FAQ: Flying Out of Buffalo OR Detroit

[son3disfan]

Thanks! I have read through some of the thread and you are right, there is some very useful information there already. I was just hoping for some more up to date info since most of the entries date back a few years.

Not much changes...maybe some new hotels in the area...

The three airlines that have non-stop flights out of Buffalo are( in order of my favorite!)

Jetblue
Southwest
AIRTRAN

You can check their websites for the best deals and compare prices out of Toronto. Right now, Jetblue has some pretty high fares for 2012...The highest we have ever paid. But they are a great airline.

 

[Trinityloo]

Not much changes...maybe some new hotels in the area...

The three airlines that have non-stop flights out of Buffalo are( in order of my favorite!)

Jetblue
Southwest
AIRTRAN

You can check their websites for the best deals and compare prices out of Toronto. Right now, Jetblue has some pretty high fares for 2012...The highest we have ever paid. But they are a great airline.

That`s exactly the type of input I am looking for! I don`t have experience with those airlines, so it`s good to know which are reliable. When I checked the prices for Jetblue today, they are $1100 cheaper than flying out from Toronto on Canjet!!! And you say that this is the highest you have ever paid?!!!! I should have looked into this 3 trips ago. Thanks again for your help!

 

[son3disfan]

That`s exactly the type of input I am looking for! I don`t have experience with those airlines, so it`s good to know which are reliable. When I checked the prices for Jetblue today, they are $1100 cheaper than flying out from Toronto on Canjet!!! And you say that this is the highest you have ever paid?!!!! I should have looked into this 3 trips ago. Thanks again for your help!

In 2009 we paid $548 for 5 roundtrip, non stop flights. That is the total price for 5 people....that was on Spirit airlines out of Detroit. Not a fan of Spirit. Super budget airlines, and not very reliable.

Jetblue has tvs, 1 free checked bag, no fee to pick a seat , and free drinks/ snacks. Also if the price goes down, they will give you a Jetblue credit to spend on another flight within a year.

Southwest has no change fees as well ( you can change your flight / day / time for credit or a new flight) , and free checked bag. You can pay $10 per person for early priority check in, otherwise, if you dont want to pay that, you can check in 24 hours before the flight, and you get an A ,B , or C boarding pass, to which you line up to board ( this is why I like Jetblue
better ). Southwest s a great airline though.
AIRTRAN you need to pay $6.00 per person for seats and $20 a checked bag.sometimes you will see a low fare, but keep in mind to add those things in to the fare....they usually work out the same as Southwest ( which just bought out AIRTRAN).There fares change constantly, ( ths has been our experience) and on many occasions, non stop flights are changed to layovers...
Again, this is why I choose Jetblue as our fav.

All three offer nonstop to MCO which is a must for us.
We usually pay anywhere from $89 to $99 each way, nonstop. The days of $59 fares are gone.....
We are travelling at a peak time this year, March break and are laying $159 there and $139 return. Again, the most we have ever paid, but it s peak time and fares have increased this year.
Still way cheaper then out of YYz. Or anywhere in Canada for that matter.

Hope that helps.

 

[Trinityloo]

Thanks so much son3disfan!

 

[WannabeCinderella]

I live in Toronto. I have never flown to Orlando from here, but have done so from both Buffalo and Rochester many times. We go during the New Year's week or March Break, prime time highest prices. On average, we pay less for our entire tickets flying from Rochester, than just the tax cost from Toronto. The price from Buffalo is half of Toronto. The price from Rochester is half of Buffalo. I know that the Niagara falls airport (Direct air) is the absolute cheapest and closest to Canada. However, it usually sells out the prime time weeks 4 to 6 months in advance.

 

[WannabeCinderella]

If you visit kayak.com , you can check multiple airlines easily for many dates, for both Buffalo and Rochester. It is my favourite website. You can also find car rentals in Orlando. Some trips, we drove directly from Toronto to Buffalo or Rochester. However, the last couple of times, we drove over the night before because we didn't want to take a chance of missing our flight. All it takes is one fender-bender accident on the highway, to bring traffic to a standstill, and you can miss your flight. Also, you can't always predict the line ups at the border. We also found it to be CHEAPER to stay a night at the hotel than to park at the airport, and parking is cheap! Hotels will give you free hot breakfast, free parking for the week, and free shuttle to and from the airpport, all for less than the cost of park and fly.

 

[sue_gowin]

If you visit kayak.com , you can check multiple airlines easily for many dates, for both Buffalo and Rochester. It is my favourite website. You can also find car rentals in Orlando. Some trips, we drove directly from Toronto to Buffalo or Rochester. However, the last couple of times, we drove over the night before because we didn't want to take a chance of missing our flight. All it takes is one fender-bender accident on the highway, to bring traffic to a standstill, and you can miss your flight. Also, you can't always predict the line ups at the border. We also found it to be CHEAPER to stay a night at the hotel than to park at the airport, and parking is cheap! Hotels will give you free hot breakfast, free parking for the week, and free shuttle to and from the airpport, all for less than the cost of park and fly.

This is so true!! We've always flown out of Detroit on their first flight of the day, so we've had to spend the night. We've been staying at the same hotel for years, and it's so much less stressful than wondering if you're going to make it on time!

