OGS to SFB with Allegiant Maiden Flight!

[OttawaDisGirl]

Hi there,

We're going to be on the maiden flight from Ogdensburg, NY to Sanford, FL on Allegiant on October 5th. (24 days till Disney but who's counting?!)

Does anyone have any tips to make the Allegiant flight better, I get the sense that it's a very 'no frills' airline. I'll be bringing snacks and our iPads to make passing the time easier. Are there plugs near the seats or is that asking too much - meaning, should I bother using up my precious under-seat space with plugs for my electronics?

About a month ago we passed by the new Ogdensburg airport, it didn't really look at all ready-there was construction stuff everywhere. I don't know anything about construction and I'm getting nervous. What if the airport isn't ready?? What to do? What would Allegiant do, I wonder if it wasn't ready? Hm.

Is anyone interested in hearing my impressions about the airport once this is over? I could offer a mini-airline OGS airport experience report. What do you think?

Thanks in advance for you kind thoughts.

OttawaDisGirl

 

[ottawamom]

I would love to hear about your experiences with Allegiant and the new Ogdensburg airport when you return. I've noticed that Air Canada and Westjet have both increased the non-stop flights from Ottawa to Orlando. (now continue past April right through the summer and fall). They may finally be worried about the affect that Allegiant and the other US airlines will have on the Ottawa flyers.

 

[Starwind]

I would also be interested in hearing your experience.

SW

 

[bankr63]

I think they will make it just fine. Went by there two weeks ago on our way home from Saranac, and yes, there is a lot of construction gear. But the road realignment is done, and it appears that the runway extension is paved. Everything else is just gravy. Was wondering if they were adding additional parking though. Seems to me they only had about a dozen spots before?

Would love to hear a mini report on the new "Ottawa/Ogdensburg" airport as Allegiant is calling it.

 

[mab2012]

I'll be watching this closely too. Too bad flights are only available on Wednesday and Saturday, otherwise I could see using this for a low baggage, long weekend trip in off seasons.

 

[ccudmore]

Please do send us a report. We've flown on them out of Plattsburgh before and they really are super no-frills. I'm pretty sure there were no power outlets on their planes. Make sure you pay for any bags (you pay for both checked bags and carry on) ahead of time and print off all documentation (or install their mobile app) as you'll have to pay for any interaction with their staff at the airport. It's $5 to print your boarding pass at the airport. If you didn't pay to reserve seats ahead of time make sure you check in as early as possible to make sure you get seats together.

I agree with mab2012 - I could really see doing weekend trips if the days were different. Maybe down on Thursday and back Sunday or Monday.

 

[hdrolfe]

I'm also interested. The prices for flights look awesome. I am a little concerned about how to get to Disney though, I understand their magic express buses don't pick up at Sanford, so do I have to rent a car? (eek! I don't like driving in new places)

 

[ccudmore]

I'm also interested. The prices for flights look awesome. I am a little concerned about how to get to Disney though, I understand their magic express buses don't pick up at Sanford, so do I have to rent a car? (eek! I don't like driving in new places)

We've rented a car when we fly in to Sanford. It's so much easier getting around and worth the extra cost. Not really any other cost-effective options.

 

[klam_chowder]

Would love to hear about it too! Checked them out for flight over Xmas - heading to Tampa but it's too far to drive on Xmas eve but will consider it for my next trip down to the World. Have a fab trip!

cheers,

 

[OttawaDisGirl]

Thanks for weighing in everyone! I will post an update on what the new airport experience is like!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I would be careful using Allegent. My husband is a pilot and said their maintenance record is horrible and even though they are cheaper from our airport he would never fly with them. ALso be aware that if you have trouble with your flight there will not be another aircraft to take its place so you could be stuck for days at the airport. Coworkers son was stuck for 2 1/2 days becuase of a mechanical issue and the plane could not get to the airport to pick him up. A friend was suck for 9 hrs just last month. When she got on the plane the window in the row ahead of her was cracked!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I'm also interested. The prices for flights look awesome. I am a little concerned about how to get to Disney though, I understand their magic express buses don't pick up at Sanford, so do I have to rent a car? (eek! I don't like driving in new places)

The Magical Express does not go to Sanford. You will have to rent a car. Limo or shuttle service is $200 each way plus tip

 

[michelb]

Also curious to hear about the maiden flight.

We're probably flying with them to OGS on Oct 15th (returning from SFB) (although we prefer flying to / from PIE instead of SFB so we might do PIE-SYR or PIE-PBG instead of SFB-OGS so we're not 100% yet (we'd love to fly from / to OGS but we prefer going to / from PIE)).

As others have mentioned, there are no plugs available, no in-flight movie or audio or anything. Seats don't recline, have very little pocket space, etc. You can buy snacks and drinks on board (CC only - no cash) but we always just pack lunches for the family (although obviously, you can't bring any drinks through security - we just bring a few empty water bottles which we fill after security or buy drinks after security). As you know it's "super no-frills" so you have to pay extra for everything (carry-on and checked luggage (except for smallish personal item), seat reservation, priority boarding, etc). Unfortunately, looking at the OGS website, they don't appear to offer free parking anymore.

We've flown about 15 times with AllegiantAir over the last 5-6 years and we've had a few delays but most flights have been on time (the worst delay was a few years ago, flying from SYR (one of the first Allegiant Flights from there), the plane didn't have enough fuel for the flight to Florida (because weather conditions made it use more) so we had to wait for a new flight plan (quite a long delay), then fly from SYR to Pennsylvania (maybe Scranton or Allentown), get refueled there and then fly to Florida (I suspect that Allegiant didn't have credit to buy fuel from SYR so we had to fly to Pennsylvania to refuel from there). Probably ended up taking about 6 hrs to get from SYR to PIE. Another time we were delayed 1-2 hours flying from PBG but that was because another flight (USAirways?) arrived late and blocking the gate so we had to wait for that flight to unload / reload before we could board the Allegiant plane (which was sitting on the tarmac). Last year we were delayed 1-2 hours, I believe because of mechanical issues. That said, from our experience, there are delays with all carriers and having a direct flight and a good price is very worthwhile for us.

As far as SFB, unfortunately it's a bit limited there too. As others mentioned, Magical Express does not go there and while you can rent a car, in my experience, it's quite a bit more expensive than renting one from MCO so it might be worth taking shuttle / taxi / Uber from SFB to MCO and getting a rental or Magical Express from there (although you might not be able to take the Magical Express - you'd have to check with DisneyWorld but it's possible you have to have a flight arriving / departing at MCO to qualify for it (although maybe you can just give fake flight info it if they ask (just give them a flight number of a flight landing at MCO at roughly the same time)). In response to the person concerned about driving there, it's not terrible BUT there is tons of traffic and with the toll roads, there seem to be highways everywhere so it really helps to know your route before hand. For someone used to driving in Ottawa, it's probably comparable to driving in Montreal. Drivers might not be quite a aggressive in Orlando (but they're not far) but there's a lot of traffic and there are highways going in every direction so if you don't know where you are going it's easy to be in the wrong lane, take wrong exit, etc.

 

[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 2 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)

 

[OttawaDisGirl]

Hi Everyone,

I posted a separate thread with some pictures of the airport. It's covers the OGS airport and a couple shots of the airplane itself.

You can see the posting here.