Sanford/Orlando Airport

[DisneyGuess]

I'm debating book flights on Allegiant for our trip in December. They are much cheaper, even with a rental & baggage fees, than Southwest or AirTran, not to mention much closer to us. I'm hesitant because of the limited flights available & only certain days. Thoughts, opinions or reviews? I know you have the option on them to prepay for your checked baggage, & carry-ons apparently, do you do that when you check-in 24 hours in advance of your flight? & can you pay for both legs of your trip then or can only pay for the flight down, then have to pay your return baggage fees when you check-in 24 hours before that one?

If we book with them, we'd be flying into the Sanford/Orlando airport. Is it a large airport? On our return flight home, how early would we need to arrive? Our local airport is only recommended at leats 1 hour before, I know MCO is 2 hours at least.
& how far from Disney is the drive to Sanford?

 

[goof4ever]

Sanford is a small airport. I usually follow the one hour rule. Allegiant is a good airline, but they now charge for not only checked baggage, but carry on bags as well. It is cheaper for checked baggage when you make your reservation because the counter at the airport will charge more. I would call Allegiant with all questions that you have so that you can make the best decision. Good luck!

 

[goofy4tink]

I love Sanford Intl. It's a very user friendly airport...very easy to navigate! It does take about 50 mins to drive to WDW though, sometimes a bit longer.
The problem with the smaller airlines is that they fly a very limited number of days. If there is an issue, it can sometimes be hard to get to your destination..as compared with Jetblue (for instance)....at least they have many flights a day, so if their is a mechanical problem, they can usually get you on another plane that day.

 

[DisneyGuess]

I love Sanford Intl. It's a very user friendly airport...very easy to navigate! It does take about 50 mins to drive to WDW though, sometimes a bit longer.
The problem with the smaller airlines is that they fly a very limited number of days. If there is an issue, it can sometimes be hard to get to your destination..as compared with Jetblue (for instance)....at least they have many flights a day, so if their is a mechanical problem, they can usually get you on another plane that day.

That is my biggest concern with Allegiant, they fly out on Sundays & Thursday, 1x per day. It may be worth the extra money for Southwest or AirTran just for that piece of mind.

 

[nacho113]

A couple of pieces of advise I can offer are:
1) pack light to minimize the amount of luggage that you need to take - they charge for checked bags (Aprox $20-$30 each way) and they now charge for carry-ons @ $15-$20 each way. Pay in advance since it is a lot higher at check-in time - $35/checked bag and $30/ carry-on (each way)
2) if you want to sit together with everyone in your party, then I would recommend pre-purchasing your seats ($12-$17 per person each way) and make sure you are at the check-in gate at least 45 minutes before flight time.
This is the point at which they start the open seating boarding and if you have not boarded at this point, you will loose your pre-paid seats (with no refunds given) We saw this on our flight home from Sanford with Allegiantair in May. Two families boarded about 30 minutes before flight time and there pre-paid seats were already filled by the open seating passengers so they ended up siting all over the cabin.)

If you don't purchase pre-paid seating, then I would suggest that you are at the check-in desk at the airport at least 2 hours prior to departure. The open seating part of boarding is based on your check-in time at the counter. As open seating passengers check-in at the counter, there boarding pass gets assigned a number (first to check-in = 001, second 002 etc etc).
After the pre-paid seating has boarded and no sooner than 45 minutes before flight time, then the open seating is called, based on these numbers assigned at check-in (ie passengers with numbers 1 to 10 are now allowed to board and pick there seats from what is available, then 11-20 and so on til everyone is aboard)
The larger your party is, the less chance you will find seats together using open seating. Probably be ok with 2 people as long as you show up a couple of hours before flight time, but if your taking the family, pay the extra and book the seats (and make sure you are through security and at the gate at least 45 minutes before departure otherwise you will loose those seat assignments and be stuck with open seating anyway)

 

[goofy4tink]

That is my biggest concern with Allegiant, they fly out on Sundays & Thursday, 1x per day. It may be worth the extra money for Southwest or AirTran just for that piece of mind.

When I was flying DirectAir into Sanford, I always tried to arrive a day or two before I 'had' to be there...same thing with going home. I booked a flight that gave me wiggle room.
When I had to get to Florida for a Disney cruise, there was no way I was flying in the day before the cruise on DirectAir. If the flight had had an issue, I would have been stuck with no alternative flight for a few days...and missing my cruise.
I love saving money as much as the next person, but sometimes it's just not worth it in the long run.

 

[DisneyGuess]

When I was flying DirectAir into Sanford, I always tried to arrive a day or two before I 'had' to be there...same thing with going home. I booked a flight that gave me wiggle room.
When I had to get to Florida for a Disney cruise, there was no way I was flying in the day before the cruise on DirectAir. If the flight had had an issue, I would have been stuck with no alternative flight for a few days...and missing my cruise.
I love saving money as much as the next person, but sometimes it's just not worth it in the long run.

That's the thing, they fly on Sundays or Thursdays from my local airport. So, we'd be in trouble if something happened to our flight down there. & that worries me.
It may be worth the extra couple hundred & the 3 hour drive just for my peace of mind that we'll get there.
I hate making these decisions alone, all I ever get from my DH is, "Whatever you think is best" or "Whatever you think will work".

 

[jkennedy626]

We are flying to Sanford from Chicago from a Thursday to Thursday. The departing flight arrives at 10:20pm and I'm stressing about not being able to get to the car rental counter by 11 when they close. We did gain an extra day since it was much cheaper to fly out by their schedule. We are going to stay in Daytona the first two nights. I guess if we had a delay it wouldn't be that bad since we aren't checking into Disney right away. I am quite nervous over this airline, but our other alternative was to drive and a flight for 4 is cheaper than gas with paying for checked bags. I've been checking flight status each day they fly out of our aiport and they have been ontime and even early.

 

[Thee Incredibles]

If you don't purchase pre-paid seating, then I would suggest that you are at the check-in desk at the airport at least 2 hours prior to departure. The open seating part of boarding is based on your check-in time at the counter. As open seating passengers check-in at the counter, there boarding pass gets assigned a number (first to check-in = 001, second 002 etc etc).
After the pre-paid seating has boarded and no sooner than 45 minutes before flight time, then the open seating is called, based on these numbers assigned at check-in (ie passengers with numbers 1 to 10 are now allowed to board and pick there seats from what is available, then 11-20 and so on til everyone is aboard)
The larger your party is, the less chance you will find seats together using open seating. Probably be ok with 2 people as long as you show up a couple of hours before flight time, but if your taking the family, pay the extra and book the seats (and make sure you are through security and at the gate at least 45 minutes before departure otherwise you will loose those seat assignments and be stuck with open seating anyway)

Awesome information! We will be trying this on Thursday just as you suggested, we'll report back on how it works. The flight still looks rather empty both ways so maybe we'll be ok. My kids are a little older, they'd probably enjoy sitting away from Mom! Thank you for this valuable info!