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How dumb is this?

MountainsMountains Veteran
edited April 2011 in General Banter
Just for giggles, I plugged Roanoke, Virginia to Budapest, Hungary into Orbitz for a five day round trip over my upcoming spring semester break. Not that I'm going to go mind you, I just did it for fun. How utterly dumb is it that Roanoke (a small regional airport with only commuter airline service) to Budapest is cheaper than flying from Dulles to Budapest (on the same flight I'd catch by connecting in from Roanoke), AND cheaper than flying to almost any domestic destination anywhere in the US? I'd already looked into flying to Arizona to visit my sister, but it's almost $400 more than going to Budapest!

And the airlines wonder why they just can't seem to eek out a profit from this business...

Sheesh...

Comments

  • compassionate_warriorcompassionate_warrior Veteran
    That's the way it works, isn't it? The smaller, regional airports offer cheaper fares. For example, if you fly from anywhere in the US to Newark, NJ, it's cheaper than flying to NYC. Flights into Oakland, CA are cheaper than flights into San Francisco (or used to be). Flights into Burbank are cheaper than into LA.

    If you fly from Roanoke to somewhere in Germany, or Paris (i.e. somewhere someone would actually want to go, rather than Budapest or Bucharest), would it still be significantly cheaper? Just wondering.
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    I guess a lot has to do with the actual airlines that fly to the airport. For instance if there is a direct flight then of course the price would be cheaper than if connections are needed.


    Metta to all sentient beings
  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    No, it gets dumber. The only places I can get to from Roanoke are Dulles, LaGuardia, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Chicago, and all via small 50 passenger aircraft. So no direct flights from ROA to anywhere outside the US.

    If I drive to Dulles and get on the SAME airplane that I'd connect to out of Roanoke, the fare to Budapest is $200 more! Usually, adding Roanoke to any other departure city adds at least $300 for the "convenience" of flying out of a local airport. That's why I almost never fly from here, but rather drive 3-4 hours to a bigger airport to save the extra money.

    Craziness...
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