Or should I let the thought leave as quickly as it came?
My trip hinges entirely on airfare costs.
Never used them but dont they only fly to the Stamford airport in Orlando? Just throwing that out there that you wont be able to use magic express if that is the case.
I’ve flown twice with frontier, and will again for our August trip to Disney. I have not had a problem. We however only have a 2 and a half hour flight. If you are coming a distance you may want to pay for the seats that recline and have more room. You get what you pay for however, no frills
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It flies into MCO, you can use Magical Express.
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Just flew with them 2 weeks ago, and also did back in October. Never once had a problem! We have another flight scheduled with them for our trip to Disney in June. Got flights for $49 a way, so for our family of 5 it’s a great way for us to fly cheaply and avoid a 14-15 hour drive! We do not pay to pick our seats, and we have never been separated (we’re usually placed in the same row, except for on one flight my DH was placed with 2 of my kids, and I was placed with our other child, but we were still in the row in front of them.) I do always check in at exactly 24 hours before the flight so not sure if that helps? We also just each bring a backpack as our free item for under the seat, which we stuff pretty full, and then just pay for a couple checked bags and use our big suitcases to combine our stuff. Even after paying for those it is still way cheaper than any other flight we could find. The seats are fine, and you can buy drinks or snacks on if you want but we always just bring our own. For us it’s just a two hour flight to Orlando so it’s no big deal to not have fancy seats or free snacks or anything!
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Allegiant is probably the airline you’re thinking of that flies into Sanford.
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We fly them to Mco and/or back home. They are fine. Do you have specific concerns?
I do have a fear of a flight getting canceled, as they don’t fly every day, but that’s really it.
No frills. Thin seats, small trays, but this doesn’t really bother me.
Many people have fine experiences with this airline but since they’re a discount airline, when things go wrong, they really go wrong.
I flew with them last July. It was fine. Got to Orlando after about a 3 hour weather-related delay, no biggie. Flew home with no issues.
We booked a trip again with them last minute for Thanksgiving to Orlando. The morning we were supposed to leave they cancelled the flight for no apparent reason. That left us either jumping in the car and driving 18 hours to Disney or lose out on the tickets and resort we had purchased just a few weeks before. We drove, but it added a serious kink to our plans and it really made me never trust that airline again and be incredibly wary of discount airlines in general.
Chances are, you’ll get where you’re going with no issues, maybe a delay. But there is a probability that they’ll cancel your flight and since they have no affiliates, won’t be able to get you a flight to where you’re going for days, since at most airports they only have one flight departing per day or just a couple of days a week. Is that chance worth it to you? It’s a gamble.
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This is good to hear. We are a family of 6 flying frontier to orlando for the first time in May on the kids fly free promo. I did not pay to choose seats as that would have added over $200. I am curious to see how our seats end up. Also we have the last flight out of MCO on a Wednesday evening which is another concern of mine…i dont want to be stuck in Orlando another night as DH needs to get back to work! We shall see!
I was looking into flying Frontier from Birmingham, AL to MCO because they had a good time to arrive at MCO at 1:20pm. But they only have flights 3 days a week excluding key days of Friday and Saturday???
I’m an employee for Spirit Airlines and we have a very similar business model. In fact our old CFO is now the CEO of Frontier.
Your experience with Frontier or another Ultra Low Cost Carrier (ULCC) will depend on how informed you are before you purchase tickets. Unfortunately, a lot of our passengers expect a Legacy Airline (Delta, United, or American) experience on a ULCC airline. Also, if you purchase your ticket from a third party website, you may not have all the details spelled out for you when you purchase your ticket. This could lead to some surprise charges or fees at the airport. It’s very important to add all the fees up and then compare tickets in other airlines using the airline’s website. If you don’t care about seat selection and pack light you should come out ahead on an ULCC.
With that said, a thing to watch for (and this was highlighted in the post above) is frequency for the route you are flying. My big complaint (and this has improved over the last few years at Spirit) is the amount we fly to cities in a day or week. Some cities could be served a few times a week, once a day, or multiple times per day. If I were planning a very expensive vacation, I would make sure the airline flies there multiple times per day and if they don’t I would look into travel insurance.
Also, Spirit and Frontier are point to point airlines. This means the airplane flies between city pairs instead of going through a hub. This means if a flight cancels or is severely delayed, recovery is much harder and you will have a harder time to getting to your destination in a reasonable timeframe. Furthmore, Frontier and Spirit are fairly small airlines at approximately 85 airplanes and 150 airplanes respectively as compared to say Southwest and Delta’s fleet of 700 and 1000s of airplanes. This also makes recovery from a cancellation a bit more challenging. Fortunately Orlando is a crew base for Frontier as well as Spirit which means extra crews and usually spare airplanes are available.
I do apologize for this long winded approach but I do feel that knowledge is power.
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I had no issues, but you need to know about how they work. They will charge you for everything, and I mean everything so take that into account when looking at cost. It was still way cheaper for me, but if you start adding seat assignments and bags, it could add up.
I am still unclear if they offer complimentary water or not(the attendants were not clear either), but no free drinks or snacks.
Checked and carry-on luggage will both require fees, though a personal item will not(and they let some big ones on without worry).
Seat assignments will also cost, so if you want to sit next to one another, you need to pay and they will split up kids from parents if you don’t. If you fly from Orlando, don’t assume people will just move for you on this. I was on a flight and most of it was families so a mom and two kids were out of luck because no one wanted to move. She was seated close to me and said she assumed that people would move around for her or that the airline would move people to seat her party together. I explained that most people had paid for seat assignments so the airline wouldn’t do that and most people wouldn’t be inclined to give up the money they already paid. Just something to keep in mind.
Their seats do not recline at all, which I actually liked.
I had no problem with them. They offered a direct flight(which no one else did), and I was traveling by myself. I also had no weather or mechanical issues. If something happens like that, you are going to have a worse time than with a large carrier who has multiple flights and can route people more easily(not that that doesn’t cause issues).
I always recommend some form of travel insurance to help safe guard for big vacations.
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Thank you for taking the time to explain this. It helps a great deal.
We booked Frontier out and Spirit back (Frontier’s flight came in later than we wanted). I booked us the full packages on both that included carry-ons, checked bags, seat selection, priority boarding. I upgraded to the big seats on Spirit. Our flights are direct, both with flight options after if for some reason our flight got cancelled we could try to get on some other flights (even with other airlines). I also paid for trip insurance. With all of that, we still came out over $600 cheaper than the legacy airlines for what we will be getting. That’s for four of us. It was a no brainier for me.
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Welcome, glad I could share some insight that hopefully can help people out.
well, why wouldn’t you expect the same experience at 1/2 the cost or less?!?! 
@dez3b has some valid points. Two weeks ago, my mother and mother-in law flew down to meet my family for our week in FL. They used Frontier. I warned them about the add-ons, but for them, it was a bit eye-opening. They paid extra to choose better seats (exit row) for mobility reasons and convenience, they checked one bag, and paid to bring an extra carry-on, and it really added up. When they were done, they thought they would have been better off flying a major carrier at pretty close to the same overall cost. I can go either way, but that was their experience.
@dsollie defintiely. It’s important to look at the bag fees and whatnot. Most major carriers charge as well now, but I know there people getting onto my flight who had no idea about all the charges.