 

[phabric]

When we went to Disney flying out of Buffalo in August, it took us nearly 5 hours due to traffic from our house near the Toronto airport to our hotel across from the Buffalo airport. It was 1 1/2 hours (alone) from the Duty Free store to the border. We were glad, we were staying the night near the airport and flying out the next day as we would have missed our flight.

 

[Trinityloo]

So we are still considering flying out of Buffalo for the first time, but my husband has concerns (besides driving in a potential snow storm) about what happens if your luggage is lost upon your return. Last year, a couple of our bags were lost on our way to Disney and this has made him a bit paranoid. Has this happened to anyone before? We are wondering if we would be responsible for the costs involved in having it sent to Toronto. Right now it is looking like it will save us $1000 if we fly out from Buffalo, so it is very tempting!

 

[webworm]

So we are still considering flying out of Buffalo for the first time, but my husband has concerns (besides driving in a potential snow storm) about what happens if your luggage is lost upon your return. Last year, a couple of our bags were lost on our way to Disney and this has made him a bit paranoid. Has this happened to anyone before? We are wondering if we would be responsible for the costs involved in having it sent to Toronto. Right now it is looking like it will save us $1000 if we fly out from Buffalo, so it is very tempting!

It has not happened to me but my sister got her luggage delivered to her from Syracuse to Ottawa the next day at no charge. We usually just take carry on luggage to avoid the extra fees and we have a washer and dryer at vacation home rental anyhow.

 

[Trinityloo]

Thanks Webworm! That will be a very helpful piece of info I can use to persuade my hubby into flying out of Buffalo.

 

[archdandy]

I've heard that it's cheaper to fly out of the states than from Canada. Is this true? And on average how much cheaper is it? I'm thinking about this for our trip in September.

 

[KNovacovschi]

I've heard that it's cheaper to fly out of the states than from Canada. Is this true? And on average how much cheaper is it? I'm thinking about this for our trip in September.

Last time we went it cost between $7-800 for 3 of us from Buffalo, from Toronto it would have cost about $2000. That was in 2007. I recently checked the prices for September 2012 and for the 3 of us out of Buffalo it will be $1078 where it would be $2400 from Toronto. I'm not sure where you live but for us the Buffalo airport is maybe an extra half hour drive, so worth it to save $1400.

Good Luck!!!!

 

[archdandy]

Last time we went it cost between $7-800 for 3 of us from Buffalo, from Toronto it would have cost about $2000. That was in 2007. I recently checked the prices for September 2012 and for the 3 of us out of Buffalo it will be $1078 where it would be $2400 from Toronto. I'm not sure where you live but for us the Buffalo airport is maybe an extra half hour drive, so worth it to save $1400.

Good Luck!!!!

Thank you! We live in south Ontario, about an hour and a half drive from Toronto and 3 and a half from Buffalo. But we might consider going to one of these other air ports if it can save us that much more money!

 

[sue_gowin]

Thank you! We live in south Ontario, about an hour and a half drive from Toronto and 3 and a half from Buffalo. But we might consider going to one of these other air ports if it can save us that much more money!

We live in London, and always fly out of Detroit. We always fly out first thing in the morning, and we book a fantastic "park, sleep and fly" hotel for the night before our flight. It's the Fairfield Inn and suites (we book through parksleepfly.com). We've done this several times and have loved it every time. Rooms are comfortable with flat screen tvs and great bathrooms. There's also a fun little pub next door where we have dinner once we check in. I recommend this to everyone I know!!!

 

[MikeJ]

To give you an idea of the taxes involved, we just flew out of Detroit using Delta frequent flier miles. The taxes-only total cost worked out to $4.95 each. Frequent flier flights out of Toronto would have been at least $150 taxes-only.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Hi guys..we always fly out of Buffalo and being in Niagara Falls, we never stay over night before because we are so close...we are considering it for Jan though just because of the weather. So, I was wondering if any of the hotels on the discount sites like hotwire, hotels.com etc, will let us park at the hotel for the week...or is it always extra for that perk? I don't see any info on the discount sites regarding park and fly. Thanks for any help!

 

[stuff-and-fluff]

I've heard that it's cheaper to fly out of the states than from Canada. Is this true? And on average how much cheaper is it? I'm thinking about this for our trip in September.

Flying out of Buffalo last week cost my bf and I $600 total. To fly out of Toronto, it would have been $1600

 

[canadiankim]

Hi guys..we always fly out of Buffalo and being in Niagara Falls, we never stay over night before because we are so close...we are considering it for Jan though just because of the weather. So, I was wondering if any of the hotels on the discount sites like hotwire, hotels.com etc, will let us park at the hotel for the week...or is it always extra for that perk? I don't see any info on the discount sites regarding park and fly. Thanks for any help!

We flew out of Buffalo in October for a quick trip to Washington DC and booked rooms at the Best Western on stay123.com and that included our parking. the hotel is just across the road from the airport and took less than 5 minutes to get there.

We fly out to Orlando in May 2012 from Detroit and will be driving down the night before and this time we booked our hotel The Baymont via parksleepfly.com and this too included our parking.

 

[thebigman65]

The first few times we went to Orlando, we flew out of Toronto.....last March, we decided to go out of Bufflao because the flight costs were at least 1/3 of what is cost to go out of Toronto. We will never fly out of Toronto again unless we get an absolute awesome deal.....which doesn't seem to happen.

We usually stay at the Marriot....it's about a 15-20 min drive to the airport, but much cheaper and nicer than the hotels across from the airport....like all the others, you park, sleep, and Fly!