Allegiant vs Delta

[CM1221]

We are going to Disney in Feb and are trying to chose between Allegiant and Delta. We will be flying out of Grand Rapids, MI. Alligent leaves at 1:15 and gets there at 3:45. Well we like these times, but we would have to take the kids out of school early to make the flight. Delta leaves at 2:20 and does not arrive until 8:26 with one layover. This fits our schedule better, but is almost three hundred dollars more than Allegiant. Any thoughts of feelings on these two airlines would be most helpful. Thank you.

 

[uva185]

Is it $300 per person or $300 for your entire family? How many people are traveling. I do 99% of my domestic flying with Delta and I love them.

There is no way you would get me on Allegiant flight for various reasons, not to mention they fly to Sanford airport in Orlando, NOT the international airport (MCO) so you will not be able to use Magical Express or the Resort Check-in for your return flight.

Assuming there are at least 4 people in your party, $75 per person is not a bad price to pay for Delta to MCO.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Delta flies every day; Allegiant often flies just once or a few times a week, and usually only one flight.

Delta is located at MCO; Allegiant is in Sanford.

Delta moves, but rarely cancels flights; Allegiant has been known to just pull out of a location with little notice.

Delta is a commercial airline; Allegiant is, for the most part, a charter airline.

 

[Edd]

First off Allegiant is a commercial carrier. It does run charters to destinations just like every other airlines do. In fact Allegiant was a commercial carrier before Jet Blue was organized. Allegiant and Southwest are the only two commercial carrierrs that made a profit last year. Allegiant specializes in flying non-stop to specific destinations from smaller cities.

This provides you the chance to better allot your travel time to the airport meaning a possible 2 hour ride to the major airport is repleaced by a 15 minute ride to the smaller airport.

Allegiant flies modern jets flown by American, Delta and many other airlines. Its flight schedules does suffer from delays from time to time, but like the other airlines that land in Orlando it is usually caused by inclement weather in Central Florida. It is true that
allegiant does pull out of airports, but evidence shows they pull out of the airport when the community does not provide profitability for that area.

I think it is rediculous that you would pay $300.00 extra for a free DME ride to Disney, travel an extra 1 to 3 hours to a major airport and spend 5 more hours traveling by airplane just so you can ride on the DME. Last I knew the DME was a bus and not a golden chariot. I do realize the flight schedules are not as convenient flying Allegiant, but for the savings I could find a way to work it out.

I have known families who claim they have saved $1200.00 by flying Allegiant, saved plently of time in travel, paid less for parking at the smaller airport and had a much easier time getting through the smaller airport.

Time from the Sanford airport to Disney many times can egual or beat the DME time from Orlando airport to Disney.

 

[Lewisc]

FL Tours charges $229 (+ TIP) for a car service from Sanford to WDW. There goes most of the OPs $300 savings. I suspect you can find a car service for a little under $200 with tip if you shop but the savings is still less then $100.

Ed makes good points but the OP said Delta works better with their schedule. OP said Allegiant schedule requires taking their kids out of school early. Not an issue with some parents, kids and schools but it can be an issue for others. I'd hate to think a net saving of under $100 is enough of a savings to justify leaving school early, all other things being equal.

A savings of $1200 is well worth skipping DME and, at least for some parents, may be enough to justify skipping a day of school

edited to add I'm not saying it's the end of the world to pull your kids out of school early the day you're leaving for vacation but the fact the OP questions it suggests there might be an issue for them.

Other posters are correct. There may be a problem if bad weather results in Allegiant cancelling a flight. It may be days (or more) before Allegiant can accommodate them on another flight.

I think it is rediculous that you would pay $300.00 extra for a free DME ride to Disney, travel an extra 1 to 3 hours to a major airport and spend 5 more hours traveling by airplane just so you can ride on the DME. Last I knew the DME was a bus and not a golden chariot. I do realize the flight schedules are not as convenient flying Allegiant, but for the savings I could find a way to work it out.

I have known families who claim they have saved $1200.00 by flying Allegiant, saved plently of time in travel, paid less for parking at the smaller airport and had a much easier time getting through the smaller airport.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Yet, again - Allegiant is known to pull out of airports completely, or cut schedules to just a few days a week/one-two flights a day. Passengers need to be extremely flexible with their travel plans on airlines with such minimal schedules. Service is sometimes seasonal, not year-round. Also, despite being certificated (is that an actual word?) as a scheduled air carrier, they do more charter business.

 

[MAH4546]

Also, despite being certificated (is that an actual word?) as a scheduled air carrier, they do more charter business.

Wrong.

They are a scheduled carrier and the majority of their flying is scheduled flights. As if it even makes a difference.

