Flights to Florida Dilemma

[Crusenjohn]

If you have booked less than 24 hours ago, you can cancel with NO penalty. $ 160 will buy a couple of taxi rides. As soon as you cancel, return and rebook. I did this last week.

[Crusenjohn]

If you have booked less than 24 hours ago, you can cancel with NO penalty. $ 160 will buy a couple of taxi rides. As soon as you cancel, return and rebook. I did this last week.

[Crusenjohn]

Sorry for the duplicate post.

[xcell]

8 hours ago, Crusenjohn said:

If you have booked less than 24 hours ago, you can cancel with NO penalty. $ 160 will buy a couple of taxi rides. As soon as you cancel, return and rebook. I did this last week.

 

 

Yup and I can do it online so I don't need to wait on hold forever to cancel. 

 

Thanks again for your input -- I ended up booking directly with Westjet and return ticket from YYZ to MIA -- crossing fingers its a go, I really need this trip.

[iancal]

We always price fares as single tickets and return.  We look at flights into FLL, MIA, and PBI.

 

No need to book return on the same airline.

[GeriatricNurse]

10 hours ago, iancal said:

We always price fares as single tickets and return.  We look at flights into FLL, MIA, and PBI.

 

No need to book return on the same airline.

I priced flights YYZ - FLL, return with AC and WJ, and it was far less cost, booking flights both ways with AC than 'combo'/'single' flights!  WJ is far more expensive than AC!

[iancal]

8 hours ago, GeriatricNurse said:

I priced flights YYZ - FLL, return with AC and WJ, and it was far less cost, booking flights both ways with AC than 'combo'/'single' flights!  WJ is far more expensive than AC!

Airline prices are only prices at a given point in time.  We have booked both ways to FLL.   Return and one ways.  

 

Does not surprise me the WJ is more expensive.  We live in Western Canada.  People here seem to think that WJ is a better airline and is less expensive than AC. 

 

 I have had many, many flights on both.  Business and pleasure.  My experience is that one is no better than the other and the popular notion that WJ is is low cost carrier is nonsense.

 

 They were during their first few years of operations...especially when AC  operated their their ill fated Tango product.   You certainly cannot count on them being less expensive any more except perhaps on new routes that they are trying to penetrate.

Edited November 14, 2021 by iancal

[Magicat]

6 minutes ago, iancal said:

Airline prices are only prices at a given point in time.  We have booked both ways to FLL.   Return and one ways.  

 

Does not surprise me the WJ is more expensive.  We live in Western Canada.  People here seem to think that WJ is a better airline and is less expensive than AC. 

 

 I have had many, many flights on both.  Business and pleasure.  My experience is that one is no better than the other and the popular notion that WJ is is low cost carrier is nonsense.

 

 They were during their first few years of operations...especially when AC  operated their their ill fated Tango product.   You certainly cannot count on them being less expensive any more except perhaps on new routes that they are trying to penetrate.

Glad to hear you have had good experiences on WestJet.  Unfortunately we have had issues with 6 of our 8 flights (business and leasure) with them.  Customer service is crappy and as "owners" they really don't care about you.  Unless they are the only option, we would not fly on them. Just our opinion.

[xcell]

All airlines are the same, I am sure someone has a bad experience with them all.

 

As per the cost, WJ is higher now becaused they have limited flights out in comparison to AC.

 

I am crossing my fingers, that at least we can get down to Miami for the cruise.

 

Step #1 on a long road to get back to some sort of normal (or at least to get out of crazy Ontario)

[iancal]

2 hours ago, Magicat said:

Glad to hear you have had good experiences on WestJet.  Unfortunately we have had issues with 6 of our 8 flights (business and leasure) with them.  Customer service is crappy and as "owners" they really don't care about you.  Unless they are the only option, we would not fly on them. Just our opinion.

I did not say that I/we had particularly good experiences with WJ.  Our experience with WJ and AC has been the same.  The only constant has been inconsistency.   As good and as bad as each other based on our last flight with either.   Exact same for a team of people I worked with who were constantly traveling on both throughout Canada.

 

 We have no preference with one over the other because of this.  It comes down to price. They are both, at least for NA routes, nothing more than a glorified bus service.

 

 My spouse's last late booking  O/W flight from Calgary-Toronto on Flair was every bit as good, in her opinion, as any WJ, AC, or Transat flight economy seat that she has taken.  And she had many, as have I.

 

 The one difference was the O/W fare.  Flair was $210.  WJ and AC were in the high $400's for the same route, same day, same time.....shopped and .booked at the same time.  It is a bus route not a luxury flight.

Edited November 14, 2021 by iancal

[BatchawanaBabe]

Anyone who's flying into PBI or FLL can get to MIA (or vice versa) cheaply by using Tri Rail's train service. The cost used to be $6.90 one way weekdays and $5 on weekends.  The train goes directly into MIA airport and there's a shuttle from the West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale stations to their respective airports.  The trip takes around 90 minutes.  The Brightline train is also supposed to be operational soon.  From MIA, I'd take an Uber, airport limo or Port of Miami shuttle service.

 

We're snowbirds who have a condo near the Lake Worth station and find it convenient and inexpensive, especially compared to the cost of parking at the port.

[Fouremco]

We were early converts to WestJet, one of the first to get an RBC WestJet World Elite MasterCard with all of the perks, and found their routing, flights and staff to be excellent. Over time, however, more and more flights were routed through Toronto.

 

Today, there's not a single direct flight to FLL or MIA for a week either side of our next cruise, so I'm booked AC with direct flights both ways, arriving the day before and leaving the day after our cruise. Flight time is 3:34 with AC, while the shortest trip time with WestJet is more than double at 7:17.

 

It's not just Florida. A couple of years ago, we had a New England - Canada cruise starting in Boston and finishing in Montreal. We decided to drive to Montreal, fly to Boston and then drive back from Montreal, which we accomplished with a conveniently timed mid-day direct flight out of YUL with AC. The best WestJet could offer was YUL - YYZ - BOS, both more expensive and triple the travel time!

 

On a possibly humorous note, although I certainly didn't find it very funny at the time, DW and I had pre-ordered and paid for a meal on our last WestJet flight. When the cabin staff started handing them out, DW received hers but I didn't. The staff member said that she would check and bring it to me once she had finished delivering the meals on her cart. She returned empty handed a while later with a chagrinned look on her face. It turned out that the captain had been hungry, went to the galley and grabbed my meal. For some reason, he thought it was an "extra", or so he claimed. Worse, there were no extra meals on the plane, and all they could do is offer me bags of nuts. Needless to say, I was not very impressed.

 

While I will continue to look at all possibilities and options, my recent history with WestJet isn't very encouraging.

 

 

 

[GeriatricNurse]

3 hours ago, xcell said:

All airlines are the same, I am sure someone has a bad experience with them all.

 

As per the cost, WJ is higher now becaused they have limited flights out in comparison to AC.

 

I am crossing my fingers, that at least we can get down to Miami for the cruise.

 

Step #1 on a long road to get back to some sort of normal (or at least to get out of crazy Ontario)

WestJet also has FAR fewer planes than AC!

[iancal]

2 hours ago, GeriatricNurse said:

WestJet also has FAR fewer planes than AC!

It is all down to revenue maximization logarithms.   No different that what cruise lines do on each sailing to maximize revenue.  Supply and demand, simply a function of current and f;cast passenger load on each flight.