Skyconnect Rental Car Center Tampa Airport
 

Tampa Airport now has a new Rental Car Center located on the perimeter of the airport. There are no rental car desks or car returns inside the terminal anymore. All rental car activity goes through this state of the art facility. The center is connected to the terminal by Skyconnect a type of monorail system.

When you turn in your car at the center you are supposed be able to check in your bags and obtain a bordering pass if you don't already have one. You then board the monorail and proceed to the terminal. I'm assuming that this negates the need to drop departing passengers and bags curbside at the terminal and then return the car to their remote site and then get their shuttle back to the terminal.

I am flying out Jet Blue to San Juan, PR which Jet Blue considers a Domestic flight. You can only check in your bags at the rental center if your flight is considered Domestic. Apparently for International flights you have to bring your bags with you on the monorail and check in at the terminal.

I usually leave nothing to chance these days. As such, has anyone used the rental car center and checked in their bags at the center for a Jet Blue flight to Puerto Rico? Or, did you have to take your bags with you on the monorail to the terminal for check in?

Well, guess I answered my own question. Called Enterprise at the Rental Car Center. Told me that only American and Southwest were utilizing the remote bag check in service for now. Apparently airlines have to negotiate contracts with the airport and the other airlines, like Jet Blue, are still in the process. So, for now, unless traveling with AA or SW you will have to load your bags onto carts at the rental center and take them with you on the monorail to the terminal.

Puerto Rico has been part of the US since 1898. It's as domestic a flight as anywhere else in the US.

Hmmmmmmm. Somehow I knew that. However, was not sure if the Skyconnect Rental Car Center treated flights to Puerto Rico as domestic considering that the Center will only check in baggage for domestic flights. :rolleyes:

Not sure why you would question that. There is never customs or immigration going to and from domestic destinations, and Puerto Rico is as domestic as Washington, DC is.

But a separate agricultural regulation zone so there is an extra check for flights leaving PR, just like leaving Hawaii. Yes, it is a domestic flight but that doesn't mean it is necessarily 100% identical to other trips. In this case it should be, but there are plenty of little quirks in the way the world works. :-: