Is it worth the drive to fly out of BWI?

[mi*vida*loca]

I am planning a trip for next year but based on this years prices it looks like flying out of BWI may be an option.

We live 20 minutes from PHL. I've only flown out of PHL. Flying out of AC on Spirit isn't an option. Too many horror stories.

Right now flights are very pricey out of PHL. And the prices that are reasonably priced are at odd times and not nonstop flights. Looking at BWI they have $109 fares at good times and good days of the week. I know all of this could change for next year. But right now the savings is about $400-500.

Question is how much of a pain would it be to fly out of BWI for us? It's a two hour drive. I wouldn't ask anyone to take us. I would park our car there and pay. We like to fly out to MCO early. I don't want to get a hotel for the night. I would just rather drive in the AM.

Has anyone else done this? Fly out of a further airport to save some money? Even when you have an airport so close to home.

 

[pha1226]

It's been about 5 years since we did it but we saved a ton of money flying out of BWI and using parksleepfly.com. We stayed one night at a hotel near the airport with free shuttle and parking at the hotel. We actually went down a little early, checked in, took a train to the Orioles game and then flew out the next morning.

It really depends how much you are saving on the flight but it worked for us.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

It's been about 5 years since we did it but we saved a ton of money flying out of BWI and using parksleepfly.com. We stayed one night at a hotel near the airport with free shuttle and parking at the hotel. We actually went down a little early, checked in, took a train to the Orioles game and then flew out the next morning.

It really depends how much you are saving on the flight but it worked for us.

If parking is free it makes sense to do an overnight also.

The savings is substantial enough for us. Another big part is the flight days and times seem so scarce in PHL with nonstop flights. And those seem so much more expensive.

BWI seems to have more availability and cheaper prices.

 

[Buzz's Buddy]

We did this several years ago. We're in Florence, NJ, so it's also about a 2 hour drive to Baltimore for us. We saved a bunch of money and I would do it again if we could save enough money.

We took an early flight to Orlando and stayed at a hotel the night before that offered a park/sleep/fly package. You're going to have to pay for parking anyway. We payed a little bit more than it would have cost for parking alone, and were able to get an extra 2 hours of sleep. When we returned, we simply called for the shuttle and we were back to our car shortly thereafter.

 

[Rendar]

I live in Delaware. It's about 30 mins to Phi for me and about 1hr 40 mins for me to Bwi. I prefer to fly out of Baltimore because it usually has more flights available and for a more reasonable cost. Also, I personally just like Bwi airport a lot more. Ymmv but I certainly would make the drive for it.

 

[firegurl]

I live about 40 minutes North of BWi and about an hour from PHL. I always fly out of BWI for everything but I was exploring my options for this trip and PHL just didn't seem to have as much. The options were even more limited when it came to nonstop. At BWI I can have my choice of nonstop. You said that you like early, our flight for our trip leaves at 7:00 and will get us to MCO by 9:30.
The other thing that I wanted to point out is that if staying in a airport hotel the night before isn't an option you can always check out the Groupon and Living Social deals for airport parking. I see deals for those at least once a week. They are usually for half price for one week but I am pretty sure that they let you combine them. My dad recently went to Italy for 2 weeks and they let him use 2 vouchers for his parking.

 

[double r]

Have you checked Frontier out of Wilmington De. They only fly certain days of the week, but parking is still free there, at least for now.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I live about 40 minutes North of BWi and about an hour from PHL. I always fly out of BWI for everything but I was exploring my options for this trip and PHL just didn't seem to have as much. The options were even more limited when it came to nonstop. At BWI I can have my choice of nonstop. You said that you like early, our flight for our trip leaves at 7:00 and will get us to MCO by 9:30.
The other thing that I wanted to point out is that if staying in a airport hotel the night before isn't an option you can always check out the Groupon and Living Social deals for airport parking. I see deals for those at least once a week. They are usually for half price for one week but I am pretty sure that they let you combine them. My dad recently went to Italy for 2 weeks and they let him use 2 vouchers for his parking.

I checked out some of the packages and I think we would just stay overnight since parking is included. I just didn't want to pay overnight hotel stay PLUS parking on top of it. It's not a bad deal at all!!!!

Have you checked Frontier out of Wilmington De. They only fly certain days of the week, but parking is still free there, at least for now.

I believe they only fly into Sanford. We want to use MDE.

 

[JimboCh]

Frontier............Trenton, NJ (TNN) flys to Orlando.......Has non stops too

 

[EskiLvr]

We're in the same boat - different airport, but similar scenario. I'm looking at a 3 hour drive each way to potentially save $500 on airfare for the two of us for our Disney cruise next summer (not to mention get better flight times).

BWI is a very nice airport, and another "bonus" is that if you have weather issues, the higher number of outbound flights will make juggling reassignments much less stressful. If the price is right, I'd definitely do it (and I also would recommend looking at driving down the night before - you never know what kind of traffic obstacles you'll encounter on the Baltimore Beltway...). I lived in that area for a number of years, and BWI is still one of my favorite airports in the country.

