who drives to states to fly ?

[Disdad35]

Who drives to Buffalo or Detroit to fly to Orlando ? Certainly is cheaper. What airlines would you recommend or stay away from - looked up flights from Detroit and got Spirit and Northwest for $157 US incl. taxes - sure saves a lot over AC from Toronto.

 

[grover]

Well I am not in your neck of the woods however we did drive from Wpg to Minneapolis to save on flights-we saved 1600.00 dollars doing this-AC wanted 850.00 per ticket, I was able to get 3 tickets on delta for just over 200.00 each!!! I have no problem doing a 7 hour drive to save that kind of money-even after you figured in our gas and one hotel night it was still a good savings. Plus we got to visit Mall of America!
Grover in Winnipeg

 

[sammi]

We're also Hamiltonians and this past March flew out of Buffalo with Southwest Airlines and loved it and would fly again out of Buffalo. We are taxed to death when we fly from Canada.

I found Southwest to be great with super staff and the ease of flying out of Buffalo instead of Toronto was fantastic.

We had our DS drive us to Grimsby (my best friend lives there) and we caught the Niagara Air Bus from her home to the airport. No problems. Southwest also has curbside check-in which really made the process of checking in much easier.

I really can't see us flying out of Toronto again and hope one day to fly out of Mount Hope!

 

[cabmom]

We are flying out of Buffalo next month. It will be our first time, my sisters second trip. I've only heard good things about it. We are flying SW and got seats for $150US each.

 

[PoohBWV]

We always use Detroit, Toronto is just too far from here. Usually fly Spirit or Northwest.

 

[CdnDisneyNut]

Have not before; but thinking on doing on my next trip. Tired of payiing all those taxes. But would it be cheaper if I end up needing to book a hotel room for a night and pay for parking.

 

[Louise-Montreal]

I have flown from Albany, NY to Orlando with Southwest and will be flying from Burlington, VT to Orlando with Jetblue in March.

Last March we drove to NYC from Montreal for a $69.00 one way ($138.00 rt) for each of us to Orlando. Would not do that again!! This year we are flying from Burlington (an hour drive) for $198.00 rt. Cannot beat those prices and customs is so much easier!!

 

[Jo-Anne]

We are going to use Buffalo in November for the first time...AC from Toronto just too much money. Sammi - can you tell me more about the Buffalo airport....is there express check in or curbside checkin? How early did you get to the airport? Long Security checks? Thanks, Jo

 

[Disdad35]

Can you fly non-stop out of Buffalo ? For us, with 2 little ones, it makes a difference and we could do either Buffalo or Detroit from here.

 

[bmt337]

I don't if this is any help to you or not, but we have flown the last three times to Florida out of Bangor, Maine. We flew out of Canada with Canada 3000 and it cost $588.00 CDN. (taxes in) out of Moncton, NB. We have flown out of Bangor for $350.00 CDN. per person (taxes in). A saving of $238.00 CDN. per person. There were five of us. I'm flying out in October and I have every intention of flying out of the states again. I've never taken a passport and have never had any problem with taking my drivers license (picture on it) and birth certificate as ID. They don't get dinged for the high airport taxes we do here in Canada. If you can it might be worth your while. I book all our flights with expedia.ca or with yahoo.ca (travel section). If you use the yahoo one. Make sure to scroll to the bottom of the screen where it will say Best Fares . Type in the airport codes. You can find them via the internet. I find the fares cheaper going to best fares than using the method at the top of the flight screen. Have no explanation for this. If I can be of any more help, let me know.