 

[Edd]

You might want to consider the extra 2 1/2 hours you spend flying Delta and the maybe 2 hours of driving to the Detroit Airport rather than flying out of Grand Rapids. Allegiant flies from approximately twenty different locations to Sanford and many of them are four and five days a week.

Allegiant flies more commercial domestic flights than they do charter, but they do a lot of charter flights in Canada.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Fine. You win. I'm wrong about Allegiant's primary business.

I'm still correct about their tendency to pull out of (unprofitable) airports completely; to fly from many locations only a few times a week, if that; and to offer only a minimal number of flights on the days they do fly.

Any glitch in the system often means passengers need to delay their flights by days - not by hours as with major airlines at busy airports.

I'm not saying this would happen to the OP - but it's only sensible to provide her/him with all the information possible, to enable a 100% informed decision.

 

[kksmom92]

Hi!! I'm from the GR area too and will be heading down in Feb. I've been keeping an eye on flights, but price wise it looks as if we still will be driving down. Actually renting a minivan from Muskegon airport as it's a lot cheaper than GR's and is about the same distance from our house.

I just wanted to say my cousin and family did fly with Allegiant out of GR this summer and had no problems at all. I remember in the beginning when they first started there being some up roar about the canceling flights, but I haven't heard anything like that since then.

We did fly a couple years ago and found it a lot cheaper to fly out of detroit. We spent the night in a hotel over there that gave us a free week of parking in the lot right next door to the hotel and they would take you to the airport in a bus. That worked out great for us and we did end up saving quite a bit of doing that, even with the hotel room. (We had flown Southwest, but that's when it was a direct flight... I've noticed it's not a direct flight anymore) We do have friend who always flies out of detroit on Spirit when the go to Orlando and have had good luck with them too....

Good luck with your decision!!

 

[CM1221]

O.K just checked out flights leaving Detroit. Most times do not work for our schedule or the prices are to high. There is an Air Tran flight leaving at 6:12 p.m and flying nonstop arriving at 8:40 p.m. That would work. For the four of us it would be $776. The Allegiant flight out of GR cost just over $1000 and the Delta flight out of GR is just under $1300. So now is it worth to drive to Detroit to save $300 or not. I am going to go crazy trying to decide.

 

[debster812]

Another thing to keep in mind is the WEATHER. You're flying in February. We fly from Massachusetts to FL every Feb, and have done so for the past 6 years. If there is dicey winter weather (snow, hail, freezing rain, etc) it can wreak havoc on flight operations all OVER, not just your own airport. Think about what happens if your flight gets cancelled. Do you want to be flying with Allegiant, with the very real possibility of there not being another flight for a day or two, with no guarantee of space for you. Or, do you want to be flying with Delta. Yes, they have their own set of issues, but they also have a much greater capacity, and ability to get you where you are going.

We were on Delta one year, during the 'Valentine's Day Storm'. It happened to also be President's Week, and the soonest Delta could get us to Florida was three days later. And to a different airport. If we had been flying on Allegiant, Spirit, Airbus or the like, I suspect our entire trip would have been canceled.

For me, the peace of mind is worth paying the extra to fly Delta.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

If you go to Detroit why not take Airtran. They currently have flights for $59 each way.

You might want to consider the extra 2 1/2 hours you spend flying Delta and the maybe 2 hours of driving to the Detroit Airport rather than flying out of Grand Rapids. Allegiant flies from approximately twenty different locations to Sanford and many of them are four and five days a week.

Allegiant flies more commercial domestic flights than they do charter, but they do a lot of charter flights in Canada.

 

[uva185]

This provides you the chance to better allot your travel time to the airport meaning a possible 2 hour ride to the major airport is repleaced by a 15 minute ride to the smaller airport.

Last time I checked Delta, Continental, United, and Northwest all fly to Grand Rapids with connections to Orlando. Only exception is you can fly to Orlando daily with those carriers while you can only fly there twice a week with Allegiant. Sandford is not closer to Disney World, it's actually farther away.

Allegiant flies modern jets flown by American, Delta and many other airlines.

Allegiant has their own seating configuration. Looks like none of the seats recline and there is no entertainment system.

Its flight schedules does suffer from delays from time to time, but like the other airlines that land in Orlando it is usually caused by inclement weather in Central Florida. It is true that
allegiant does pull out of airports, but evidence shows they pull out of the airport when the community does not provide profitability for that area.

The real problem is Allegiant does not have enough extra planes to add one to the system if there is a mechanical issue. They fly to Orlando/Sanford twice a day. Can you imagine the cascading effect of one cancellation. It could be a few days until they can get you on a flight as opposed to a few hours on Delta, NW, Continental, etc.

