Travel

Flights from Ogdensburg

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  • Oct 19th, 2020 6:03 pm
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17 replies
Deal Fanatic
Apr 23, 2009
5161 posts
708 upvotes
South of Ottawa
Hoping it will open the door for JetBlue to schedule a few flights from there as well.
Deal Fanatic
Apr 23, 2009
5161 posts
708 upvotes
South of Ottawa
billybob123 wrote: JetBlue kind of already does, with their codeshare with Cape Air.

https://www.capeair.com/flying_with_us/jetblue.html

Flights on Cape Air aren't bad. I preferred the old Air Midwest to Pittsburgh, but those died a long long time ago!
I've flown a few Cape Air flights; not for the faint of heart. Would prefer a jet so weather and luggage won't be an issue.
Deal Fanatic
Jul 4, 2004
7430 posts
4677 upvotes
Ottawa
Beachdown wrote: Hoping it will open the door for JetBlue to schedule a few flights from there as well.
I'd actually be surprised if JetBlue fly from there as it's not really their business model - they tend to serve large enough US cities. Allegiant really tries to go after the Canadian market with airports near the border (I'm curious how well that will work now with the CND$ doing so poorly).
Newbie
Jun 9, 2011
31 posts
34 upvotes
CALGARY
Beachdown wrote: I've flown a few Cape Air flights; not for the faint of heart. Would prefer a jet so weather and luggage won't be an issue.
American Eagle flies CRJs from Watertown to Philadelphia, if you're worried about the small plane out of Ogdensburg, and it's only an hour or so further south. Free parking at airport as well.

I'd happily take the Cessna from Ogdensburg over the CRJ!
Deal Fanatic
Apr 23, 2009
5161 posts
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South of Ottawa
michelb wrote: I'd actually be surprised if JetBlue fly from there as it's not really their business model - they tend to serve large enough US cities. Allegiant really tries to go after the Canadian market with airports near the border (I'm curious how well that will work now with the CND$ doing so poorly).
I agree. I'd be surprised as well but you never know. There was speculation about them servicing OGS when the airport expansion first came about.
billybob123 wrote: American Eagle flies CRJs from Watertown to Philadelphia, if you're worried about the small plane out of Ogdensburg, and it's only an hour or so further south. Free parking at airport as well.

I'd happily take the Cessna from Ogdensburg over the CRJ!
I've done that flight as well. :)

Cape Air is handy and cheap, and has great customer service, but as I said before, the luggage issue can be a problem if you're traveling to luggage (golf clubs).

The more options, the better.
Deal Fanatic
Jul 4, 2004
7430 posts
4677 upvotes
Ottawa
I didn't see any updates in the forum since the Ogdensburg expansion was over so I figured I post a bit of info (that I'm copying from my post on another travel board):

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IMO, anyone travelling to Florida from Ottawa should consider AllegiantAir.

First as far as the distance, obviously OGS is farther than YOW for most in the Ottawa area but you really have to consider the total time. For an international flight, from YOW, you have to get there at least 2 hours before departure. Most people in the Ottawa area need about 30 minutes (or more) to drive to the airport and park so you really need to leave home about 2 1/2 hours (or more) before your flight. To fly from OGS, most people will need about 1 hour to drive to there. Customs (i.e. security) usually only takes 15 minutes or less and then you probably only need to arrive 30-45 minutes before the flight so the travel time for most travellers will probably be less to OGS than it is to YOW. I certainly think that you can leave for a flight from OGS at the same time as you'd leave for a flight from YOW.

Cost is likely the biggest factor for most travellers. AllegiantAir does nickle and dime for everything so you really have to look at the total cost. AllegiantAir does fluctuate a lot but in my experience, they are pretty much always cheaper even after all the cost. Looking at XMas vacation (Dec24-Jan7), to fly OGS-SFB, it's about $485US each with one checked-in luggage each leg (but no seat reservation (I believe the luggage is $35/each leg)). For the same dates WestJet, it's about $1150CND with one checked luggage. You also have to consider parking costs. Unfortunately, OGS stopped offering free parking this year but it's still significantly cheaper than YOW ($8US vs $16CND / day (long term)).

The other issue for those travelling to Orlando is landing in SFB vs MCO. I think for many, SFB is a bit of a pain (from my experience rental cars are more expensive but I think we've only rented a once or twice), no Magical Express from SFB. That said, travelling to / from SFB can be much nicer than travelling from MCO because of the crowds (a few years ago, I almost missed my return flight from MCO because we *only* arrived 2 hours before the flight. I already had my boarding pass and I didn't have any checked luggage but it took 2 hours to check-in and get through security (I ended up having to cut the line at security and run to the gate and my wife (who had gone ahead with our kids while I was parking or something) held the plane at the gate (using the excuse that she couldn't fly alone with our 2 young kids (one is special needs). SFB is busier than most other airports Allegiant flies to / from but you can probably get there 45 minutes or an hour before a flight and have no problems at all.