 

[bookwormde]

40 minutes to PHL and 1:20 to BWI but we are flying out of BWI most of the time now. We always look at frontier out of ILG.

BWI is much smaller and the TSA lines are much quicker typically.

 

[Denise123]

Frontier in Wilmington, Delaware (ILG) flies to Orlando (MCO). They do not have daily flights but they may be nonstop.

 

[double r]

Frontier flies into Orlando(MCO) on Mon, Wed & Friday, but it is a morning flight at 7am. We have used it and it's fine direct flight around 2 hours and 15 minutes. They are now charging for carry on bags at 25 @ bag and only $20 @ bag for checked bags plus extra for priority seat choice.

 

[dawnhaze]

I like BWI. I don't like PHL. If I were you, I'd make the drive to BWI, but I'd get a hotel the night before - there's a Hampton Inn I'm a fan of, and they've got a park & ride deal and a 24-hour airport shuttle.

I live in NYC and I've taken Amtrak to BWI before to save $200+ on airfare - the train ticket is only $49 each way.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We're in Cherry Hill and drove to BWI once, ironically to go to Buffalo/Niagara Falls. It's not a bad ride though it poured down in buckets on the way home. We could barely see the lanes in the highway and it felt like the longest ride ever. I was just glad we had already landed and we weren't driving the whole way. I would do it again if the savings are significant. I would also choose BWI for Jersey week if necessary since it's only PHL, EWR, New York airports, etc. that would be so in demand during that time.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We're in Cherry Hill and drove to BWI once, ironically to go to Buffalo/Niagara Falls. It's not a bad ride though it poured down in buckets on the way home. We could barely see the lanes in the highway and it felt like the longest ride ever. I was just glad we had already landed and we weren't driving the whole way. I would do it again if the savings are significant. I would also choose BWI for Jersey week if necessary since it's only PHL, EWR, New York airports, etc. that would be so in demand during that time.

Hi neighbor!

If the prices and flight times are anything like this year we will definitely fly out of BWI. I've been looking at Southwest since they seem to be the cheapest and I do like flying with that airline.

Right now if I wanted non stop flights out of PHL with the times I want (flying to MCO very early, leaving MCO late afternoon) then I'm looking at $1650 for 4 tickets. BWI has non stop flights with perfect times for us at about $870. It's a no brainer.

Sure I could get PHL flights for around $1000 but there are layovers and crappy times. I'm not leaving PHL at 6 am to arrive at MCO at 1 pm because of a layover.

We've driven to FL numerous times and we've also flown, so a ride to BWI would be no big deal. I just want to make sure our flight home doesn't land around rush hour traffic.

The plan right now would be to do a sleep/park/fly package. Get a hotel with a pool. Get their around 3 pm, let the kids play in the hotel pool, get dinner and make it an early night.

This is for August 2015 but I'm thinking ahead, trying to budget and seeing what our options are.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Hi neighbor!

If the prices and flight times are anything like this year we will definitely fly out of BWI. I've been looking at Southwest since they seem to be the cheapest and I do like flying with that airline.

Right now if I wanted non stop flights out of PHL with the times I want (flying to MCO very early, leaving MCO late afternoon) then I'm looking at $1650 for 4 tickets. BWI has non stop flights with perfect times for us at about $870. It's a no brainer.

Sure I could get PHL flights for around $1000 but there are layovers and crappy times. I'm not leaving PHL at 6 am to arrive at MCO at 1 pm because of a layover.

We've driven to FL numerous times and we've also flown, so a ride to BWI would be no big deal. I just want to make sure our flight home doesn't land around rush hour traffic.

The plan right now would be to do a sleep/park/fly package. Get a hotel with a pool. Get their around 3 pm, let the kids play in the hotel pool, get dinner and make it an early night.

This is for August 2015 but I'm thinking ahead, trying to budget and seeing what our options are.

For that much savings I would so do this. BWI offers so many non stops to MCO, it's crazy. I wish PHL could be a big hub like that.

 

[davale4]

We have one airport 30 min. from us, another is about 45-50 min, and a third about an hour and a half. The first two were over a 2,000 dollars for 4 people to MCO and the third about 700-800 more. So this year we are driving a little over 2 hours, but the airfare was great!!!

 

[MindyLuvsMickey]

I'm actually planning on doing this for our trip in January. We are 20 min from Harrisburg and 90 min from Baltimore. I want a non-stop early flight and that's not an option out of HIA. We have booked a room using Hilton points for the night prior to our intended flight. We are able to just pay to park for $5/night.

 

[maciec]

Just a tip if you decide to spend the night before at a BWI hotel, the Embassy Suites allows you to leave your car there for free while you are gone. Also booking them ahead of time through Hilton Family MVP you get a better rate.