New England - Anyone fly Cape Air into BOS?

I've got a 9:10 am flight to Heathrow on AA coming up. I'm coming down from the Hanover, NH area, however. Usually, I either use one of the parking services, or I take the bus, but the length of the trip (almost a month) makes the former expensive, and the early hour rules out the latter.

Several hotels down there offer cheap parking if I stay a night, so that's my primary plan, but for around the same amount of money, the two of us can fly down from Lebanon, NH on Cape Air.

But the earliest flight arrives at 7:10am, 2 hours before my flight (I know AA likes earlier arrival for international flights, but realistically, every time I do this flight I spent hours hanging around the departure lounge). Anyone done the Cape Air into BOS and transferred to another airline? As long as it runs smoothly, this shouldn't be an issue (Cape Air is Terminal B, American is Terminal C), but was wondering if anyone else has done this.

I've got a 9:10 am flight to Heathrow on AA coming up. I'm coming down from the Hanover, NH area, however. Usually, I either use one of the parking services, or I take the bus, but the length of the trip (almost a month) makes the former expensive, and the early hour rules out the latter.

Several hotels down there offer cheap parking if I stay a night, so that's my primary plan, but for around the same amount of money, the two of us can fly down from Lebanon, NH on Cape Air.

But the earliest flight arrives at 7:10am, 2 hours before my flight (I know AA likes earlier arrival for international flights, but realistically, every time I do this flight I spent hours hanging around the departure lounge). Anyone done the Cape Air into BOS and transferred to another airline? As long as it runs smoothly, this shouldn't be an issue (Cape Air is Terminal B, American is Terminal C), but was wondering if anyone else has done this.

You live in the area, so you probably know this. Still, just in case, realize you will have to leave the sterile area in B, hike to C (not too bad) and re-clear security. At 7:30 AM (give or take), that may cut into your connection time a tad making things a bit uncomfortable.

Presumably you wont pay parking if you fly down/bus down/etc. What about spending a night at a hotel on property. Sometimes the rates for the Hyatt and Hilton through the bidding sites come to 50-70 bucks. Not bad to spare yourself the sweats in the security line. I'm not sure about Terminal C, but B has new nude-o-scopes and once the rush gets going, things get a bit slow.

Presumably you wont pay parking if you fly down/bus down/etc


Correct. Parking is free at LEB, and I'd be home 20 minutes after getting back.


What about spending a night at a hotel on property. Sometimes the rates for the Hyatt and Hilton through the bidding sites come to 50-70 bucks.

Not a bad idea, fly down and get a cheap room... Hmm. I'll check rates.

Correct. Parking is free at LEB, and I'd be home 20 minutes after getting back.



Not a bad idea, fly down and get a cheap room... Hmm. I'll check rates.

You could fly down, shuttle down, bus down... but if you're flight leaves at 9 or so, commuting in that AM is painful. PCLN and HW are your friends for 4 stars on property.

According to ExpertFlyer, the Cape Air flight arrives within 15 minutes of schedule 78% of the time. When the flight is delayed, the average delay is 54 minutes. (The morning can be foggy up there on that hillside where they stuck the airport.)

There's no way I'd risk taking that flight. It's an easy enough drive down to Boston the day before, and then you can get up at a much more reasonable hour, as well.

According to ExpertFlyer, the Cape Air flight arrives within 15 minutes of schedule 78% of the time. When the flight is delayed, the average delay is 54 minutes. (The morning can be foggy up there on that hillside where they stuck the airport.)

There's no way I'd risk taking that flight. It's an easy enough drive down to Boston the day before, and then you can get up at a much more reasonable hour, as well.

I think you've convinced me. I'll check out hotel options (and heck, I might just burn 40k HHonors points on a room)

I hate driving down to BOS before my London trips, since usually that means my itinerary is (a) drive 2+ hours, (b) fly to LHR, (c) clear immigration, (d) take train or tube into London, (e) schlep my stuff to the flat in Pimlico. Makes for a long day of planes, trains, and automobiles... :)

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

I've got a 9:10 am flight to Heathrow on AA coming up. I'm coming down from the Hanover, NH area, however. Usually, I either use one of the parking services, or I take the bus, but the length of the trip (almost a month) ...When I first read this, I thought that was a mighty slow bus from Hanover! :D

... (Cape Air is Terminal B, American is Terminal C...Not that it probably matters much, but this is backwards. AA is in Terminal B, on the left side from most entry points, after the U-turn at the end of the parking garage if you're in a vehicle. (If you're in a bus, are running late, and traffic is slow, you can save a little time by getting off at the first Terminal B stop and crossing the parking area on foot. It's only four rows of parked cars wide on that level.)

