harry0233

I'm thinking about moving to Northeast, particularly NYC. CO hub is EWR, UA has IAD, and flights to NYC seem to go through the roof. it looks like I have to do some driving to BWI or BOS to start my MR.
Is it hard to do MR from Northeast region? what airport do you usually use to start a MR?

fzwinter

Smaller airports will allow you more miles options than hubs since you'll get credit for flying into the hub that you might otherwise start from; they're also frequently easier to get in and out of. Hard to say which Northeast cities are best for MRs - BDL (Hartford) used to frequently have some excellent options due to the WN, and I've seen some great fares from BOS over the years to the west coast. But past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results......

nova08

I actually think the NE is conducive for a CO MR. Start in the NE fly to IAH and then fly to SAN, PDX, SEA, etc. Recently there have been same day turns for ~$200 ai that net you 5-7k eqms.

I did PHL-IAH-PDX-IAH-PHL at the end of last year

aztimm

I live in the PHX area and regularly visit family in NE PA. Years ago, flying to AVP was prohibitively expensive, but it has really come down recently. It is usually the same or less to fly PHX-PHL-AVP than just PHX-PHL. I've noticed similar flying PHX-EWR-AVP on CO.

You could also do something using ABE, which is just about an hour drive from the NYC area. There seems to be a little more availability from ABE, and since Allegiant flies there some airlines are matching on their routes to Florida.

uecsome

LGA for CO is not bad, last year I found LGA-IAH-SMF-IAH-LGA sub$300a/i and same day return.

Also in the past, HPN (White Planes) for UA (CO does not fly there), about two years ago, HPN-IAD-SEA-PDX-SEA-ORD-HPN was $220... I haven't found anything good recently though.

WingedWorldExplorer

NYC is best.
After that WAS and especially BWI in my experience

harry0233

NYC seems to be super expensive or maybe I'm just unlucky?

CALfly5

As a DC resident, I can say that BWI [I]used[I] to have lots of great fares, but I think the airlines caught on (and WIN is no longer the "low cost airline" people think it is), so fares ex-BWI are now regularly as expensive -- and even MORE expensive -- than ex-DCA. DCA now actually has plenty of very competitive fares from the DC/Baltimore area; don't overlook it when you search for flights.

Looking for CO MRs oftentimes brings up PHL with the best fares within 150 miles of the DC area. You could ride Amtrak down from NYC area to PHL for not a lot of coin, then catch your flight to one of the CO hubs.

I can't speak for UA flights; I've managed to successfully avoid them for the past 10 years, and only now am being forced to consider flying their planes or get out of Star Alliance altogether - CO is going to the crapper in terms of upgradeable international fares.

Madisonman39

The DC metro is a great area for UA travelers. You have DCA (a great airport), IAD (inconvenient, but UA's hub) and BWI. So you have lots of options for mileage runs and lots of competition. If you fly to Europe, IAD is great. If you go to Asia, you can either fly directly from IAD, go to SEA or LAX, or go from DCA to ORD.

Then you have the option of going to IAH or EWR on CO, although the flights to EWR tend to be expensive.

No need to drive to BOS--much to far. PHL is much closer, but I've never had the need to drive. DC is a great market. The only negative is that it is not great for Latin America and some parts of the Caribbean.