Alternate Airports

Many metro areas have a major airport and one or more smaller airports. Fares to those smaller airports may be lower than fares to the major airport.

Check for alternate airports on both ends of the trip. You may have a choice of airports to start your trip (from home) but there may also be alternate airports at the destination.

Alternate airports are usually smaller airports. Smaller airports are less stressful and often more convenient to the true destination.

Some major airports and their alternates include:

* Los Angeles (Burbank, Long Beach, Ontario, Orange County)
* San Francisco (Oakland, San Jose)
* Miami (Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach)
* Boston (Manchester, Hartford, Providence)

A complete list can be found at: http://www.alternateairports.com/

Flying into Long Beach, instead of Los Angeles, for instance, places you closer to Disneyland, downtown, and many beaches. Retrieving your baggage, renting a car, and exiting the airport are much quicker in Long Beach than Los Angeles. Even if the fare to Long Beach was a little higher than to Los Angeles, if would be a more pleasant experience (less stress, more convenient). The beauty, though, is that many fares are the same or less, especially on jetBlue routes.

© 2008, Charles McCool