Certainly one of the big concerns with AllegiantAir is that the flight dates and times are limited (hopefully it will expand in the future but right now, it's Wednesdays and Saturdays) but if you can work with those days, then it's available. The other issue is there are no "backup" flights. From my experience / observation, Allegiant is pretty good about dealing with delays of their own causing but if you miss the flight, then you are pretty much screwed ...

A lot of people mention delays and maintenance issues with Allegiant but over the last 6 years, we've flown about 15 times with them and I believe we've had 3 significant delays (more than 30-45 minutes) with them. First time (from PBG), another airline (USAirways I believe) was delayed and were blocking the gate so we had to wait for 1 or 2 hours for that plane before the Allegiant plane (which was sitting on the tarmac) could approach the gate and we could board). The second time (from SYR), the flight from Florida used up more fuel than anticipated so had to refuel but it appears that they couldn't get fuel from SYR (it was one of their first flights from SYR so maybe they didn't have the account setup or something) so we ended up having to fly from SYR to Pennsylvania and then Pennsylvania to Florida. The total delay was probably about 5 hours mostly because it looks like the biggest delay for them is filing new flight plans and getting approval. The 3rd time (from Scranton), there was a mechanical issue so we were delayed about 2 hours. Having said that, we pretty much just travel in winter where flight delays / missed connections / cancellations are very common. We've had 3 delays but no cancellations (and obviously no missed connections since Allegiant only flies direct). There are delays / cancellations with all airlines and while I won't say that Allegiant is better than others, I don't know that it's that any worse than others (although I've recently seen a report saying that Allegiant planes are four times more likely to fail during flight than other airlines - the article doesn't list any specifics so I'm a bit skeptical (http://www.valleynewslive.com/content/n ... 46711.html) .

Hope this helps,
Mike


--- and here's a follow-up after our first flight ---


In case anyone is curious, we flew from SFB to OGS on Allegiant on Oct 15 2016. The flight was uneventful and took under 3:00 hours from prior to boarding in SFB to having un-boarded in OGS.

The plane was an Airbus A320 which I believe is newer than the McDonald-Douglas MD-80s we've flown with Allegiant in the past but the interior layout and seats of both aircrafts are very similar (roughly 30 rows divided in 2 aisles with 3 seats per side). There are no plugs, tv / monitors or anything at the seat - not even an actual pouch on the seat back to hold any items (which I find a bit inconvenient). The seats do not recline and they don't have a whole lot of room. Allegiant sells drinks and snacks on board but only accept credit cards (I noticed several passengers that had brought their own lunch - we always do (sandwiches, snacks, etc and drinks that we buy at the airport or water bottles that we fill at the airport).

The runway seems very short - I'm not sure if it's because the pilot hadn't done his approach right (it was his first time landing there) but he needed to use very heavy braking to slow us down once we touched the ground and there didn't seem to be a lot of runoff past where we came to a stop (but that's just my layman's observation from the back of the plane - I really have no idea how far down the runway we landed or how much space we actually had when we come to a stop). One important thing to note is that boarding / un-boarding is done by an outdoor ramp (which I believe is also done at YOW for smaller planes) but that means that if you are flying in the winter, you need to be dressed appropriately (which isn't always the first thought when flying direct to / from Florida). OGS airport is tiny (probably about 1/8 of the size of PBG for anyone that's flown from there). We only went in the arrivals section but it's basically a small rectangular room that's not really big enough to hold all the passengers from the plane standing. I imagine it would have been very crowded in there once people started taking their luggage off the conveyor belt and tried to make their way out of the airport (we didn't check any luggage so I didn't actually witness this). Seeing the Arrivals section makes me a bit concerned about how crowded the Departures area would be before a flight.

Parking is no longer free (as it was up until the start of Oct 2016) but it's still not particularly expensive by airport standards. First 30 minutes are free and I think it's $3 for the first two hours up to a maximum of $8/day (Technically, you can get extended parking for $6/day in 30 day blocks but I suspect that applies to very few). To pay for parking, there's a machine inside the terminal (which had a very long lineup) but if you are paying by CC, you can just pay at the automated gate when you exit.

Also of interest for people departing from the airport, there are no restaurants at OGS. I forgot to look at the departure area myself so I emailed the airport to ask if they had any food available and there's their response "There are two vending machines in the Hold Room of OGS (departure area). The one contains a large variety of cold beverages including water, soda, juice, iced tea and coffee, etc. The other vending machine holds snacks such as granola bars, pretzels, potato chips, candy, etc. Both vending machines only accept US currency."

Having said that, travelling from OGS was very practical for us and we'll most likely use it again. We arrived at Orlando / Sanford Airport at roughly noon (actually I arrived around 12:30) and were at our house in the East End of Ottawa just after 5PM (so basically it was 4:30 hours airport to home for me). If I was flying MCO->YOW direct, I think it would have taken at least 1 hour more (probably more like 1:30 more).

