Outside Of The Box Travel Tips

Thought I would take a minute to put up a post for anyone back home in the border towns (Kingston, Ottawa etc), possibly looking for cheap flights down south this winter and have some flexibility in your travel dates. American Airlines has a sale on until midnight (27 Nov 12), for travel to select locations between 03 Dec and 07 Mar 13.

I know many travellers in Ontario are already used to searching for Syracuse flights to Florida (in which there don't seem to be any on this particular sale), but you may also want to keep in mind that there is a small airport in Watertown as well (ART is the airport code). It has quite a few Jan-Feb departures on sale to Tampa (TPA). Same as any flight search though, always try and look for mid week (Tuesday-Tuesday type thing). I did a few random searches and there still seems to be some availability on most mid week flights in Jan-Feb, again the sale ends tomorrow.

Here are a few quick examples of what a short drive or change in airport might mean to your wallet.

A family of 4 travelling on 19 -26 Feb 2013 from Kingston to Tampa, would pay $2596 (inc tax) on Expedia.ca (at the time I last checked at least). Same family jumps in the car for an hour, departs out of Watertown instead (with the exact same vacation dates) and pays $940 (inc tax) under that sale. Driving a little bit further to Syracuse (SYR) most times can almost always bring significant savings as well though. Let’s say you need to wait until Spring Break instead, and we use 12-19 Mar as our new dates. The same family of 4 now pays $987 Syracuse to Tampa even during a busy season. That said though, Toronto usually has pretty consistent pricing to Florida too (and is only about 3 hrs from Kingston). Flights for Orlando (MCO) may be a little cheaper from there on Delta Air lines.

Rental cars in Florida – with the high volume of tourists, the car rental rates tend to be somewhat lower here than elsewhere. You will also likely find that most car rental companies tend to be a bit more flexible with the drop off/pick up cities as well. Very common for someone to rent a car in one city (Orlando for example) and then return it in another (Tampa). Depending on what time of year it is, it may even be cheaper to do so.

When you’re checking car rentals rates, make sure you check the surrounding cities as well, doing so may save you a substantial amount. I remember a few years back, I had to fly down to Florida on short notice when my wife’s mom took ill. I was living in Ottawa at the time, and both my wife and daughter were already down here. I was pretty lucky with the last minute searching though, and managed to score a Jet Blue flight from Syracuse New York to Orlando for under $200. Gravity started to reapply to the situation though once I discovered that the normal $200-300 per week for a car rental was suddenly $1200-1400 for some reason. On a hunch I figured I would shop around on different sites and check Tampa prices as well, and man was glad I did! I had to go outside of the airport terminal a bit (a shuttle picked me up) but I was able to get a mid size car for under $200 as well (they did get me on the loan shark insurance though). A couple of trips before that, both my wife and I had accidents down here within a two week span, yep awesome! Apparently lost my sense of humour with it and wasn’t taking the chance again I guess!

That said, timing can mean everything in Florida! Since many students from around the United States (Canada too) travel here for spring break, the allotted time frame from one school break to another can be staggered anywhere from mid Feb until mid April. Throw in The Daytona 500 (2nd or 3rd week of Feb) or Daytona Bike Week (end Feb/ early Mar) or Easter weekend (end Mar/ early Apr), and it can definitely re-enforce the supply and demand concept! If there is a fair size city close to where you are going, and less is happening there during the same time frame, you might be better off renting a car there (even if the flight costs a little more). In my case (my wife’s family is from Tampa) she just borrowed a car and picked me up in Orlando. Yes, there is usually a little bit of effort and inconvenience that comes with any great amount of real savings when travelling, but sometimes you do have to way it out and make that extra effort (mind you much of the time, if there is only one person travelling, it will hardly be worth the while)!

Be sure to keep a look out for the next rant: When and Why use an Agent Robbie Bulger – The Florida Canuck