keith_l

Can anyone give me some pointers towards some more of the US budget carriers similar to those above and to Easyjet / Ryanair in Europe? I'm looking into my holidays for next year and think I can get a better deal from Glasgow to Orlando by flying to NYC or other main destination then getting a cheap flight south. Any suggestions?

etc0414

Keith; Jet Blue is the best budget airline I have ever flown. NYC (JFK) is their base and one can fly to Florida from there or non stop to Long Beach, CA or San Diego, CA. JB flies to a lot of FL cities; I don't know which you are interested in. If you are overweight, Southwest has a reputation of requiring a purchase of an extra seat; they can be porky about this. An article in the paper reported this fact.

Owen_ONeill

Jet Blue and Southwest are good, as is Air Tran. Trans-Meridian is a new budget carrier that flies from the northeast to Florida and Las Vegas but they're just starting up - no reports yet. Delta is starting a budget line of their own to run these routes - will be called Song and it's also just starting out. Avoid ATA, also known as American Trans Air - they are a charter ailrine masqurading as a scheduled airline and often show up as the cheapest fair on Orbitz searches. I had a horrible experience flying with them and when I posted here to report it, the majority of responses were from people who'd had similar bad experiences.

Gretchen

Orlando is served by an immense number of carriers including Ryan. Whether it will be cheaper to fly to NYC and then to Fla. is problematic. Google for Orlando airport and see the carriers. ATA is a cheap airline--but it is an airline.

Owen_ONeill

My reason for mentioning that they are a charter airline acting like a scheduled airline is because that fact explains why they sometimes have lengthy delays. They're at the bottom of the pecking order for take-off and landing rights, they frequently have no back upo planes available - if your plane needs repair you just wait for it to be fixed, and if they have to cancel a flight they have no sharing arrangements with major carriers - they can't put you on another airline to get you home - you wait for another one of their flights.

In their defense, I spoke with someone who flew them every month from Denver to Chicagop and rarely had a problem but I also know someone who used them to Europe and had to spend an extra two days in France at his own expense waiting until they had a working plane with seats available to get him home. Caveat emptor.

swalter518

We regularly fly ATA and Southwest from Chicago to Orlando and have had great luck with both price and dependability. They are no frills, but it's a short flight from NYC. I prefer ATA because they actually assign you a seat whereas Southwest has the boarding cattle call where seats assignments are first come, first serve.

gortmara

Hi,
I flew Jet Blue last year from JFK to Buffalo- they were better than any low budget airline OR regular airline that I've ever flown. Very efficient and friendly. Would definitely fly with them again.