There are plenty of cities with multiple accessible airports: NYC has LGA, EWR, and JFK. Boston has BOS and PVD. LA has LAX, SNA, BUR, ONT, LGB, etc. Chicago has ORD and MDW. Miami has MIA and FLL. Flights out of one airport may cost you more, so searching across different airports during booking is one of the best ways to score a deal.
My Experience
In November 2018, I found myself in a bit of a pickle. All my friends were going home for Thanksgiving break but I had no trip booked. I felt that 3 weeks over Christmas was already enough, so why fly across the country for Thanksgiving too?
On the Monday before Thanksgiving, I decided to try and get a flight back to LAS. Last-minute flights are often the most expensive, and flights from Boston reflected that. Roundtrip tickets were a shocking $540 to leave Wednesday and return Saturday. Flights on miles were also about 25k (this was before I knew about the Turkish Airlines hack). I ~almost~ booked the ticket but decided also to search BDL, PVD, and MHT.
To my surprise, AA had a flight out of PVD that was $286 roundtrip! The flight left Wednesday and returned on a red-eye Saturday night. What great luck! And with just a couple $10 train tickets to and from PVD, the whole trip came out to $300, which is often cheaper than my normal roundtrip flights booked far in advance.
But it’s not all just about price. Sometimes, the airport experience might be so poor that travelers choose to fly out of a different airport altogether.
Some airports…just…suck…
For a few months, I made bi-weekly work trips out to LA. While our hotel and office were just 15 minutes from LAX, it was a much more painful experience.
Ubers are at an offsite parking lot and need a bus transfer, which often balloons that up to about 30-40 minutes total!
– Traffic within LAX is always crazy
– LAX is always under construction and the terminals are small
– Lounge access is lackluster
– Rental cars also required a bus
We then later learned that an Uber to our hotel was very difficult to book because drivers who waited many hours in line at LAX don’t want to give that up for a ride that pays just $10-15
I tried my hand at flying into SNA instead, and it was so much smoother.
– The Ubers were a little more expensive but significantly more convenient
– Terminal traffic is nearly nonexistent
– Rental cars are located in the parking garage across the street
– With so few flights the terminals are often empty
So if I’m flying to LA, I will SERIOUSLY consider other airports, unless it means connecting flights or a significantly longer flight.
The Big Apple
NYC isn’t much different, as each airport has its pros and cons:
- JFK is quite far away but pretty convenient as there is a commuter train that goes straight to Manhattan (alternatively, the subway takes longer but is cheaper)
- LGA is closer but has no direct train connection
- EWR isn’t even in New York…
- JFK’s AirTrain is expensive for no reason, on top of the train or subway ticket
- LGA is very cheap to get to as it needs just a single subway fare
- EWR isn’t even in New York…
- JFK is bigger and much more congested, so planes take longer to taxi
- LGA is super compact and close, so taxi and takeoff times are pretty minimal
- EWR isn’t even in New York…
IRROPS
Finally, knowing different airport options can save you in times of IRROPS
This is the biggest difference between a decent gate agent and a really good gate agent. If my flight gets canceled, I might not think about changing my arrival to a different nearby airport. One time, my flight to ORD was canceled and the gate agent couldn’t find any seats for 2 more days into either ORD or MDW. She didn’t give up though, and found me a seat to MKE and added a train ticket down to Chicago leaving just one hour later. Honestly with how far ORD is from the city, it wasn’t that big a deal.
I never knew just how close Milwaukee is to Chicago, so that was surprising even to me! Huge kudos to that gate agent for helping me out and also teaching me to be on the lookout for alternate airports.
Maybe there’s a thunderstorm and plenty of lightning in BOS, but PVD is super sunny and clear. While a ground stop could impact flights significantly, rebooking through PVD and taking a train up to Boston might just work better.