Flying DTW to FLL - need direct flight

[lyttleone1977]

Hi all, My family is flying to FLL from DTW in October. The plan was to fly on Spirit, which we may end up still doing, but our ship comes in on Sunday and their are no flights on Sunday. The next flight is Monday morning. I have looked into other flights from discount, but most of them have connections. I am traveling with my parents (my dad is not much of a flyer and my mom hates connections), my kids and my fiancee and none of them have ever flown (my fiancee is deathly afraid of airplanes and hates it when I fly). I am thinking that a direct flight would be the best for everyone. If it was me I wouldn't mine the connection since I can fly closer to home, but this isnt about me. Any advice?

[JJPNYC]

What about flying Northwest? If you're really big on Spirit, you could always buy one-way tickets, fly Spirit on the way down and then Northwest on the way back.

 

Or if you're set upon flying Spirit round-trip, staying an extra night in FLL at the end may be your only option. The plus side with that is that you don't have to rush getting off the ship and then can spend the extra day visiting Fort Lauderdale.

[lyttleone1977]

That may be an option, but I just looked at NWA prices for one way, FLL to DTW for next month, and they are $297!! Thats a lot of money times 6!

 

I know I shouldn't sound like I am being cheap, but we are spending a lot of money on this vacation, more then we can really afford. This is my fathers 66th birthday present from our family (we are lucky he is still with us, this past year has been a nightmare for our family because he had a stroke, but he has recovered 99.9%) and this is the only place in the world he wants to see, other then going back to Alaska but he refuses to cruise to do it. Anyways, we have booked him and my mom a suite, my family an interior down the hall from them, we are going down the day before so we are not rushed, and we know excursions are going to be an arm and a leg, especially in Panama because we are booking through the ship there. This is the one spot I really need to cut corners on as much as possible. We dont mind staying an extra day and coming home the next morning, but we need to investigate all of the options! luckily I still have 9 months to figure it out.

[JJPNYC]

To me it sounds like something needs to bend if you want to fly back on the day of debarkation. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do to change Spirit's flight schedule.

 

As an option, maybe you can look to see if Spirit is flying from West Palm Beach on your debarkation day. While it's a bit of a transfer from FLL, it shouldn't be too expensive if you get a van for your group for the drive up to PBI.

[DanJ]

What are the dates of your cruise? If I'm doing the math right with your ticker, you are sailing Oct 28-Nov 4, right? Spirit doesn't have any flights loaded into their system after Oct 31, but in checking the Sunday Oct 28th flights, there are 2 non-stops to DTW from FLL, so there is no reason to think they are getting rid of the Sunday flights after that date. They know what a big deal cruises are and aren't going to cut flights from one of the busiest cruise ports on the busiest port day.

 

I'm not sure when you plan on everyone flying to FLL (usually the day before is a good idea, but if money is an issue, then you will probably being going the morning of), but right now on the Spirit website, they have $89 fares for both Oct 27th and 28th non-stops flights. You could book those now, and book the return flights after the schedule is added, likely after Feb 1. You need 6 seats, so the chances of everyone getting the cheap fare diminish with each day. Even if you had to book with Northwest for the return, the total fare would still be less than if you booked the round trip on NWA. Plus there would be other airlines, such as Southwest and Airtran to look at when their schedules open up later.

[JustAGirl79]

I'm flying DTW to FLL direct in a week and a half (on a Sunday night). We're flying on AirTran, leaving DTW at 5:38 p.m. and arriving in FLL about three-hours later...it's a direct flight.

[lyttleone1977]

What are the dates of your cruise? If I'm doing the math right with your ticker, you are sailing Oct 28-Nov 4, right? Spirit doesn't have any flights loaded into their system after Oct 31, but in checking the Sunday Oct 28th flights, there are 2 non-stops to DTW from FLL, so there is no reason to think they are getting rid of the Sunday flights after that date. They know what a big deal cruises are and aren't going to cut flights from one of the busiest cruise ports on the busiest port day.

 

I'm not sure when you plan on everyone flying to FLL (usually the day before is a good idea, but if money is an issue, then you will probably being going the morning of), but right now on the Spirit website, they have $89 fares for both Oct 27th and 28th non-stops flights. You could book those now, and book the return flights after the schedule is added, likely after Feb 1. You need 6 seats, so the chances of everyone getting the cheap fare diminish with each day. Even if you had to book with Northwest for the return, the total fare would still be less than if you booked the round trip on NWA. Plus there would be other airlines, such as Southwest and Airtran to look at when their schedules open up later.

 

I dug a little further, and I dont know why I thought they didnt fly on Sunday - I think its because it was highlighted like the other dates (I promise I am not really a blond and not normally this ditzy). We are not planning on booking our airfare until we know the cruise is paid for so we dont back out at the last moment and lose that money since that is non-refundable. Then we are not going to get the cruise insurance until we get the airfare since then it will be after the final payment. I just hope we dont lose the good fare...

[jetexpress]

I think you will be just fine. On the travel site I use for booking, i am getting an $89 fare for Northwest and Airtran. I doubt Spirit would not fly on Sunday. Even if they don't Northwest and Airtran both have direct flights from FLL to DTW. I personally like Flight 231 on Airtran which leaves at 3:03. Gives you plenty of time to get to airport from the ship, check-in, grab a bite to eat, then wait for your flight. The XM radio on Airtran might help your husband's fear of flying as well.

[wrp96]

One thing about Spirit, I just saw a post that says they are changing their baggage policy starting Feb 10th. To me having to pay extra to have a 2nd checked bag for a cruise (especially with the fact that certain things can no longer be carried onboard the plane) would make me look at other airlines if all other factors are the same.

[lyttleone1977]

One thing about Spirit, I just saw a post that says they are changing their baggage policy starting Feb 10th. To me having to pay extra to have a 2nd checked bag for a cruise (especially with the fact that certain things can no longer be carried onboard the plane) would make me look at other airlines if all other factors are the same.

 

I saw the news story about it last night and posted the change from Spirits website on here. My mother (who is traveling with me) and I have already discussed it, and we both agreed we can do with "less this time". We can packs all of the kids clothes in one bag, versus having them each take one. If we plan it right, we will only have one extra bag on the flight home - full of everything we bought while gone!