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Last minute Amtrak fares can be quite a savings over last minute air fares, and though the trip will take more time, it can be far more enjoyable.
I've taken the train a number of times. I no longer get roomettes or rooms. I find them claustrophobic. Plus the meals that come with them are not that impressive. I prefer the fruit, bread, and cheese that I pack.
Just checked Amtrak. OP could leave NY Penn Station at 3:15 in the afternoon of August 30th and pull into Jacksonville at 9 am the morning of Saturday, August 31st for $146.
However, when the time comes, time will likely be of the essence. So:
Spirit airlines offers a $210 fare and Jet Blue $242 from Newark on Thursday, August 29th.
As the OP needs to leave from Ithaca, Greyhound might be the answer. $33 on Thursday, the 29th from Ithaca to Newark.
So if the OP wanted to go tomorrow, she could leave Ithaca at 1:30 am. Arrive in Newark at 9:10 am.
Take public transportation or a cab from the Newark Greyhound station to the Newark airport. Take the Spirit 12:52 fight and arrive in Jacksonville at 3:38 pm tomorrow afternoon.
Cost would be $243 plus the cost of a cab or public transportation from the bus station to EWR.
Well.. OP is in Ithaca, which is 250 miles from NYC.. So.. Factor in how to get them to Penn Station or Newark.
That being said. Amtrak.. Let's just look at the past week.. She'd be, I presume, on the Crescent part of the way... No.. Silver Star or Silver Meteor.
The Silver Star has been on time or ahead of schedule, since July 29th, once.
Average appears to be about an hour delay, though the worst was a 5 hour and 1 minute delay.
Silver Meteor.. Again, on time once. Average again about an hour delay.. Worst was 3 hours and a minute.
Oh, and to get from Ithaca to NYC via Amtrak.. That's another $126.
Train travel has it's place.. This isn't it's place. I took the train from Boston to NYC this summer.. It was.. Good. Little expensive, but better than flying, better than driving.
Woah, hold on, we are trying to help you here! I gave you a link and some advice on American Airline. Your response is a bit snippy.
The point here is you need to be flexible because you don't have many choices, you don't need American Airlines. Being 'selective" is the wrong decision. I'm unclear if you are flexible on time as you want to get there to support your family right? So you need a good search engine that will determine the cheapest rate regardless on time and location. Maybe you have closer options than Albany or Buffalo. Our usual suggestion is to use matrix and play around with the options. It doesn't have all the discount airlines but it does pretty good: https://matrix.itasoftware.com/
One thing I do not need is someone telling me all the things I need and do not need. The first two responses to my OP were not helpful, mainly because I wasn't looking for all the need tos and forget abouts.
Thanks to those of you who have given some helpful information. I really appreciate it, but not knowing when I'll be leaving (hopefully it won't be necessary), I'll probably just bite the bullet and get there the fastest way possible. She's currently in the hospital attempting to recover from her latest setback so they can go on their trip, leaving next Friday. Now the hurricane is headed their way. They just can't seem to get a break.
1. Forget about cheap. Last minute fares are expensive. And no, the airlines don't discount very much (if at all) for bereavement and family emergencies.
2. Forget about your attachment to AA. If you want the cheapest price, you have to open your options.
3. Forget about flying out of Ithaca. It's a small airport with little demand, which results in higher costs. Look at Buffalo, Rochester, Harrisburg or Syracuse. I'm not familiar enough with those specific airports to know if they are large enough to have enough demand to bring down that cost. BUT if you drive a couple of hundred miles, you can go to Newark which should certainly bring down the fares.
4. Forget about non-stop or convenient times of departure/arrival.
(Off topic, but have you considered going before your niece passes? Allowing you both to say goodbye, allowing your sister to see her daughter and her brother together, having some good final memories . . . Maybe I'm nuts, but I'd sure prefer that to having my brother sitting next to me at a funeral.)
Wow, you're not nuts: hit every single mark w/unassailable logic. Repped.
I know a lot about Ithaca, went to grad school at Cornell Class of '09 so flew in/out more often then I'd liked, but that was how it had to be. In fact I know more than I want about Syracuse, the closest big airport. Not Newark. I never flew in/out of Ithaca, it was immensely more expensive.
