Thanks so much for this article. It s one I ve been waiting to see for awhile. My wife and I flew Al

Visiting any of the Disney Parks is an expensive proposition. TouringPlans.com has a tool to find least-expensive park tickets , and travel agents can watch for discounted lodging. However, as gas prices rise, transportation becomes an increasingly larger portion of our vacation budgets.
To mitigate this, on a recent trip I altered my normal Walt Disney World routine by flying buy a car from enterprize car rental into Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) on the low-cost  Allegiant Air . The airfare was great less than half of what competitors were charging for flights to Orlando International Airport (MCO) . This cheap flight, however, came with more than a few caveats.
Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) is on the opposite side of downtown Orlando from Walt Disney World. Its dominant commercial carrier buy a car from enterprize car rental is Allegiant Air. Beyond that, the airport mostly serves charter flights from the United buy a car from enterprize car rental Kingdom buy a car from enterprize car rental and Brazil.
For travel to Orlando tourist destinations, SFB is not especially convenient. If you use I-4 and avoid tolls, it is 45 miles from Epcot and requires driving through the heart of downtown Orlando and its traffic. buy a car from enterprize car rental Or you can take FL-417 and pay tolls each way while driving buy a car from enterprize car rental around 50 miles. Even with no traffic, this will take about an hour, and a cab would cost more than $125 each way without tip or tolls. buy a car from enterprize car rental In contrast, Orlando International Airport (MCO) is about 22 miles from Epcot, requires just $2-3 in tolls, and is a $60 cab ride. Or, if you are staying at a Disney Resort Hotel , Disney s Magical Express service buy a car from enterprize car rental provides slow-but-complimentary bus transportation to and from MCO (but not SFB).
Despite its inconvenient location to Disney World, SFB s small size allows you to spend less time in the airport. For example, it took me about 5 minutes to walk quickly from my gate to the rental car counter, where I found no line. As a result, I was in my rental car less than 15 minutes after deplaning. And the security lines were not bad unlike those at MCO, which often have posted wait times!
There also are reasonably priced gas stations, restaurants, and stores off East Lake Mary Boulevard a few miles west of SFB s entrance. This contrasts with MCO, where the main roads from Disney World are limited access toll roads that deposit you directly into the airport.
Allegiant uses many small airports. These airports may not be convenient to your home or destination, requiring you to a rent a car and/or drive further. So make sure you know which airports are involved in your flight.
When buying tickets via the Internet, purchasing at the lowest fare requires clicking No Thanks on hotel and car offers, as well as avoiding optional fee-based extras like assigned seating, priority boarding, and checking a bag. Watch where you click.
The allowed carry-on size is smaller than on other airlines, and dimensions are rigorously enforced. buy a car from enterprize car rental The parties before and after me in line were both forced to check bags that they were able to carry-on with other airlines.
Boarding takes place in strictly enforced groups. First those with assigned seats and priority boarding. Then those with only assigned seats. Then those with kids under 7. Then others based on order of check-in. Since there is open seating, people swarm around the gate until their groups are called. There are no organized stalls like with Southwest.
Allegiant Air serves my closest home airport: Newport News, Virginia (PHF). I paid $97.08 after taxes and fees for a round-trip ticket about 6 weeks prior to departure. I declined all extras, so I carried on my bags (which I would have done on any flight) and had no assigned seat. At that time the cheapest non-stop round-trip ticket to MCO was about $235. And from casual observation, I ve deduced that a good fare from any local airport to Orlando is around $180. Thus $97.08 was a smoking deal.
For this trip, I stayed at an off-property vacation home and required a rental car. Cars at SFB were slightly more expensive than at the intensely competitive MCO, but I found an acceptable rate of around $30 per day. And since I was traveling to and from the airport buy a car from enterprize car rental outside of rush hour, I was happy to drive the toll-free route through downtown Orlando.
All-in-all, this was a money saver for me. I could have saved about an hour of driving time and a couple gallons of fuel had I flown into MCO and rented a car there, buy a car from enterprize car rental but I also gained time because of SFB s simpler, less crowded facilities.
I had to wait in line to check-in (Internet check-in buy a car from enterprize car rental is not an option unless you pay for an assigned seat), but the lines moved fine, and the flights were on-time and pleasant. They also were not crowded: even with open seating, I was next to an empty seat on both flights. And all Allegiant workers I encountered buy a car from enterprize car rental were friendly, even when they broke bad news to customers that their oversized buy a car from enterprize car rental carry-on bags would have to be checked for $35.
I ve flown Allegiant into Sanford twice and both times it was a good experience. My only issue with Sanford is their limited schedule. Flying from South Bend to Sanford, the flight gets into Sanford at 2pm, and the only departure is 7am. you waste 1-1/2 days, plus you have to pay for a rental car. For a long 7 day trip the time lost isn t that big of a deal, but for a short weekend, you lose so much time with Allegiant.
You re right that it s important to pay attention buy a car from enterprize car rental to flight times and days they might not match your preferences. That s not just limited to Allegiant and Sanford, though: cheapest flights are often at times when people least want to travel.
Also, taking a flight with late night arrival or early morning departure might mean that you ll stay in a hotel more nights than you d prefer, so you need to take that into account when determining whether a cheap flight is truly worth any extra lodging costs.
Thanks so much for the information. We often have great deals to SFB from our local airport, but I have always been skeptical to try them. Perhaps sometime in the future when we know we re going to rent a car we ll give it a try.
When we fly to Orlando, we only fly Allegiant. There are a lot of drawbacks, but you cannot beat the price. If we know we want to fly, we usually have to find our flights before we can even book our Disney stay, because the flight schedule is so strange. We have opted to drive the last 3 times we ve gone to Disney, just because the flight schedules wouldn t sync with our travel dates. The last time we did fly Allegiant we had a bad experience when we got home. We had carried on all of our bags (I bought a rolling backpack for each person in our family so we wouldn t have to check bags on any airline.) On the way to Orlando we were allowed to check them for free because the flight was full and they were trying to minimize congestion in the aisles. On the way back we had to carry everything on, and since we didn t pay for seating assignments, we were the last to board. This meant full overhead bins when we got on board (it seems everyone is avoiding checked bag fees these days!) Well, my husband s bag was moved without his knowledge before our flight took off. When we landed, it was nowhere to be found. There was one particular flight attendant who was very rude to my husband, insisting to him that she had checked every nook and cranny of the plane and the bag was just gone. She didn t offer apologies or anything, just acted like it was our fault for not checking the bag. We were halfway down the terminal when a passenger from the next flight ran up to my husband and told him the flight attendant found his bag. The rude attendant was standing there at the gate with another attendant when my husband went back to get his bag. The 2nd attendant handed my husband his luggage and said that it had been found with the crew s luggage. The rude attendant, standing RIGHT THERE, offered buy a car from enterprize car rental no apologies, just a glare. That was the last time we flew Allegiant. It left a really sour taste in our mouths.
Thanks so much for this article. It s one I ve been waiting to see for awhile. My wife and I flew Allegiant out Fort Wayne in January 2010. Everything went well, both ways. We had a brief delay on the outbound leg due to snow, but still made it to Sanford in plenty of time.
Rather than renting a car, my wife and I hired a towncar to drive us. We found one that cost us $100 each way, including tip. A week (or more) car rental costs more, unless buy a car from enterprize car rental you do two one way rentals, which can be complicated. It was nice to have someone else do the driving, so that we can stretch out in the backseat and watch the Orlando sights roll by.
Incidentally, if you plan to fly Allegiant and live close to the airport, I can t stress the advice to buy the tickets there. You end up saving $30 per ticket that way, far more than what you d spend on gas to get to the airport in most instances.
The convenience fee for purchasing via Internet is $10 per person per segment. Tack on an ADDITIONAL $14.99 if you want to buy over the phone. If the airport isn t too far and/or you re buying multiple tickets, I agree that it can make sense to visit and buy. For me, I wasn t interested in making a special 50 mile round-trip and paying for parking to save $20. Plus, Allegiant only operates during the first half of the day, and only on certain buy a car from enterprize car rental days of the week at my airport (they actually bring in laptops to use at the check-in desks no permanent computers), so I d need to be careful about when I went there. If you do this, make sure you know the hours.
I also like the towncar idea. $100 each way after tip isn t awful, and you could easily make up that $200 round-trip cost if you have a family of 4 and save $50 per ticket buy a car from enterprize car rental on airfare versus flying into MCO with Magical Express. Plus, towncars should buy a car from enterprize car rental be more comfortable than a bus, and they often include a free grocery stop if you want one.
I will add that Orlando car rental prices can be all over the place. I know people who have rented for less than $10/day (after all taxes), and I ve done searches where nothin