Drive halfway, fly halfway???

[cra-z-4-dizney]

Has anyone ever drove halfway, and then flew the rest of the way because there was a cheaper flight out of another airport.

 

[mill4023]

Well, I'm probably driving 5-6 hours to the airport to get a decent fare. But that's not even close to half way for us. We're coming from Oregon.

 

[stage manager]

While we haven't had to do it, friends drove 4 hours to Nashville, TN and flew from there because of the significant savings for a family of 5. We have been lucky with fares out of IND, but 4 hours to BNA beats 16 to WDW.

 

[oogieboogie]

We live in Akron, OH but we usually fly out of Pittsburgh, PA (1 1/2 hrs drive) because the airfare is so much cheaper there. If we're lucky, we go the night before, priceline a hotel room nearby for about $30-40 and then leave the car at the hotel parking lot, which is a lot cheaper than airport parking. Then we take the complimentary shuttle from the hotel to the airport.

 

[karrit2000]

If you end up having to pay to park your car somewhere it might end up costing you more that you save on the plane tickets.

 

[Meezers]

we live in atlanta and while not to orlando....we have been know to drive to birmingham, alabama cause it is so much less expensive!

 

[momsgoofy]

While we haven't had to do it, friends drove 4 hours to Nashville, TN and flew from there because of the significant savings for a family of 5. We have been lucky with fares out of IND, but 4 hours to BNA beats 16 to WDW.

stage manager...where are you in Indiana? We look at IND for flights sometimes, too.

Living in southern Illinois there aren't many options for flights...we have one regional airport which is always expensive. So for us we can drive 2 hours to Evansville, IN, 2 1/4 hours to St. Louis, MO, 3 1/2 hours to Nashville, TN, or 4 hours to Louisville, KY, Indianapolis, IN or Bloomington, IL. Since we like to leave home on an early flight to get into the parks earlier and return on late flights to stay in the parks longer, we tend to stay overnight at a hotel near the airport.

First, I always check for hotels that have a park and fly deal (or at STL I can get a discounted parking fee, $7 night, through AAA), then I start checking airfares. The airport that has the lowest fare with the best flight times that matches the lower hotel cost is who I go with usually. In December we're flying out of Nashville since I got a great Ding fare with Southwest ($35 oneway) and the hotel is running about $80 each night and the flight times were perfect...we'll be at MCO at 11:10am and leave MCO at 8pm.

In June 2005, we flew out of STL since it had the cheapest fares (which is rarely the case) and stayed at a hotel. For our cruise last year we flew out of Evansville and used a limo to get there and back. That was nice since our flight left at 8am (or at least was suppose to), the cost of the limo was a bit higher than staying in a hotel, but the fact that DH wasn't wiped out from any driving at all made his trip more enjoyable. But, since Evansville is a small airport, not much bigger than our regional one, and the plane we were on had mechanical problems we didn't leave until 11am ish and almost missed our cruise, so not sure how much I'd go there again.

So, yeah, if the fare is cheaper at one of the farther airports, we'd go there.

 

[Pocahantas]

Because of Hurricane Katrina and the very limited service in New Orleans, we are driving 4 hours to Jackson, MS so we can fly Southwest direct to Orlando. This isn't half way but it is further than I ever thought I would drive for a flight. Roundtrip tickets were $70 per person. Prices at closer airports were 3 - 4 times more.

 

[daisax]

You might check the prices from places NORTH of NJ -- CT/RI -- wouldn't be a short drive, but wouldn't be halfway, either.

FLights out of TF Green in Providence are generally much cheaper than Logan in Boston.