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Will you fly budget for a direct flight, or legacy with connecting at the same cost?

Will you fly budget for a direct flight, or legacy with connecting at the same cost?

Old May 8, 2015, 12:22 pm
  #16  
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Depends on a lot of circumstances. There are some LCCs that I will not fly, while others (Europe's Niki, for example), I have found to be quite pleasant (I quite like Niki, as a matter of fact). As PPs have stated, if a direct flight on a budget airline will have me flying into or out of out of the way airports, that won't work particularly well for me. If it means lack of access to lounges, to premium cabins, to premium services in general, then it's a no-go. If some variation of those services is available, then the budget airline may be in play.

Niki, for example, doesn't have premium cabins, but for short hops, it's comfortable, its service is good and reliable, and I get FF miles.
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Old May 8, 2015, 1:22 pm
  #17  
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Originally Posted by alanR
Why would anyone take an indirect flight when you can fly direct for the same cost - doesn't matter if the airlines involved are legacy or budget
Others have pointed out the obvious, but up until last year the extra segments would be what I needed to qualify for status (being a budget traveler it's hard with minimum spend). If I flew nonstops I'd be a few thousand miles short.

Also amazingly enough got upgraded on both DFW-IAH and IAH-SAN for tomorrow's flights
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Old May 11, 2015, 12:59 pm
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My answer is "it depends". If we're talking adding 6 hours to an international itinerary by choosing a legacy carrier I'd be inclined to do a non-stop on a budget airline.

But generally, if it isn't too much more inconvenient relatively speaking, I'd take the legacy even if it meant connecting somewhere. I don't have much faith in Ryanair or Spirit types of ultra-LCC operations and I'd only pick them if there was a vast price difference between them and their competitors. Other budget airlines like Southwest I think I'd be a little more receptive to.
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Old May 11, 2015, 3:09 pm
  #19  
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Originally Posted by heraclitus
My answer is "it depends". If we're talking adding 6 hours to an international itinerary by choosing a legacy carrier I'd be inclined to do a non-stop on a budget airline.

I don't have much faith in Ryanair or Spirit types of ultra-LCC operations and I'd only pick them if there was a vast price difference between them and their competitors. Other budget airlines like Southwest I think I'd be a little more receptive to.
Well, Spirit flies many routes once a day, which brings up two points:

It may be shorter, but flight time may not be convenient @:-)

And in case of IrrOps, next flight may be next day, if it isn't full already

Originally Posted by EmailKid
Others have pointed out the obvious, but up until last year the extra segments would be what I needed to qualify for status (being a budget traveler it's hard with minimum spend). If I flew nonstops I'd be a few thousand miles short.

Also amazingly enough got upgraded on both DFW-IAH and IAH-SAN for tomorrow's flights
Sadly, no u/g on way back
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Old May 20, 2015, 9:53 pm
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Most of my travel where LCC and legacy have been the same price is usually at a busy time of year. So, coming home from university at Christmas when I will have a big bag with me. In which case I will usually favour legacy carriers as the bag will often be included! Further, if I am paying Christmas prices I want to feel like I've maximised the money. So even if it is just a cup of tea and a packet of crisps on BA/KLM if the price is equal I do feel marginally happier that I had to shell out the bucks to pay the Christmas premium.

Sadly my usual journey for a long time was just a short hop within western Europe (1hr15 direct flying) so on a legacy route more time was spent in the connecting airport than in the air, but I usually didn't mind as I am very much time rich and cash poor!

However on this route it would only be at busy times that the prices are level. Ryanair in the off season would charge 14 single, whereas KLM/BA/SABENA would want 300+. Hard choice, even if it does mean trekking to Charleroi airport.

When I lived in Jordan I had to come back at quite short notice for a week and ended up flying Lufthansa, even though there was a better timed Easyjet flight, because Sleasyjet wanted nearly 50 for my bag to be checked in and the price of the ticket was only about 70...
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Old May 20, 2015, 10:32 pm
  #21  
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Depends. If it doesn't cost me additional vacation time from work, probably go with a legacy. If it's a matter of fewer vaca hours, probably go with LCC.

Also depends on price. I just swapped a WN award flight with a DL first class flight b/c the difference between what I paid vs. the implied cost with WN miles was about $40. DL F vs. the greyhound of the sky for $40 was a no brainer.
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Old May 22, 2015, 7:45 am
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If the cost was the same, I'd go with legacy, specially International.

