Two Part Question...Lexington KY & AirTran

[gvillemama]

We always fly out of either Louisville or Nashville because both are about two hours from our house. Lexington is about 45 minutes further for us, but after figuring in seats, baggage (I think), parking, etc flying out of Lexington via AirTran looks to be quite a bit less expensive (almost 200 dollars).
So my question #1 is: How is Lexington's airport? Both Nashville and Louisville seem pretty easy to manuever for me with a child, I assume Lexington is the same but wanted to make sure there were no major horror stories by anyone who has flown from there.
Question #2: Let me know about AirTran. We always fly Southwest but I like the flight times better for this AirTran flight. I know they charge baggage fees, but suppose all three of us have one checked bag, do we pay bags by person or by the reservation? There is less of a price difference if we have to pay the steeper third bag fee rather than just 3 bags at the first bag price? Also, I have heard AirTran is notorious for changing the flight times...if there is only one flight offered per day to MCO, would this still be as likely?
Hope my questions make sense (especially the baggage one). I tend to ramble!!

TIA!
Andrea

 

[kydisneyfans]

I have not flown from Lexington but have thorough knowledge of the airport through work. It is super easy to maneuver, security lines don't exist, and parking is a breeze.

 

[wdwmaw]

Lexington airport is a breeze as stated above and is very small. We usually fly SWA out of SDF also because Lex is usually much more expensive. We are excited and hoping to fly out of Lex this Oct. We live 15min from the airport so this would be great for us.

I do not see them changing flight times much since they are non stop and only one flight per day.I work with many people that fly out of Lex all the time and they never have flight changes here.

Baggage fee is per person, so if you have 3 people flying then each person could pay for 1 checked bag and have 1 carry on. That is the great thing with SWA is the 2 bags per person. Just have to take what is very important and deal with not having the rest. We figure we could always pack less and do laundry once. If you sign up for there newsletter thingie then they do offer discounts like $20 off round trip often. This would help with adding the baggage fee. I think you would need one promo code per reservation. Something to think about.

I hope I have helped, I also tend to ramble.

 

[gvillemama]

Thanks for the responses...it sounds like it is worth a try!

 

[dioxide45]

You will see a lot more flight changes on flights that connect in Atlanta. It is rare that we have seen changes on our direct flights from DAY, but one of the times we had a connection and it changed 5 times, we finally got on a direct flight. With connections, if even one of the legs changes, it throws off the whole itinerary. Stick with the direct flights with AirTran and you should have fewer issues.

 

[loveswdw]

I will have to check this out as I didn't realize that AirTran flew out of Lexington. Looked at Allegiant but didn't book. We usually fly SWA out of SDF or Delta out of CVG.

 

[TammyC]

I will have to check this out as I didn't realize that AirTran flew out of Lexington. Looked at Allegiant but didn't book. We usually fly SWA out of SDF or Delta out of CVG.

Delta has been having some unusually low (at least for our high priced airport) fares from CVG to MCO at $178 plus tax/fees for many dates.

T

 

[loveswdw]

Thanks TammyC! I'll check it out. CVG is usually WAY higher but offers more non-stops too.

 

[madge]

Air Tran flies out of LEX? I had no idea! We've always flown SWA out of Nashville. I'm looking very seriously at flying Allegiant out of LEX this summer, times are good and the price is right. Lexington is a heck of a lot easier and closer to me than Nashville, too.

 

[loveswdw]

Actually, they haven't started service YET. Supposedly, Feb. 10th I believe. Its limited to one nonstop a day on Mon., Wed., Fri & Sun I think. We are seriously considering this for our early June trip. LEX is 1.5 hours from us and my sis in law lives very near the airport for dropping off/picking up (no parking fees for us!). AT June flights are flying out of MCO at 3:00 PM, landing in LEX at 5:30, then flying out of LEX at 5:30 into MCO at 7:30 PM. Not bad for us.

SWA out of Louisville is about 45 minutes for us. But I'm always depending on a DING or sale. SWA offers the ONLY nonstop flight out of Louisville. And its 1:05 out (which is fine) but the flight back to Louisville leaves MCO at 7:25 AM! AirTran times are MUCH better for us. Plus, its cheaper right now. AT is offering $59/$79 each way. SWA nonstop is going for $265 rt each ($1060 for 4 vs under $600 for 4)

According to these boards, if you book AT through Kayak then you don't have to pay the seat assignment fee, saving us another $50. We will have to pay for at least 2 bags ($60 rt). But still coming out a lot cheaper than SWA right now. Trying to wait until tomorrow to book and give SWA a chance to offer their normal Tuesday sale. If nothing comes up, then I think we're gonna book AT.

I LUV SWA but for the savings...