I think it is rediculous that you would pay $300.00 extra for a free DME ride to Disney, travel an extra 1 to 3 hours to a major airport and spend 5 more hours traveling by airplane just so you can ride on the DME. Last I knew the DME was a bus and not a golden chariot. I do realize the flight schedules are not as convenient flying Allegiant, but for the savings I could find a way to work it out.

Yeah, it would be ridiculous to pay $300 to ride DME. I also think it would be ridiculous to fly Allegiant when there are better, more reliable airlines that offer flights with more accommodating schedules for only $75 more per person roundtrip.

Allegiant could work out fine. It's how they handle delays and problems that is the telling factor of an airline. Allegiant just doesn't have enough planes to adequately handle a serious delay.

 

[Edd]

Landing in Sanford you can actually get to WDW faster than if you land Orlando. Travel time from Sanford can be 50 minutes, add to that the normal baggage wait in Sanford of about 10 - 15 minutes. DME times to Disney during peak and late hours tend to be closer to 90 minutes.

To get right down to it Allegiant does not suffer from the delays the system suffers from during extended weather delays. Their flights are non-stop back and forth to certain airports. If they do have a mechanical delay they don't usually replace the plane with another, but will do the maintenance on the spot. Because of the maintenance schedule all planes go through, there are not usually huge mechanical problems with any airlines. Usually major mechanical problems are dealt with on the periodicals.

Allegiant does not have the ability to handle any serious delay like a 9/11 or hurricane, but no other airlines have that capability either. In fact Allegiant has the ability to start up faster than other airlines after a serious delay. They proved that in the hurricanes of 2004 when they began landing flights the day Sanford opened back up. Unlike Orlando where the airlines had to recycle back into the process of landing Orlando, which took some airlines 2 days to get back in the cycle. A lot of passengers vacationing those times lost those two or three days from their vacation.

Allegiant has proven to be a stellar airline arriving in Sanford and providing excellent passenger service at cheaper prices. The best factor is the longest you are in the air for any flight from the airports they service runs about 2 1/2 hours. You are landing in Sanford, not a transfer airport to another plane and more airtime.

If you can erase the idea of free bus transportation from MCO to WDW you might find a good many advantages in traveling to SFB over traveling to MCO.

 

[uva185]

Landing in Sanford you can actually get to WDW faster than if you land Orlando. Travel time from Sanford can be 50 minutes, add to that the normal baggage wait in Sanford of about 10 - 15 minutes. DME times to Disney during peak and late hours tend to be closer to 90 minutes.

To get right down to it Allegiant does not suffer from the delays the system suffers from during extended weather delays. Their flights are non-stop back and forth to certain airports. If they do have a mechanical delay they don't usually replace the plane with another, but will do the maintenance on the spot. Because of the maintenance schedule all planes go through, there are not usually huge mechanical problems with any airlines. Usually major mechanical problems are dealt with on the periodicals.

Allegiant does not have the ability to handle any serious delay like a 9/11 or hurricane, but no other airlines have that capability either. In fact Allegiant has the ability to start up faster than other airlines after a serious delay. They proved that in the hurricanes of 2004 when they began landing flights the day Sanford opened back up. Unlike Orlando where the airlines had to recycle back into the process of landing Orlando, which took some airlines 2 days to get back in the cycle. A lot of passengers vacationing those times lost those two or three days from their vacation. They have proven to be a stellar airline arriving in Sanford and providing excellent passenger service at cheaper prices. The best factor is the longest you are in the air for any flight from the airports they service runs about 2 1/2 hours. You are landing in Sanford, not a transfer airport to another plane and more airtime.

If you can erase the idea of free bus transportation from MCO to WDW you might find a good many advantages in traveling to SFB over traveling to MCO.

They might start flying sooner but they do not have the capacity to deal with the passengers affected by the delay or cancellation. On the other hand the legacy airlines do.

Simply put I would not put my confidence in an airline that operates two flights per week to my destination with no interline agreement.

Even if Allegiant was on time, what if I missed my flight due to a flat tire, accident, etc. With Delta, I might get to Orlando 3 hours later. With Allegiant I would arrive 3 days later.

No Thanks!

 

[DIS1130]

I LOVE Allegiant! It is SO much easier. Rent a car and drive to Disney. Honestly for me it is not only cheaper, it's the only airline that flies one way w/o a layover. Also, I would MUCH prefer the Sandford airport over International. It is much smaller, ans less crowded. Security takes much less time, and it is not as much of a hassel. I have always saved money with Allegiant (been flying the last 2 years). I have never had a delay (knock on wood) and always had great service. I used Delta for my trip to Disneyland in early Summer, my flight number and time was changed 6 times! I also ended up stopping in Atlanta, which turned me off all together....