View Full Version : Commuting on US Airways?


ThisFlightNoFuel
Jun 28, 02, 11:27 pm
I'm considering a move to Juno Beach, FL in the fall for a weekend job, but I may also still have significant interest to stay in Boston for a 8-10 hour per week job. Are there any of you out there who make a regular commute using US Airways? How does it go? I guess my commute would be weekly trips BOS-PBI.

Also, if I travel BOS to PBI on Thursdays and PBI to BOS on Mondays, I would probably book BOS as my origin and PBI as my destination to keep fares down w/ the Saturday night stay. But, if I did that, and I wanted to be somewhere else instead of BOS (Chicago, for instance) from Monday thru Thursday one particular week, is there an inexpensive way to do it? Or would I end up paying out of my bum because of no Saturday stay on a PBI to CHI roundtrip?

It seems that the latter would be the case, but I wanted to run it by my fellow experts here to see if I was missing something...

gw14
Jun 29, 02, 5:09 am
Use the FF miles for your Mon-Thur trips to Chicago.

I "commuted" BDL-PIT for 2 1/2 years and it worked out great for me. Took the first flight out of BDL monday around 6 am and was in the office downtown PIT before 9am. Took a 3pm flight out of PIT on friday and was home before 6pm. Company paid for the flights, so they were full fare.

Always Flyin
Jun 29, 02, 12:37 pm
Use miles? You must be joking! Miles are for hoarding and splurging, not using to commute for work! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

CPRich
Jun 29, 02, 3:43 pm
I've been doing PIT-SFO weekly for about 18 months - booking SFO-PIT Fri and PIT-SFO Mon to get the Saturday stay. With 3-wk advance, I've probably averaged $450/week. If you need to go elsewhere Monday, but back to BOS the same week, make it a 3-leg. Last week I did SFO-PIT Fri, PIT-LAX Sun, LAX-SFO Wed. for 550 (Oddly, the LAX-SFO was United).

Going elsewhere for a week usually involves a full-fare - just remember to reserve the BOS return for a week later, or incur the change fee.

US1@ORF
Jun 29, 02, 9:34 pm
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by CPRich:
I've been doing PIT-SFO weekly for about 18 months - booking SFO-PIT Fri and PIT-SFO Mon to get the Saturday stay. With 3-wk advance, I've probably averaged $450/week. If you need to go elsewhere Monday, but back to BOS the same week, make it a 3-leg. Last week I did SFO-PIT Fri, PIT-LAX Sun, LAX-SFO Wed. for 550 (Oddly, the LAX-SFO was United).

Going elsewhere for a week usually involves a full-fare - just remember to reserve the BOS return for a week later, or incur the change fee.</font>

I did a similar commute on a weekly basis, ORF-SFO for five months a while back. I was very greatful when that project ended because transversing the contintent on a weekly basis (Tues to SFO, return Fri) got very old, very quick. How do you do it and stay sane and physically healthy?



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US-CP; UA PE; Hilton Gold VIP; Crowne Plaza Gold

deelmakur
Jun 30, 02, 12:07 am
I commute HPN (White Plains) PBI every winter. They have cut a lot of service in and out of PBI. Upgrades are excellent Southbound Monday to Wednesday, and Northbound at the end of the week. Traffic flows opposite. With the service cuts,it's tough to go Northbound before noon. As for including Chicago, you can do circle trips. These are three legs, each figured on half an excursion, and many times the extra city is only a couple of bucks more. In the main, Midwesterners prefer Florida's west ooast. As such, direct service to Chicago from PBI is a lot less frequent than what they have across the peninsula.

TomBascom
Jun 30, 02, 6:55 am
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ThisFlightNoFuel:
... Are there any of you out there who make a regular commute using US Airways? How does it go?</font>

I did MHT &lt;--&gt; PHL weekly for about 3 years, MHT &lt;--&gt; SFO for 18 months. In both cases my commute was less total time than a lot of my "local" co-workers spent driving in and out every week http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

How it goes depends on your goals -- if you're trying real hard to maximize "home" time by leaving at the last possible moment and coming back ASAP then you're probably putting yourself right smack in the middle of crunch time. Your upgrade % is at risk and the impact of weather and so forth can be very significant.

You indicate a Monday & Thursday travel pattern below -- which tells me that you're begging for trouble. Personally I got off that rat race a long time ago -- it's worth it if you're an occasional traveler but if you do it every weeek do yourself a favor and relax. Go out mid-day Sunday (or even in the am), return Friday morning or late Thursday (the last bank often arrives mere moments after the next to last anyway once the inevitable Thursday night snafus are factored in -- every time I switch to the earlier flight I regret it...)

Better yet go Wednesday to Wednesday http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif The quiet time on the "work weekends" is priceless in terms of getting stuff done. And travel on Wednesdays is darn near hassle-free. If you can use the "at home" work days flexibly this can work really well.

"Home" is The Club & Seat 3A -- if I could just get them to deliver my mail there...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
I guess my commute would be weekly trips BOS-PBI.

Also, if I travel BOS to PBI on Thursdays and PBI to BOS on Mondays, I would probably book BOS as my origin and PBI as my destination to keep fares down w/ the Saturday night stay. But, if I did that, and I wanted to be somewhere else instead of BOS (Chicago, for instance) from Monday thru Thursday one particular week, is there an inexpensive way to do it?</font>

Do you actually live in Boston? Or in the 'burbs? If you're anywhere but the city itself don't use Logan -- go to Manchester or Providence to avoid the delays and reap the benefits of The Southwest Effect.

Anytime that you need to make a spur of the moment trip look for close by city pairs that are served by Southwest -- it eliminates Saturday night stay restrictions, advance purchase requirements and keeps the fares reasonable -- and you don't even have to fly on their planes. The downside is that you might have to drive an extra hour or two.

COPELAND2004
Jul 1, 02, 5:18 pm
They have articles almost every week in the paper how Us Airways is cutting service and being the #2 carrier at Pbi how it is affecting traffic. If you do not mind driving a extra 40 miles you can also try FLL where they have cut flights as well but not as much as PBI.