 

[sammi]

Jo-Anne there is curbside check-in for Southwest and it was very easy to use. The Niagara Air Bus dropped us off right at the curb where there is a SW "stand" set up. We showed our ID's to the guy (we used passports) and the skycap promised not to send our bags to Afghanistan. We also tipped the skycap a few dollars. You may also go inside and check-in the old way too but we found the lines to be a little long and we were glad to use the curbside check-in.We then proceeded to security where the line looked really bad but within about 5 minutes we had gone through and made our way to the departure lounge where we bought coffee and tea and sat back and enjoyed our Timmie's muffins(picked them up on the way to the airport!) and watched the television that was there. All in all a really easy checkin. Jo-Anne, we got to the airport about 1 1/2 to 2 hours before our flight and we were given "A" boarding passes and ended up being the 5th and 6th passengers boarding and got exactly the seats we wanted both going and returning.

Disdad35 SW has one direct flight each day leaving at about 7:30AM and my DH didn't want to make connecting flights either, so we took the early morning flight and if I remember correctly our direct flight home left MCO at about 10:30.

You can't beat their fares especially without all those darned CND taxes and surcharges that are tacked onto CND flights.

 

[dsneygirl]

We always fly from Buffalo. Unfortunately for our Oct trip the fares weren't as cheap as they have been but this past week AirTran had a 2 day online sale and you could do Buffalo to Orlando for $49 USD each way.

Air Tran does not have direct (must go through Atlanta) but Southwest does.

These are both real no-frills airlines, no meal, no movie. But the flight is only about 2 and a half hours.

 

[Tink42]

We also go to Buffalo for our flights now. Cheaper and easier navigation thru the airport. We are currently waiting for Southwest to come out with our dates in March.

 

[Jo-Anne]

Sammi - thanks for all the info....did you receive your boarding cards (A B or C) at the curbside check-in, or did you have to go through security and get them in the departure lounge desk? Thanks, Jo

 

[MikeJ]

We're in Orlando right now, and flew Air Tran out of Flint, MI. Flint's a little over 2 hrs from London (we cross the border at the Bluewater Bridge in Sarnia). Direct, non-stop flights (all of Air Tran's other flights go through Atlanta) with great times. Total cost for the four of us was US$860, although if you were patient I saw them as low at $650 after we'd booked. Flint's airport is very small compared to DTW or YYZ (8 gates, I think) and extremely easy to navigate. On-site economy parking is US$25/week and there's a no-frills Econo Lodge right across the street.

We will definitely look at this option again for our next trip.

- Mike

 

[sammi]

Hi Jo-Anne We received our boarding pass right away at curbside check-in.

Once you go through Buffalo airport you'll notice that this airport is much less complicated and very straight forward much more so than YYZ!

 

[DSNY FN]

When we fly down we drive to Detroit it is much easier you cross the bridge and customs there and it is now a domestic flight so much easier at the airport. It is also alot cheaper to fly out of the US even with the exchange and the gas for the drive to either airport.

 

[TimNDansMom]

We flew SWA from Buffalo last week for our mini trip to Florida. It was a good test run for my October trip too! We stayed at the Quality Inn across the street from the airport and took their shuttle over. We got a hotel/park rate of $99 US for up to 14 days. We didn't use the curbside check-in but there was no one at the ticket counter. We arrived no more that 1 1/2 hours before our flight so I was pleasantly surprised there were no line-ups. As sammi said, the security lines look daunting but, we were through in no time. We were given B boarding passes but had no problem finding seats we were happy with plus we ended up with an empty seat between us!

 

[Jo-Anne]

Julie - thanks for the eyewitness report on the airport! Sounds like it should be pretty smooth! Our DS will be 4 years old at time of our trip and DD 7...do they still allow preboarding with a certain age of child? What did you think about the Quality Inn? Did they have an indoor pool? How was the shuttle to airport? We are thinking about the Homewood Suites as I've stayed with them on business and they are well maintained...did you see the location of Homewood? Thanks, Jo

 

[sammi]

Jo-Anne I'm pretty sure that families with children 4 and under may pre-board so it looks like you'll all get your choice of seats!

Make sure when you get to the departure lounge you tell the Southwest rep at the counter that you need a pre-boarding pass and she'll arrange everything for you.