Airport in your hometown, convenient?

[nene0182]

About 15-20 mins away but we hardly fly out of there because of the cost. We can typically drive an hour south and save quite a bit or we drive to Minneapolis and save even more. Last time we flew out of MSP, we save almost $1000 which was a lot more then our cost to drive there. We only use our hometown airport when my husband travels for work.

 

[bcla]

Google Maps says 30 minutes to OAK (Oakland) and 35 minutes to SFO (San Francisco) from my home. Part of it is that it takes me 10 minutes on city streets to get to the freeway. Then there are the vagaries of rush hour traffic - especially getting into and through San Francisco. It also figures out timing based on the speed limit, where there's a stretch that's posted 55 MPH even though it drives like 65.

I prefer Oakland. It's a lot easier to navigate, it doesn't get SFO weather delays, I can park (cheap) 2 minutes from the terminal when picking up/dropping off, and prices are often better. It's also better for me with regards to public transportation. Public transportation can be almost as fast as driving. To SFO it's going through a bunch of stops in San Francisco.

Occasionally I'll use San Jose Airport if leaving straight from work. That's not too bad, especially with good public transportation and where I'll just leave my car in the parking lot at work.

 

[LittleMissMagic]

LAX is 9 miles from my home, but the trip there could take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on how bad traffic is.

 

[bsblady01]

ours is an hour away

 

[ronandannette]

The airport is in the far north-east part of our city; we live mid-town. It took us about 25 minutes at 4:45 am two weeks ago; in peak traffic it would take more than an hour.

 

[tvguy]

20 miles from my house to Sacramento International, 25 minutes without traffic, 35 with. Used to be out in the boonies, but development is getting closer.
Getting there is very convenient, once there, with the "new terminal" they put in 15 years ago, and a second one about 4 years ago, it is a mess.
The newest terminal is the biggest mess. The terminal and the gates are in two differnet buildings, so you have to take a train to get to the gates. Huge backups waiting for the trains, and then when getting off to get through security. And the train breaks down frequently. They made no provision for the train breaking down, so they had to go back, spend a bunch of money to put in a pedestrian walkway along the train tracks so people can walk to the gates when the train breaks down. No fun in the rain.
The new setup is beautiful, but not nearly as easy to navigate as the old setup.

 

[Squirlz]

LAN is 18 miles away but it doesn't go anywhere conveniently. I always fly out of GRR, FNT or DTW.

 

[AKpooh]

our airport is on another island so you have to pay to take the small ferry over then its all in one place. before this airport was built the airport was located near a Alaskan native town and then you had to take a smaller plane to get to hear.

 

[leebee]

I am a 20 minute easy drive from the nearest "international" airport, but it's Bangor. Two airlines and Allegiant. Can't even fly directly to Boston. It's a 2+ hour drive to Portland, 4+ hours to Manchester, NH or Boston, MA. We have lots of Southwest RR points so we usually drive to Manchester or drive/commute to Boston (or suck it up and spend twice as many points at Portland). I grew up 20 miles north of Boston and would give my eye teeth and my dart shooting arm to have such "easy" access to such a great international airport!

 

[bcla]

20 miles from my house to Sacramento International, 25 minutes without traffic, 35 with. Used to be out in the boonies, but development is getting closer.
Getting there is very convenient, once there, with the "new terminal" they put in 15 years ago, and a second one about 4 years ago, it is a mess.
The newest terminal is the biggest mess. The terminal and the gates are in two differnet buildings, so you have to take a train to get to the gates. Huge backups waiting for the trains, and then when getting off to get through security. And the train breaks down frequently. They made no provision for the train breaking down, so they had to go back, spend a bunch of money to put in a pedestrian walkway along the train tracks so people can walk to the gates when the train breaks down. No fun in the rain.
The new setup is beautiful, but not nearly as easy to navigate as the old setup.

Is the rabbit still there? I was working a contract job (close to US-50) and once flew to Seattle from SMF. I flew Alaska, and it was pretty painless - from paying $9/day for long term parking to the easy access to the gate. Never had to deal with any train, although I did the last time I flew to SeaTac.

 

[dotfurio]

Our airport is close (15 min-ish) and easy to navigate but it's crap. Very limited flights and we'd have to connect to anywhere we're interested in going. We usually just drive to LAX.

 

[sasywtch]

Is the rabbit still there? I was working a contract job (close to US-50) and once flew to Seattle from SMF. I flew Alaska, and it was pretty painless - from paying $9/day for long term parking to the easy access to the gate. Never had to deal with any train, although I did the last time I flew to SeaTac.

Yes, the red rabbit is still there. I actually like the new terminal. The parking lot to pick someone up is right there, they have a few kiosks, a bar, and a few eateries for those who are waiting for passengers. They have rocking chairs to sit by the windows to watch the planes. Since SW is in the new terminal, I haven't been to the old terminal in years. Since I live in the north side of town, it takes me about 15 minutes to get to the airport. In the am while driving to work, I usually see a few SW planes taking off and I'm always trying to guess where they are going. On the reverse in the PM while I'm in bumper to bumper traffic, I look over the rice fields watching the plane land, hit the ground and think to myself that those people will be off the plane and getting their luggage before I go two miles on this freeway LOL

I can drive to SF in 2 hours but Sacramento has direct flights to major airports, LA, SF, SLC, Denver, Phoenix and have flights to Hawaii so usually no flying out of the way to get where you eventually need to go.

 

[NMAmy]

LAN is 18 miles away but it doesn't go anywhere conveniently. I always fly out of GRR, FNT or DTW.

Hey, neighbor!

It takes me about a half hour to get to the Lansing Airport which, as Squirlz says, does not go anywhere conveniently and I'll add that you can't find anything at a reasonable price. We usually go out of Detroit and drive about 1.5 hours to get there or take a shuttle that takes about 2 hours to get there.

When I used to live in New Mexico, the regional airport in our town was about 2 minutes from my house with ample and free short term parking. We'd sit on the back deck and wait for the plane to fly over before going to pick someone up. It also only had one arrival and one departure gate--the first time my mom came she told me, "I'll be at Gate 2." Yeah, I know where you'll be, Mom.

 

[kmb584]

My local airport is 15 minutes away, but I usually hire a car service to take us to Philly instead. The last 4/5 times we flew out of our local airport our flights were canceled and we were bused to Philly (if that's where our connection was) or booked on the 5:00 flight to Charlotte (when our connecting flight was, at the latest, noon). The convenience factor just isn't worth all of the cancelations.

 

[MickeySP]

I'm lucky I am about 30 minutes from either Logan or TF Green. If we are at the house on North Shore then Manchester is about 30.

 

[antmaril]

45 minutes with no traffic.

 

[Christine]

I live in Virginia so I have to drive into DC to get to DCA (35 minutes with no traffic) or I can hit Dulles in the suburbs of VA which is actually a longer drive for me (50 minutes). If prices are REALLY good out of Baltimore, it will take me an hour and 15 minutes to get there.

 

[cluvsdisney]

We're about 15 minutes from Laguardia and 30 minutes to JFK.

 

[Aliceacc]

I'm half an hour from JFK, half an hour from Islip MacArthur, and 40 minutes from LaGuardia

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Pretty close! Maybe 15 minutes. But, the airport that Southwest flies direct to Orlando from (with better rates), is about an hour away.