Originally Posted by Sniper

I'd get a second opinion on that cough there, Duck.

Here's what I was told:

MCO-ATL is a route that has you competing with every single person who has redemption miles usable on Delta or AirTran that wants to take the kids to Disney (Spirit operates this route too, for some reason, BTW). Delta runs a 76 (2 jumpseats) or a 75 (one) virtually on the hour, and it's usually full with revenue standbys who are looking to get on either an earlier flight or missed their flight (traveling with small kids, this happens a lot). There's also every single Delta and Air Tran employee who lives in MCO and commutes to ATL (Delta used to have a pilot base there, so did Commair), as well as the Air Tran and Delta FA's who do have bases in both places. Then there's the pilots of Freedom Airlines (Delta Connection, so they have jumpseat priority on Delta) and Southwest who do have a base there. Then there's all the off-line pilots who take their kids to Disney too. And that's when it's not a time when school's out or during Bike Week - which is even more difficult. Air Tran is also considering opening a base in MCO too.

In short, it's not impossible to jump on this route (with so many flights, you can likely get a jumpseat eventually), but it's not by any means an "easy" route, and is not advised if you can avoid it. There's a reason there's so many flights and such big equipment on the route - there's a ton of people who fly it.

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The above info is courtesy of pilots who commute between MCO and ATL. Your mileage may vary.