[Jay_F]

Looking around a bit northwest of Saginaw, I see MBS international airport... Anyone ever fly from there, and can comment on the experience? I guess I'm most interested in knowing how were ticket prices, and did it have the flights you were looking for? Saving a drive to Detroit is just fine by me. I'm really surprised by how many "International" airports are in the general area heading south - Bishop near Flint, Oakland Co. near Pontiac, Coleman, etc. Thanks.

[MikeBear]

Originally Posted by Jay_F

Looking around a bit northwest of Saginaw, I see MBS international airport... Anyone ever fly from there, and can comment on the experience? I guess I'm most interested in knowing how were ticket prices, and did it have the flights you were looking for? Saving a drive to Detroit is just fine by me. I'm really surprised by how many "International" airports are in the general area heading south - Bishop near Flint, Oakland Co. near Pontiac, Coleman, etc. Thanks.

MBS is a nice airport, but a small one. It's typically more expensive to fly out of it than Bishop in Flint, or Detroit Metro in Detroit. Yes, it can be cheaper to drive to either Flint or Detroit and fly out of them. However, you couldn't get me to go near Detroit Metro airport on a bet, for some time to come. That airport is #1 on the list for almost guaranteed infection of Covid 19. It's an international airport, and was/is one of the major ones receiving infected people from worldwide. I haven't had covid, and don't think I'll get it, but I don't go out of my way to be stupid about it.



In fact the only person in my family to die from covid, is a 1st cousin by marriage, and he got it from right there when they flew in from Texas last year.

[michigan91]

MBS had a new terminal installed about five years back which replaced an older one from the fifties or sixties. So the airport experience itself is good.

The problem is that there aren't a lot of destinations so you need to make more connections. This means more time and money.

I used to live ten minutes from MBS but I almost always went to Flint Bishop.

[lbj42]

MBS currently has service to DTW on Delta and ORD on United. Delta is now up to 4 daily flights to DTW (3 on weekends), while United only currently has a single daily flight to ORD (many airlines still have reduced operating schedules due to Covid-related reduced demand), so your options will generally be much greater with Delta. Fares can actually be competitive with flying out of FNT/DTW depending on destination. You can use Google Flights for comparisons as it's quick at showing pricing and you can get a good idea of fares with it's calendar view. For example, 2 week advance purchase Delta fares for MBS-SEA are currently only $215 roundtrip which is roughly the same as fares out of FNT and DTW. Of course, you will also find counter examples -- cheapest MBS-ORD fares are currently $263 roundtrip, while for FNT-ORD it is $137 roundtrip. I've attached a Google Flights US map of roundtrip fares from MBS to give you an idea (this is for 3 weeks out as cheapest fares generally have a 2 to 3 week advance purchase requirement -- also Tue/Wed/Sat travel is generally cheapest). Fares in May will also be cheaper than in the summer due to lower demand.

While DTW has many non-stop flights on Delta, I would personally probably go with flying out of MBS if pricing is close and you live near MBS to not have to deal with hassle of driving to/from DTW, the easier in and out at the airport (you will need to get to airport much earlier when flying out of DTW), and lower parking rates (MBS is $8/day). (By the way, your chances of catching Covid in large open air spaces like an airport or big box store is quite small and I would not personally worry about such things).

[beachmouse]

‘International Airport’ only means that the facility has the ability to handle immigration and customs services, not that it necessarily has scheduled commercial international flights. For smaller international airports, this often mean there are ‘on call’ immigration services that you arrange for when you file a general aviation flight plan back from a fishing trip in Ontario

[DTWflyer]

As a rather frequent flyer for both work and leisure, I'll chime in"


1) MBS is a good local option, but check FNT (Flint), LAN (Lansing), and of course (DTW) Detroit for some better combination of fares and schedules.

Pre-COVID, MBS only really had service on the following:
- Delta to DTW (Detroit) and periodic service to MSP (Minneapolis)
- United to ORD (Chicago)
Even then, MBS really only at best had 5-10 flights a day, and almost always required a connection to your onward destination.

