Flying to Jacksonville, Florida in March 2008 from Toronto. Where is the cheapest city to fly into in Florida?

September 23, 2007 6:02 PM

Flying to Jacksonville, Florida in March 2008 from Toronto. Where is the cheapest city to fly into in Florida? Also, when do airline seat sales tend to pop up?

I have been checking flights in various cities in Florida and I have noticed that the ticket price varies by a lot depending on what airport I am flying into. I don't mind flying to a city a couple hours or so from Jacksonville if it will save me money.

Is there any way I can find out the cheapest cities to fly into in Florida? For instance, I have noticed that it is about $125 cheaper to fly into Daytona than Orlando at the moment.

Also, if I am flying in March when should I book my flight?

Will a travel centre be able to help me with more info?

posted by 20something to travel & transportation (12 comments total)

Fly into Daytona Beach if it's affordable. It's very pleasant. Daytona Beach airport is not crowded in the least. In 5 minutes you can be on the interstate. It's an hour drive to JAX.

You may want to try Sanford.

Sorry, I'm of no help when it comes to the right time to find cheap tickets.
posted by LoriFLA at 6:08 PM on September 23, 2007

Apologies, Sanford doesn't seem to serve Canada at this time.
posted by LoriFLA at 6:12 PM on September 23, 2007

I find http://www.kayak.com/ is very useful for finding cheapest fares etc - it lets you find out cheapest fares and changes / etc quickly and easily

It's got all sorts of features that you can use to find cheapest destinations etc - graphs of prices, etc

Hope that helps you :)
posted by philsi at 6:36 PM on September 23, 2007

March is Spring Break season. While it might be cheaper to fly into Daytona vs. Jax right now, I'll bet it's quite the opposite when every high school student in the nation is flocking there to get their drunk on.

"Peak" season in Orlando is mid-February through the end of March, if Disney's resort rates are any guide. This would lead me to believe that airfares into Orlando would be similarly priced (i.e. more expensive) to take advantage of the increased demand.

Given these two variables and the timing of your visit, your best bet *might* be flying right into Jacksonville. You might also check Tampa, though that's a bit of a hike (~4 hour drive?).

I think you have some time to weigh your options. You can probably keep checking fares up until about Christmas time. You may also want to consider taking a short-hop flight into the US from Canada, and picking up a discount carrier from there (Southwest for example -- they fly into most of the FL airports).
posted by brain cloud at 6:45 PM on September 23, 2007

"get their drunk on" is an awesome expression.

Tampa's more like 5 hours to Jax. And totally fly into Daytona if it's one of the cheaper.

also, i would way recommend never having anything to do with Orlando's airport, cheap tickets aside, that airport SUCKS.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 7:04 PM on September 23, 2007

Allegiant Air would be another super deep discount carrier to look into. In June I flew from Tennessee to Sanford/Orlando for $39

Allegiant also flies into Tampa/St Petersburg as mentioned by brain cloud
posted by meeshell at 7:17 PM on September 23, 2007

Farecast.com
posted by zacharyseibert at 7:55 PM on September 23, 2007

Tampa's more like 5 hours to Jax.

Is this a metric hour, or some other non-standard hour I'm unaware of? At a very lesiurely pace Tampa is 4 hours from Jax. In my near monthly trips between the two cities over the past 10 years the drive takes me roughly 3.5 hours. My personal best time is just shy of 3 hours in the dead of the night.

In a modification on brainclouds idea, you may want to drive into Buffalo and catch a flight from there to Jax. You can get a ticket 220 bucks USian.
posted by nulledge at 8:48 PM on September 23, 2007

If you don't mind commuting a bit, Buffalo, NY to Jacksonville, FL is $99 US/CAD on JetBlue, or $239 return, tax included. Plenty of Toronto->Buffalo rideshares available on Craigslist.
posted by limon at 10:06 PM on September 23, 2007

It's an hour drive to JAX.

It's about double that.

You'd be better off avoiding Pearson altogether rather than avoiding JIA.
posted by oaf at 5:00 AM on September 24, 2007

It's about double that.

OK, It's about an hour and a half, not two.
posted by LoriFLA at 5:37 AM on September 24, 2007

Thank you everyone for your help!!

I think my best bet is driving into Buffalo (only 1.5-2 hours from Toronto) and then booking the $99 USD flight on jetblueairways (MUCH cheaper than the $500+ flights leaving Pearson). This will save me a ton of cash.
posted by 20something at 7:00 AM on September 24, 2007