Best airline(s) to MCO from YVR?

[cinnamoroll]

WJ is the only one that flies direct YVR-MCO but only on Saturdays and the times aren't great. Which airlines do people prefer when flying YVR-MCO? Any chance AC or Porter will start flying this route direct?

 

[Lesverts]

Porter would be a hard no. They already have 3 hubs. All located within the corridor.

Air Canada operates between 6 and like 11 daily flights to MCO all from eastern airports that have Rouge. Only Pearson gets Air Canada flights and they only run October/November to March/April when Pearson goes to 4 daily services.

Connecting through Calgary or eastern Canada unfortunately is your best option. Or heading to SeaTac and flying Alaskan or Delta direct.

 

[I Run Long]

Going Alaska Airlines (which is what we're taking this time) or Delta is your best bet to YVR. You will have to change flights somewhere - usually SeaTac. We're used to non-direct flights since we fly out of YYJ (Victoria), and it allows us to stretch our legs. WJ is a PIA since they almost always seem to change your flights. On our last trip down in 2022, they changed our return flight 3 times! Each change they had us coming back not just at a different time, but on a different day - usually 1-2 days earlier. Ah, no thanks. After that trip, I decided not to fly with them again.

 

[ABCanada]

Not out of YVR but my philosophy when selecting a flight is:
First choice - Direct (for many reasons it needs to be pretty bad alternative for me not to not take the direct choice)
If connection necessary, for US destinations a US airline as the connection will be in the US so you will clear US customs in YVR reducing your connection time
Avoid weather on connections, a function of the time of year. So for a winter flight I would look for a more southern connection, for a late summer flight I might avoid a hurricane risk connection.
Avoid 'problem' airports and airlines. This changes overtime. Had a recent bad Delta experience so it would need to be a great flight or price for me to consider Delta at this time.
This is balanced with total flight time and cost.
The various flight search tools allow filter which makes this much easier.

 

[chimo2u]

Going Alaska Airlines (which is what we're taking this time) or Delta is your best bet to YVR. You will have to change flights somewhere - usually SeaTac. We're used to non-direct flights since we fly out of YYJ (Victoria), and it allows us to stretch our legs. WJ is a PIA since they almost always seem to change your flights. On our last trip down in 2022, they changed our return flight 3 times! Each change they had us coming back not just at a different time, but on a different day - usually 1-2 days earlier. Ah, no thanks. After that trip, I decided not to fly with them again.

UGH! We fly to Orlando in January with WJ - YYJ to Calgary then onward to Orlando. leaves Vic at 05:30 am. Going Home we fly to Vancouver departs at 5:30 pm from Orlando then I chose the flight where I am staying overnight in Vancouver and a quick hop home the next day around 1 pm. I sure hope they don't change our flight as my niece is flying with us and I booked her separately, she wasn't on my original itinerary we added her on a couple weeks later. What do you find the best route/ or flights for US destinations from Victoria?? I find the schedules horrible! We have a cruise next year in 2026/ January and I am contemplating either Porter from Victoria to Fort Lauderdale or taking a ferry / or flying into Seattle, and taking a US airline just to make sure our flights go smoothly!!! WJ is becoming beyond frustrating!

 

[I Run Long]

UGH! We fly to Orlando in January with WJ - YYJ to Calgary then onward to Orlando. leaves Vic at 05:30 am. Going Home we fly to Vancouver departs at 5:30 pm from Orlando then I chose the flight where I am staying overnight in Vancouver and a quick hop home the next day around 1 pm. I sure hope they don't change our flight as my niece is flying with us and I booked her separately, she wasn't on my original itinerary we added her on a couple weeks later. What do you find the best route/ or flights for US destinations from Victoria?? I find the schedules horrible! We have a cruise next year in 2026/ January and I am contemplating either Porter from Victoria to Fort Lauderdale or taking a ferry / or flying into Seattle, and taking a US airline just to make sure our flights go smoothly!!! WJ is becoming beyond frustrating!

From YYJ you will always have to fly either through YVR or SeaTac. We prefer flying through SeaTac and then you’ll have to change flights there and then it’s non-stop to MCO. There are no direct flights from YYJ to MCO. I really dislike flying through a lot of the Canadian airports - they just seem so chaotic. We really like flying with Alaska Airlines and their hub is SeaTac. You could take a ferry over and then fly non-stop from Seattle to Orlando (we used to do that when the ferry was still running between Sidney and Anacortes). We just find it easier to fly to Seattle, clear customs there which is super quick since the aircraft isn’t all that big so not a lot of passengers to put through customs. You do have to claim your bag first, go through customs with it, then there is an area a little past customs where they take your bag from you to put on your connecting flight. No need to go through security again. We always leave at least a 2-3 hour layover in Seattle going to Orlando and back just in case there are any flight delays. This trip our flight was 1 hour delayed leaving Victoria and 1 hour leaving Orlando, so always best to leave that buffer. I hope everything goes smoothly for you and you have great vacation!

Btw, like your user name. Engineer from CFB Chilliwack?

 

[chimo2u]

Thanks so much for your detailed reply! We are currently booked Victoria to Calgary, then Calgary Orlando for this January. I had WJ travel bank I needed to use up! I will definitely keep your notes in mind for next January 2026 for our cruise. I pray nothing ruins this trip as we are taking my niece who had her trip Dec 2022 (Disneyland) canceled due to the freak snow storm that closed everything down! I just want to get there without any issues. Yes hubby was an engineer in Chilliwack that’s where my user name came from! you’re the first to make the connection!
Really appreciate all your great info in this post, thanks for taking the time to share!