<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by redc:
Just hoping someone had some advice:
I live 4+ hours from a major airport and thus usually am forced to use the expensive local airport every time I fly. Any suggestions for how to save $ on flights to and from tiny airports? Any websites targeted to those of us stuck in the wilderness? Or do any of the more typical search engines - Orbitz, CheapTickets - have any special features I could use?
Thanks! </font>
Coming from an area that has alot of airports I know what you face in that you want to find a fare out of five or so different airports. In addition to Logan (BOS) you may be able to use T.F Green (PVD), Manchester, NH (MHT), Bradley-Hartford/Springfield (BDL), Albany (ALB), Burlington, Vermont (BTV), Portland, Maine's JetPort (PWM) or even Montreal-Dorval (YUL). All of these airports are served by at least one of the LCC's (Low Cost Carriers) and that fact tends to keep the "Dinosaur" Airlines behaved when it comes to fares.
But that's eight airports a to check fares from; what a pain in the a**! So what I do (with my airports LAX/BUR/LGB/SNA and sometimes ONT) is to find the outbound fare from the city I want to go *to* and plug that name into the Search (I tend to use Travelocity's Dream Maps.
Usually, but not always, the fare from point A to point B is the same as the fare from point B to Point A.
So, as an example, if I plug in Atlanta as my "origin" and see that their is a great fare to LGB and SNA, then I can reasonably expect that the fare *from* LGB or SNA will be the cheapest in the LA area *to* Atlanta.
Now going from the LA area to a city with multiple airports like NYC takes more work, but the principle is the same.
Good luck with your searches, and check out the Mileage Run section for some good fare finding tips!