Huntsville is most expensive place to fly in/out (Birmingham: how much, home)

[E Limestone Dude]

Study doesn't jive with my experience, but then again I don't do much last minute travel.

For example over the past year I've found HSV offered the lowest rate after considering car fuel and parking to:

San Antonio
Europe
Seattle

[ionlife]

Originally Posted by DvlsAdvc8

How is that calculated? I recently bought tix for my Mom and sister to fly in this xmas and it was 400 / person round trip from Pheonix, AZ with a hop in Memphis, TN (if memory serves).

What flights out of Huntsville cost $500+? I think even my non-stop flights to and from DC last year were cheaper than that.

Is it only direct flights? Or the total cost to destination period?

I tried booking a one way ticket from Huntsville to DC a few months ago for my daughter's best friend to return her home. The cost was $585 for ONEWAY!! I found a one way ticket out of BIA for $125 with the SAME CARRIER ON THE SAME DAY. I've flown to DC return for $400 or more, but I've yet to see tickets under $400. I believe that's higher than average.

I agree with Mawoods--if we lived in DC it would be cheaper to fly anywhere, including Europe. One reason we won't retire here is because we want an REAL international airport that supports cheaper flights and goes overseas--we have friends and family in the Netherlands and Canada.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by dramamama

I tried booking a one way ticket from Huntsville to DC a few months ago for my daughter's best friend to return her home. The cost was $585 for ONEWAY!!

I flew from HSV - DCA - HSV, round trip 2 X $89 = $178 on Delta back in June using my company's travel tool (may have received a discount - we employees can use it too and get better rates).

If it helps, my process for buying personal airline tickets is first use Yahoo Travel as it has a pretty good interface (essentially travelocity) and also Southwest (because SWA isn't in the Travelocity database). In general, it takes a lot of trial and error, with at least 12 permutations (Sa-SA, SA-Su, Su-SA, Su-Su) * (HSV, BNA, BHM) for Yahoo and 8 for SWA, for our one week trips back to CA.

[ionlife]

Originally Posted by Charles

I flew from HSV - DCA - HSV, round trip 2 X $89 = $178 on Delta back in June using my company's travel tool (may have received a discount - we employees can use it too and get better rates).

If it helps, my process for buying personal airline tickets is first use Yahoo Travel as it has a pretty good interface (essentially travelocity) and also Southwest (because SWA isn't in the Travelocity database). In general, it takes a lot of trial and error, with at least 12 permutations (Sa-SA, SA-Su, Su-SA, Su-Su) * (HSV, BNA, BHM) for Yahoo and 8 for SWA, for our one week trips back to CA.

thanks for the tip, Charles. but that only works if you have unlimited time/days to play with to book the tickets. we're really cornered by two different school schedules in the case of getting dear daughter and her friends connected. Thus limiting our options--kind of like premium school districts limiting where we can buy houses and driving our prices and lack of housing protection from weird builder codes.

[autobahn]

Low-fare airline is top recruit - al.com

[Toymeister]

You guys are missing an important point GSA (General Services Administration) sets air fare rates indirectly via 'City Pairs' with preset rates. City Pairs can serve to drive the cost of air fare down OR up. IMO this is the main reason HSV air fare is higher

[julilg]

Originally Posted by dramamama

thanks for the tip, Charles. but that only works if you have unlimited time/days to play with to book the tickets. we're really cornered by two different school schedules in the case of getting dear daughter and her friends connected. Thus limiting our options--kind of like premium school districts limiting where we can buy houses and driving our prices and lack of housing protection from weird builder codes.

I have found Travelocity the most helpful and least frustrating method especially when my options are the most limited. It lists all the airline's (other than SW) schedules as wells as prices. Which ever city or date is not an option for my needs, I just don't search for those. Sort of like not looking at houses outside a particular school district.

[HB2HSV]

My experience agree with many here, flying out of HSV can be relatively inexpensive if the destination is in a major market, e.g., LA/OC for me (Delta $308/ round trip), but incredibility expensive if it's not (Denver $600/round trip, Houston $800/round trip, etc.). IF I was doing the same trip to Denver for personal trip, I'd fly out of Nashville BIA and the same trip would only cost me $179 on SW.

Another thing that I noticed that was very interesting, that airfare can cost much higher if my departure/ return is within 3 days apart, and much lower if it's longer, e.g., stay over the weekend. For example, I went to Delta airline website and play the departure/return date for HSV-SNA and the airfare can be substantially different.

[julilg]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

My experience agree with many here, flying out of HSV can be relatively inexpensive if the destination is in a major market, e.g., LA/OC for me (Delta $308/ round trip), but incredibility expensive if it's not (Denver $600/round trip, Houston $800/round trip, etc.). IF I was doing the same trip to Denver for personal trip, I'd fly out of Nashville BIA and the same trip would only cost me $179 on SW.

Another thing that I noticed that was very interesting, that airfare can cost much higher if my departure/ return is within 3 days apart, and much lower if it's longer, e.g., stay over the weekend. For example, I went to Delta airline website and play the departure/return date for HSV-SNA and the airfare can be substantially different.

United from HSV to CA connects in Denver, but I just ckd Travelocity and it actually costs more to fly United from HSV to Denver, than it does to fly from HSV to LAX changing planes in Denver . Unfortunately airline policy has been if you miss a leg they can cancel the rest of the itinerary, so if you book to LAX and just stay in Denver instead of boarding the next leg, you may not have a flight home.

One of the craziest fare experiences I had was to ABQ. It made no difference if I left from HSV, BHM or BNA, but it was a lot less to connect in Chicago instead of Dallas. I thought Dallas to ABQ would be a bigger market than from Chicago, but then again I also thought staying in Denver should cost less then contining on to anywhere- go figure.

Via Chicago made for a long day and since then I have refused to fly north or east in order to get south or west. I have however, driven to Atlanta to put my kids on a direct flight to CA so they'd not have to xfer. Statiscally being on the highway was a greater risk than changing planes, but I felt better knowing they couldn't get lost in, or miss their flight from, Dallas.

Sat. stay overs have long been a fare saver. Business travelers rarely stay a weekend so there is sufficient demand to sustain the higher fares. Whereas pleasure travelers might choose not to go if fares are too high, so the "discounted" Sat stayover fares helps the airlines keep that segment of the market.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by julilg

United from HSV to CA connects in Denver, but I just ckd Travelocity and it actually costs more to fly United from HSV to Denver, than it does to fly from HSV to LAX changing planes in Denver . Unfortunately airline policy has been if you miss a leg they can cancel the rest of the itinerary, so if you book to LAX and just stay in Denver instead of boarding the next leg, you may not have a flight home.

I've heard of this trick before. I love this type of ingenuity.


The Economics of Airline Layovers - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com

Here are a couple of techniques people use to beat the system:

End to End Ticketing

Back to Back Ticketing