Just to clarify Cape Air (9K) use Terminal C (Gate 27 if you're wondering),
AA use Terminal B (except for those pesky international arrivals).

I'm a little late on this response, but I feel like I can provide some good insight here, as I spent several years up there and I've run into this exact problem on that AA morning flight to LHR when coming down from the Hanover area a number of times. I agree with the other posts, as it might be too risky to make the transfer that morning. My advice would be to take the Dartmouth Coach down to Logan the night before and take what you saved from not paying for the cape ticket and just put it towards a cy, fi, etc down at the airport for the night.

If you can find a stay+park deal at one of those hotels you might even be able to just take your car down.

One last piece of advice. The Dartmouth Coach doesn't have that many runs during the day (as I'm sure you know), so be sure to check that your return arrival time gives you enough time to make the last bus. (assuming you weren't able to find a stay+park deal at a hotel) I noticed this conflict in the past with the tatl AA flights and I have a number of friends who have been left to find their own bay back up to the mountains of nh.

I'm a little late on this response, but I feel like I can provide some good insight here, as I spent several years up there and I've run into this exact problem on that AA morning flight to LHR when coming down from the Hanover area a number of times. I agree with the other posts, as it might be too risky to make the transfer that morning. My advice would be to take the Dartmouth Coach down to Logan the night before and take what you saved from not paying for the cape ticket and just put it towards a cy, fi, etc down at the airport for the night.

Yeah, I ended up doing this. If I wasn't gone for almost a month, some of the stay and park deals would be good, but most of them charge you after a certain number of days.


One last piece of advice. The Dartmouth Coach doesn't have that many runs during the day (as I'm sure you know), so be sure to check that your return arrival time gives you enough time to make the last bus. (assuming you weren't able to find a stay+park deal at a hotel)

Well aware of this one, rejected one set of flights since they got in well after the last Dartmouth Coach.

While most of my Dartmouth Coach experiences have been quite pleasant, back in 2007 I had a miserable time on one trip. We got back on a UA redeye from LAX, and got our bags just in time to see the first Dartmouth Coach leave. We went back into the terminal, had breakfast, and went down and stood directly below the "Dartmouth Coach Stops Here" sign... and watched the second Dartmouth Coach bus drive right by without stopping, leaving us and three other passengers.

At this point, we were feeling some time pressure (I had an important client meeting back in Hanover, *and* had to pick up my second travel bag for another trip (BOS->MSP) the next day), so I ended up renting a car to get back to the office (round trip, since I was coming back to BOS the next day, although it was still an expensive rental). Was somewhat satisfying to get back to Lebanon a few minutes before the bus. (Driver said he never saw us, although I brought two of the other people he drove by with us in the rental).

Luckily, I've not had a repeat.

Glad it worked out. It is difficult to put faith in the Dartmouth Coach or Cape Air to get you where you need to be and when you need to be there (or at least from my experience). Too bad the LEB-LGA route isn't running these days, it used to give a lot of great flight options.

Hope you have a safe trip.

figured i'd bring this thread back. i have a friend in hannover and was looking to fly to BOS and go up, and then realized i could fly LAX-BOS-LEB on UA. what is the transfer like? how is that flight? ua.com has a 1 hour 4 minute layover.

i assume LEB is a really, really small airport.

The Cape-United transfer should be pretty smooth, I think that's all in Terminal C.

LEB is indeed a small airport. As far as passenger terminals go, they don't get much smaller (actually, it's a pretty busy airport, but over on the general aviation side, the passenger terminal is a joke).

i fly into BGM about once a year, and that place is tiny.

i heard the cape air planes only hold about 8 people. interesting flight.