Originally Posted by pgalore
Since I live in Raleigh and there aren't any international flights out of RDU, I always have to connect to go overseas.
Is JFK the cheapest to fly out of for international flights?
I know it probably depends on where you are going, airline, sales, time of year, etc, but just wondering if there is an airport that the more experienced mileage runners typically include in their searches for overseas runs.
It seems like the hub international cities (ATL, EWR, DFW, DEN, SFO) could have less competitive fares than those with more carriers (JFK, LAX, ORD). Is that wrong?
It all depends on where you are going. JFK is just about always the cheapest to LHR, or for that matter Europe, but never the cheapest to NRT. Try LAX/SFO if you are going west over the Pacific. This logic makes perfect sense when you consider the distance flown. The best bet for finding a cheap gateway city is to make sure that the flag carrier of the destination country you are going to serves the city you are leaving from. At the very least make sure at least one foreign flag carrier departs from that airport to near your destination. CVG believe it or not tends to have the cheapest European flights compared to the rest of Ohio (AF to CDG) and CLT has the cheapest European flights of the NC airports (LH MUC). Kind of strange when you look at their domestic fare levels-#1 & 2 most expensive domestic airports in the country.