How far do you drive to the airport?

[npmommie]

Would you drive to a farther airport to get a really low fare?
just curious

 

[plutospup]

Absolutely!
Our closest airport is only 20 minutes from our house. Unfortunately, airfare has skyrocketed at that airport. Over the past year we had to pick and choose from three others airports that are all approximately 1.5 hrs away. I will look at PHL, which is 3 hrs from home, but it has to be a great bargain to warrant the drive.

 

[Microcell]

I am 3 hours from STL and have driven it to save money! It does have to be quite a savings to be worth my time, but I do look there when planning out airfare!

My home airport is about 40 min away.

 

[ancestry]

Perhaps. For the closest airport to us (Portland) I can have someone drive us and pick us up so I don't need to pay to park for the time that we are gone. If I drive to a further airport I have to park there while we are gone -- therefore I have to take into account the cost of parking if I go to a further airport (Boston or Manchester). Usually after I add in the gas and parking for 7-10 days the higher airfare at the closer airport turns out to be a better deal.

 

[tlenzendorf]

The difference in fares between Madison, WI and Milwaukee, WI were $150/person. We live in Madison and decided that our threshold for paying extra was $75/person due to gas/parking/time for 2 of us. We are driving the extra 80 miles instead of using our home airport. Now when all 5 of us go next time that threshold per person will be smaller, probably $50/person less would get us to drive the extra distance.

 

[CleoPahd]

We are flying in to a further away airport for cheaper fares. It was about 50% cheaper to fly into Tampa than Orlando for our April trip.

 

[shoes99]

Not at our age (60+) anymore. We live 20 minutes from Newark NJ. We have driven 100 miles one way to Atlantic City for cheaper fares, but the drive is just too hard on DH's bad back. We applied for a CO MasterCard, so we don't pay for checked luggage. If you add on all the Spirit/Airtran fees (from ACY), the difference to fly Continental is now tolerable. CO is now our airline of choice.

 

[Pakey]

We do it if the layover time is lengthy. It's a 3 and a half hour drive to LAX but if we are flying from our local airport and have a layover of more than 2 hours, we will drive to LAX and take a direct flight because it's at least $100 per person cheaper. If we can get short layovers, we just pay the higher fare and fly from our local airport.

 

[stitchlovestink]

we live just under an hour from BWI unless traffic is really heavy. Once we drove to Dulles for a non-stop, but won't do that again. It's an extra hour at least and fares are usually higher now (but not always back when we did this). I have looked at flying from Philly, but when I calculated in the extra tolls/fuel/higher parking charges, I found BWI was still cheaper. I'm usually happy w/ the prices I get from BWI. This past Nov, I procured seats for $48 pp non-stop. not bad, esp since I needed 4.
good luck getting the tix you need/want.

 

[krissyh]

This trip we will be flying into MCO instead of SRQ.
The deal was too good to pass up.
The cost for both of us to fly SW into MCO was $10 more than for one ticket to SRQ.

BUT - price alone did not make the airport switch. Other factors that went into the decision:
-By flying into MCO, I was able to book a direct flight.
-Considering this trip is in January, this means only having to worry
about winter weather at my home (BUF) airport.
-Because there are no direct flights from BUF to SRQ, our total
time will be a little shorter by flying into MCO.
-I hate to fly (especially taking off) and will often fly into a further
airport and/or take a flight at a time that is not idea in order to
take a direct flight.

I am much more willing to fly into an alternate airport at my destination than I am to fly out of an alternate "home" airport.

Unless the deal was amazing, I would only do so for a direct flight. Especially if flying out of the alternate airport adds a night at a hotel. I live close enough to BUF to get dropped off / picked up.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

In a heartbeat.

We live in Cleveland Ohio and the airfares are usually much higher than Columbus, Pittsburg or Detroit. So we have driven those mentioned airport to save a few hundred dollars.

What gets me is that often times the flights from Detroit and Columbus will connect through Cleveland! So I then get on the same flight number in Cleveland that would bought had I flown from Cleveland to Orlando. Oh well.

But it is well worth going to another airport if the savings is significant.

 

[seashell724]

We have an international airport 10 mins away from our home and drive 7-8 hours to save up to $1000 on flights.

 

[NancyIL]

My hometown airport is 10 minutes from my house, but I usually drive an hour to Bloomington, IL for non-stop flights to Orlando on AirTran. That airport also has free parking. I have also driven just over 2 hours to Indianapolis, but besides taking twice the time and gas - the airport charges $7/day for parking. That option is cost effective only when 2 or more of us are traveling together or the airfare is super low.

 

[tinkermom23]

We live about an hour from Fargo and the flights are about twice what we can fly out of Mpls. for. And Fargo is usually not a direct flight. So we drive 3 1/2- 4 hours.
Now, my parents fly frequently and they hate the MSP airport and will do anything to avoid it, so they gladly pay the extra to fly out of Fargo.
The difference is how many travelers. We have 5, they have 2. If the tickets are $200 more, that's only $400 for them but $1000 for us. We can easily drive and get a hotel for $1000.

 

[jmartinez1895]

I live 30 minutes from the Birmingham Al airport, but have considered going to the airport in Huntsville that is almost 2 hours away to save a few hundred.

 

[ColinCodyMom]

I would definitely drive to a further airport to beat the huge prices they are offering right now. No doubt about it!!

 

[greenclan67]

Me to, I drive almost 8 hours to fly from the states instead of Toronto! I am also 6.5 hours from Toronto also!I save close to $2000 and it is worth the drive!

 

[disfan07]

When we lived in virginia it was literally 10-15 mins. from our driveway to parking at dulles. We did occassioonaly drive 1 1/2 hours to BWI for flights or taken the metro 30 minutes to national.

Now we live in california and we live 45 mins-1 hour from LAX which is where we usualy fly from. We have Burbank airport which is about 20 minutes from our house but is routinely more expensive. We also have Long Beach about 2 hours (with traffic about 3 hours) but jetblue can be dirt cheap from there.

We very rarely go anywhere but LAX but thats because it gives us the most options.

 

[Detailor]

We live about 38 miles from the closest airport (Burlington, Vermont) and use that airport sometimes. But we also use the airport in Manchester, New Hampshire (about a 2 hour drive) to occasionally use Southwest Airlines and Logan in Boston (2 1/2 to 3 hours) when the price is right for our flight.

Dick Taylor

 

[hsmamato2]

we're 30 mins. from A big airport,and we drive 1 1/2 hours to get to a smaller one that cuts our cost in half- well worth it!