I heard about them in the news. They have to retrain a bunch of people who haven’t been flying regularly, so they have to retrain and recertify. Because COVID, and because safety.
I’m OK with that, but we had flights cancelled on us for the last Disney trip, was not fun to figure it out in the wake of that mess.
Good luck! 
The only downside to using American on my flight to Tampa is that I have to pay to check my bags…and I suspect I may need two for a 12 day trip (7 at a conference/5 at WDW). I have to see how much I can cram into my largest suitcase and carry on!!
We usually always fly Southwest, but they didn’t have any direct flights and they were all twice the price.
This is becoming the norm for JetBlue too. They show low prices for the flights, but you can only take one carry on (like a backpack). Want to bring a bag? It goes under the plane, $50 each please.
The flight search sites like Kayak are now asking about checked luggage/carry-ons so they can do a 1:1 comparison on prices at least. If you use a search like that at least you can directly compare for what you need and will be less surprised by the upcharges…
Yup…the flight I had is still the least expensive direct flight, even with the added baggage fees. 
We add the cost for checking bags with AA and the overall cost is still significantly lower than with Southwest.
Seeing the cost of the flight I’m looking at skyrocket over 50% if I upgrade to seats that I can cancel.
I think I can hear my car laughing in the driveway.
I would ship some stuff ahead to your WDW resort in that case. I did that when I took a cruise before arriving a few years ago.
Ouch. Last week tickets I saw that were $509, this morning they’re $590.
Guess it’s too much to hope that’s a typo eh?
ETA: yes that’s per person.
Looks like the Canadian Airline industry that never discounted a thing during the pandemic has figured out how they’ll recover from the pandemic.
16 hours is doable… I say that b/c we typically drove 18 hour days when traveling across country, but not everyone pushes like that.
We have flights in Sept. w/ AA (going to Aulani) I hope this gets settled and covid doesn’t shut down the planet again 
Yeah pre-COVID with DD5 (at that time) I think I’d limit us to 8 hours a day max.
Nowadays?
I drive my kid 30 minutes away from the house and she acts like it’s a road trip.
Since I am attending a conference for work, they are paying for my flights, and will pay for my baggage.
While I tend to try to travel for work like I was paying for it (ie not overspend or splurge), I am okay having them pay for my bag(s), especially since the airfare is so cheap and they aren’t paying for it on the return flight on Southwest.
We are driving to Orlando in November /December. The flights are just way too expensive from BWI or Reagan. My SW points from our cancelled flight don’t cover the cost. Wish us luck! We are driving around 10 hours one day, staying overnight in Savannah and then and driving 4ish hours the next. The longest trip we have ever driven. I hope to never do it again.
As a kid, we always drove on our vacations so I never rush to rule out driving.
But it’s very likely we’ll just suck up the costs and fly on this trip…
Still, there is something to say for that drive and the slow transition from Canadian pines to palm trees.
And that magical experience we’d usually have at breakfast on Day 2: hearing our first “y’all”
Your post reminded me of this video that some might appreciate. 
We are in the Philly suburbs and road trip to the far side of Ohio about 1-2x/year (in before times) to see friends, so not opposed to a good trip in the minivan.
Dh would often muse over the years about driving to WDW instead of flying. Since I want every second of my vacation to be in the bubble, I vetoed his suggestions. In 2011 I relented as we were cruising on DCL and following that w/ a stay at WDW. The port transfers were $$$ and having our own vehicle would be necessary. I resolved myself to the road trip and planned accordingly.
As it ended up, we booked the AutoTrain instead and it was wonderful! Short drive (~3 hours) to Northern Virginia, overnight on the train and then an hour from Sanford.
The cruise and our WDW stay were both amazing and magical. We were scheduled to check out Friday morning, spend the day in the parks and then head to my ILs to visit overnight (they lived ~20min away in Davenport). Saturday we would catch the train back north from Sanford and be home Sunday afternoon.
Unfortunately the universe had other plans for us. Hurricane Irene was heading to the US and the entire eastern seaboard was being evacuated. On Thursday, I received a call from Amtrak while we were riding Peter Pan telling us that our train home was cancelled and they weren’t going to run them again until at least Tuesday if not later. We quickly regrouped, cancelled all of our WDW plans for Friday. Checked out Friday morning, had a quick visit w/ the ILs, then hit the road to drive home.
Since shore points east of the I95 corridor were being evacuated, we opted for an inland route to avoid traffic and the storm. It took us until late Saturday night to get home. We thankfully didn’t see rain until heading east across the PA Turnpike (also saw downed trees across the roadway and lots of damage).
This was one of the most miserable road trips I have ever been on …and I spent 7 years as a young adult touring the country on 30 year old coach buses!! Nothing awful happened. The kids were fine with enough amusments that we had packed for the 3 hour trips back and forth to VA, but for us it was extremely stressful. While I realize that figuring out our route as we went, finding a hotel Friday night, and using the (longer) inland route to avoid the storm/evacuations was situational and would not be part of a planned trip, that drive home cemented our decision to never road trip to FL for our WDW vacations.
All that to say, while I am more than happy to head out west for 10 hours…we have completely ruled out driving south for 18 to WDW. Amtrak’s AutoTrain or flying is far preferred. 
I just looked into the auto train. Wow, it would cost us as much to take that as we have paid to fly. I can’t sleep in a small seat all night and I can’t imagine my kids getting a decent nights sleep either, so we would have to get rooms. And we would also have to pay to travel with our vehicle since rental car prices are crazy. Oh well.
The secret to the AT is booking about 6-9 months out. Prices are then less than flights. Amtrak has tiered pricing where the least expensive fares go first and then they step up in cost as you get closer to the trip. One trip I booked in February for late summer. As we got closer they had a kids ride free sale. In the end our original booking was significantly cheaper than dh and I riding for full price w/ the 2 kids riding free!
We stick to the seats and don’t bother with rooms. The rooms are expensive and the seats are actually equivalent to a first class airline seat…maybe even bigger. They have foot rests, gobs of room between the seats and lots of space. They even have electrical outlets to keep all your stuff charged. Sleep isn’t luxuriously comfortable, but okay (I highly recommend not sleeping next to a squirmy kid) and worth the savings on the roomette.
We have done couple of trips on it since our first trip in 2011 (the one where we unexpectedly only rode the train one way), the latest of which was in the summer of 2018. Every trip was less expensive than flying.
That’s still quite a bit of money, but less than most flights. My problem is we have money tied up from cancelled flights that I’m now going to have to use for a completely different trip. Driving is still going to be a lot less, even with hotels and gas. We are taking our minivan that we plan to replace within the next year or 2, so mileage is not a big deal. It seems like it is an interesting way to get to Florida though.
Before the first trip I priced out the drive there and back including gas, meals, and a hotel for one night each way and while the AT was more, it wasn’t that much more.
But if you are going soon…it will be much more expensive and driving would probably be a better financial option.
