USA internal flight advice - Orlando/Ohio

Just want to tap into the vast knowledge of all things air travel!

Need to fly, very preferably direct, from Orlando (MCO) to....
Detroit,
Cleveland (Hopkins) or
Columbus.

My friends can pick us up from any of those airports.

I've managed to find out that united/CO fly direct to Cleveland, but have been advised that CLE is one of the more expensive airports to fly into.

What would folks thoughts be on direct flights to any of these airports, given airlines, airport convenience (in terms of sprawl, number of terminals etc) - miles gathering being a secondary consideration (only enroled in FC and EC)? I'd also rather stick with "mainline" carriers...

I'm finding it hard to find out what airlines fly direct on these routes, and have little knowledge of the destination airports...

Thanks in advance!

Looks like Southwest have non-stop service on the route you're looking for. Provided they are price competitive I'd be using them. Free checked luggage, none of the legacy carrier grumpy granny crews etc

Quick search on expedia.co.uk gave these airlines from MCO. Indirect appear cheaper than direct.

Detroit

Direct - DL
Indirect - AA,US, UA/CO

Cleveland (Hopkins)

Direct - CO
Indirect - US/AA/UA/DL

Columbus

Direct- none
Indirect- DL/US/AA/UA/CO

The MCO website will more than likely list all airlines that fly to these destinations so maybe check there too.

There's a great app on the smart phones called OnTheFly which has a very quick and easy search across pretty much every airline, whereas the common online booking engines don't always search every option. For example one way on 7 April (you didn't say when so I took a date in the middle of your next trip) shows:

MCO-DTW non-stop:
Delta $308
Air Tran $504

MCO-CMH non-stop:

Air Tran $285
Delta $206

MCO-CLE non-stop:

United $192

Kind of shows that Cleveland is the cheapest non-stop although CLH is $139 with one stop on United, and that's the cheapest one stop route I can see. None of these give you FC or EC miles earning (thanks VS for that). If that's important then you're going to may around $100-200 more on US Airways with one stop.

That's a fantastic starter for 10 - thanks guys; I can work with those parameters.

Slinky - haven't yet got into the world of apps - mainly as I don't yet have a smartphone!!! I can feel the damn breaking though, think I'll be with iPhone before very much longer.

The app you mention is precisely the kind of tool I need - as you say, you don't seem to be able to get complete information on the web, you need to piece it together.

My mistake on dates, we're actually looking to do this 13-17 July.

Having messed with the brilliant airport codes tool, I now see that there at least 2 airports in each location I mentioned - why does life have to be so complicated!!!

Anyway, thanks again....it's appreciated.

Having messed with the brilliant airport codes tool, I now see that there at least 2 airports in each location I mentioned - why does life have to be so complicated!!!

Don't forget that some airports are closer to the city than others so don't fall for the ryanair 'trick' where the airport is 2 hours on a bus away !

Indeed distance should be a consideration; DTW is a great airport these days; I was not too fond of Cleveland, FWIW. Then again, the price difference could be a turn off.

There's a great app on the smart phones called OnTheFly ...

You have to love ITA sw ... y)

Slinky - haven't yet got into the world of apps - mainly as I don't yet have a smartphone!!! I can feel the damn breaking though, think I'll be with iPhone before very much longer.

The app you mention is precisely the kind of tool I need - as you say, you don't seem to be able to get complete information on the web, you need to piece it together.

BTW you can access the same search that powers the apps here. Thanks to Google for this one!