Well This Is Disappointing...

[FayeW]

I have a $500 credit with Transat that has to be used by Feb 24th. Thought I would use the credit to fly to Orlando end Nov. They don't fly to MCO from Ottawa, but decent prices out of Montreal, but now I'm looking at either $200 for "stay and fly" hotel or $120 in airport parking. It is actually less expensive for me to fly from Ogdensburg on Allegiant than it is for me to use a $500 credit to fly from Montreal.

The real disappointment is that even with a great deal on condo rental, with our lousy exchange rate right now my "cheap" trip to use up my credit is going to end up at $2500 out of pocket, minimum. Car rental is pricing out at $400 CDN, Universal 1 day "park to park" is $500 CDN for two tickets. We love the theme parks all decorated for Christmas and first week of December is our favourite time to go, but the reality is that I can book a week at the end of January at our favourite resort in Cuba, flying out of Ottawa, and pay less than $800 out of pocket for the two of us (because I have $900 in AirMiles travel certificates I cashed out in Dec and can use them in addition to my $500 credit).

At this point I can't justify spending that much more out of pocket. I won't make any decisions now and will hope that our dollar improves and car rental prices come back down to earth closer to our travel dates.

 

[Gigi22]

I have a $500 credit with Transat that has to be used by Feb 24th. Thought I would use the credit to fly to Orlando end Nov. They don't fly to MCO from Ottawa, but decent prices out of Montreal, but now I'm looking at either $200 for "stay and fly" hotel or $120 in airport parking. It is actually less expensive for me to fly from Ogdensburg on Allegiant than it is for me to use a $500 credit to fly from Montreal.

The real disappointment is that even with a great deal on condo rental, with our lousy exchange rate right now my "cheap" trip to use up my credit is going to end up at $2500 out of pocket, minimum. Car rental is pricing out at $400 CDN, Universal 1 day "park to park" is $500 CDN for two tickets. We love the theme parks all decorated for Christmas and first week of December is our favourite time to go, but the reality is that I can book a week at the end of January at our favourite resort in Cuba, flying out of Ottawa, and pay less than $800 out of pocket for the two of us (because I have $900 in AirMiles travel certificates I cashed out in Dec and can use them in addition to my $500 credit).

At this point I can't justify spending that much more out of pocket. I won't make any decisions now and will hope that our dollar improves and car rental prices come back down to earth closer to our travel dates.

My DNiece was in a similar position after using Transat for her destination wedding package. She wound up driving to YUL, using one of the multi-day parking lots, and flying to Tampa (?) to visit her parents for a week.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Have you tried pricing out packages to Orlando for that time period? They aren't available from Ottawa but there are several from Montreal. This still leaves you needing to pay for the parking/hotel overnight but you can still use your Airmiles vouchers and the credit this way and it would cover both flight AND accommodations . Currently for Nov 29th there are options from $1200 pp for the All Star Sports which would eliminate a car if Disney is what you want to focus on. If Universal is your focus (since you mention the price of tickets) there is a brand new hotel opening this summer that includes the early park admission and "stuff" , their calling it their first "value resort on property" Endless Summer Surfside Inn & Suites and a week there (including your airfare) sits around $1000 pp

Next question, do you have any extra airmiles kicking around? If so you could look at using those for a few things
Hotel the night before your flight
Car rental in Florida (not sure why but you did mention it) starting around 1720 miles and $73 USD taxes
Tickets for Universal, 1 day park-to-park tickets are currently 2500 miles (they often have specials on multi-day tickets but the current ones expire end of June)

 

[bankr63]

Woudn't the parking be a wash either way? We still pay to park at YOW, or Uber (was over $100 for us in March incl. both ways since parking was full at airport).

If you have a drive to YOW, maybe they could drive you to YUL too? Okay, that might be asking a lot unless you know them really well, or they're your own kid...

 

[Chickinvic]

Woudn't the parking be a wash either way? We still pay to park at YOW, or Uber (was over $100 for us in March incl. both ways since parking was full at airport).

If you have a drive to YOW, maybe they could drive you to YUL too? Okay, that might be asking a lot unless you know them really well, or they're your own kid...

Uber from our place (Fallowfield Village - near South Kanata) to YOW is $20-$25. Way cheaper than parking at the airport (which I would never even consider doing).

 

[Chickinvic]

We used Valair Inc. Self Park (YUL) when we flew out of Montreal last year (flight to Ireland). For 9 days it was $106 after taxes (about $89 before taxes). This includes them driving you to and from the airport which is very close.

