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For those who live in FL who may find a ridiculously cheap flight on Spirit from FLL to STT........so cheap that you simply cannot pass it by.....you may find this information helpful:
Forgive the obvious but Florida is a very long state. Even if you get the cheap flight out of FLL to STT (usually the 6:45 a.m. flight), folks that don't live in the FLL/Miami area have to also consider the additional costs (gas, overnight stay, airport parking) to weigh if additional costs would be more/less than the savings of the cheap flight out of FLL.....especially if it's an early flight and your starting point may be say......Tampa Bay Area.
We accomodations at the Hampton Inn http://www.hamptoninnftlauderdaleairport.com/ for a rate of $89. Hampton Inn offers a FREE 24hr shuttle to the airport. And, they also offer a secured parking area where you can leave your vehicle until you return to FLL for a total/flat fee of $20.
FLBI:
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The Spirit flight from FLL to STT takes off at 10:45 A.M. not 6:45 A.M.
F.I.
We're on a 6:45am in a few days coming from near TIA. Thanks for the helpful info, FL Barrier Island 🙂 Did you stay at the Hampton Inn? Can you give a quick review? I was leery of the low cost for a room there. Was considering the Hilton Airport. Any feedback would be really appreciated!
My husband left on Saturday for an overnight stay at Hampton Inn and a Spirit Air flight to STT at 6:45 a.m. The Hampton Inn was very clean, modern, very nice. There were no glitches with the free shuttle (you never know! Especially if you want to get to the airport 2 hours in adance of your flight .....it was an early wake up call!). Vehicle left in secured area on Hampton Inn property - $20 bucks. Not $20 bucks a day........$20 bucks period. (That's a lot cheaper than on OR off-airport parking.)
By the way, when I was shopping hotels for one-night stay, I called the Ft. Lauderdale airport main number and chatted up the lady who answered the phone. I had a few hotels that I was looking at. She discouraged one of my choices right off the bat. The other choice didn't offer 24-hour shuttle - only a shuttle that started at 8:00 a.m. Additionally, the other choice, while a few bucks cheaper and maybe just as nice, didn't offer the parking option.
And, another bit of info in case you don't know.......the FLL airport doesn't have an in-airport hotel. So, just because the hotel's name has the word "airport" in it, beware that it's not actually IN the airport. The 6:45 a.m. Spirit flight had enough empty seats that most folks got a whole row to themselves.
Wow - thanks! Your info could not have come at a better time. I love this board!!! Will share this with my husband and book tonight. In case anyone else is thinking of traveling to STT this way, I'll post our experience w/ this flight in our trip report. We always fly AA out of TIA and usually get stuck in SJU for a few added hours. Going out of FLL via Spirit gets us on island (if all goes as planned) at 9:30am! Almost an extra day of vacay. Thanks again!
Until Spirit became an option, we always took the 8:10 a.m. AA out of TIA, arriving STT thru San Juan around 1:30. The 6:30 Spirit flight out of FLL arrived right on time at 9:30 a.m.....maybe even a few minutes early. STT Airport was "dead". Luggage came out within 20 minutes! My husband and our friend Pete called me from Tickles, waiting for the 10:30 a.m. WI ferry, drinking a rum punch..........ok.....it was 5:00 SOMEWHERE!
Ha ha ha! I'll drink one for ya next week 🙂 Thanks again!
About the FLL hotels, I would like to add that when we did a cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale back in '03, there was a Comfort Inn that had free shuttles to/from the airport and cruiseport. The hotel rooms themselves were just average, but it had a nice pool, bar by the pool, and the MOST FABULOUS breakfast buffet for FREE! Now this was 4 years ago, but worth checking into. They picked us up at the airport at 10:00pm and took us to the cruiseport at noon the next day (included in price) Of all the free breakfasts I've had at hotels, none compared to this one. Just thought I'd mention it.
