Frustration with airfare

[GWAE]

Not sure if this is the right place to post but I am curious if anyone can answer my questions.

 

We are trying to save money on our flight by using southwest because we have 40,000 miles. Prices for Sunday April 19th are really high. We would have to buy another 25k miles in order to use them.

 

If I would rent a car in new Orleans and drive to Birmingham we would save $250 and still have 15k miles so really we would save $400.

 

So I guess my question is, if I were to do this would be have time to make the drive. We will be arriving in the port via NCL Dawn at 8am. The flight out of Birmingham is 6:45pm.

 

I know it would be a lot of driving which is fine and I understand that things could happen and we miss flight. Just curious if the experienced people in that area thinks it is possible and good idea.

[rvsullivan]

5+ hours and 350 Interstate miles. No fun, but probably ok if you can handle the drive.

[GWAE]

5+ hours and 350 Interstate miles. No fun, but probably ok if you can handle the drive.

 

 

 

Mileage and driving is no issue for us. We once drove from Pittsburgh to st Louis to tunica to Memphis and back home in a 4 day weekend.

 

I am just curious if the drive is one that is predictable or could there be problems such as closures or delays and if Birmingham airport is a busy one that could delay us.

[rvsullivan]

Gulf Coast fog can always be an issue. Birmingham is certainly not a top tier airport. Weather is going to be the only "issue" you might face. Traffic can never be predicted, but it is good Interstate all the way.

[zqvol]

Do you really save anything by the time you pay for a rental car (one way with drop off charges) or (round trip and then pay for a week plus parking) , plus gas?

[GWAE]

Do you really save anything by the time you pay for a rental car (one way with drop off charges) or (round trip and then pay for a week plus parking) , plus gas?

 

Actually we would save a bunch. At least a bunch by our standards. If we fly home from New orleans the tickets are currently $443 a person. If we drive to Birmingham it will cost approx $200 for car and gas and $178 for airfare. It would save us $350.

 

Our return date is April 19th so we have a little time yet. Not sure what is causing the high price. Maybe spring break?

Edited February 15, 2015 by GWAE

[Lynda59]

Spring break for New Orleans schools & colleges would be over - our kids are off the week of Mardi Gras or around Easter. College semesters end in early May here. You are flying out right between two major festivals - French Quarter Fest is the weekend before and Jazz Fest (coupled with the golf tournament) is the next weekend. My guess would be a major convention, but I could not find any ending that day on a quick Google search.

 

I would try flying out on Monday if your schedule permits & the price is right. If you decide to drive to Birmingham, watch out for speed traps in AL. They try to get the college kids going back to school after a weekend off.

[GWAE]

Spring break for New Orleans schools & colleges would be over - our kids are off the week of Mardi Gras or around Easter. College semesters end in early May here. You are flying out right between two major festivals - French Quarter Fest is the weekend before and Jazz Fest (coupled with the golf tournament) is the next weekend. My guess would be a major convention, but I could not find any ending that day on a quick Google search.

 

I would try flying out on Monday if your schedule permits & the price is right. If you decide to drive to Birmingham, watch out for speed traps in AL. They try to get the college kids going back to school after a weekend off.

 

Thank you for the info on speed traps. I consider myself a pretty safe driver and usually stick to max 5 over speed limit.

 

We did consider flying out on Monday as well. The only problem with that is Monday will be our 1 year olds first birthday. We are leaving a 1 and 3 year old behind which will be the first time away from them so my wife wants to get home ASAP. I also work Monday night so that would make it tough as well. We are still considering the spending the money and just flying out of NOLA. We have tried to do this whole cruise cheaply and it will hurt to spend the same amount on airfare as we did on the cruise.

 

Currently we have spent $566 on the cruise as it was a free one through the casino. Our flight down was free because we opened a southwest credit card and received 50k miles. We were trying to use the 50k for round trip. Our hotel the night before was $139. My parents bought us 2 excursions for our anniversary. And we received the dUBP for the cruise for free.

[nolatravelgirl]

If you are willing to drive 350 miles then look at flying into HOU as it is much bigger hub for SWA and is the same distance to New Orleans.

[GWAE]

If you are willing to drive 350 miles then look at flying into HOU as it is much bigger hub for SWA and is the same distance to New Orleans.

 

I did look at that as well but the latest flight is 3pm back to home. We also had the option to fly from NOLA to atl to Cleveland and then drive 2 hours home. This flight would have a 5 hour layover in atl and get us home at the same time for $100 more. We have elected to book the Birmingham flight. We would rather drive 5 hours than sit in Atlanta for 5 hours.

[GWAE]

I wanted to add. Originally when I had this plan we were going to taxi to the Airport, get the car, and leave from there. As of right now I think I am going to book with hertz which is a mile from the port and leave from Downtown. This should save us about 90 minutes and give us a good comfort zone for the right. If all goes right we should be leaving with the rental around 9:30 which would give us 9 hours to make a 5 hour drive and get through security which I can't imagine would be too bad in Birmingham.

[Lynda59]

You might want to check prices again - Southwest is having a sale this week. I love SWA since they let you cancel with no penalty. And of course, the two free suitcases are a BIG plus when you are cruising.

[GWAE]

You might want to check prices again - Southwest is having a sale this week. I love SWA since they let you cancel with no penalty. And of course, the two free suitcases are a BIG plus when you are cruising.

 

I checked earlier today and the nola flight is unchanged but the Birmingham one dropped 1200 points.

[chesterton7]

Rather than buying additional points for southwest use points for one ticket pay cash for second probably cheaper than buying points