soulsound

How would one make an Intl to Domestic connection in MCO, there are no signs posted AT ALL

edweird

These days, I'm not sure.

A while ago (years) I can recall being re-screened by TSA before exiting into one of the remote satellite terminals. That dumped you back airside with the added hassle of the post arrival screening.

More recently all of my international arrivals into MCO have had passengers routed onto the tram people movers after CBP and taken back to the security exit landside while being monitored to prohibit mixing with other passengers.

If I remember I'll ask when I have an international arrival next month.

writerguyfl

The official MCO website does have an Arrivals Guide. Unfortunately, it seems to be only applicable to people with MCO as the final destination. It may still provide some guidance.

http://orlandoairports.net/arrive/index.htm

You can also contact MCO using the website. You can ask about the procedure (and perhaps suggest that they should post the international to domestic connection procedure on the site).

http://orlandoairports.net/contact/feedback.htm

djk7

This is what I've seen, incoming International passengers from the east concourses are moved to the unsecure area of the main terminal without having to reclear security. If they are taking another flight, they would need to go through security again.

I'm not sure how they do it at the West concourses, but in any case, any international passenger continuing on to another flight would have to go through security since they have had contact with their checked luggage.

Also note that there are two concourses on the west end of the airport, and two at the east end. There is no airside connection between the east and west terminals so even passengers connecting domestically between airlines could have to reclear security depending on the particular airlines involved.

Soulsound, knowing what airlines are involved could help give a better answer.

zachary

I have done this once, connecting from AirTran to Southwest. Even though Southwest had already bought AirTran, they operated separately.

We cleared immigration and customs in the satellite terminal. We then had to board the train and leave the secure area. You could not remain in the satellite terminal even if your connection was there (which makes sense, since you had been reunited with your checked luggage which could contain firearms). Because we were connecting to Southwest and they don't interline, we had to take our checked bags on the train and recheck them at the ticket counter in the terminal. We then had to reclear security to get to our connecting gate.

The whole thing took maybe an hour.

edweird

I arrived tonight into the gates 1-29 satellite on a Copa flight. Sure enough there's a bag drop just after CBP Customs area. I asked the folks there and they said intl to domestic transfer is supported depending on your airlines and where you arrive.

I saw some sort of area with seats and people sitting but didn't check out how a person would reclear security airside. I went up the stairs next to that area which puts you on the people mover back landside.

When I arrived on a Virgin Atlantic flight not to long ago, I don't recall walking past something like this. I think that was a different satellite.

fudgeukraine

Looking to resurrect this thread rather than start a new as I don't seem to have found an answer anywhere.

we're arriving on BA2037 LGW-MCO on 30/6 arriving 15:30 local time. we're looking to fly onwards to Key west (EYW) to start the trip. there's a direct flight at 17:30 with Silver airways, but we're not sure if 2 hours is too tight to connect, esp. with it being an international flight and having luggage to collect/transit/check-in (would be on a different airline so not sure if need to collect it).

It's not a massive issue if not; we're happy to just get an airport hotel nearby and fly out in the AM; will be up early due to jet lag anyway, but just seeing if we should go for the 2 hour connection or hold off for the morning; anyone got any experience in this?

thanks

gooselee

I'm waiting to depart MCO now and will try to avoid an I-D connection here in the future.

Inbound from LGW was delayed about 30 min due to last minute equip swap. Fine. But then, upon arriving very close to our scheduled arrival time, MCO officials will not allow anyone to deplane because immigration is too busy. They held us on board for a full hour after arriving at our gate.

Once we were released, I went through GE in less than 30 seconds. The immigration hall wasn't basically empty, so they had waited to clear out everyone I guess before deplaning us, rather than having people able to exit, use restrooms, and just queue on the ground (and for those of us with expedited entry to just go ahead).

The combined delay meant I missed my connecting flight, as it was pushing back by the time they let us off the inbound. DL easily put me in the next one an hour later, which is now delayed 2 hrs due to WX (the first/intended flight has already landed at my final destination).

Combined with the ridiculous tram shuffle to make the connection, I'm hoping my first I-D experience here will be my last.

Yes, I fully acknowledge that this is a B&M post. But I swapped to earlier flights today to surprise Mrs. Lee and instead am going to get home even later than if I'd just kept my first booking.

fudgeukraine

Back now from the trip and in the end we did book the 1730 Silver Airways MCO-EYW. We made it (just!) but in the end was a bit stressy and wouldn't have gone for a 2 hour turnaround:

• BA2037 ended up arriving about 20m early, but even then, it arrived at the same time as around 3 other Ex-UK flights, so Passport control was chocka; took about 45-50m to go through (and that was us being lucky)
• Our bags were all waiting by the time we got through, and we luckily had a shuttle to the AB terminal waiting to board as we got there
• Arrived at the Silver check-in dest at 1631, though wasn't an issue getting bags checked through
• 10ish min wait through security, but the batch we went to (gate 12 I think) was pretty quick compared to the 20m wait we had for gates 70-90 we had on the MCO-LGW return

It's definately possibly, but I think for peace of mind, and also for instances of not getting that 20m early arrival (or possibly having the 'run of shame' to push through the passport control), I'd have given an extra hour for the connection (not possibly that day due to the MCO-EYW being the last flight of the day),