Originally Posted by
ehallison
I don't understand the bolded statement. Southwest is the only airline I fly that has an earlier boarding available for purchase (EBCI or the upgrade at the gate). For his business travel, my husband even factors it in when comparing flight costs. If an Alaska roundtrip costs X, and Southwest costs Y, my husband compares X to Y+30 (although the $30 is not usually the deciding factor, it's something to consider, especially on the lower-cost intra-California flights). I realize it's his choice to pay for that or not...but it's just not true to say other airlines will charge for that choice, and Southwest does not.
I have an upcoming trip to the NYC area. It is a full week with Sunday/Saturday travel. I looked at EWR (closest to work, no NS), ISP (used to be a nice little airport, long way, sort of, from work and no NS), and LGA (dreadful airport subject to delays, some NS but horrible times of departure). I can equally easily fly out of two different airports. I also ran an Orbitz search just for potentials and EWR looked good on UA, but I am still spending down points, I have 400,000 to go. The WN COS policy is a game changer as well.
I even looked at BDL and PHL. So, two out and five return potentials. In the end I chose PHL. Good schedules, 1/2 the price of any of the others and about 2 hours from PHL to work location hotel, two hours that I easily get back by using NS instead of one-stop. Downside? It is PHL, but I have had good luck here, luck being a key factor of success at PHL. I have used PHL for work in NJ many times. The drive is not that bad unless it is during a snowstorm. Been there and done that.
Yes, there is a lot that goes into these decisions. However, local is really subjective depending on the situation and the person traveling.
Here is my suggestion since we are building wish lists. Allow the passenger to select departure and destination airports and then click on additional cities from a map for either end, no arbitrary regional designation. Then show me the full list in departure time order. Allow filters for NS, OS and Connecting. A filter for <total flight time would be good.