Originally Posted by
Guercifgal
PHL is also my home airport and we can never find flights to Europe that are cheaper than EWR or JFK. We went on a cruise last fall that left from AMS and ended in Barcelona; we flew Aer Lingus from JFK via Dublin round-trip because it was $400 cheaper than flying directly from PHL. Saving $800 (minus parking, gas and tolls) and flying JFK was worth it to us. You are very lucky.
The operative words in the above: Aer Lingus. EI's fares are often freakishly low compared to their main competitors - I flew JFK-DUB with them last February for $420 r/t.
I would tend to think fares from NYC would be relatively lower than from PHL just because there's so much competition between JFK/EWR/LGA. By contrast, PHL is more of a captive market, as it's far enough from the NYC airports that most people won't want to make the schlep.