Jacksonville, FL airport

[stitchlovestink]

can anyone here tell me about the Jacksonville, FL airport??

This is my situation....
We are cruising out of Port Canaveral soon for our 25th wedding anniversary... we are arriving a few days precruise and staying at the house in Melbourne. I was able to get reasonably priced airfare into Orlando for the way down. But due to DH's work schedule, it wasn't until recently, that I knew when we were going to travel for sure. So that said, the flights down weren't as hateful because we can travel early (on a Wednesday) and stay at the house at no cost... so going early isn't really costing us anything extra other than the rental car for a few extra days which in the grand scheme is not a big deal. We will eat inexpensively at the house prior saving our appetites for the cruise! LOL It will also give us a chance to make a stop at Target to pick up any last minute incidentals and some diet dew for me! I can't go a WHOLE entire WEEK without Diet Dew! LOL!!
Now my issue is the flights home are OUTRAGEOUS!! I'm looking at $300 per person and that is for a direct but not a nonstop. OR I can get a nonstop from Jacksonville for $100 per person. It would be an early evening flight from Jacksonville...So I was thinking we could stop somewhere fun along the way...either Daytona or St. Augustine?? for a little bit of sight seeing and a light late lunch? I also have to make sure I can get a rental that can be turned in at Jacksonville too. but what is this airport like? Is it small? Big? We are used to BWI and MCO as the two we use the most. any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[gmeh1]

can anyone here tell me about the Jacksonville, FL airport??

This is my situation....
We are cruising out of Port Canaveral soon for our 25th wedding anniversary... we are arriving a few days precruise and staying at the house in Melbourne. I was able to get reasonably priced airfare into Orlando for the way down. But due to DH's work schedule, it wasn't until recently, that I knew when we were going to travel for sure. So that said, the flights down weren't as hateful because we can travel early (on a Wednesday) and stay at the house at no cost... so going early isn't really costing us anything extra other than the rental car for a few extra days which in the grand scheme is not a big deal. We will eat inexpensively at the house prior saving our appetites for the cruise! LOL It will also give us a chance to make a stop at Target to pick up any last minute incidentals and some diet dew for me! I can't go a WHOLE entire WEEK without Diet Dew! LOL!!
Now my issue is the flights home are OUTRAGEOUS!! I'm looking at $300 per person and that is for a direct but not a nonstop. OR I can get a nonstop from Jacksonville for $100 per person. It would be an early evening flight from Jacksonville...So I was thinking we could stop somewhere fun along the way...either Daytona or St. Augustine?? for a little bit of sight seeing and a light late lunch? I also have to make sure I can get a rental that can be turned in at Jacksonville too. but what is this airport like? Is it small? Big? We are used to BWI and MCO as the two we use the most. any help would be greatly appreciated!!

It is a reasonably sized airport. It is an international airport, not a tiny regional one. http://airport-jacksonville.com/
Most of the major car rentals are there. Alamo, National, Avis, Enterprise are all there. Do a search.
St. Augustine, the oldest city in the US is a wonderful place. You can even drink from the Fountain of Youth. I highly recommend St. Auggie as a place to visit.

 

[Muhlenberg]

We had to change what day we flew one year because of a snowstorm. For varying reasons, including price, we flew into JAX. It wasn't a bad airport. If my memory serves me correctly, it was smaller than MCO. I'd go for it, if I were you. I made it through without much trouble with my elderly parents.

 

[MEK]

I see there are very reasonably priced flights from / to JAX in late October on SWA. I would have a hard time passing that up. I would save the $400 and fly home from JAX. No question. I have never been in that airport, but if the price was right (and clearly it is), I wouldn't hesitate.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Jacksonville is a great airport. Rental cars right at terminal. Decently priced gas on road to airport. And best of all, no MCO security nightmare. Quick and easy

 

[goofyfigment]

I just flew into and out of there last weekend and doing it again in October. Its on the smaller size but its much less chaotic than MCO. I didn't need a rental car but did price them a little higher than MCO but not too bad.

 

[NJRRK]

I flew into JAX once, but that was 30 years ago on People Express. Lol.

 

[stitchlovestink]

thanks everyone for the feedback!

It is a reasonably sized airport. It is an international airport, not a tiny regional one. http://airport-jacksonville.com/
Most of the major car rentals are there. Alamo, National, Avis, Enterprise are all there. Do a search.
St. Augustine, the oldest city in the US is a wonderful place. You can even drink from the Fountain of Youth. I highly recommend St. Auggie as a place to visit.

Yeah, right after posting, I went onto Bing and looked up the airport's actual website. It looks to be a 'tad' smaller than BWI but not by much...but definitely should be similar.
And clearly not as big as MCO!

We had to change what day we flew one year because of a snowstorm. For varying reasons, including price, we flew into JAX. It wasn't a bad airport. If my memory serves me correctly, it was smaller than MCO. I'd go for it, if I were you. I made it through without much trouble with my elderly parents.

yes based on the airport's website it is DEFINITELY smaller than MCO! no trams to a main terminal... just appears to be two "arms"...

