pays not to assume -- lesser gateway=cheaper fare (exception that proves the rule?)

Lesson-never assume your tiny regional airport will have relatively unattractive pricing. Even when it usually does. Keep gathering info!

We are going on a cruise Lima to NYC next year and live in NYS so yay only have to fly one way, boo a one-way fare.

Started checking a while ago and not-so-bad pricing, but wanted to see Jet Blue's prices before pulling trigger (they have a daytime FLL-LIM and a daytime flight is attractive to us). Jet Blue released schedule earlier this month that reaches out to include our travel date.

Yesterday online, JetBlue EWR-FLL-LIM about $455 iirc per person with 1 checked bag for our preferred date - sounded pretty good (could be as low as $300ish if you wanted to go March 17th).

Did a matrix.itasoftware search for other daytime flights, found UA daytime EWR-LIM nonstop $612 ish with 2 checked bags per person and thought the nonstop would be worth it for reduced risk/anxiety (ymmv!)

Then checked for ELM-EWR-LIM pricing and it was $379 per person with 2 bags. Yes, $233 **less** than going from EWR. At the moment ELM-EWR is consistently $259 with zero bags so the math is definitely funky. I can only assume weird pricing glitch or UA is trying to buy business (ELM-EWR is a recently re-introduced route). Have paid for the tix & have ticket # and confirm code so woo-hoo!

Aside - no, this is not usual or universal. We are on UA to DUB out of EWR in August 2018 and this dynamic didn't apply (at least not when we ticketed...and now it is showing $400 to $1000 more r/t to fly from the local airport for August 2018 or $800-$850 more for March 2019).

I have found that airlines sometime reduce local flight in cost if booked with an international flight.

Never attempt to second guess the algorithms! We’ve gotten flights, with international connections, out of tiny OWB and EVV for a $1K less than BNA or Louisville. Then the next day they’ll be $2k more! Jump on those fares when available, but never expect a pattern!

At the moment ELM-EWR is consistently $259 with zero bags so the math is definitely funky. I can only assume weird pricing glitch or UA is trying to buy business (ELM-EWR is a recently re-introduced route).

This is very normal across the whole industry. Airlines charge what they can sell seats for, not based on what it costs to operate the flights and the market for non-stop flights from EWR is stronger than a rural NYS airport.

My brother lives on the island of Jersey in Europe. I can fly NYC-LON-JER and back in First for less than NYC-LON and back in business class even though I'd be on the very same flights between NYC and London.

Similarly British Airways have very cheap fares from the European continent that route back through London and then onto their final destination. As these fares can be so cheap many people from the UK hop on a short flight to Amsterdam/Paris/Oslo or wherever, turnaround right away and fly back to London having "picked up" their new ticket. On premium cabin fares the difference can be thousands per person. I knew a guy that travelled to Brazil frequently that would fly to Lisbon and pick up his BA first class ticket from there to Sao Paulo. His cost was about 1800 Euros for that roundtrip Lisbon-Sao Paulo in first class, plus about £300 to get to Lisbon and back at the end of his ticket in business class. A non-stop London-Sao Paulo return ticket in first class on BA would run to about £8000/9000 Euros. Even better was the fare rules used to allow stopovers in London so you could time it in a way that allowed you to have a weekend in Lisbon, then fly on to Sao Paulo at a later time.

In short, airlines charge what the maximum that they can sell seats for regardless of the operating costs.

Fbgd’s Post reminded me of friends, going to England last summer with family, that flew into CDG, took the train back to London, and saved hundreds of $$s for the family. I just checked prices for a BC ticket to London vs CDG and the delta was around $1200.

We can fly into CDG, take a pleasant train ride through the French and British countryside, and still be in London by noon! Even after buying the train tickets both ways, we’d still save about $900 each. The question becomes “ Why use LHR?” I believe our last day now, on that trip, will be a train ride back to Paris, with a great dinner in Paris, followed by a flight out of CDG the next morning. A fraction of that $1800 can buy a most memorable meal in Paris!

Did a matrix.itasoftware search for other daytime flights, found UA daytime EWR-LIM nonstop $612 ish...

 

Then checked for ELM-EWR-LIM pricing and it was $379 per person with 2 bags. Yes, $233 **less** than going from EWR.

There's actually a logical reason for this. EWR is a major hub for UA. That means that frequently, people who consider EWR their home airport are "hub captives"..... since they can go nonstop on UA from EWR to so many cities both domestically and internationally, UA knows they will do so and can thus charge a premium fare. Meanwhile, folks who live in smaller cities with few nonstop options, have to connect somewhere, and UA knows they're just as likely to, for instance, decide to connect at LGA or JFK on Delta, as they are to connect at EWR and fly UA. Their decision will likely be made on price, so UA prices those flights to attract that business away from competitors.

Another example: My home airport is CHS. For international flights I used to compare the cost out of ATL, thinking if it was substantially cheaper I'd suck it up and drive to ATL and begin my flight journey from there. But I found it was generally the same or cheaper to just fly from CHS. Delta pricing was such that they didn't want pax like me choosing to fly AA via Charlotte instead of DL via ATL. All that said, you won't ALWAYS find this to be the case, as airline use complicated algorithms to adjust pricing constantly in response to supply and demand, but that's the logical reason why you'll often find that it's just as cheap to go ahead and leave from your local, "small town" airport instead of driving to a hub airport a few hours away.

Yes, this happens all the time and its always important to check all airports that make sense. I go up to Maine every summer for 3-5 days. Maine in the summer is not cheap, so while I do check Portland Airport and Bangor airports, the past 3 years I have been going I have always just flown into Boston. Sometimes even with connections from Miami or Ft. Lauderdale.

This year the airport that was by far the cheapest was Worcester, a small one airline airport only JetBlue goes to right now. FLL-ORH-FLL non-stop. Even the rental car there was much cheaper than at Boston.

Its always best to check all airports. For my Miami to Maine trips, I check everything from MIA and FLL to Boston, Providence, Manchester, Worcester, Portland and Bangor.

We recently needed to book one-way Business Class from a Northeast getaway airport to Copenhagen. When we do this kind of airfare we look at many options including a one-way rental car to a major airport such as IAD, EWR or even JFK. But in this case, using Princess EZ-Air the best fares (along with great connections) were from our little home airport of MDT. Go figure. This is why we really like the Princess Cruises air booking engine which easily allows us to model lots of scenarios. HAL has recently started using the same booking system as Princess and we suspect eventually it will be the norm across many CCL owned cruise lines.

Hank