Alligiant Air

[vhartwell]

They just moved into our airport with direct flights to disney for $160!!! I am curious about how good of an airline they are?

I need the good and bad of them...

 

[Edd]

Allegiant is a good airline. The big kick is that they do not fly into Orlando International. They fly into Orlando Sanford International, which is about 50 miles from Disney. So that means there is no Disney Magical Expres at that airport.

The airport is small and easy to get around. The trip to Disney is about an hour after picking up luggage, which is about the same time it takes to get to Disney from Orlando International on the DME. The way to Disney is via taxi, rental car or car service. Taxi is the most expensive as the meter rate runs close to $130.00 one way. Car service rates start at $160.00 for round trip transfer.

Allegiant has been permitted by the feds to run commercial transportation since about 1998. One year before Jet Blue was permitted. The airline runs non=stop flights in and out of Sanford, but not on a daily basis. The flight schedule will be altered at times to make sure all planes landing in Sanford are 90% full. they are a pretty good on-time airline and along with Southwest reported profits in 2008. They are the only two commercial airlines to report a profit in 2008.

 

[Sandi]

We flew Allegiant a couple of times when they flew out of our local airport. They no longer do. You really have to figure in the cost of ground transportation to do a good comparison with the legacy airlines. Also, because they don't fly every day, if there is a delay, the next flight out of that airport might be days away -- not hours. We didn't have any such problems, but they have had problems like that and people missed days of vacation time.

 

[Lewisc]

Make sure you include any applicable extra charges (checked bags, reserved seats, ticketing fees etc) and cost of transportation from Sanford to WDW (assuming you'd otherwise use DME) when you evaluate the cost. Many DIS save enough $$$ to assume the risk inherent with flying with a carrier that doesn't offer daily service.

 

[SheenaXena21]

I've flown with them 3 times. Everytime it was late departing, around 30 minutes twice and a few hours delay one time.

I would check the flights going into MCO. I ran the figures this time and it was going to be cheaper flying into MCO. After taking a cab, which is around $110-125 from WDW one-way, or renting (we did one-way, dropping off at Car Care Center) and that was one-way $80. So add that in to your already cheap airfare and it doesn't become so cheap anymore.

It would be if you were renting a car the whole trip. But we use Disney transportation to get around. It's very easy to get to Disney from Sanford. It takes around 45 minutes.

Everytime we flew with them, the plane was full. It was pleasant though. They raffled stuff off to pass by the time. Sanford is very small, so it's very easy to get around.