I see there are very reasonably priced flights from / to JAX in late October on SWA. I would have a hard time passing that up. I would save the $400 and fly home from JAX. No question. I have never been in that airport, but if the price was right (and clearly it is), I wouldn't hesitate.

Yeah, I'm having a hard time justifying the price difference. Either way our rental will cost a little more since it is considered a 'one way' because we will pick it up at Port Canaveral and return it at an airport. And we were going to fly out of MCO at the end of the day because all of the mid day flights are direct but not nonstop and we really prefer a nonstop especially when the price is the same or afternoon ones were even more!! I figured we could go hang around DTD or somewhere else in the WDW area for the afternoon. Or we could go back to the house but I don't know that I felt much like doing that...but we could have.
The one thing that I do like is the familiarity of KNOWING MCO! I've been there 6 times just this year! LOL

Jacksonville is a great airport. Rental cars right at terminal. Decently priced gas on road to airport. And best of all, no MCO security nightmare. Quick and easy

OrangeCountyCommuter, I am thinking, based on your screen name, that you live close to WDW?? LOL
I have been thru MCO probably 30 times and I have only encountered one rude TSA worker and I guess I miss the 'security nightmare' that many refer to... I am an avid pin trader and that is SO MUCH more of a hassle at BWI as it almost always causes my carry on bag to need to be checked because I have so many of them in my carry on bag. MCO is so used to trading pins and pressed pennies and at BWI it's pretty much always an issue. So I much prefer MCO security to BWI!

 

[themillerman]

how far from orlando is this airport? i just priced out my flights and this airport and melbourne seem to be cheaper than mco but i am not sure how far away they are. tia

 

[mmbl]

how far from orlando is this airport? i just priced out my flights and this airport and melbourne seem to be cheaper than mco but i am not sure how far away they are. tia

You got me curious, so I did a google search and its 171 miles. Do you have to rent a car one way? One way car rentals are not usually cheap. That might make Orlando seem much more reasonable.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I have never had a rude TSA agent at MCO. The problem there is the lines to get to the TSA I have seen them all the way across the atrium


There is a reason FlyClear chose MCO as their first airport on restarting. The lines were long enough to motivate folks to pay $100 or so a year to avoid them.

 

[goofyfigment]

I think it was a little over 2 hours from jax to universal

 

[stitchlovestink]

how far from orlando is this airport? i just priced out my flights and this airport and melbourne seem to be cheaper than mco but i am not sure how far away they are. tia

We have a house in Melbourne. It is just about 1 hr and 20 min from the house to WDW. We aren't far from the airport but I couldn't tell you exactly how far but it's fairly close (I'd guestimate 5 or so miles).
We have driven two routes to Disney it varied between 70 & 75 miles IIRC.
We cannot fly into Melbourne because SW does not fly there. I need those 2 bags plus my carry on and my ECV. I don't feel like fighting w/ other airlines FAs about medical equipment flying at no add'l cost so I will continue to use SW. Otherwise it's very costly for me.

 

[stitchlovestink]

You got me curious, so I did a google search and its 171 miles. Do you have to rent a car one way? One way car rentals are not usually cheap. That might make Orlando seem much more reasonable.

We rent the vehicle one way because we don't "feel" like paying for a rental to sit in a parking garage while we are on a cruise. Not only would we be paying a for a vehicle to sit there that we would not be driving but we would also have to pay to park it in the garage terminal!! So it is much more cost effective to pay a bit pricier one way rental fee. We paid $68 total for a large SUV rental last time and it would have cost us $105 to use Disney transfers one way so we were still ahead of the game!
Either way it's going to be a one way rental....it's just a matter of where we will turn the car in at.

 

[travelcoupons]

Jacksonville is a tad smaller than BWI and less hectic than BWI.
If I had to pick between Jacksonville & Orlando, I'd pick Jacksonville 100% of the time. I live midway between them so I actually do pick between them, but usually I fly out of Daytona Beach.
It's so quick to get in & out of there, the car rentals are right in the garage attached to the airport like Orlando and there's always a good selection of cars.
The security lines are about equal at both airports. There are less of them in Jacksonville but there are less passengers trying to get through too...so it all equals out.
It's also quicker in & out because you don't have to mess around with the trams to the airside terminals like in orlando.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Jacksonville is a tad smaller than BWI and less hectic than BWI.
If I had to pick between Jacksonville & Orlando, I'd pick Jacksonville 100% of the time. I live midway between them so I actually do pick between them, but usually I fly out of Daytona Beach.
It's so quick to get in & out of there, the car rentals are right in the garage attached to the airport like Orlando and there's always a good selection of cars.
The security lines are about equal at both airports. There are less of them in Jacksonville but there are less passengers trying to get through too...so it all equals out.
It's also quicker in & out because you don't have to mess around with the trams to the airside terminals like in orlando.

You must be luckier then me. The security lines are always much shorter at JAX then MCO for me. I have never waited more then 5 minutes in JAX and that was the Sunday evening of the Donna Marathon when there were lots of us trying to leave. I have routinely waited 20 to 30 minutes in Orlando on days with no real reason for long lines (Tuesday at 1 PM LOL!) I think the problem is just the line set up in MCO is VERY poorly designed..