It would make me feel more safe in case of flight disruptions.
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Old May 22, 2015, 9:33 am
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Depends on how many days off. Right now I make my status on segments, so I purposely stop YVR-YYC-YMM instead of just YVR-YMM. If I have 5 days off and the travel time is like 24 hours, I probably just wouldn't end up going. Hard for me to do the budget option if the cost matches legacy, odds are I go legacy 90+% of the time.
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Old May 28, 2015, 11:35 pm
  #24  
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I'll also say it depends. Spirit, for example, can get thrown off on on-time performance, especially on evening flights, because they schedule so tight that any disruption will delay later flights (there's not much cushion built in to absorb that).

Baggage policy could be different (a full carry-on with the legacy, vs. half that or less), and *maybe* miles are a sweetener, though DL and UA have been determined to stamp that out. Getting to maybe pick your own seat for free also helps. The connection time, of course, would need to be reasonable, and any RJs would be a negative.
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Old May 29, 2015, 12:33 am
  #25  
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How about this:

Budget airlines with fares 150% of legacy. But the budget airline flies from an airport 45min away from home.

Or...

Legacy (cheaper than budget), but will fly from airport 2-3hrs away with moderate road traffic, add another hour if there's heavy traffic.
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Old May 29, 2015, 11:28 pm
  #26  
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Originally Posted by boybi
How about this:

Budget airlines with fares 150% of legacy. But the budget airline flies from an airport 45min away from home.

Or...

Legacy (cheaper than budget), but will fly from airport 2-3hrs away with moderate road traffic, add another hour if there's heavy traffic.
Well, it wouldn't make sense if the budget airline was 150% of legacy AND further away, but I think you mean significantly less in cost but requiring a drive.

For the longest time we had a situation like that in ATL, as Southwest was in Birmingham in the late 80s and onward, if memory serves, and they'd do these $200 RT fares to western cities at a time when DL was really burning a hole in peoples' wallets after Eastern went under. Southwest didn't come to ATL until the AirTran deal, so there were a lot of years of people checking BHM.

OTOH, my first California trip at $198 RT required not only the 150-mile drive but connections in BNA and PHX (i.e. three flights) to get to ONT (not LAX). I might balk at jumping through so many hoops these days.

Though if you live in a city with a massive airport like ATL, it can actually be pleasant every once in a while to leave instead from one like CHA or GSP where your gate-to-car time is much less and you probably won't get long check-in or TSA lines.
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Old Jun 5, 2015, 5:49 pm
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I like trying different carriers, so that's a bit of a factor, but if the airport is 3 hours away I won't wanna use it. I'd much rather pay a bit more for the fare. 50% more? So dependent on where, time of day, cost to get there, etc etc.

In the end for me there's a threshold on the dollars that will sway me. It's never the same and sometimes it's arbitrary. If the low cost carrier YVR-KIX (AC Rouge) is $899 and UA YVR-SFO-KIX is $1010, I just won't go. If I HAVE to go (which would likely be for work) then I'd go UA. It's only about $120 difference, but if it's my leisure dollars, jumping past $1000 is a major hurdle for me, it's there at $500 as well.

Went SEA-IAH-EWR-SJU and return, it was like $350. I hadn't planned on going but it was cheap. Making less connections and flying from YVR was like $550, which I wouldn't have done.
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Old Jun 7, 2015, 12:20 am
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A huge "depends" indeed. There's checked luggage to think of, seat pitch, availability and price of more comfy seats, if long haul + long connection after the long flight then I can get some sleep... many things.
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Old Jun 7, 2015, 1:37 pm
  #29  
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Legacy. Contributes to status. Better seating and chance of upgrade. And most importantly, extra choices when things go wrong. Last time a legacy cancelled my flight, they offered me re-routing on another legacy carrier. Last time an LCC cancelled my flight, they offered that I could wait two days for their next available flight or get a refund. I ended up taking the refund and rebooking last minute on a legacy carrier at twice the cost.
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Old Jun 8, 2015, 5:58 pm
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if the option was either a budget flight or another airline with a connecting flight, I'd opt for the budget airline. I don't like connecting flights for various reasons, one of them being the fact that I don't like wasting time.
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