 

[madge]

Actually, they haven't started service YET. Supposedly, Feb. 10th I believe. Its limited to one nonstop a day on Mon., Wed., Fri & Sun I think. We are seriously considering this for our early June trip. LEX is 1.5 hours from us and my sis in law lives very near the airport for dropping off/picking up (no parking fees for us!). AT June flights are flying out of MCO at 3:00 PM, landing in LEX at 5:30, then flying out of LEX at 5:30 into MCO at 7:30 PM. Not bad for us.

SWA out of Louisville is about 45 minutes for us. But I'm always depending on a DING or sale. SWA offers the ONLY nonstop flight out of Louisville. And its 1:05 out (which is fine) but the flight back to Louisville leaves MCO at 7:25 AM! AirTran times are MUCH better for us. Plus, its cheaper right now. AT is offering $59/$79 each way. SWA nonstop is going for $265 rt each ($1060 for 4 vs under $600 for 4)

According to these boards, if you book AT through Kayak then you don't have to pay the seat assignment fee, saving us another $50. We will have to pay for at least 2 bags ($60 rt). But still coming out a lot cheaper than SWA right now. Trying to wait until tomorrow to book and give SWA a chance to offer their normal Tuesday sale. If nothing comes up, then I think we're gonna book AT.

I LUV SWA but for the savings...

our trip is mid-June, so the timing is perfect for us

we flew AirTran out of Indianapolis a couple of years ago -- loved it.

I gave up on flying out of SDF some time ago. We're in E'town, so that puts us closer to Nashville than you are in La Grange. The Southwest fares are usually cheaper from there than Louisville, and they've got more flights/day.

I'm looking forward to flying out of Lexington. Easy peasy airport, compared to all the others we've flown out of!

 

[My3kiddos]

We are flying out of LEX in October on Airtran. I've been to the airport many times but I've always flown out of CVG because it was so much cheaper. Not this time! I bought tickets for 6 of us the day the flights opened up and the total was $942 plus checked bag fees. Now each ticket is $442.40 plus baggage fees I'm glad I bought the tickets when I did.

Does anyone know how early we need to get to the airport before our flight? We always got to CVG 2 hours early (even when our flight was at 7am) and always needed those 2 hours to get checked in and thru security.

 

[lacy1101]

Does anyone know how early we need to get to the airport before our flight? We always got to CVG 2 hours early (even when our flight was at 7am) and always needed those 2 hours to get checked in and thru security.

Bumping as I would like to know the answer to this question as well.

 

[kycat]

Bumping as I would like to know the answer to this question as well.

I fly out of LEX a lot, but I've never flown Air-Tran. I usually get to the airport no earlier than 1 hour...and it's usually ends up being 45 minutes before my flight. However, I have usually checked-in online and printed my boarding passes...so that I can go directly to the kiosk and print my bag tags and hand them my bags...so I don't know if you can do all that with Air Tran. The security backup there is nothing like CVG. I'm usually through the line in 5-10 minues, and the airport is very small.
If you want an absolutely no stress departure day (at LEX anyway ), I would be there 1.5 hours early.

 

[sam_gordon]

Bumping as I would like to know the answer to this question as well.

I'm flying out of LEX Friday morning (for work, not for WDW), and plan on getting there 1 hour before flight. However, keep in mind I'll check in the day/night before and I won't have to check luggage.

If you need to check luggage and/or check in at the airport, add 15-30 minutes.

Wow, didn't realize there were so many central Kentuckians on DIS!

 

[wdwmaw]

Wow, didn't realize there were so many central Kentuckians on DIS!

There are a bunch of us on here Love the DIS

 

[kycat]

There are a bunch of us on here Love the DIS

I'm guessing that Scott Co has the first week in October off as well.

 

[My3kiddos]

As many of us that there is we should have a DIS meetup in KY!

 

[lacy1101]

As many of us that there is we should have a DIS meetup in KY!

I like that idea!

Thanks for all the helpful info. There are 4 adults (2 couples) traveling and I'm unsure at this point if we will have any checked bags. At most, we might have one between the two couples. I'm thinking each couple will have 1 carry on and then we can combine some stuff into one checked bag. We'll probably shoot for a 1-1/2 hour pre-flight arrival time.

I bought our airfare today with Air Tran. This will be my first time with them and my first time flying out of Lexington. I got $55 to Orlando and $93 coming home. I was a little tempted to wait and see if the return flight came down any, but decided not to risk it.

This is going to be a different kind of trip for us. We've been to Disney 7times now - all family trips with the exception of one that was just my husband and I. This time we're taking some good friends who haven't been in a very long time. I think it will be a great trip!

 

[MAH4546]

Also, I have heard AirTran is notorious for changing the flight times...if there is only one flight offered per day to MCO, would this still be as likely?

AirTran does have only one flight per day to LEX, but it alternates between going to Orlando on Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays/Sundays and going to Miami-Lauderdale on Tuesdays/Thursdays/Saturdays.

The only problem is when flights are cancelled, and since AirTran does not have agreements with other carriers or more than one daily flight, it may cause trouble, and the next day's flight is likely going to Miami, not Orlando.