I'm trying to schedule 3-5 trips to Albany from Spokane and simply can't believe the prices. Of course I am trying to fly Mon-Thur and I am trying to avoid alot of plane swapping, but $1300-1600 is nuts. I can fly to London for $676! Any suggestions?

I know that ALbany should be getting cheaper with Southwest's move into the market and that my $676 trip to London was over the week-end, but good grief.

Once I understand airline pricing, I'm going to figure out why my 13 year old son calls his friends, but they never say anything!

I don't know about the Spokane market but here in PIT the only fare available without a Saturday night stay in most markets is full unrestricted coach.

In other words, I would pay $600+ to travel PIT-ALB if I travelled tomorrow, or a year from now if I don't have a Saturday night stay. You probably have a similar situation.

Good luck.

The airlines are now making up for lost revenue during Southwest's long running $198 RT or less coast to coast fares. These fares didn't even require a Saturday night stay. Out of curiosity, I tried GEG-MHT (which is a Southwest city) and got the same high fare. Identical fares for GEG-BOS,NYC,MHT, or ALB.
My advice: Fly to ALB via LON. Cheaper, and think of the miles!

Albany isn't exactly a hot vacation spot.
Therefore, most of the people flying there are going to be business travellers, and
business travel is less price sensitive
than vacation travel is.

That means the airlines can charge more.
It's simply an airline trying to get the most
for a seat that it can.

Every now and then you get these funky fares rules. My advice is to "nest" trips. It means more travel time, but it does mean more miles/segments too!

If you don't mind the drive, Hartford (BDL) is only 2 hours away, BOS would be about 3 hours away, and PVD (probably the cheapest of the three) is about 3 1/2.

BDL-ALB is about $100 on Shuttle America on a Dash 8 (ugh!). Flying on a real airline, most airports in New England are about $400 to Albany.

I encountered this same scenario when I tried to fly from Hartford to Amarillo. $1700!!

I booked BDL-DFW on CO ($200) and DFW-AMA on AA ($100).



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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

And I would NEVER recommend back-to-back ticketing at $400 RT with a Saturday stayover...


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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

If back to back or nesting makes you nervous, you can do the following:

Book one-way Spokane to Albany - Sunday/Monday

Book round-trips Albany to Spokane Friday to Sunday/Monday. Saturday night stay bargain fare.

To end the commute, either buy a one way, or more likely, more cheaply, throw the final return away.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I had decided to not nest my trips (maybe I'm just chicken but I don't want to risk my PremEx status). I was going to use Comicwoman's good suggestion, but then I got invited to a Nascar race in Las Vegas. So, now I'm going to go from Spokane to Albany via Las Vegas. Price isn't cheaper, but who cares! For my other trip in March, I'll use Jon's suggestion and go to Hartford ($626) and drive the 90 miles.

Thanks

Albany suffers from the same predatory pricing that much of NY state suffers from - Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse also have terrible, terible airfares. While I can often fly from ROC to LHR for $400 rt. it can easily cost me $200 + to fly RT ROC to NYC and ROC to BOS is even worse.

Albany has just landed Southwest as a carrier - you may want to check their website for the start of service and pricing. Also, I believe JETBLUE will also be looking at Albany for service.

Larry

[This message has been edited by Larrude (edited 02-09-2000).]

I encountered the same problem trying to fly from LEX to CAK. DL wants $750 for a RT ticket; they know it's just a little too far to drive and if you're going to CAK, it's because you have to be there. The proffered suggestions look good; I vote for the Las Vegas stopover.

Tall Paul:
BDL is my home airport, and isn't too bad to get out of quickly. All the car rental places are a bus ride away though.

The maps show I-90 as a toll road, but there are no tolls between the I-91 junction and the NY border. They will give you a ticket - BE SURE TO KEEP IT. If you lose your ticket, they'll assume you've come from Boston, where there IS a toll on the Mass Pike ($3.25). Confusing to non-residents, but business as usual here in the Peoples' Republic of Massachusetts.

When you cross the NY border, you'll be paying tolls.

Larrude:
Upstate NY is a tough place for mid-week. I'm finding that Michigan is equally tough.

I've got two one-overnight trips to do out there, and $650+ is a tough fare.

I've got a list of places from BDL that are good to "nest" through. They allow me to do mid-week for $200-$500 below what a direct mid-week might be.


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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

Definetely try Southwest Airlines, www.southwest.com. They are starting service to ALB soon and run sales all the time...like $99 anywhere they fly. You maye have to do point to point, but one ticket and link it to another ticket. Las Vegas or Phoenix would be good cities to do this in. Give it a try!

Sooner or later the other airlines will match the SW fares.

I flew into NYC - LGA, did some of the city and then hopped an Amtrak at Grand Central Station. Memory serves that we were in Albany less than three hours later. The savings on the trip were well over $1000 and the train trip was easy.

Thanks again for all the help, but this is why pricing drives me crazy. I had really checked alot of different fares based upon what had been said here, but when I went to book my ticket to Hartford, the agent found a special $390 deal from Seattle to Albany. I can get to Seattle for $75rt, so my trip to Albany will cost $465. Maybe Southwest is already having an impact. The really good new is I can purchase some upgrade certs and fly first class one way and still be cheaper than flying to Hartford!