Alligient Air--Sanford?

[mellvswdw1]

https://www.smartertravel.com/allegiant-retires-outdated-aircraft-safety-concerns/
Please look at UPDATED safety-they have since retired the planes that were cause for concern. Things DO change.
The pros of Sanford is it is a much smaller airport, so tend to have less flights if something does happen to delay. Security is a breeze, and renting a car is super easy. The drive isn't bad at all but we've had a removable transponder for sunpass for a couple years, so the toll drive is fast and easy.
The cons-like any budget airline check all the fees-heck with Allegiant they charge for online CC use-it is cheaper to go to airport to buy tickets with cash! Budget airlines also tend to have much less flights so again-if delay or cancel that flight you may be stuck for a couple days. It is also a bit longer to Orlando, no magical express etc. When whole family goes we tend to rent a car anyway-our oldest, and myself and DH have all lived in and are comfortable driving in large crazy traffic cities, but not everyone is (totally understandable!!)

We've flown Allegiant a few times as they are the only direct flight from our hometown. We've also driven to larger airport (3 hours) for more flights on other airlines (and after major weather related delays coming home from Miami after a cruise, then driving home meant we were up for almost 24 hours straight). In our delayed case-I think I would have rather stayed an extra day in Miami, and arrive at our home town vs the nightmare of hanging in airports for hours, but I realize that is not an option for many.

Good point! We had new planes the last flight we were on.

 

[Kae]

We like Allegiant. Local airport easy to get in and out of . We have flown to Vegas, Sandford, Clearwater and Punta Gorda with them. Last trip flew southwest delays both ways and getting thru security at MCO was horrible.

Kae

 

[Wayland10]

Did this two years ago, when my mom didn't realize that there were two different Orlando airports. Small airport, easy car rental, and we were driving at night so light traffic. Downside was the need to get up horribly early to make sure that we were at the airport in time for out return flight.

 

[Darcy03231]

You can get an Uber at Sanford. My niece and her fiancée flew into Sanford by mistake when they were meeting us and that's what they did.

Just make sure you price everything out. They ended up spending almost the same amount as we did once Allegiant was done nickel and diming them for everything.

 

[chekhovgirl]

We flew them last year for the first time. Being that we had to pay for six people to fly, it was definitely worth it. We saved over a thousand dollars, maybe two, when we booked. Other prices were sky high (flying pun!) and we were renting a car anyway. We were in FL the WEEK that the 60 minutes story came out (our family at home was not pleased!), but I honestly wasn't worried. I want my family to be safe, on the other hand, it felt like a lot of sensationalism. Nobody listened to details, just thought flying Allegiant was bad, period. We weren't on one of the types of planes that was deemed to be a problem. Yes, they have a limited schedule, but it worked out for us. We were down Sat. to Sat. and the flights were on time.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/allegi...-fleet-months-after-60-minutes-investigation/

 

[chekhovgirl]

Our local airport (which has free parking) offers non-stop flights to Sanford. DH and I did it once and rented a car for a cheap, off-site stay at Disney. We only had carry-ons, and stopped at Walmart for some snacks since we had a car, so we were able to avoid the bag-check fees.
Our preference is usually to book Southwest, even though it does not fly at our local airport, we have a 2.5-3 hour drive to Chicago, and then have to pay for parking. But we prefer Southwest almost every time.

The airport we flew out of had a $60/week max for parking and it was small and easy to move through, so that was great. My family also flew Allegiant out of Richmond, VA for our trip and had no problems.