MIA Allegiant flights & which airline is best?

[Disfor3]

Does anyone have any idea why Allegiant Air doesn't have any flights listed past mid August? Our family is trying to decide to go with Allegiant to Sanford or another carrier to MCO. Allegiant would be a nonstop flight and any other airline will involve a layover... I'm afraid if we wait much longer the other carriers prices will continue to go up but we are getting nervous about Allegiant's MIA schedule... Any thoughts on where the schedules are or whether to choose allegiant nonstop to Sanford vs another airline with layover to MCO would really be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

There are three issues to deal with:

1. Using Allegiant instead of a traditional airline
2. Flying in and out of Orlando-Sanford instead Orlando International
3. Waiting for the August schedule

Regarding #1, Allegiant Air has a different idea of how to run an airline. While traditional airlines rely on frequent service (usually at least twice daily) between city pairs and use connecting airports to get passengers between the airports that can't (in the traditional model) support nonstop service, Allegiant Air flies many of its routes just twice a week, but with nonstop service. Allegiant Air doesn't want to deal with connections. The downside of Allegiant Air's model is that when a flight is cancelled of substantially delayed, it can be a huge problem for passengers. (Other airlines just put passengers on the next connection, possibly a connection through different airport.)

Regarding #2, if you're renting a car anyway, Orlando-Sanford is a fine option. It's twice as far from WDW as the big airport, but you can gain some of the extra driving time back because it's a smaller airport. If you want to take a car service or cab, you'll pay around twice as much. If you would have taken Disney's Magical Express (free), you have to do something else (not free).

Regarding #3, August is a long way off. Allegiant Air is already accepting reservations through August 12, 2014. The rest of August will be available soon enough.

 

[kaytieeldr]

More on #3: unlike legacy airlines which release their schedules/fare 331 days in advance (and make multiple interim 5e changes), low cost carriers like Allegiant (Southwest, jetBlue) release only a few months' flight schedules at a time. Nothing at all unusual about what you're seeing.

 

[mikehn]

I've looked into options with Allegiant as well. Price wise, there is not a whole lot of savings compared to some other carrier like jetblue or southwest, once you in add in the Allegiant baggage fees. That little bit of savings is not enough to offset the risks of the limited flights already mentioned. However, their nonstop flights are very attractive. Good luck.

 

[DebbieB]

There have been cases posted where they changed the day of the week they fly out of a city after the schedule is released. For example, a Sunday flight was changed to Monday.