Skybus to FL?

[MiniMooMoo]

Has anyone used Skybus to fly to FL yet?

It seems like the St. Augustine location is the closest to Orlando - says 111 miles away?

I've flown Skybus before & been happy, but I'm wondering what kind of drive that is down to the Orlando area and what the car rental situation is at that airport.

I want to avoid tons of extra hassle, but if I can get a good fare for 4 people, it might be worth it to save all that money for something else!

Thanks!

 

[Edd]

If you think it is worth it to spend another 2 1/2 hours, or maybe more, on the road to WDW from St. Augustine along Interstate 4 to save 50.00 per person, than I would go for it. I think it is ridiculous because of the traffic you could possibly face, not to mention the airline stability of Skybus, going to WDW and returning to depart back home. You will hate the decision even more when you leave WDW and have to drive all the way back to St. Augustine.

There are two good airports close enough where you can get to Disney with not much trouble. Orlando Sanford International and Orlando International. Do yourself a favor and cheap out on the hotels or the spending at Disney, You will feel much better when it is over.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

If you think it is worth it to spend another 2 1/2 hours, or maybe more, on the road to WDW from St. Augustine along Interstate 4 to save 50.00 per person, than I would go for it. I think it is ridiculous because of the traffic you could possibly face, not to mention the airline stability of Skybus, going to WDW and returning to depart back home. You will hate the decision even more when you leave WDW and have to drive all the way back to St. Augustine.

There are two good airports close enough where you can get to Disney with not much trouble. Orlando Sanford International and Orlando International. Do yourself a favor and cheap out on the hotels or the spending at Disney, You will feel much better when it is over.

I have to disagree with you there Edd. Skybus sometimes has fares for $10 each way. Compare that to $100 or more each way with some other airlines. For a family of 4, that's $80 total compared to $800 total. I'd drive 2.5 hrs to save that much.
Even if they go belly up, I'd only be out 80 bucks. It's a chance I'd be will to take.

 

[Lewisc]

I have to disagree with you there Edd. Skybus sometimes has fares for $10 each way. Compare that to $100 or more each way with some other airlines. For a family of 4, that's $80 total compared to $800 total. I'd drive 2.5 hrs to save that much.
Even if they go belly up, I'd only be out 80 bucks. It's a chance I'd be will to take.

It's not the $80, you'll probably get that back via a credit card refund but the cost of replacement air fare. Instead of paying $200 R/T you might wind up paying double that. I might risk it if I was willing to cancel the trip (or drive) if Skybus couldn't get me there.. BTW Skybus doesn't have to go belly up. The could just decide to drop your local airport. They could cancel your flight due to weather or mechanical issues and your planned vacation would be over before they could get you out.

If money is a factor reduce your vacation by a day. You're going to waste that much time driving to and from St. Augustine.

Price the car rental before you even consider booking.

A $10 fare is $40 with taxes, luggage is $12 per bag ($24 R/T) and carryon luggage allowances are a fraction of other carriers.

edited to say there is a limited number of $10 fares per flight. A passenger that follows the fares carefully enough to grab a $10 fare would probably be booking a $120-$180 discounted fare with another airline. DME is free out of MCO. Add the cost of the car rental, the extra skybus charges, the cost for an extra night hotel and a lot of the savings are gone. Skybus works great if you're willing to cancel your trip (or drive) if there is a problem.

 

[Jenny-momof3]

Correction...
A $10 is not $40 each way with taxes. If you get a $10 fare each way it's $38 with taxes for the round trip. Luggage is not $12 per bag.... it's $5.

I've flown Skybus several times already and LOVE them. Excellent customer service, clean planes and wonderful staff.

I can't wait to book more flights with them soon!

 

[Lewisc]

I've read the $10 fare is $40 with taxes and fees. Not sure if the others rounded or the difference is the PFC, which varies with airport.

Skybus increased the price of checked luggage, $10 in advance or $12 at the airport. The stingy carry on restrictions makes it less likely a passenger can function with carry on luggage only.

