For Ottawa residents: Allegiant from Ogdensburg

[martin33]

I wouldn't be surprised if AllegiantAir have some sort of exclusivity deal with OGS since they subsidized the airport expansion.

As far as prices for flights from Ottawa (or Montreal) being lower, I haven't seen it (Direct flight from YOW or YUL to MCO for Dec 24 2016 to Jan 7 2017 are roughly $1100CND plus baggage fees per person (that's about 50% more than the $3k you listed for 4). AllegiantAir is around $450US plus luggage fees).

So I went back and checked my booking -it was March 2014 (left March 3rd so before March break price increases) and in fact the price I recall with Air Canada must have been for 3 people (not 4) as we had a 2 yr old at the time and only bought 3 tickets with JetBlue. To do a direct comparison I arbitrarily chose early March 2017 and for 3 tickets with weekday departures it comes to 654 pp all in return (not including luggage) so lets say $700 pp x 3 = $2100 total to go direct with AC this upcoming March (vs over $3000 March 2014 ). So there is some saving to be had - I think it can come down more.
It will be interesting to see how long the exclusivity with Allegiant is for - you're right that they helped foot the bill and will not roll over unless they have to

 

[ccudmore]

First flight left yesterday. Looking forward to the reviews. http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/...rgets-value-conscious-ottawa-flyers-1.3793324

 

[michelb]

In case anyone is curious, we flew from SFB to OGS on Allegiant on Oct 15 2016. The flight was uneventful and took under 3:00 hours from prior to boarding in SFB to having un-boarded in OGS.

The plane was an Airbus A320 which I believe is newer than the McDonald-Douglas MD-80s we've flown with Allegiant in the past but the interior layout and seats of both aircrafts are very similar (roughly 30 rows divided in 2 aisles with 3 seats per side). There are no plugs, tv / monitors or anything at the seat - not even an actual pouch on the seat back to hold any items (which I find a bit inconvenient). The seats do not recline and they don't have a whole lot of room. Allegiant sells drinks and snacks on board but only accept credit cards (I noticed several passengers that had brought their own lunch).

The runway seems very short - I'm not sure if it's because the pilot hadn't done his approach right (it was his first time landing there) but he needed to use very heavy braking to slow us down once we touched the ground and there didn't seem to be a lot of runoff past where we came to a stop (but that's just my layman's observation from the back of the plane - I really have no idea how far down the runway we landed or how much space we actually had when we come to a stop). One important thing to note is that boarding / un-boarding is done by an outdoor ramp (which I believe is also done at YOW for smaller planes) but that means that if you are flying in the winter, you need to be dressed appropriately (which isn't always the first thought when flying direct to / from Florida). OGS airport is tiny (probably about 1/8 of the size of PBG for anyone that's flown from there). We only went in the arrivals section but it's basically a small rectangular room that's not really big enough to hold all the passengers from the plane standing. I imagine it would have been very crowded in there once people started taking their luggage off the conveyor belt and tried to make their way out of the airport (we didn't check any luggage so I didn't actually witness this). Seeing the Arrivals section makes me a bit concerned about how crowded the Departures area would be before a flight. Parking is no longer free (as it was up until a couple of weeks ago) but it's still not particularly expensive by airport standards. First 30 minutes are free and I think it's $3 for the first two hours up to a maximum of $8/day (Technically, you can get extended parking for $6/day in 30 day blocks but I suspect that applies to very few). To pay for parking, there's a machine inside the terminal (which had a very long lineup) but if you are paying by CC, you can just pay at the automated gate when you exit.

Having said that, travelling from OGS was very practical for us and we'll most likely use it again. We arrived at Orlando / Sanford Airport at roughly noon (actually I arrived around 12:30) and were at our house in the East End of Ottawa just after 5PM (so basically it was 4:30 hours airport to home for me). If I was flying MCO->YOW direct, I think it would have taken at least 1 hour more (probably more like 1:30 more).

Hope this helps,
Mike

(sorry about posting this in 2 threads - I just figured there's more likelyhood of people that are curious seeing it that way)

 

[ccudmore]

How full were the flights? I'm hoping they're busy enough for the service to stick around as Allegiant has a record of pulling services quickly that don't have full planes.

 

[michelb]

How full were the flights? I'm hoping they're busy enough for the service to stick around as Allegiant has a record of pulling services quickly that don't have full planes.

We flew on Sat Oct 15 (from SFB to OGS) and the flight was pretty full. I didn't count the number of empty seats but I don't think it was more than a dozen. I believe the plane (Airbus A320) seats 177 so I think it was easily 90% full.

 

[michelb]

If anyone flies in the next while, I'd be curious to know what facilities they have in the DEPARTURES area at OGS (We only went through ARRIVALS and I forgot to look). Do they have any a restaurant or a store or vending machines (i.e. anything you can buy food and drinks from).

Let us know,
Mike


--- Update ---

I emailed OGS and here's their response:

"There are two vending machines in the Hold Room of OGS (departure area). The one contains a large variety of cold beverages including water, soda, juice, iced tea and coffee, etc. The other vending machine holds snacks such as granola bars, pretzels, potato chips, candy, etc. Both vending machines only accept US currency."

 

[OttawaDisGirl]

I posted some pictures on a thread here.

Hope this is helpful.