 

[bankr63]

Uber from our place (Fallowfield Village - near South Kanata) to YOW is $20-$25. Way cheaper than parking at the airport (which I would never even consider doing).

Interesting we are similar distance from airport (Beacon Hill). Went back to my history and I did overstate a bit - rides were $87.00 (before tip). I forgot that we took and XL on the way there. We had a lot of luggage so paid the extra $20 for the bigger SUV. Was too big a difference on the way home so we just crammed into a regular Uber X. So I guess would have only been around $70 if we had taken Uber X both ways.
Still prefer to park at the airport; not THAT expensive, and your car is waiting when you get there, no matter what time that is.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Rentals should come down. Keep checking prices and don't lock in. If you have a Costco card, try the Costco site for rentals. If you have the exec card , you'll get 2% of your rental back at the end of the year.

Can you use Air Transat to Cuba? That would solve your problems.

Also, going to any of the parks is never cheap. You have to look at it as the vacation you want, not the vacation just to use something up. If it's not what you want, don't do it. Like you said, spending $2500 to save $500 isn't really saving.

An example, we flew into MCO on the Wed before spring break and out the Monday after, took our kids out of school for it to "save" $800. Guess what I spent on hotels, car rental and park tickets to "save" on airfare, lol. But we ticked off a couple of "must do" items, so it was worth the extra money. If it had just been to save the airfare, it would have been wasted.

Good luck.

 

[FayeW]

The car rental price I quoted was with Costco, and the price for the Cuba all-inclusive was with Transat out of Ottawa, so I was using the $500 credit + $900 in travel certificates that I redeemed from airmiles before they switched over to Redtag.

We could look at packages for Orlando from Montreal, which would solve our problem, sort of, except we were looking a 2 bdrm "resort" style accommodations (Orange Lake) as we were planning on having friends join us. Still unknown whether they will be able to make the trip from the UK, so I am leaning to booking Cuba.

 

[FayeW]

Woudn't the parking be a wash either way? We still pay to park at YOW, or Uber (was over $100 for us in March incl. both ways since parking was full at airport).

If you have a drive to YOW, maybe they could drive you to YUL too? Okay, that might be asking a lot unless you know them really well, or they're your own kid...

Parking at the "Park and Fly" at YOW usually costs us about $80 for the week, but the last few trips we just had our son drop us off and pick us up.

 

[FigmentSpark]

The car rental price I quoted was with Costco, and the price for the Cuba all-inclusive was with Transat out of Ottawa, so I was using the $500 credit + $900 in travel certificates that I redeemed from airmiles before they switched over to Redtag.

We could look at packages for Orlando from Montreal, which would solve our problem, sort of, except we were looking a 2 bdrm "resort" style accommodations (Orange Lake) as we were planning on having friends join us. Still unknown whether they will be able to make the trip from the UK, so I am leaning to booking Cuba.

If you decide to go to Orlando, keep checking the car rental prices. They change, especially within the 2-3 months before the rental. I've seen prices drop in half one month before renting.

 

[FayeW]

Have you tried pricing out packages to Orlando for that time period? They aren't available from Ottawa but there are several from Montreal. This still leaves you needing to pay for the parking/hotel overnight but you can still use your Airmiles vouchers and the credit this way and it would cover both flight AND accommodations . Currently for Nov 29th there are options from $1200 pp for the All Star Sports which would eliminate a car if Disney is what you want to focus on. If Universal is your focus (since you mention the price of tickets) there is a brand new hotel opening this summer that includes the early park admission and "stuff" , their calling it their first "value resort on property" Endless Summer Surfside Inn & Suites and a week there (including your airfare) sits around $1000 pp

Next question, do you have any extra airmiles kicking around? If so you could look at using those for a few things
Hotel the night before your flight
Car rental in Florida (not sure why but you did mention it) starting around 1720 miles and $73 USD taxes
Tickets for Universal, 1 day park-to-park tickets are currently 2500 miles (they often have specials on multi-day tickets but the current ones expire end of June)

Thank you for the suggestion to look a little closer at packages for Orlando on Transat, particularly for the Endless Summer Resort at Universal. I can actually get a 2 bdrm suite for $1189 per person, so with our credit and airmile certificates, we'd be in Orlando with accommodation big enough for our friends to join us for just under $1000 out of pocket costs. Of course we'd still need to pay airport parking, rental car and ticket costs but I think I could keep it closer to $2K total I was looking for.