Do you have a weather related question? Are you on the road and don't have access to the internet? Don't bother trying to call customer service, Skybus doesn't list a phone number. A company that doesn't provide a phone number can't provide excellent customer service, my opinion.


edited to add--I'll agree Skybus can work if you live near a "focus" city and you can handle the possibility of cancelling a trip (or diriving). I don't see how it works if you're booking two flights, one into a focus city and then a second to your real destination.

Correction...
A $10 is not $40 each way with taxes. If you get a $10 fare each way it's $38 with taxes for the round trip. Luggage is not $12 per bag.... it's $5.

I've flown Skybus several times already and LOVE them. Excellent customer service, clean planes and wonderful staff.

I can't wait to book more flights with them soon!

 

[MiniMooMoo]

Thanks for all the varying viewpoints!

I can't do a TRUE apples to apples comparison because Skybus hasn't released rates for December yet, but here's how it breaks down:

$25 fare each way for 3 adults, 1 child: $200
Taxes (total for 4 passengers): $48
$10 checked bag fee for 4, each flight: $80
Priority Boarding for 2, each flight (it's only important to insure that my son gets to sit with one adult he knows): $40
TOTAL = $370

(Obviously, the price would be cheaper IF I managed to snag $10 seats for all of us. But that's no guarantee, so I went with the $25 seats for everyone for a more reasonable comparison. $10 fares each way would make it $250 with all the taxes and fees.)

A car rental out of St. Augustine is $270.

Total of flights & car rental: $640

Delta does have pricing for when we are going:

Fare for 3 adults, 1 child: $872
Car rental out of MCO: $210
Total: $1082

So, a savings of $442, give or take. Which is not exactly anything to sneeze at.

As for the other considerations ... we are staying off-site, so DME is not an option and would already be renting a car. If something did happen with Skybus and we couldn't fly, well, we could drive. (Coming from NC ... not saying it would make anyone happy, but we could do it!) Also, I don't think we'd worry about getting a hotel on the way to St. Augustine. We pretty regularly drive to NJ and MA in one day from NC, so a drive under 150 miles would feel like cake.

It's an interesting discussion with a lot of variables. Honestly, I expected the difference in prices to be much higher. And there really is something to be said for the price of vacation time, to be sure.

Thanks again - it's given me lots to think about.

 

[CarolA]

While I personally am not flying Skybus, I have one question

It's 111 miles to Orlando. That takes 2.5 hours???? On an interstate?????

Having driven this route several times for work (between JAX and MCO) I found this estimate to just be amazing. Yes, if there's a huge accident it could take that long. But heck it once took me over an hour and a half to MCO from WDW. I don't consider that the "norm" and don't really plan for that.

I live in Atlanta, home of the worlds worst traffic and even we can go 111 miles in under 2.5 hours!

If you do this, may I suggest you actually visit St. Augestine. Maybe you can leave WDW early and tour before the plane? It's a very nice city and is of course very historic. I really liked it!

 

[Edd]

You could possibly make it in 2 hours driving between midnight and 6:00 in the morning. It is 129 miles to south St. Augustine from the northside of WDW.

 

[Lewisc]

Carol

Mapquest shows the distance between St. Augustine airport and GF as 134.85 miles and suggests a driving time of 2 hours 23 minutes. I suspect some drivers may "beat" that time.

Assuming you were going to fly Skybus (probably a reach even if you got a free ticket) how much time would you allow going back to St Augustine? Keep in mind:
1) You must check in luggage 30 minutes before your flight.
2) Skybus has a very stingy allowance for carryon bags
3) Even if skybus honors the "flat tire" rule you'll probably have to wait at least 24 hours for the next flight
4) Unlike "real" airports you won't be able to take another airline if you miss your flight.

