Originally Posted by
flavorflav
$480 isn't out of the ordinary for DSM. Fastair was right on when he called fares into DSM usurious. I've am probably back there 6-8 times a year; I do Ragbrai with miles and the winter holidays with VDB vouchers. The rest are Saturday-Tuesday last-minute e-fares.
If we had paid full freight for the three of us to fly in over the holidays this year, it would have been $500+ pp. The lack of a low-cost carrier there kills that place.
I lived in the DSM area for the first 25 years of my life, thats where I was introduced to UA and never looked back . . but we'll go down memory lane another day
I've found fares out of DSM can very wildly on UA. Like I stated earlier, some times I could get crazy cheap fares to LHR, but would then get quotes between $300-$500 for to LGA, PHX, LAX and the like.
If anyone on here has lived in central IA, you know that the majority of people seem to think the best deals can be found by driving to OMA, MSP, MCI, or ORD. But, I've found, in reality the drive rarely saves any $$. Over the last 10-15 years, I think airfares in DSM have actually come down quite a bit.
Low cost carriers have tried to come into the DSM market, but they've just never been able to attract a good customer base. About 10 years ago, a low cost was actually launched in DSM (Access Air I think it was called ? ), but I think the majority of travelers in DSM are fairly loyal to their airline.
As far as eFares in DSM, there are great deals to be had. I've regularly flown DSM-LGA for sub$200 on UA ticketed a day or two before travel.