Middle of nowhere airports?
 

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!

BOS is a pretty major airport, isn't it? http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/wink.gif

I thought this was a post about DIA http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...um/biggrin.gif

Welcome to Flyertalk! I am not aware of a great solution to your problem. You can always try booking two separate tickets although that often drives the price up. What small airport do you typically fly out of? More info will help us answer your question better . . .

Well, if it really matters, you could always move. :P

Wow, traffic must be pretty bad in Boston if it takes you 4 hours to drive to the airport.. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...um/biggrin.gif

Heh... that's the first thought that came to my mind too when I saw the topic!

But, redc, I also suffer from the same distinction -- living close a small airport where airlines demand higher fares. Such is the nature of the business, I'm afraid. More often than I would like, I find myself driving a couple hours to the major airport instead of using the local one.

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"There are those who travel, and those who travel well."

Hey...I live in Littleton and it's only 50 miles to DIA. I just love getting in at 11 PM and then driving home.

The Orbitz "+100 miles" feature is helpful.

Also: try Expedia. It gives fares to/from exact airports, but offers a drop-down list allowing you to easily query another nearby airport. For example, I entered MCI-BOS and it gave me a fare quote, plus a drop-down list of about 10 other airports near BOS. You could then start clicking those to see exact fares from each location. This would be convenient for you: if BOS is four hours away from you, you could easily get you local airport fare, plus some in-betweeners, plus the BOS fare, and decide where the best value is.

Hope that helps...

I have no tips besides checking regularly back for fares.. but having moved to North Dakota I can for sure relate!

Fun thing:
I can fly from DIK to ASE (128+500 miles) for around $480,--...there were recently deals for fall travel DIK to MUC (~7000 miles) available for 490 Dollars.
My option is to drive 2 hours to Bismarck, from there flights are usually around 100 dollars cheaper.
Also interesting: It is around 100 dollars more expensive to fly from Europe to the US than other way around, usually I pay less to fly from Europe to the US.

I'm spoiled. I can fly from EWR, LGA, JFK, SWF -- even PHL in a pinch.

They took that away! Now, all you can do is select "search nearby airports".

I don't know the exact number of miles, but it isn't 100. COS to DEN is 93 miles, but it won't search both! Very frustrating.

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!

They have changed the language on the Orbitz site to "Also search airports within 70 miles."

Well, that helps to know what it is, but I don't see why they had to do away with the old option: Search 25, 50, or 100 miles away.

That was so ideal for good control of your search. Another software "enhancement" that reduces functionality! http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/mad.gif

And if COS/DEN aren't a logical search pair, I don't know what is. Fort Colins (FNL) is also introducing commercial service, so it would be very desirable to be able to search DEN +100 miles which would cover all three.

[This message has been edited by Rut Dog (edited 09-10-2003).]