(Aside: so is Bentonville, AR. Fly into Tulsa, drive a bit into AR instead. It's a very pretty drive, too, and you'll save maybe $500).
I took whatever airline I could get from SEA to Syracuse. Sometimes it was Jet Blue and an extra hop or two. At no time was it easy. Syracuse is a tolerable mid-sized airport, all-considered.
Any flights I made late, for any reason, were heavily penalized in terms of additional cost. That's life. With a mid-size like Syracuse, you take whatever you can get going and coming, as I did with Bentonville. Biggest jet in/out of there was a Boeing 737 and Airbus equivalent, many more 717 and Embraer / Bombardier smaller planes. Better than Ithaca, though, and I never saw any reason to pay for that convenience.
I dunno- as long as you're buying directly from the transportation provider or through a reputable online travel agent like Expedia, it's pretty lacking in determining how desperate you are. You just need to read any fine print about cancellation, baggage fees, etc. carefully.
I dunno- as long as you're buying directly from the transportation provider or through a reputable online travel agent like Expedia, it's pretty lacking in determining how desperate you are. You just need to read any fine print about cancellation, baggage fees, etc. carefully.
You can tell a lot about urgency when you see a flight booked for the very next day. Prices are usually 2x+ for any domestic flights I've considered taking on short notice.
The price was always enough to incentivize booking 3 weeks out or more.
I have a niece in Florida who is battling cancer - metastasized from breast cancer five years ago. She lives with her mother (my sister) and I believe she may not win this battle. I will absolutely need to be with my sister (who lost her husband almost 3 years ago) but cannot schedule air fare from Ithaca, NY to Jacksonville until I know for sure that I must go. Any suggestions as to how this can be handled? I prefer to fly American Airlines as I have had some bad experiences with the other 3 airlines that fly out of Ithaca. I could use another airport if necessary. I appreciate any advice.
When my sister was killed unexpectedly I called the airlines...Delta....and they gave me a discount rate. You will have to provide information regarding which hospital, mortuary etc. It was a few hundred dollars discount, so it is worth calling them.
One thing I do not need is someone telling me all the things I need and do not need. The first two responses to my OP were not helpful, mainly because I wasn't looking for all the need tos and forget abouts.
WHAT????? WTF?
I know you are in some grief and stress but that is really uncalled for, particularly since you responded to my post twice! I held my tongue on your first response where you said "thank you to SOME of you". EVERYONE here has tried to help you. Every single person. Your gratitude is underwhelming. You want to take out your stress on the good people of this forum, I am not playing.
I spent time and effort, looking over bereavement fares for you and giving you a link to the status. OK that didn't pan out, no problem. I gave you two links, one that should help you look up cheap airfare. Your only response should be THANK YOU!
I might have some other cheap airfare advice for you as well that I could contribute...but I am out of here.
Wow, you're not nuts: hit every single mark w/unassailable logic. Repped.
I know a lot about Ithaca, went to grad school at Cornell Class of '09 so flew in/out more often then I'd liked, but that was how it had to be. In fact I know more than I want about Syracuse, the closest big airport. Not Newark. I never flew in/out of Ithaca, it was immensely more expensive.
(Aside: so is Bentonville, AR. Fly into Tulsa, drive a bit into AR instead. It's a very pretty drive, too, and you'll save maybe $500).
I took whatever airline I could get from SEA to Syracuse. Sometimes it was Jet Blue and an extra hop or two. At no time was it easy. Syracuse is a tolerable mid-sized airport, all-considered.
Any flights I made late, for any reason, were heavily penalized in terms of additional cost. That's life. With a mid-size like Syracuse, you take whatever you can get going and coming, as I did with Bentonville. Biggest jet in/out of there was a Boeing 737 and Airbus equivalent, many more 717 and Embraer / Bombardier smaller planes. Better than Ithaca, though, and I never saw any reason to pay for that convenience.
Unfortunately let's not forget that Jkgourmet's sincere and helpful advice in the second post, which you are referring to, was dismissed and condemned by the OP as "not helpful" so I am not sure where you guys go from here.
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