Do you use Bangor International Airport (BIA)? (Portland, Augusta: rent, hotel)

[DavidoftheNorth]

What have your experiences been like?

[umograd83]

I love using BGR because I don't have to make the two and a half hour drive when I fly into Portland. However, this trip I'm flying into Portland and staying overnight with my brother, then up to Bangor the next day. Why? Because it's so darn expensive to fly into Bangor. I bought my tickets four weeks ago, so I didn't have any long-term planning to find "cheap" tickets. If I do it way ahead of time, I'd be able to get into Bangor cheaper. I love that BGR is so small an airport (but the runway is long, being that it's a former Air Force base). My dad used to work for the Air National Guard. So, when I was growing up (Old Town), we went there a lot to watch the planes take off and land. That was the big treat for us back then - to drive to Bangor. Bangor seemed so far away back then. LOL.

Anyhoo, I'll be in Bangor on Thursday and staying for two weeks. Yeah! Hope it warms up, though.

[BacktoNE]

We lived in WTVL so Bangor was just 15 minutes closer than Portland, therefore we went by ticket price. I believe we used Bangor twice. My only complaint with Bangor is the lack of a jetway from the small planes directly into the terminal. We landed there in February last time, and there was a howling wind and subzero wind chills blowing freshly fallen snow every. It felt like rocks hitting our faces and having to run from plane to terminal, out in the weather, was quite unpleasant.

[Mark S.]

When we flew to New England for our trip, the cheapest rates we found were to fly into Manchester, NH. I'm not a huge fan of Manchester, but the airport is quite nice. Never been to the Bangor, ME airport.

[deerislesmile]

Bangor is roughly 2 hours away from me. I know lots of people who would rather drive to NH (6 or so hours)and spend the night prior to departure than they would to fly out of Bangor. I know the last time I was looking at air fares, using Bangor would have added $600+ on to the fare. For 3 people, that adds up! And even driving down to NH and adding on 2 extra nights at a hotel is cheaper than that!

[mollysmiles]

Originally Posted by deerislesmile

Bangor is roughly 2 hours away from me. I know lots of people who would rather drive to NH (6 or so hours)and spend the night prior to departure than they would to fly out of Bangor. I know the last time I was looking at air fares, using Bangor would have added $600+ on to the fare. For 3 people, that adds up! And even driving down to NH and adding on 2 extra nights at a hotel is cheaper than that!

I agree! We just returned from a trip, and even with the extra drive time, the gas prices and a hotel stay, it was cheaper to fly out of Portland. Unfortunately, it usually is....we didn't look into Manchester this time around, because we just didn't have the drive time to spare.

[danpv]

I recently flew cross country and of course prices were best into Boston. Anything further north bumps up the ticket price considerably, but Portland was far more affordable than Bangor. I wanted to fly into Bangor to reduce the time on my drive north, but the several hundred dollars more they wanted was a deal breaker for me.

Originally Posted by deerislesmile

Bangor is roughly 2 hours away from me. I know lots of people who would rather drive to NH (6 or so hours)and spend the night prior to departure than they would to fly out of Bangor. I know the last time I was looking at air fares, using Bangor would have added $600+ on to the fare. For 3 people, that adds up! And even driving down to NH and adding on 2 extra nights at a hotel is cheaper than that!

[Unhappycamper]

I love closer to Portland but last time I took a trip via airplane (2001) we went out of Manchester, NH because it was MUCH cheaper.

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Never been that faah nawth. SouthWest uses Manchester and we've flown SWA for years, and between Manchester and Boston it's absolutely no contest, so...
Does Jet Blue fly to Bangor?
We will not fly the "major" airlines any more, haven't for years. It's SWA or drive.

[Acadianlion]

I live only a few miles from Hancock County Airport in Trenton. We have regularly scheduled commuter flights to Boston, and my choice is always to fly out of Trenton. Parking is free and there is no concern about my car when parked there.

But it is normally a bit more expensive than flying out of Bangor, and if I can get a direct flight from Bangor and not go through Boston, I would probably bit the bullet and fly from there. Whenever I have flown out of Bangor though, when adding in the hour to get to Bangor and the cost of driving the car, PLUS the cost of parking it, flying from Trenton is pretty close price wise.
If I lived in Waterville, I would take the commuter from Augusta to Boston rather than drive anywhere.

If I were to fly anywhere today though, I would probably rent a small car, drive to Boston and drop the car to get a flight from there. It would probably be cheaper.