Question for all those that flew or fly out of BWI AND A GOD TIP FOR ALL

[DougandBeth]

We just booked another trip for April of 2013. Unfortunately flying out of CT on spring break week direct to Orlando was literally $720 roundtrip per person. I have never seen anything like it and we checked all airlines. NUTS

Anyway I looked into driving 5 hours to BWI and we got our flights for $230 each. It's so well worth the 5 hour drive!!

Anyway now we need somewhere inexpensive and safe to park our car, any suggestions?

 

[MDTerp]

BWI Long-Term parking is only $8/day. We fly out of BWI all the time and have never had a problem with parking at the airport.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Still wondering what the God tip was.

 

[TinkGirl]

We used to use Pre-Flight before we moved to Dallas. You can reserve your spot online. It may even be a little cheaper to pre-pay. What we really liked was that the shuttle comes right to you, and they have a lot that pick up. No lugging bags across parking lots! I remember they also used to have online coupons.

 

[iwannbindisnee]

I second the Pre Flight parking lot. We fly out of BWI several times a yearso, we are very familiar with them. If you pre-reserve it its about $6.75 each night. They have 24 hour monitoring & they do indeed pick you up right from your parked car & load your luggage. You can reserve it on line. We had a dead battery when we got back from a trip & they jump started us. It was late in the evening; they had someone to us within 5-10 minutes. Debbie

 

[rpcvpanama]

Sometimes the Airport hotels will allow you to leave a car for up to 10 days if you spend the night at the their hotel. With hotel discounts our using points this could be a way to save money. Not sure what your driving time is or whether you were planning on driving down a day early but that may be an option.

 

[thepops]

Another option might be to rent a car in CT and drop it at BWI. No wear and tear on your car and no parking issue. Then rent one for the way back. If you can get one with no drop off fees, it might not be a bad deal.

 

[luckyman_apd]

We live in south Jersey. Philly international is the easiest airport for us, but our last 3 trips, we have flown in and out of BWI. It is 1.5 hour drive for us, but the savings through Southwest have been well worth it. BWI is a main Hub for SW so they have double the amount of flight options with much cheaper prices. Many times a SW flight here is more than US air out of Philly, but the bag fees usually make it worth taking SW.

Our last trip in Nov was Jersey week, and veterans day weekend. Flights back to Philly on SW were $300 per person. Just the flight home on Sunday. BWI was $140. That's a $620 savings alone. Well worth and hour and a half drive.

Another tip.....always book one way flights, not roundtrip. SW you can change flights without a fee, but when booking through expedia or orbits with the "price match guarantee" the fine print says they "EXACT ITINERARY" must be purchase at a cheaper price to get the money back. Well, you are far more likely to have someone book any of the one way itineraries cheaper than your exact round trip times. There is no difference in fare for booking as 2 one way flights or 1 round trip. You pay per takeoff and landing. When you book round trip, it just combines the two prices into 1.

 

[3 Hobbits 2 Disney]

So we have done it two ways; stayed at a nearby hotel, arriving the night before, and also using the express parking ($8/day). Both were easy and worth it for different reasons. So depending on your flight time, you might want to investigate both options.

 

[lovin'fl]

BWI Long-Term parking is only $8/day. We fly out of BWI all the time and have never had a problem with parking at the airport.

This.

 

[bumbershoot]

Still wondering what the God tip was.

I think the *good* tip was to remember to look around for other airports.

My offshoot tip is to research ALL the costs of a different airport before making reservations.

Once booked a flight into Ontario (southern california, not Canada) because it was cheaper, and THEN found out that transportation costs would eat up every last bit of savings I'd gotten with the flight. Thought the pricing structure for SuperShuttle was the same as for LAX and SNA. It was most definitely not. And ONT felt much further away. And the driver trolled the airport two full times, on a hot hot day, before finally giving up and driving us to our hotel. Soooo not worth it.


So I recommend researching thoroughly before committing.

 

[maciec]

If you stay at the Embassy Suites at BWI they allow you to leave your car there free for the time that you are gone. No minimum stay required

 

[Neesy228]

If you stay at the Embassy Suites at BWI they allow you to leave your car there free for the time that you are gone. No minimum stay required

Do they actually let you do that or is it something you can just get away with? (I'm not trying to be snarky!) The reason I ask is because we used to be able to do that in Pittsburgh and then the Embassy Suites started charging a "park and fly" rate...I was just looking at flights out of BWI today, so this would be great news!

 

[maciec]

Do they actually let you do that or is it something you can just get away with? (I'm not trying to be snarky!) The reason I ask is because we used to be able to do that in Pittsburgh and then the Embassy Suites started charging a "park and fly" rate...I was just looking at flights out of BWI today, so this would be great news!

Ya know, I'm not sure. When you check in they don't ask you for a tag number or vehicle description. However, to schedule the shuttle you have to go to the front desk so I'm not sure how you would be able to work around that.

 

[jocin3]

We fly out of BWI exclusively. This past December we tried Fast Park for the first time (not sure if I can put a link here but it is FastPark dot com)
They have 2 locations near BWI-actually right down the street from each other. SUPER easy to use. When you enter, a cashier tells you what spot to park in and sends a small shuttle bus. The driver loads your luggage (big help for us "older" folks lol) and drops you right off. They give you a small card with your parking location on it.

At pickup we had to cross the road and stand on the 2nd curb. Waited maybe 4 minutes for van to arrive. Again the loaded things up and drove us right to our car. Upon leaving we were offered cold bottled water.

Rate was 6.90 a day (looking on their website I noticed one lot is a dollar more, not sure why-they are literally very close to each other).

Hope this helps a bit. We used to be long term parking folks but this was definitely more convenient!

 

[MsTessP]

My tip when planning a trip is to research airfare at sites like Bing. Com and airfarewatchdog. com. You can put your requested dates in, they tell you the current price, and then tell you if you should buy now or wait. You can set it up that you will get an email alert so you can grab a lower fare as soon as it is posted. Frequently the price comes down as it gets 2 months or so before the departure date. I travel frequently abroad and domestic and I often see this happen.