# Bay Area (SFO/SJC) to Orlando (MCO), which airline?



## Denise L (Jan 6, 2010)

Hello, my DH thinks he wants to go to Walt Disney World in November 2010.  We've flown United (2005, 2006) and American (2008) from SFO/SJC to MCO.  All flights from the West seem painful going to Orlando.  Are there any "better" carriers for travel to Orlando?  

At some point just before Christmas, I was hoping to get a couple of FF tix, but I think I missed the American window to grab seats (??) since I haven't tried to use AA miles in quite some time.  Is there a secret to getting the 25K roundtrip flights that I should know about?  Is it like UA at 331 days out exactly, or is it easier than that?  Does AA hold FF seats while waiting for the return?

Revenue seats on AA are pricing out at $1110 right now, per person, x 4.  If those rates stay high, no way can we go! Yikes!


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## LisaH (Jan 6, 2010)

No idea about how to get FF tickets on AA (I'm a UA person), but there are direct flights from SFO to MCO on United at around $500/person currently for Thanksgiving week travel...


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## Icc5 (Jan 6, 2010)

*Stay out of Texas*

Good luck Denise.
We always fly out of San Jose or Oakland instead of SFO.  If you can avoid a lay-over in Texas do.  Each time we have flown to Florida we have been stuck there for at least 5 hours for many different reasons.  Usually we have it set up for a short change-over but then they have delays.  Last time we had 2 teens with us and were scheduled to land in Orlando at 7PM and didn't end up getting in till after midnight.  We finally got to our Orange Lake Unit at 2:45 AM.
Bart


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## Talent312 (Jan 6, 2010)

There's a nifty little program called Airline Route Mapper that you can download for free from http://arm.64hosts.com/ Highlight or click on an airport and it shows a map of every non-stop commercial flight from+to that airport. Click on a route, and it'll show you the airlines that fly that route, including code-shares. No fares, but who to check.


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## SuzanneSLO (Jan 6, 2010)

Denise L said:


> Hello, my DH thinks he wants to go to Walt Disney World in November 2010.  We've flown United (2005, 2006) and American (2008) from SFO/SJC to MCO.  All flights from the West seem painful going to Orlando.  Are there any "better" carriers for travel to Orlando?
> 
> At some point just before Christmas, I was hoping to get a couple of FF tix, but I think I missed the American window to grab seats (??) since I haven't tried to use AA miles in quite some time.  Is there a secret to getting the 25K roundtrip flights that I should know about?  Is it like UA at 331 days out exactly, or is it easier than that?  Does AA hold FF seats while waiting for the return?
> 
> Revenue seats on AA are pricing out at $1110 right now, per person, x 4.  If those rates stay high, no way can we go! Yikes!



I don't use AA miles for coach seats very often, but I have noticed that they seem to be releasing seats in a manner much more likely to maximize revenue than in the past.  As a result, at 330 days out when tickets are selling for $1100, few if any cheap seats will be released.  As time goes by and seats don't sell or there is a sale, more FF seats may be released.  For travel in the Fall (possibly excluding Thanskgiving), I find the best fares don't start coming available until August.

Also, all AA FF tickets are now issued on a one-way basis, so there is no longer any reason to hold your outgoing while waiting for return fligths to be released. However, you can still hold seats, but I beleive it is only for 5 days. 

Southwest also flies out of the Bay Area to MCO, but there are no nonstop flights.

If you travel conveniently from Sacramento, flights from that airport are sometimes cheaper, 'tho again, no non-stop flights.

Best of luck -- Suzanne


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## Denise L (Jan 6, 2010)

Thanks, everyone.  United does have some "cheaper" fares.  American prices are through the roof for similar itineraries.

So I found $492.80 each person, connecting on SJC-DEN-MCO flights.  Does anyone think fares will go down at all, or is it just too difficult to tell?

I really don't like airfare roulette!


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## Talent312 (Jan 6, 2010)

Well, perhaps you could fly Southwest for a little less with no luggage fees   (~$468 to August), but you'd have to wait, as they're only accepting reservations thru August 13th at this time.


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## LisaH (Jan 6, 2010)

Denise, if you don't mind flying Southwest, this may be a another option. With Southwest, you can easily refare the tickets and get a credit if the price goes down. You can even cancel and get a reusable credit if other airline happens to have a super cheapo deal later on...


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## Denise L (Jan 6, 2010)

Southwest sounds like a viable option.  Are the best fares available on the first day that seats are open?  Is there a trick to getting "cheap seats"?  I have never booked Southwest for anything but quick trips to Southern California, and that was eons ago.

FYI, I did find FF seats on AA for the return for 12.5K miles each x 4 of us (MCO-DFW-SFO).  They can hold them for 5 days while I figure out the most economical way to get to Orlando.  This is a nice feature on the AA site.  

It currently costs more to buy a one-way ticket on American than the full round-trip.  I liked the United fare, I suppose, but the flight was leaving earlier than I wanted.


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## Luanne (Jan 6, 2010)

Denise L said:


> Southwest sounds like a viable option.  Are the best fares available on the first day that seats are open?


Sometimes



> Is there a trick to getting "cheap seats"?


Book when the flights become available.  Then keep checking back to see if the fares have gone down.  You can subscribe to "Ding" which supposedly will notify you of lower fares, but for some reason I've never been able to load it successfully.  I do get emails from SW with special fare offerings, and when I get those I go in and check my existing reservations to see if any apply.  If they do, I change my existing flight and end up with a credit which I can use later on.  Since we fly SW quite a bit I'm always able to use the credits.


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