[Mark 24]

recently had to make reservations to Chicago for April. I am in Rhode Island and thus made reservations for 4 PVD-ORD late April. I was to make reservations for family in Broadbrook. There are 5 of them and I attempted to match their United flight with ours. The problem, $419 round trip from BDL and $259 from PVD. ? Is it because Connecticut has wealth or are Hartford people not willing to shop around and travel to a less expensive airport? BTW, BOS was $219, but not worth the questionable traffic and need to get there 2 hours in advance because of its size. BTW, they are traveling with us from PVD.

[Reilly1017]

Originally Posted by Mark 24

recently had to make reservations to Chicago for April. I am in Rhode Island and thus made reservations for 4 PVD-ORD late April. I was to make reservations for family in Broadbrook. There are 5 of them and I attempted to match their United flight with ours. The problem, $419 round trip from BDL and $259 from PVD. ? Is it because Connecticut has wealth or are Hartford people not willing to shop around and travel to a less expensive airport? BTW, BOS was $219, but not worth the questionable traffic and need to get there 2 hours in advance because of its size. BTW, they are traveling with us from PVD.

None of the “reasons” you mentioned are true. I regularly price out BDL, PVD, and BOS. Sometimes BDL pricing is better, other times not. All depends on airline, destination, demand, etc. BOS tends to have the best pricing with more direct options but for me it requires driving there, paying for parking and I have to weigh whether that’s worth it when BDL is 20 minutes from my house.

[parentologist]

Originally Posted by Mark 24

recently had to make reservations to Chicago for April. I am in Rhode Island and thus made reservations for 4 PVD-ORD late April. I was to make reservations for family in Broadbrook. There are 5 of them and I attempted to match their United flight with ours. The problem, $419 round trip from BDL and $259 from PVD. ? Is it because Connecticut has wealth or are Hartford people not willing to shop around and travel to a less expensive airport? BTW, BOS was $219, but not worth the questionable traffic and need to get there 2 hours in advance because of its size. BTW, they are traveling with us from PVD.

Airfares always have to do with competition on the route. In other words, if you have a low-fare carrier operating the PVD to Chicago route, all the others will drop to match. If not, prices are high. So sometimes, you might find a lower rate out of one airport than out of another.

One thing that you can do is fly only with carry on luggage, and find a cheap "hidden city" route on a search engine such as skip lagged. The idea is, maybe there is a cheap BDL to another city flight, that requires changing planes in Chicago. You just get off in Chicago. Don't expect to do a round trip this way - you would have to book one ways on two separate airlines. Lufthansa recently sued someone who did this, though. I don't see how that lawsuit would succeed in the US, since obviously you have the right to not get onto the next flight, whatever your reasons!

Also take a look at Southwest. They do fly out of BDL, sometimes have decent rates, and no luggage fees.

[Reilly1017]

Please don’t encourage “hidden city”...I’ve been on a flight where someone did this and it delayed my outgoing flight over an hour. It’s a hassle for everyone and airlineshave it in their disclosure agreements this is a violation of terms.

[beerbeer]

Originally Posted by Mark 24

recently had to make reservations to Chicago for April. I am in Rhode Island and thus made reservations for 4 PVD-ORD late April. I was to make reservations for family in Broadbrook. There are 5 of them and I attempted to match their United flight with ours. The problem, $419 round trip from BDL and $259 from PVD. ? Is it because Connecticut has wealth or are Hartford people not willing to shop around and travel to a less expensive airport? BTW, BOS was $219, but not worth the questionable traffic and need to get there 2 hours in advance because of its size. BTW, they are traveling with us from PVD.

Competition is the main reason for lower prices. If only United flies to Chicago from an airport, they set the price. If a second carrier flies to Chicago, then the prices come down. There are other factors but competition is the main driver of pricing.

[kidyankee764]

When I lived in CT, I usually used NY airports for several reasons; fares much less, planes larger and many more flight times to choose from, whereas many from BDL have layovers. BDL is a very nice airport but it just wasn’t worth it for me. I lived about the same distance to both, though.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by beerbeer

Competition is the main reason for lower prices. If only United flies to Chicago from an airport, they set the price. If a second carrier flies to Chicago, then the prices come down. There are other factors but competition is the main driver of pricing.

In this case, United and American both fly to ORD and Southwest flies to MDW. For this city pair, it's more about yield management on nonstop flights going into a hub than competition. Nobody is flying anything bigger than a 737 into Chicago and there's E175 and CRJ service so the load factors are very high. They don't have the empty seats where there is any compelling reason to lower the price on the advance fare. They'd much rather use the seat on a short notice business traveler paying a big fare.



Providence is close enough to Boston that they feel the price competition. BDL is too far for most people to be willing to make the drive. Unless you can time the departure to be driving into Logan well outside of rush hour, it's awful access. Logan Express out of Framingham is fine at noon if you're trying to travel as cheaply as possible. It's awful for a morning flight or an early evening flight.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

When I lived in CT, I usually used NY airports for several reasons; fares much less, planes larger and many more flight times to choose from, whereas many from BDL have layovers. BDL is a very nice airport but it just wasn’t worth it for me. I lived about the same distance to both, though.

I’m equidistant to both and use LGA more.

For business if there’s a direct flight at the right time from Westchester or Bradley I will take that, because both are easier than LGA and less traffic. I don’t care as much about fare in those cases.

9/10 for vacations it’s been JFK.

[parentologist]

Originally Posted by Reilly1017

Please don’t encourage “hidden city”...I’ve been on a flight where someone did this and it delayed my outgoing flight over an hour. It’s a hassle for everyone and airlineshave it in their disclosure agreements this is a violation of terms.

Wow, I never thought that an airline would hold a connection for someone. Makes sense. But they can probably figure it out, because it's a one way fare, and they themselves know that the through fare is much cheaper than the midpoint stop fare.

I myself have never done a "hidden city". Now, knowing what you've told us, I would certainly be more reluctant to do it.

[clutchrider]

I always look to BDL flights, why?

• 60-90 minutes from house to gate
• Great parking options
• Easy landing/arrivals, NY airports can be hair raising in these segments
• Most of my flights are available direct to where we fly, regardless of cost I fly direct whenever possible
• JetBlue hub, I love this airline and pretty much only fly with them

At the end of the day I'd rather pay a few more bucks NOT to fly out of NYC, I've considered White Plains, used to fly out of there to the DC area for cheap. But now with the minimal savings if any over BDL and the much higher parking fees, plus the drive through FFC to get there we pass. Case in point was our last trip to Disney, we had a 10am flight and were back in our house by 230.