife wanted to buy some stuff from Walmart/Target etc - so she suggested to leave a day early (i.e. Sunday). I have objection on that because Jan 3 seems to be the last day of holiday (school holiday, or even someone taking a long weekend off for New Year) and I worry if the border will be super busy (i.e. even worse than Monday).

Any suggestions? I don't mind paying an extra $70 or so for hotel but really concern about the traffic (border wait-time) for those two days.

Any preference on Rainbow bridge or Peace bridge?

Thanks

Peace Bridge for sure. I would think the traffic would be busier coming into Cananda not leaving on the Sunday.

Last US Thanksgiving I was worried that the bridge to the US would be busy on the Sunday going back into the states, being such a busy US travel weekend, but when I got to the Peace Bridge I just drove right up to the booth and was through in less than a minute.

 

[biggroofy]

Peace Bridge for sure. I would think the traffic would be busier coming into Cananda not leaving on the Sunday.

Last US Thanksgiving I was worried that the bridge to the US would be busy on the Sunday going back into the states, being such a busy US travel weekend, but when I got to the Peace Bridge I just drove right up to the booth and was through in less than a minute.

Thanks mkmommy

We may consider driving on that Sunday. If we drive on Monday we expect to be at Peace Bridge between 1-2pm.

 

[glenpreece]

Hey everybody i just booked a family of 4 on a NWA flight out of Detroit, it was just over $1000 CAD for them. BUF was close to $2000. They will be going end of April, any tips to pass along to them? They live in the east end of the GTA.

 

[petbren]

Hey everybody i just booked a family of 4 on a NWA flight out of Detroit, it was just over $100 CAD for them. BUF was close to $2000. They will be going end of April, any tips to pass along to them? They live in the east end of the GTA.

I think you mean $1000, not $100, if not, I'm booking today
Anyway, we flew Detroit instead of Buffalo March break this year, also much cheaper. We're from Hamilton.
We stayed Park and Fly at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Detroit Metro Airport Romulus. It is a new hotel, so nice and clean with nice rooms, a small indoor pool, nice breakfast and right next door to the Park n' Fly lot. They have computers there to do your check-in at 24 hours if you fly SW too
We paid $110 with taxes and I think up to 8 days of parking, mind you the dollar was above par at that time, so great deal.
A word of advice, we ended up driving right through downtown Detroit on a Friday night at 5pm. I would avoid doing this if possible.
Detroit airport is similar to Buffalo, but they were doing a lot of construction, and I think still are, so it was nice to just hop the shuttle, and let them get us there.

I hope they have a great time.

 

[glenpreece]

I think you mean $1000, not $100, if not, I'm booking today
Anyway, we flew Detroit instead of Buffalo March break this year, also much cheaper. We're from Hamilton.
We stayed Park and Fly at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Detroit Metro Airport Romulus. It is a new hotel, so nice and clean with nice rooms, a small indoor pool, nice breakfast and right next door to the Park n' Fly lot. They have computers there to do your check-in at 24 hours if you fly SW too
We paid $110 with taxes and I think up to 8 days of parking, mind you the dollar was above par at that time, so great deal.
A word of advice, we ended up driving right through downtown Detroit on a Friday night at 5pm. I would avoid doing this if possible.
Detroit airport is similar to Buffalo, but they were doing a lot of construction, and I think still are, so it was nice to just hop the shuttle, and let them get us there.

I hope they have a great time.

you were right it was $1000

thanks for the response

 

[Wilec]

We are flying in 3 weeks form Detroit, on NWA and are staying at the Fairfield as well. Looking forward to the adventure.

 

[Jackie Psarianos]

I would try either one since we're really keen on going over the day before and making an event out of it. We'll stay somewhere near the airport, go shopping at the malls, park it at a Cheesecake Factory and well the rest continues with wonderful memories at Disney.

 

[maggieb9975]

Am wondering if I should wait or book...the price for 2 adults from Toronto to Orlando on Mar 11-18 2009 is $781.00 total incl taxes. How does this compare to other yrs..I have never flown during March break.....

 

[Disney Khi]

Am wondering if I should wait or book...the price for 2 adults from Toronto to Orlando on Mar 11-18 2009 is $781.00 total incl taxes. How does this compare to other yrs..I have never flown during March break.....

If you were thinking of flying out of Buffalo, Southwest shows the fare for two adults March 11-18 to be $484.40 for those dates.

 

[Disney Khi]

This is the link to the Buffalo Airport site that shows a map of local hotels.

http://www.buffaloairport.com/misc/accommodations.asp

The airport has a new website, and this link doesn't work anymore. Try this one instead: http://www.buffaloairport.com/AccommodationsMap.asp

 

[candizfan]

This March we are flying out of Detroit late on Thursday and we are going to stay at a hotel near the airport in Orlando instead of staying over in Detroit before flying out.

We find we don't sleep well the night before we leave if we stay over in Detroit.

 

[son3disfan]

Any one park at Big bLue Deck in Detroit lately?

Website says $16.00 a day
I must be missing something. That 's $80 for a five day trip...

That is suppose to be the long term parking, which I understand to be the least expensive???

Wow. That's expensive!

Anyone?

 

[Jen G]

I was just Feb 4th and yes, it was $16. Crazy expensive. We are going for 2 weeks for March break and will be staying a night at Fairfield to park there.

Any one park at Big bLue Deck in Detroit lately?

Website says $16.00 a day
I must be missing something. That 's $80 for a five day trip...

That is suppose to be the long term parking, which I understand to be the least expensive???

Wow. That's expensive!

Anyone?

 

[son3disfan]

I was just Feb 4th and yes, it was $16. Crazy expensive. We are going for 2 weeks for March break and will be staying a night at Fairfield to park there.

Thanks for letting me know.
I went ahead and booked "Airlines"- I think it's called...from the park and fly network- for $51.00 for 6 days.

 

[CantWait2009]

My DH and I have flown out of Detroit a few time now and find it easy to get to, only thing is parking is super expensive even more then pearson. But they have park n fly at hotels in Romulus for 109US includes 8 day parking voucher.

 

[disneymath]

Obviously price will play a big part, but in terms of past experience (customer service, on-time flights, overall quality) which airline would you recommend?

FWiW, we're going to fly out of Detroit.

 

[MikeJ]

We've never had an issue with Spirit, but then again we've never had a problem - other than a suitcase which failed to make our flight home. They had a driver show up at our door in London with it Christmas morning. I was impressed, but I know a lot of people have had customer service issues with them. Never had a problem with flights being delayed.

We've only used Air Tran once (out of Flint) but I liked them. They remind me a lot of WestJet. If their schedule was a little better (most of their flights go through Atlanta and we prefer non-stop) we might use them more often.

NWA has the best flight selection (4-5 nonstops a day) and we're using them for our trip in May. They actually came in about $300 cheaper than Spirit for the two of us. I don't think any of the North American-based carriers have the type of customer service they used to, but of the three we've had the best experience with NWA. Air Tran might be good as well, but with only one flight on them we don't have adequate statistics.

Hope that helps.

- Mike

Obviously price will play a big part, but in terms of past experience (customer service, on-time flights, overall quality) which airline would you recommend?

FWiW, we're going to fly out of Detroit.

 

[Bubbie]

We have only used Spirit and Southwest.Never had a problem with either airline.If I had to choose between the two, it would be Southwest.They don't charge for luggage and you can sit where you want as long as you check in on line and get A boarding pass(B isn't bad either).
FYI-I just checked some flights on Spirit and they are only offering 2 flights out of Detroit to Orlando for my dates.1 morning flight and 1 evening flight.