Looking for folks who fly out of Pittsburgh

[Pookiesmom]

Who do you fly? We are looking for flights for our trip to the World at the end of the year. US Air is down to 2 non-stop flights on the weekends and they are fairly early in the morning. I am completely unfamiliar with Southwest. Please share your travel tips!!!

[jans2kids]

We have used all 3 airlines (US Air, Air Tran, SW) flying out of Pittsburgh non stop on different trips. They all seem to only have 2 non stops each day, one in the morning and one later in the day.

I have looked at all 3 for this years trips but have not booked anything yet as SW does not have rates out yet for our August trip.

We don't mind traveling early and SW has a 7am flight that we are looking at going and a 8pm flight returning.

Last year we flew US Air and had a 9am flight going and a 3pm flight returning. We waited and got a rate of $159 roundtrip.

We were hesitant with SW becasue the year we flew them the still hadn't gone to assigned seating and with 2 kids we were afraid we would get seperated, but they not longer do that and luckily we didn't get seperated when we did fly them.

We did not have any bad occurences with any of them, and now basically look for the best price.

[kakn7294]

We've flown US Air twice but the last time was nearly 11 years ago - they were fine but nothing special. We've flown SW twice, in Dec 2006 and August 2007 - they were great! We fly with 2 kids who usually sit with Dad while I sit in the window seat 1 row behind. The flight attendants are great at making sure families stay together and if you get A or B boarding passes, you should be fine. When you arrive at the airport in Pgh, the SW gates are usually around A 1 - 4, to the left just past McDonald's. They generally board and depart right on time and arrive right on time or even a bit early. We've really been pleased with their service and they are the airline of choice for us as long as the price is right and the flights are non-stop.

[em-n-mia's-mommy]

usually we fly to orlando from pittsburgh. this year we may drive though because prices to fly are going sky high. I have taken us air and air tran to orlando and i prefer us air. I found air trans flights to be a bit crowded. But, air tran is usually cheaper..as of now they are both about the same price. The last air tran flight i was on from orlando made me about half sick. The pilot was all over the place. :sick:

[Pookiesmom]

Do any of you use any of the off-site parking options around the airport? I used Globe once, about 6 years ago and they were pretty good. Do any of the clean off your car if its been snowing while you were away?:drive:

[mikmin1955]

:wave: We used Charlie Brown Parking in December. They were great, our car was nice and toasty and ready to go when we got home. I got a coupon from there web site for $49.99 for the week, last January we parked at the extended airport parking lot and it was $79.00 and we had to deal with :snowball: ice and snow. We will be using Charlie Brown again for our trips in June and December.:easter::ebasket:

[kakn7294]

We just park in extended at the airport. DH drops the girls and I off at curbside luggage check and by the time we get the bags checked in, he's meeting us at the security checkpoint. It does cost more though. FIL uses off-site parking though - they've been happy with them although I can't remember which ones in particular they've used. One has a garage? - not sure about that.

[hoop de do]

We have flown both US Air and Air Tran. We are using Air Tran for our June trip. We enjoyed both and go with the best price, which is something you have to keep checking often. Haven't found a SouthWest nonstop. We like to leave as early in the am as possible. We are about two hours from Pittsburgh and usually stay at Days Inn near airport the night before. They allow you to leave your vehicle at the Inn while you're in the WORLD and have a van transport to and from airport included.
:plane::mjump:

[scootch713]

I have done USAIR and AIRTRAN and usually get a price around $210 round trip. Now that southwest is out.... I usually can get at least one leg at $79. Many times it all boils down to what time I want to fly. Once Southwest comes out with their fares, USAIR and AIRTRAN usually do come down a bit. I used to book midnovember in July, but last year, i wasn't able to book a good fare till September. If you fly midweek... then it is really best to go with southwest as you usually can get a super low fare(like 49)

[BritCody]

We have used all US Air and SW and had no problems. For this upcoming trip in October we are going with Air Tran. Their prices are just too hard to beat.

The last 3 trips down we have used Globe and also had no problems. They usually have a coupons in the Yellow Pages as does Charlie Brown. I don't have the current Yellow Pages near me to verify this year, but they have always been in past editions

[mudpuppysmom]

We have been flying on SW for our last several trips.

I used to fly for work and have been on just about every carrier there is, but when I went to Orlando I have flown Us Air, Airtran and SW most recently (continental in the past to DAB, but that's different). I have found that I like SW the best. Now with their new boarding system it is important to get an A boarding pass though I feel. No preboarding with the kiddo anymore either (well, he is six now, so it's been over a year, but we do have another one coming in June!).

DS actually likes that he can pick his own seat, altho he does get a little crazy when he walks on the plane and someone is sitting in the front row....but I have convinced him that he doesn't want to sit there anyway -- there are too many kids I tell him:blush: so we sit near the rear of the plane where it tends to be less crowded on flights that are not full.

As for pricing......SW is right in there these days. I don't know what happened to the 49$ each way fares they had, but they look to be long gone now that they have everyone hooked!

As for getting you there -- they all go the same way and the planes are all the same, it's really the service that makes the flight and I'll say that we have not had any issues with SW thus far. Airtran had an attendant that was a tad rude one time and US Air just doesn't care who is on the plane if you ask me (IMHO). Also, SW is normally super quick unloading your bags and getting them to bag claim by the time you get there!!

We'll continue to fly SW as long as they are straight thru and the cheapest.....I like to leave on the first flight out and come home on the last flight from MCO to maximize vacation time.

[ShanPooh]

We live near Cleveland, so we have flown out of Cleveland, Akron/Canton, Columbus, and Pittsburgh (whatever is cheapest at the time).

From Pittsburgh we've taken US Air (once) and Southwest (twice). We had good experiences with both.
We parked at the extended parking at the airport which beat Cleveland's parking rates by a mile.
My dad has parked at Charlie Brown's and liked them, too.

We've flown AirTran out of Akron/Canton. My parents will usually use them since they live 1/2 hour away. AirTran was very nice to us. We missed our flight by only a few minutes :blush: and they managed to squeeze us onto the next flight. Our luggage made it there three hours before we did but we are happy that they fit us in at all. grrr alarm clock :mad: