I have a question for those of you who fly (in an airplane…superheroes need not answer).
When a flight is listed with an arrival time of 11:50 am, for example, what does that mean? Assuming everything is on time (which I know isn’t necessarily going to be the case), does 11:50 mean the time when the plan arrives on the tarmac, arrives at the gate, when the doors open, or when people actually start getting off?
I had to get a shuttle from Orlando airport to Ocala. The shuttle leaves at noon or at 3:00. I reserved the 3:00 time, since our flight arrival time is 11:50…but we’ve been watching the same flight on FlightAware, and sometimes the plane arrives as early as 11:22. So, I’m wondering now what the odds are, if our flight is early, that we’d have time to get to the shuttle and move up our time. (I confirmed they allow this is there is still availability.)
Okay. Thanks. I was hoping it was the time when you actually arrived at the gate because then there might be a CHANCE we’d be able to get out of the airport 3 hours sooner.
I guess my brother and I will have to find something to do to waste time at the airport for 3 hours!
Since I have folks looking at this thread, I have another question regarding flying.
Our flight has a layover in Chicago (for 1 hr 13 minutes).
What happens if the first leg of the flight is late and makes it impossible to catch the second flight? I mean, in such a scenario, it isn’t our fault, right? Do they try to get you onto the next available flight?
I’m not terribly worried about it, but just wondering.
Would you also need to collect checked baggage? Because that takes at least 30 minutes. We always get to the carousel before the bags even start coming out.
If you miss the connecting flight, they will try to get you on the next “available” flight. The next flight that actually leaves the airport my not be available/have space for you. The next available flight may not be until the next day.
I looked at Uber as a possibility. The price is the same. Maybe
The difference is that with Uber, nothing is guaranteed. There is no guaranteed price until the day of, and there is no guaranteed availability. There isn’t even an guarantee that the driver will agree to taking you even after the Uber is requested. This is further hampered by the fact that we are arriving on July 4th, and I am not sure there will be the same availability on such a major holiday.
The Shuttleliner of Ocala, however, has guaranteed times and price. It just means we have to, unfortunately, wait. But we can’t just wait until we arrive to book the Shuttleliner because they appear to fill up their availability days in advance.
What they do allow is switching times from one to another on the same day if there is availability still. So, while I booked for 3:00, technically if we got in early enough and they had room, we could hop on the noon shuttle instead.
Any other service is questionable. The Shuttle Liner of Ocala has best reviews, etc., and best price.
That would end up costing significantly more, plus we’d then have the hassle of having to do the return.
Ultimately, we are just getting up to Ocala saying, “Hey!” to my parents (and probably eating dinner), then hopping into the moving truck and starting driving up! We aren’t losing out on a WHOLE lot since we aren’t doing anything else.
I guess my brother and I will just have to take a REALLY long time eating lunch at the airport or something.