Hope this helps,
Mike

-----

In case you want more info, here's a post on another forum (not by me) with more details and some pictures:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/ogdens ... t.3558688/
Deal Addict
Mar 24, 2015
1404 posts
739 upvotes
Ottawa, ON
Thanks for the detailed report! Very helpful! We're considering a vacation to Florida during Christmas time and looking into flights from Ogdensburg as we live in south of Ottawa. OGS is 40 mins drive away. Do you have experience with Cape Air? Just wondering as we're also thinking of flying from OGS to other cities, not just Orlando.
How was it at the border? Were they difficult?
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Dec 27, 2009
7941 posts
5483 upvotes
Victoria, BC
I currently live in Ottawa, but used to fly with Allegiant out of Bellingham, WA when I still lived in Victoria. Even with the cost to get the ferry to the mainland and drive over the US border it was still worth the savings to fly with Allegiant. Back then they didn't charge quite as much for every little thing (they even charge for carry-on bags now). This was 8-10 years ago now.

One thing I will say is to arrive quite early because their process to clear security, etc is slow (only one counter) - at least it was in Bellingham. Luckily their flights were often delayed because I actually would have missed my plane once (and I was there 3 hours early) due to the time getting through their line up - but thankfully it was delayed about an hour.
Deal Fanatic
Nov 24, 2013
6479 posts
3344 upvotes
Kingston, ON
I was fascinated seeing Ogdensburg advertising pop up trying to capture the Ottawa/Eastern Ontario market. Seems like we're a small crowd to pull from, but I guess bigger than NNY.

YOW frankly is underserved as it is. It's closer for me than SYR, but SYR makes the most sense for pricing and direct flights (Jet Blue is great for SYR->MCO). YOW->MCO flights want to route you through Toronto and change planes, which is stupid, IMO. If that's the case I should just fly from YGK, but that's a fortune too, and restricted to AirCanada.

I hope this works out for them, as it's good to have more options. From Kingston, I'm not sure it makes sense for me, yet.
Deal Fanatic
Jul 4, 2004
7430 posts
4677 upvotes
Ottawa
ckay1980 wrote: Thanks for the detailed report! Very helpful! We're considering a vacation to Florida during Christmas time and looking into flights from Ogdensburg as we live in south of Ottawa. OGS is 40 mins drive away. Do you have experience with Cape Air? Just wondering as we're also thinking of flying from OGS to other cities, not just Orlando.
How was it at the border? Were they difficult?
Cape Air is very different as it's a tiny airline. From OGS, they basically only fly to Boston (with a stop in Albany) but you can use them to connect to other destinations. More importantly they fly a 9 passenger twin-engine Cessna (which probably isn't for everyone as it's nothing like flying in a jumbo jet). I've only flown with them once but a friend has used them to go to Boston many times.

Border crossing at Ogdensburg is usually pretty fast (I don't know if I've ever had to wait more than maybe 15-20 minutes and it's usually under 10).
Deal Fanatic
Jul 4, 2004
7430 posts
4677 upvotes
Ottawa
Allegiant Air announced today that they'll be adding OGS-PIE (Ogdensburg to St-Pete / Tampa Airport) in November 2017.
Deal Fanatic
Jul 4, 2004
7430 posts
4677 upvotes
Ottawa
It was nice while it lasted but it looks like Allegiant Air has stopped flying from Ogdensburg

This is not very surprising but it appears that Allegiant Air has ceased operations at Ogdensburg Airport. Hopefully, it's just temporary and once COVID border restrictions are lifted, they will return (although I'm not sure if there are any regulatory requirements before they can return).

https://www.wwnytv.com/2020/10/15/alleg ... gdensburg/
Deal Expert
Feb 7, 2017
27765 posts
27805 upvotes
Eastern Ontario
michelb wrote: It was nice while it lasted but it looks like Allegiant Air has stopped flying from Ogdensburg

This is not very surprising but it appears that Allegiant Air has ceased operations at Ogdensburg Airport. Hopefully, it's just temporary and once COVID border restrictions are lifted, they will return (although I'm not sure if there are any regulatory requirements before they can return).

https://www.wwnytv.com/2020/10/15/alleg ... gdensburg/
Ya, no Cdns flocking to upstage NY from Points Belleville to Montreal (big population base)
Means that this part of America with its rather scarce population (Watertown to Lake Champlain) definitely cannot sustain a lot of these things they had in place for Cdn Tourists

It’s a tough time for the northern states with the border closed to Cdns that typically come in by car or boat
Deal Addict
Aug 3, 2017
1605 posts
1366 upvotes
PointsHubby wrote: Ya, no Cdns flocking to upstage NY from Points Belleville to Montreal (big population base)
Means that this part of America with its rather scarce population (Watertown to Lake Champlain) definitely cannot sustain a lot of these things they had in place for Cdn Tourists

It’s a tough time for the northern states with the border closed to Cdns that typically come in by car or boat
Canadian ski hills are going to be extra busy this year and transborder ones are going to be hurting. Even if the border opens.
Deal Expert
Feb 7, 2017
27765 posts
27805 upvotes
Eastern Ontario
dolfan1980 wrote: Canadian ski hills are going to be extra busy this year and transborder ones are going to be hurting. Even if the border opens.
Ya lots of people in my neck of the woods, enjoy skiing a wide variety of spots within just a few hours drive ...
The Laurentians, The Eastern Townships, Malone / Titus, Whiteface, Smugglers, Stowe etc

Things gonna be very different this year

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