 

[riggins]

I'm booked on Skybus in April for a WDW trip. We live in NC and the cost to fly the 4 of us directly to MCO was $1,302.40. My 4 Skybus tickets, taxes, and luggage is $380.60. I got a rental car from Avis for 8 days for $227.51. So the total of my Skybus flight and rental car is $694.29 LESS than flying to MCO and using ME. For almost $700 in savings, I'm more than happy to drive the extra distance and risk any potential issues with Skybus.

We often drive to WDW from NC and come right through St. Augustine on the way. We regularly stop at the outlet mall at Exit 318 to hit the Disney Outlet store. It typically takes about 2 hours to get from the outlet store to our hotel. In at least 10 trips through there, we only hit a significant traffic problem one time.

Just my 2 cents!
Leslie

 

[MiniMooMoo]

I'm booked on Skybus in April for a WDW trip. We live in NC and the cost to fly the 4 of us directly to MCO was $1,302.40. My 4 Skybus tickets, taxes, and luggage is $380.60. I got a rental car from Avis for 8 days for $227.51. So the total of my Skybus flight and rental car is $694.29 LESS than flying to MCO and using ME. For almost $700 in savings, I'm more than happy to drive the extra distance and risk any potential issues with Skybus.

We often drive to WDW from NC and come right through St. Augustine on the way. We regularly stop at the outlet mall at Exit 318 to hit the Disney Outlet store. It typically takes about 2 hours to get from the outlet store to our hotel. In at least 10 trips through there, we only hit a significant traffic problem one time.

Just my 2 cents!
Leslie

If you remember, come back & let us know how it went! Have a great trip!

 

[WendyinNC]

For those in NC, I'm assuming you are looking at flying out of Greensboro on Skybus. You may want to check Allegiant. They fly to Orlando/Sanford and most of the fares are only $29. Also, you can often get good fares from Raleigh to MCO on Delta, Airtran, and Southwest.

 

[WendyinNC]

I also wanted to add that a friend of mine was scheduled to take Skybus to Ft Myers a few weeks ago. The flight was cancelled due to the pilot being sick. She had to book a very expensive last minute flight on another airline to get there.

 

[Robert P]

While I personally am not flying Skybus, I have one question

It's 111 miles to Orlando. That takes 2.5 hours???? On an interstate?????

Having driven this route several times for work (between JAX and MCO) I found this estimate to just be amazing.QUOTE]

I have to agree with Carol A on this one. In 2.5 hours, from the WDW exits on I-4, and of course barring any major uncommon traffic problems, I am well past Jacksonville in 2.5 hours, and in at least 1 recent case, already in GA.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I don't see why it's such a big deal. I'm only 20 mins. to Philly but I'm sure there are plenty of people all over the country that have to drive 2 hrs. to an airport. I would just allow lots of extra time so you don't feel stressed even if you do it traffic. I probably wouldn't want an early morning flight, but then again I'm not a morning person and neither are my kids.
I've flown home from Tampa and it was so simple I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Not as far as St. Augustine but still a bit of a drive. It's actually fun if you have a convertible!

 

[MrDiamond]

Why is it every time the name Skybus comes up, the same couple of people jump on the thread (LewisC, for example) continually pound their point home that Skybus is bad idea. I don't mind stating your case, but that is never enough. Do a search under 'Skybus' and count the responses the same people will have under a single thread. It's as if it is their job to drive people away.

I have flown Skybus twice now, drove both times from Cleveland to Columbus to fly to St Augustine. Rented from Hertz each time. Had $10 flights once and $30 the other time. It was too cheap not to do it. I will do it again of I get that kind of deal again.

Be aware, while problems happen with all airlines, the options are really limited if something goes wrong. I would advise that you have some flexibility, especially coming home, in case something goes wrong. We were fogged in one night coming home and the flight was cancelled. Couldn't leave until the next day, so we drove back to WDW (which is a solid 2 hours, by the way, without traffic). Now, that could have happened at any airport, but, again, the options were limited to getting the car back and finding a hotel.

I can expand upon the experiences, if anyone desires.

 

[Kevenswife2]

I agree the same few people do jump on everytime Skybus is mentioned. They are very biased and seem to have nothing good to say about Skybus.

On to answering your question. My family flew from Columbus to St. A. on Thanksgiving Day 2007. We highly recommend it! I was lucky enough to snag the $10 seats (both ways!!) for all three of us. Total with tax and fees came to less than $119 for 3 round trip, straight flight tickets. Checked 2 bags @ $5 each both ways. I have noticed this rate has gone up.

I spent less than 2 minutes at the Avis rental car desk (signed up for their frequent renter program, I walked up to counter and they handed me the keys. Didn't even need to see my license or have to sign anything.) and had my car in less than 7 minutes total...actually before my hubby had our luggage. It's a very small airport and very easy to navigate. I was afraid I'd "get lost" driving around by myself (because I'm used to the confusion at CMH, but it's sooo simple)

We drove to Disney in a little over 2 hours. Had no problems what so ever. Maybe it wasn't as busy as usual because it was a holiday, but our trip back on Dec 2 was just as easy.

While I like flying into MCO and using Magic Express, for the savings I'd go Skybus again!

FYI: You must apply priority boarding to ALL tickets in your booking. If you book all 4 at the same time, then you'll have to apply PB to all of them.

I paid the extra both ways to ensure my DD9 would be able to sit with at least one of us. From what I saw though, most people are nice enough to move and allow a family to sit together. Side note: My family was in the priority (first on, "A") group and I noticed another family in the "C" group. We wound up sitting across from each other in the same fourth row. Moral: Paying for PB didn't put me any closer to the front of the plane than the "C" group. I wouldn't pay the extra for Priority Boarding on my next flight...but I WOULD fly into St. Augustine again for my Disney vacation for a $$ savings.

 

[sorul82?]

I'm not sure where the OP is in NC, but Allegiant also flies out of Kinston and there are no parking fees. When your family size gets to be 4, 5, or more, yes saving $50 per person is a big deal. I check Allegiant almost everyday and have seen fares from $9 to $39 from both Kinston and Greensboro. If we can't get a decent Ding for our upcoming trip, we will go with either Skybus or Allegiant. However, then I think about the 2 hours to drive to Greensboro, 2 hours or so to wait for the flight, 1.25 hour flight, time to get the rental and then 2 hours to drive to WDW; would we be better off just driving? Then I remember how many times we have to stop for potty breaks and this cycle starts all over again. So I decide Allegiant is the way to go BUT, the only thing keeping me from booking Allegiant is that darn 9:30AM return flight. Gosh dangit, I just don't want to get up that early on our last Disney day!

 

[Lewisc]

Why is it every time the name Skybus comes up, the same couple of people jump on the thread (LewisC, for example) continually pound their point home that Skybus is bad idea.

The OPs savings would have been around $200 if they wouldn't have had to rent a car at MCO. Skybus might work for them since they need to rent a car either way.

Wendy's friend had to book an expensive, last minute, flight because the Skybus pilot got sick and Skybus cancelled the flight.

One poster booked Skybus before learning the car rental agencies closed before their flight was scheduled to land.

Another poster booked Skybus before checking car rentals. The only agency that would be open when they landed had a rate more then double what the poster was planning to pay to rent a mini-van.

One skybus fan in this thread didn't realize skybus more then doubled the cost of checked bags and "corrected" the information I posted.

I suspect many skybus fans don't realize the carry on bag limits are signficantly lower then other airlines. So much lower that the vast majority of bags sold as airline approved carry on sized don't qualify.

You're right, there a handful of intelligent posters that warn potential Skybus customers of the differences between Skybus and other airlines.

I still think Skybus can work if the savings are significant and the customer has a plan "B". Plan "B" could include a willingness to drive, skip the trip or pay more for another airline. I suspect driving is a reasonable alternative for the posters who are planning to fly from NC.

I'd continue to post constructive information but this will probably be my last post in this thread.