Hey Minnesota folks, NWA stinks!

[dudspizza]

I saw this posted on mousesavers tonight:

Fly from San Francisco to Orlando for $162.90 roundtrip (including taxes and fees)! Fare is good through early September 2005 on Northwest Airlines, with some dates blacked out. Easiest way to find this fare is to visit Travelocity, enter the airports in the "From" and "To" boxes and select "Flexible Dates." Hurry, this one won't last long!

I am located at NWA's home, Minneapolis. They don't ever offer decent prices to MCO, or anywhere for that matter, but they offer San Francisco to MCO for that price? San Fran is a hell of a lot farther than MSP from MCO.

Being a hub city that has no major competition really stinks sometimes!

I just hope Sun Country can bring some sort of competition here.

Thanks... just had to vent as I am now starting the search for good prices for my June 05 trip.

Duds

 

[dudspizza]

Check this out. This is so annoying..... The flight from San Fran is routed through MSP and then on to Orlando. Total price RT is 162.90.

That same flight from MSP to MCO is priced at 266! So I can get the flight for 100 bucks cheaper if I walk to San Fran first and then fly back to MSP and then on to MCO!!

This is why people hate airlines so much!

Duds

 

[Beast fan]

My sympathies. We live just over an hour from DTW (also a major hub for NWA) and have encountered this quite often, too. In fact, sometimes it is actually cheaper to fly NWA from FNT (about an hour from us), change planes at DTW, then on to the destination. To be frank, I haven't flown via NWA in over 6 years. I can usually find cheaper flights on Delta, especially out of FNT.

If you are willing to change planes, you may want to consider another airport (don't know what is available in your area, sorry).

Good luck.

Dave

 

[Pinnie]

I feel your pain. I fly out of DTW which is a NWA hub, but in most cases I can fly cheaper on SWA or SPIRIT.

The only times I fly NWA is if SWA or SPIRIT don't fly to my destination or I need a non-stop for a late night flight.

I am hoping that once the rebuild the Smith terminal at DRW, there will be more gates for some more competition to come in and give NWA a run for their money.

pinnie

 

[Northwoods]

I agree - one would think it would be great to be near an airline's main hub. But it is not!!

We lived in the Twin Cities for 18 years and were frustrated with this. Now we live in NE Iowa and can sometimes find much cheaper flights flying out of Rochester, MN or Cedar Rapids. But both will fly back to MPLS before heading to the destination.

But we continue to fly NWA because it offers the most options.

 

[antmaril]

I understand - we fly out of Detroit on NWA and it is hard to get a deal!!!! I prefer NWA, because the flights are usually non-stop, but we take SWA and Spirit in order to save money.

I read these boards where people talk about all these cheap flights to Orlando and I'm jealous!!!

 

[Northwoods]

I'm always amazed at the number of people that make multiple trips each year. I have a hard time justifying going every other year. We own DVC, but when you have to pay $300-$400 for airfare for each person it becomes a major expense, and you can't do it often.

School schedules restrict when we can go also. So we end up with higher priced flights over spring break. This year we are taking the kids out of school 3 days early so we can go the week before Christmas. We fly back Christmas day - because we could get the flights for $251 - which seemed like a great deal for NWA non-stop.

 

[Meagansmom]

I hear you!!!!!

 

[pumpkinboy]

Is there something in NorthWorst's charter perhaps about shafting Twin Cities residents? It used to be the same with Delta and Cincinnatti, but Delta seems to have seen the light, and now has capped fares on flyers originating at CVG. Cross your fingers that this works and gets them lots of new flyers, so perhaps NWA will get ideas about increasing passenger loads out of MSP.

 

[disneymom3]

The real killer is that the state of MN has helped NWA out financially more than once, so we are PAYING them to charge us more than the rest of the country.

My family lives in So CA and I was telling my sis the last time I went out there that I had to fly into LAX to get a flight for a decent price. She commented that from their more local airport she can fly to MSP for around $250! WHAT! ? It was costing me at least $400! so we checked online. Yep, if we started the trip in CA and went to MN on a RT it was $200 less than going from MN to CA on the same dates. Does that make any sense???

As far as other airports, MSP is about it unless you fly from a pretty small local one. We have considered driving to Des Moines because it would have been about an $600 savings for us, but figured that the 5 hour drive home would do us in. Now, we just drive the whole way.