Originally Posted by
MisterBill
I'm flying to Amsterdam in August for a cruise, and ended up booking flights to/from Philadelphia instead of JFK or EWR because it was $200 cheaper out of PHL. I live an hour north of EWR, so PHL is out of the way for me, but not enough so that it's not worth driving to in order to save $400 for the two of us.
This isn't the first time I've noticed this pricing. We flew to Barcelona a few years ago and found the same thing (that time there were 4 of us so it was a no-brainer). This time, my flights go thru DTW so I will need to end up back in PHL, but the last time they went thru JFK (and we "missed" our connecting flight back to PHL and picked up a rental car at JFK). I will probably drive my own car to PHL and park at a hotel and get a sleep/park/fly package since it is cheaper than renting a car in both directions.
Anyway, what is it about PHL that causes the fares to be that much cheaper? Is it competition from US Air? I tried looking for fares out of BDL or ALB hoping they would also exhibit the same "cheaper than NYC" behavior but they weren't cheap. Or is what I am seeing not common and I just got lucky both times?
If there is a better place for this thread, please move it.
Your $400 "savings" evaporate pretty quickly: gas for the drive to and from PHL and hotel/parking package. That total: at least $180. Then your time: you have to leave much earlier, drive longer, stay in an hotel, fly backwards to DTW, connect (hopefully your inbound is on-time) and then fly longer to get to your cruise. And then do the same on the reverse. Sounds like you're adding at least 24 hours total journey time to the trip, as well as a connection. Not sure how you see $400 in "savings" here? If you value only your time at $10 an hour, you're already losing money.