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It’s a rite of passage to learn how to navigate airports you frequent. We’ve been flying in and out of MCO for decades for work travel, and my husband says if he’s dropped curbside he can be at the gate to fly home within eight minutes! Part of that is sheer repetition, but another part is he has credit card benefits that get him through any airport quickly (we’ll cover that and more below). Take note if you’re headed for Walt Disney World sometime soon!
Whether you’re flying in or out of Orlando, Florida, there’s lots to navigate at MCO: from renting a car and preparing to pay tolls to where to eat and sleep near MCO. We’ll cover all this and also Priority Pass lounges and tips for navigating a pretty gnarly security line.
Visitor Toll Pass
Story time: a colleague flew into Orlando recently without a solid transportation plan. They were considering using a ride service when they arrived, but prices were surging, so after texting with me, they rented a car instead. A few minutes later, I received a frantic message: “I’m at a toll booth. I don’t have cash. There’s no one here. What do I do?”
I’ve been there before, and there’s not much you can do; what will happen is you’ll get charged a premium toll rate through the rental car company. It’s sort of like forgetting to fill your gas tank before you return your rental car–not the end of the world, but will cost you more on the backend when the company fills the car with (expensive) gas.
Back to tolls: if you’re renting a car in Orlando, I highly recommend the new Visitor Toll Pass. Download the app on your phone and make a reservation for your Orlando trip. You make a $10 deposit, and later they credit you if you don’t spend that much or they charge you more if you spend more. When you arrive in Orlando, pick up your pass at the kiosk/vending machine on Level 1 of Terminal A. You’ll end up paying the Florida resident toll fare instead of the rental car company fare (I don’t know exactly how it works, but VTP bypasses the rental car company toll system).
Hertz Gold Rewards
My husband has access to National’s Emerald Aisle through work, and now because of our Capital One Venture X we also qualify for Hertz Gold Plus Rewards President’s Circle® status. This means you can skip the counter and head straight to your car at MCO and other locations. President’s circle is the highest level of Hertz status and comes with:
- access to the widest selection of rental vehicles.
- car-class upgrade at participating locations.
- a dedicated customer service texting line.
A premium card with a $395 annual fee, open a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening. Receive up to $300 back as statement credits for bookings through Capital One Travel, where you’ll get their best prices on thousands of options. Get 10,000 bonus miles (equal to $100 towards travel) every year, starting on your first anniversary. Receive up to a $100 credit on Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®. Earn 10X Miles on hotels & rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5X Miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel, and 2X Miles on all other purchases, every day.
We recently opened the Venture X, completed our minimum spend, and then purchased $572 worth of Disney tickets on the card through Undercover Tourist. Once the charge posted, we used 57,200 miles to erase the ticket charge! To read more about ways to buy Disney tickets with Credit Card points & miles, refer to this post:
Where to stay near the airport
If you’ve been to the Orlando airport, you may have noticed there’s a Hyatt Regency inside (average night 15,000 points).
If Hyatt is your brand of choice, there’s also a Hyatt Place a few miles away that costs quite a bit less (average night 8,000 points).
One of our favorite credit cards earns points you can transfer to Hyatt and use for MCO hotel stays or flights to Disney World. Open a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening (that’s $1,000 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®). For only a $95 annual fee, you’ll earn 3x points on dining and on select streaming services and online grocery purchases, 5x points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards, and 2x points on other travel, as well as a $50 Annual Ultimate Rewards Hotel Credit.
Where to eat Near the Airport
Lake Nona is right next to the airport, and has two great restaurants minutes from your arriving or departing flight: Bosphorous Turkish Cuisine and Chroma Modern Bar + Kitchen:
Flying out of MCO
If you have rental car status like Hertz President’s Circle, you’ll drop your car in the parking lot, skip the counter, and walk straight into Terminal A where you’ll see a receptacle inside for dropping your Visitor Toll pass.
After you check into your flight or check luggage as needed, you’ll tackle security. Read on for how the right credit card can help with that:
TSA Pre-check (Global Entry)
The security line flying out of MCO is notoriously long, slow and terrible. I’ve heard many stories of missed flights from those who weren’t prepared. If you don’t have Global Enty/Pre-check, I can’t recommend it enough. We were late to MCO last time we departed, and it didn’t matter; we breezed through security and made our flight.
We haven’t been tortured by the MCO security line since we purchased TSA Pre-check on a credit card that paid us back; in fact, we’ve purchased Global entry (comes with Pre-check) for our whole family and maximized all the Pre-check credits across our credit cards. The Capital One Venture X–the same card that gets us Hertz status–also offers a TSA Precheck credit, and unlimited restaurant and lounge access through Priority Pass! Read on for more about which PP lounges MCO offers.
Priority Pass
There’s two Club lounges at MCO that you can access with Priority Pass: one in Terminal A & another in Terminal B. I’ve never been to either of them, because we’re usually with friends at one of the Lake Nona restaurants above until the last minute. I’ve heard that if MCO is busy, you might get waitlisted (sometimes the lounges prioritize business class guests and put everyone else on hold). In any case, having a Venture X for Priority Pass access is a lifesaver if you’re traveling and in airports frequently.
Takeaways
Having the right credit cards makes traveling so much easier. Whether it’s lounge access, TSA Pre-check, having the right miles for a hotel nearby or enjoying rental car status, consider opening one of the cards we mentioned today so you’ll sail right through the airport on your next Disney World trip!
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