Flint, has/had somewhat better service, at least Pre-COVID.
- Delta used to fly to ATL - Atlanta, but has suspended service for the time being
- American flies to ORD (Chicago), and CLT (Charlotte) hubs
- United flies to ORD (Chicago)
- Allegiant flies a couple of times per week to a few leisure/beach destinations in Florida, maybe Vegas; don't remember exactly

Lansing has similar flight options to MBS.

Hard to say right now with so much reduced / suspended in the COVID era, and how quickly things will resume later this year and beyond.

Generally, MBS is a good airport, cheap parking, easy to navigate, get through bag check & security.
The obvious downside is almost always requires a connection to go somewhere.
The research and trade off is how much cheaper and/or better schedule is it to just drive to Detroit-DTW versus take a connection from MBS

2) International Airport
- As said, is a nomenclature thing and somewhat "marketing". It only means they have immigration / customs clearance, which in the case of MBS is an ad-hoc / on-demand / call-ahead system for general aviation flights, between certain hours. Hence being so close to Canada, almost every airport in Michigan can call itself an "international airport".
There are no scheduled international flights into MBS. The closest thing they realistically receive is some small GA aircraft from Canada, or some on-demand air cargo hauler carrying automotive parts up from Mexico.

3) COVID
- There was a lot we didn't know and weren't prepared to address in March 2020. We didn't know it was hear, there was no masking, and people were traveling all over. As someone who has traveled regularly throughout the past year, they have the protocol in place to make it work. There is no real meaningful difference on flying out of MBS vs DTW regarding COVID especially when you have to transit/connect in a big hub anyways. Hopefully once everyone is more vaccinated this becomes a moot point.

[scorpio516]

My mom flies out of MBS probably 90% of the time. I don't think she's ever flown out of Bishop though. Maybe Lansing, never Grand Rapids, occasionally DTW. She prefers to fly out of there than DTW for more than just the 1.5 hours saved driving (and parking etc)

She can get from there to any of my local airports with a transfer at DTW.

[Heather67]

I haven't flown in/out of Bishop, but I try to fly to Flint when visiting family in MI. It's a nice, small airport, with minimal security lines and short walks to gates. I've found smaller airports can be easier to manage for those reasons. The Traverse City airport is also a very quick walk from the parking lot to the gates. (Super cute, too.) The downside is that you'll probably have to connect through one of the larger airports unless your destination is, say, Chicago. So you'll be doing some gate to gate traveling regardless, and you'll be at the mercy of the smaller airport's ability to get you out in time to make your connection. I try to make sure there's an hour between flights for connections, but that's a lot of time sitting in an airport. It comes down to where your priorities lie. I'd rather spend more time going between gates at my connection and less time in line at security.

But as larger airports go, I rather like the Detroit one, especially compared to O'Hare. I've gone through both a lot, and I've had one reasonably (give or take 20 minutes) on-time experience at O'Hare. One. Ever. DTW is more like 80% on time for me.

[lbj42]

Originally Posted by Heather67

I haven't flown in/out of Bishop, but I try to fly to Flint when visiting family in MI. It's a nice, small airport, with minimal security lines and short walks to gates. I've found smaller airports can be easier to manage for those reasons. The Traverse City airport is also a very quick walk from the parking lot to the gates. (Super cute, too.) The downside is that you'll probably have to connect through one of the larger airports unless your destination is, say, Chicago. So you'll be doing some gate to gate traveling regardless, and you'll be at the mercy of the smaller airport's ability to get you out in time to make your connection. I try to make sure there's an hour between flights for connections, but that's a lot of time sitting in an airport. It comes down to where your priorities lie. I'd rather spend more time going between gates at my connection and less time in line at security.

But as larger airports go, I rather like the Detroit one, especially compared to O'Hare. I've gone through both a lot, and I've had one reasonably (give or take 20 minutes) on-time experience at O'Hare. One. Ever. DTW is more like 80% on time for me.

For the record, FNT is Bishop airport (named after Arthur Giles Bishop). MBS hasn't been named after a person (yet)

[Jay_F]

Thanks a lot for all of the great information... Very helpful, and I learned a lot.