I need some advice on an itinerary I'm putting together. To get a cheap one-way ticket CMH-HPN, I'm thinking of trying to combine a US one-way CMH-PIT-MCO and an AirTran MCO-HPN segment. (Total price $220 vs US direct $275). My preferred itinerary gives me 45 minutes to get from the US gates (30s) to the AirTran gates (100s) in a different terminal. I looked at the MCO terminal map and it looks like there will be two trams and a center terminal to get through.

Is 45 minutes enough time to get from a US gate to an Airtran gate? Will I have to re-clear security when transferring terminals?

Thanks for the advice MCO travelers.

Hi Quip,

You will have to take the tram from the US gates to the center terminal, walk the length of the terminal , reclear security and get the tram to the air tran gates.

It will be extremely tight ( you will need only carry on baggage) and depending on security at the gates 60-129 you might not make it. Given the queues in the afternoon ( the BA/VS intl flights go out of gate 80-90 and use the security lanes that you would use) i would try to get an earlier flight into MCO or later out of MCO.

Good luck!!

Regards


TBS

Yes, you will need to reclear security, and unfortunately, the FL side checkpoint does normally have a much longer wait time than the US side (primarily since Delta, Southwest and AirTran all fly out of the same checkpoint). It depends on the time of day...I've breezed through connecting to Delta's (former) 930 p.m. bank out of MCO, but I've had midday flights that have taken a while.

I would say that if the time you go has no more than a 5-10 minute wait, you'll be fine (assume 5 minutes to go from the US gates to the central terminal, it's about a 2 minute walk through there, then another 5 from after security to the AirTran gates).

I need some advice on an itinerary I'm putting together. To get a cheap one-way ticket CMH-HPN, I'm thinking of trying to combine a US one-way CMH-PIT-MCO and an AirTran MCO-HPN segment. (Total price $220 vs US direct $275). My preferred itinerary gives me 45 minutes to get from the US gates (30s) to the AirTran gates (100s) in a different terminal. I looked at the MCO terminal map and it looks like there will be two trams and a center terminal to get through.

Is 45 minutes enough time to get from a US gate to an Airtran gate? Will I have to re-clear security when transferring terminals?

Thanks for the advice MCO travelers.

I would not recommend this, especially not for the sake of $50. MCO security can be a bear. I'm thinking at least 10 minutes to get from your US gate to security (you could lose another couple minutes if you miss the first tram). At least 5 more minutes once you clear security to get to your AirTran gate.

The earlier post is right on about missing the bank of Virgin and BA flights, which will use the same security checkpoint. You'd have to miss those to even have a chance.

But the biggest reason is if your US flight is delayed for any reason, what is already tight becomes impossible. And AirTran has no obligation to you if you miss your flight.