Flying from a regional USA airport MAY save you lots of $$$$$'s

claire16c

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

It's all on one ticket, so my baggage will be checked straight through. Its United SBA-LAX, LAX - FRA, FRA - MAN.

& it was £130 pp cheaper, taking the extra flight, than flying 'Direct' from LAX ! :beer:

I live about 30 mins from Heathrow so for me its a bit different as one change would be annoying enough

Thats good its all with United though, as dont some flights with the likes of virgin use the Tom bradley international terminal at LAX? So youd end up going through security and changing terminal and all that anyway! Doesnt apply if youre with someone like United though so makes sense. The security queues at LAX are often pretty bad so I can see why you want to avoid them.

N9eav

DesertWind wrote: »

This will make my future USA even more complicated to book now I will be trying all options. Just watching Top Gear in the USA. Really makes me want to go again on anither USA driving holiday.

Thats what I am planning, Boston to Minneapolis, perhaps via Niagra and Canada, but it wont be in an Aston...

travelnorth

The only bad thing I can see with the idea is the car hire is sometimes more at the smaller airports. Otherwise a great idea. Thanks.

Murphy_The_Cat

travelnorth wrote: »

The only bad thing I can see with the idea is the car hire is sometimes more at the smaller airports. Otherwise a great idea. Thanks.

My trip is open jaw and it wasn't any dearer to return it to the regional airport rather than the major hub. If I'd been flying into the regional airport, then it may be dearer, plus your choice of hire cars would be smaller.

neilbond007

Murphy

Not sure if you're aware or not but Hilton Honors are changing the tiers, and therefore the points at the end of this month. If you're using points to book any Hilton hotels for the next 12 months best be doing it now. The points certainly won't be going down!

Here are the new tier points -
http://hhonors3.hilton.com/en/promotions/upcoming-changes-standard-room-rewards/index.html

Here's the new categories -
http://hhonors3.hilton.com/resources/media/hh/en_US/pdf/HotelCategoryChart.pdf

My parents are coming over in August. I'm booking 2 rooms at the Conrad NY for 50k/night/room. If I wait until after the end of March they'll go up to at least 70k/night/room!!

Murphy_The_Cat

neilbond007 wrote: »

Murphy

Not sure if you're aware or not but Hilton Honors are changing the tiers, and therefore the points at the end of this month. If you're using points to book any Hilton hotels for the next 12 months best be doing it now. The points certainly won't be going down!

Here are the new tier points -
http://hhonors3.hilton.com/en/promotions/upcoming-changes-standard-room-rewards/index.html

Here's the new categories -
http://hhonors3.hilton.com/resources/media/hh/en_US/pdf/HotelCategoryChart.pdf

My parents are coming over in August. I'm booking 2 rooms at the Conrad NY for 50k/night/room. If I wait until after the end of March they'll go up to at least 70k/night/room!!

cheers Neil

I 'spent' some of my points befor the new categories came in. Already the points that you need sometimes seem to be substantially more for a
twin bedded room than for a single room -- even though the $$ cost of the rooms is the same/very similar.

neilbond007

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

cheers Neil

I 'spent' some of my points befor the new categories came in. Already the points that you need sometimes seem to be substantially more for a
twin bedded room than for a single room -- even though the $$ cost of the rooms is the same/very similar.

They come in at the end of this month. I've looked at some of my upcoming trips and am hanging off booking anything as the points needed actually look like they'll go down!

It's very frustrating what they do with the points. I've looked a couple of homewoods and it's 30,000 for a "studio suite" (1 room) and 50,000+ for a 1 bed suite and the prices are identical! Oh well, ethey set the rules, we just have to abide by them....

My folks booked their flights over for this summer today. Got excellent prices (£504 LHR - CVG, JFK - LHR) even without using a regional airport Although CVG is close to becoming one...

Murphy_The_Cat

A quick update for you.

Travelling back from a regional airport is something that I would definitely look to do again in the future. I set off back from Santa Barbara airport on the California coast. Drop off the car and then a small leisurely stroll to the checkin desk. A gate agent that had the time to chat with you. An outside viewing are where you could watch the world go by, with shaded areas, power points and a feature to keep the children entertained (I won't spoil it for you), followed by TSA workers who weren't harrassed/pressured etc etc.
All in all, a really pleasant way to start to return trip home.

Sadly, we had to connect via LAX, but the first part of the trip was a doddle (I especially enjoyed whale watching in the channel above Santa Barbara).