THE ULTIMATE BUDGET TIP!

[Wendy M]

As we all know, Disney can be pretty costly! I try to go every few years to take my grands and sometimes the money is just too tight! Well... I found a loophole and I am excited to share! The secret is... Orlando Sanford International Airport or SFB as they refer to themselves. It's a small little airport about 40 minutes North of Disney. We live in Philadephia and drove about 25 minutes to the Allentown Airport to catch a flight to SFB. Flying on Allegiant, we paid about 138 round trip!!! Overall the experience was better. I didn't have to stand in long lines at MCO and SFB is small and easy to operate. My daughter and I discussed taking the kids again next year to Universal and Disney (SFB has a shuttle to take passengers to Univeral hotels).

 

[disneyeveryyear]

Sanford is a well kept secret. My only concern is Allegiant. They don't have a very good track record for safety.

 

[la79al]

For us it is not a trade off to fly Allegiant. My husband tried to fly home from Orlando last year and got his flight changed 4 times after he got to the airport due to mechanical problems. It was a fight to get Allegiant to pay for the necessary hotel room and the vouchers they gave for food couldn't be used. DH had to take an extra day off work due to the when the flight actually left the airport. It is not worth potentially missing a day of vacation or needing to call in sick upon return.

 

[disneyeveryyear]

If you want to watch a real eye opener, watch the 60 Minutes expose of Allegiant. It can be found on YouTube.

 

[dthogue]

You forgot to mention that you need to provide your own transportation and with traffic its about an hour drive to Disney. Plus if you have to rent a car and are staying on property you will pay for parking. You need up all the costs and hassles to make sure its a better "value"

 

[rg35]

I value my life too much to fly on Allegiant.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

Not a secret. Allegiant nickel and dimes you. Horrible planes and worse seats ever. Agree informing yourself on 60 Minutes segment is eye opener.

My son stranded at Indy airport for hours because they had no oxygen to refill a tank. How an airline can do that is beyond belief. Know pilots flew when they shouldn’t have.

They also fly limited days and limited planes so you can be stuck- and they don’t care. We flew once as a family and that was enough- hubby spoke to gentleman next to him. He and wife on vacation once- Allegiant changed planes. Seat configuration of 3-3 went to 3-2. So all those who were in the seat eliminated were stuck! No recourse.

 

[DietCoke18]

You forgot to mention that you need to provide your own transportation and with traffic its about an hour drive to Disney. Plus if you have to rent a car and are staying on property you will pay for parking. You need up all the costs and hassles to make sure its a better "value"

All this. We fly jet blue every single trip. They are not perfect but we are willing to pay more to get the service

 

[tvguy]

Sanford as an airport option has been a topic over on the Cruise Line Forum since I joined in 2003. But there are trade offs for the money savings as others have mentioned.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Another thing to consider with Allegiant, the checked baggage is only 40 lbs (vs 50 with other carriers). Flew them once to Vegas and at 42 lbs. They wanted $50 for the overweight fee. I dug out a pair of jeans and something else and put into my large purse to avoid the fee. It was a pain to lug around a stuff bag in the airport. But that was totally my fault for just assuming they were at 50lbs like everyone else.

My other issue with Allegiant, at least from my home airport if the flight doesn't go for a reason (well not just a slight weather delay). Let's say a mechanical issue, you are not flying until the next scheduled flight (if they have room) which is sometimes days away. That's main reason I won't fly them again.

I'm not sure if it was just in my head or any truth but the seats seems so hard and smaller then normal economy seats on a mainstream carrier.

 

[Best Aunt]

Agree with previous posters. Allegiant adds on many fees, so the posted price usually is not what you end up paying. By the time you add in the cost of transportation from Sanford to a Disney hotel, you might not be saving much at all. From here there might be four flights a week, and other airlines don’t use that airport so if your flight is cancelled that could mean no vacation.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

I'm not sure if it was just in my head or any truth but the seats seems so hard and smaller then normal economy seats on a mainstream carrier.

Not in your head- I agree about seats! Hard molded plastic that don’t recline. Little padding and uncomfortable! My back hurt really bad after flying!

 

[Aurora79]

We flew Allegiant when we went to Universal a few years ago and it was fine. The staff was friendly and the seats were adequate. I was not a fan of SFB. I liked that it was small, but I felt like I was just in an old warehouse somewhere.

My husband, who is not a good flyer, later flew Delta for work and came home saying he would never fly Allegiant again. I flew Air India once from Chicago to London, so to me Allegiant wasn’t that bad, but I do agree it’s not the greatest. We are flying Delta for our next trip, but if budget was a serious concern, I would fly Allegiant again. DH on the other hand probably would not. So...basically what I’m saying is it’s all relative. What might be perfectly fine to some may be awful to others.

 

[rdaky]

Most people who work in the airline industry would not recommend that you fly on Allegiant, including some who actually work for Allegiant.. They are basically an accident waiting to happen. I value the life of my family more than saving a few dollars.

 

[MrsPete]

We're about eight hours from Orlando. I've tried to justify the cost of flying -- can't do it. Maybe if you're a couple instead of a family it'd work out, but when you include the cost of ground transportation, driving always comes up at less than 50% of the cost of driving. Yes, that's including meals on the road and a few tolls. Driving also allows you to bring your own sale-purchased 12-packs of soda and water, which save big bucks once you've arrived.

If you're taking a bunch of kids, taking the train may be cheaper. Kids travel for half-price. The seats are larger /more comfortable than airplanes, and you have an electrical outlet for each person. Thing is, it's slow.

 

[Aurora79]

We are a 17 hour drive to Orlando, but I think even if we were 8, I’d still rather fly. DH only gets so many days off a year, so to spend so much of it crammed in a car is just not happening for us. A train is out of the question for the same reason (and we don’t live close to any train stations). People use airlines like Allegiant, Frontier, etc. because with travel being so expensive, the savings these airlines give can mean the difference between traveling or not. Now, is Allegiant taking advantage of that and cutting costs by ignoring safety? Probably. But that’s another discussion.

 

[ClapYourHands]

We are a 17 hour drive to Orlando, but I think even if we were 8, I’d still rather fly. DH only gets so many days off a year, so to spend so much of it crammed in a car is just not happening for us. A train is out of the question for the same reason (and we don’t live close to any train stations). People use airlines like Allegiant, Frontier, etc. because with travel being so expensive, the savings these airlines give can mean the difference between traveling or not. Now, is Allegiant taking advantage of that and cutting costs by ignoring safety? Probably. But that’s another discussion.

But is the safety of Allegiant really another discussion? I think any time we talk about a budget item, it's important to think about what we get for our money. If we're not getting SAFE transportation, is a flight really a bargain?

The reliability of an airline is also a budgetary consideration.

Like you, I fly because I simply don't have enough vacation time to add two days of driving to each end of the trip, and I also dislike driving so it's not a pleasurable way to spend 3-4 days of my vacation. So, for both of us, flying vs driving is a matter of how we value our time vs our money.

Similarly, if there's a good chance an airline is not going to get me to my destination in a (relatively) timely and reliable fashion, then is it really a good deal? If I take off a week of work, my flight on an ultra low cost airline is cancelled, and the next flight is in two days (which I may or my not be able to snag seats on), I've just lost at least 2 days of my vacation. Days for which I have made plans and booked hotels and tickets. Those super-low fares can end up being very costly.

I'm okay with uncomfortable seats, no in-flight entertainment, no free luggage, no food, etc. - but I'm not okay with missing days of my trip. And I'm certainly not okay with endangering my family on an airline that doesn't take safety seriously.

 

[Darcy03231]

Count me as another person who won't fly Allegiant, Spirit, Frontier, etc. We tried Spirit once and that cured us of bargain basement carriers.

I have a co-worker who flies them all the time, however, she owns a condo in Daytona Beach and keeps a car there. If her flight is canceled and she can't get home for a few days it isn't a big deal for her. She has a place to stay, transportation and extra clothes. While it doesn't happen all the time, it has happened enough that we joke about it.

 

[ClapYourHands]

Count me as another person who won't fly Allegiant, Spirit, Frontier, etc. We tried Spirit once and that cured us of bargain basement carriers.

I have a co-worker who flies them all the time, however, she owns a condo in Daytona Beach and keeps a car there. If her flight is canceled and she can't get home for a few days it isn't a big deal for her. She has a place to stay, transportation and extra clothes. While it doesn't happen all the time, it has happened enough that we joke about it.

I think having that kind of flexibility really changes the equation when factoring in the risk of going with the lowest priced carriers. Sounds like your colleague has a situation where flying those carriers makes sense.

For me, I might be willing to try Spirit, but not Frontier. Why? Because Spirit has at least one flight per day from my nearest airport, sometimes two. If a flight is cancelled, they will probably be able to get me to my destination within a day or so. Frontier, on the other hand, just started flying in my market, and only has one flight every two days. If something happens to my flight on Frontier, I'm kind of screwed. But it would also depend on how long my trip is, what I have planned during that time, how much I need to get back on my departure date, etc. If I'm just flying with DD, there's a much better chance we can both make it onto the next flight than if I'm with my whole family of 5, so that's a factor, too.

 

[Monykalyn]

The challenge with the budget carriers is definitely limited routes and times. We’ve used Allegiant in past and been just fine. I personally prefer Sanford, we have a toll tag so renting a car and driving is easy.
I will say out of all the airlines and miles I’ve flown the past five years (Allegiant, frontier, Southwest, delta and American) Frontier is the only one I’ve not experienced a delay or change. Delta and American have been terrible lately, but I just cashed in reward miles with Delta to go down for HHN in September, so for “free” flights I’ll deal with it
I will also say it seems frontier has made a concerted effort to upgrade their planes to improve their record, or at least it seems that way out of St Louis.