Nothing about booking airfare is straightforward. The way airlines figure out how much to charge to get you from city A to city B drives me crazy. Idiosyncracies in the pricing system led to passengers booking hidden-city tickets with the help of websites like Skiplagged. While that method to save money on airfare doesn’t match our travel style, there’s another way to save I’ve looked into, and current technology makes it easier than ever to find these fares.
You can save hundreds of dollars on airfare if you’re willing to drive a bit further to a different airport.
Why Should You Look At Alternate Airports?
Of course, the first airport you’re going to look for is the one nearest your home. If you’ve turned on location services on your device, it might even fill that part in for you.
Since we live in Central Florida, the most convenient airport for us is Orlando International (MCO). It would make sense that with the level of competition, flights from MCO would be the cheapest…but are they? There are several airports, such as the other Central Florida area airports (Sanford and Melbourne), as well as Daytona and Tampa, that are all within a 100-mile drive:
There are at least two reasons you might find a cheaper airfare from a different airport:
- If you live near a smaller airport with little competition, a larger airport with more airlines will often have less expensive airfares.
- However, a smaller airport may have less costly fares for direct flights serviced by low cost carriers who don’t fly to the main airport.
How To Find Airfares From Nearby Airports
Most of the online search engines make it easy to find alternate airports. However, not all of them are easy to use.
Say you want to fly from Providence, RI, to Las Vegas for a weekend. What would be the best and cheapest way to get there?
The ITA Matrix tool makes it really easy to select alternate airports. Once picking your home airport, just click on “nearby.”
While flying from Providence would seem to be the best option, there aren’t many good flight options. One-stop trips on the major carriers start at $500 for a round-trip ticket.
Besides being a non-stop flight, the prices are also half of the fares from Providence.
If you’re looking for a more user-friendly interface, Google Flights can also search nearby airports.
What To Consider When Booking At An Alternate Airport
If it was only as easy as looking for a cheaper flight when considering driving to a different airport. There are several other things to consider besides price.
If you’re driving a long distance to an airport, you need to factor that time into your travel. Is the flight early in the morning? If so, you’ll have to leave in the middle of the night or the day before and pay for a hotel. Would that expense eat into your savings? You also have to consider the airport parking, gas and tolls in the cost.
Finally, there’s the time of the return flight. If you arrive late in the evening from a long day of travel, you’ll still have a long car ride home. That’s not taking into consideration the chance of flight delays.
Final Thoughts
Driving a little further to an alternative airport can save you a significant amount of money on flights. Even if the price isn’t much different, choosing a different city to fly from may provide better airline options and direct flights.
However, it’s important to consider the additional costs and time spent when traveling to a further airport. Everyone values their time, comfort, and ease of travel differently, so when deciding if this makes sense for you, Your Mileage May Vary.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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