# Airfare sucks **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 18, 2019, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466 "2019-09-18T23:22:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/41 "2019-09-20T12:49:02Z")
You want cheap, ready access to air travel, move near a major airport. Or, as others have observed, make use of the readily available and very inexpensive busses that will take you to nearby airports. You choose to live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, then either stay there or pay what it costs to escape. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/42 "2019-09-20T12:49:22Z")
We just hiked 8 nights in the Alps, spent time in Geneva, then caught the tail end of the Tour De France, all with small backpacks that easily fit in the overhead bins. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/43 "2019-09-20T12:50:25Z")
removed to add quote. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/44 "2019-09-20T12:51:27Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > What nonsense! I, and each member of my family packed for a two week holiday in Florida using a small backpack each that was small enough to fit under the seat. > > I’m off on a two week holiday to Bangkok, New Zealand and Hong Kong next Easter and will be doing the same. I’ve even done a practice packing to see what I can get into the “Ryanair minimum” bag which is 40cm x 20cm x 25cm. > > Turns out that the answer is “quite a lot” , I can get 6 x underwear, 3 x shorts, 1 x trousers, 4 x shirts 3 x t-shirts, pyjamas, hat, towel, binoculars, tablet, toiletries, kindle and other reading material. Add in the fact that I’ll have a full set of clothing already on plus a coat into which I can pop a nintendo switch case plus my phone and electronics and I’m set. That’ll easily see me through two weeks. > > People take far too much stuff I reckon, I see people pushing these wheeled behemoths through the airport and wonder if they are moving house rather than going on holiday. You only wear 6 pair of underwear in two weeks? ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/45 "2019-09-20T12:52:06Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > You only wear 6 pair of underwear in two weeks? You never wash anything? ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/46 "2019-09-20T12:56:28Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > You only wear 6 pair of underwear in two weeks? I don’t _own_ 6 pairs of underwear. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/47 "2019-09-20T12:59:51Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > People take far too much stuff I reckon, I see people pushing these wheeled behemoths through the airport and wonder if they are moving house rather than going on holiday. Suits and fancy shoes are what take up all the room, I always reckon. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/48 "2019-09-20T13:01:23Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > You never wash anything? On vacation? Why would I? ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/49 "2019-09-20T13:10:07Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Suits and fancy shoes are what take up all the room, I always reckon. Spats MrD, it’s always the spats. (I have neither suits nor fancy shoes thankfully, I stretch to a classic Clarks desert boot but that’s about it) ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/50 "2019-09-20T13:13:51Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > On vacation? Why would I? errr…so you can take less clothes? so you don’t have to lug a massive case? so you don’t have to pay extra for baggage fees? so you don’t have to wait for the carousel? so you don’t get shafted by late or lost baggage? so your hire car can be smaller and cheaper? so you can wear things you like more than once? apart from that, no reason. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/51 "2019-09-20T13:25:26Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > You want cheap, ready access to air travel, move near a major airport. Or, as others have observed, make use of the readily available and very inexpensive busses that will take you to nearby airports. You choose to live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, then either stay there or pay what it costs to escape. OP, if I can put this in a slightly more charitable way than **Dinsdale** , maybe you could think about it this way: instead of focusing on how much it costs you to fly somewhere, focus instead on how much cheaper your life is because you’re not dealing with the expenses of living in a large city. Until a few months ago, I lived in San Diego, and was a 10 to 15-minute cab ride from the airport. My wife is originally from San Francisco, and we could fly up to visit her family for ridiculously cheap prices. If we booked ahead, it wasn’t unusual to get $49 fares each way. Because San Diego is a pretty major airport, we could also get all over the country for reasonable prices. We recently moved to eastern coastal Connecticut. We’re over an hour from the closest airports, which are Hartford (BDL) and Providence (PVD). We recently booked flights to San Francisco for Christmas, and its costing us about $600 each for airfare alone, plus the hassle and cost of driving to Hartford and paying for ten days of airport parking. But our housing costs here are a good $500 per month less than they were in San Diego. Gas is a dollar a gallon cheaper. My internet connection is half the price it was in San Diego, for the same level of service. If I complained about my housing costs and the price of gas in California, you’d probably suggest that I move somewhere cheaper. Everywhere we choose to live has benefits and drawbacks, payoffs and inconveniences. The reason it’s expensive to fly from smaller airports is that demand for those airports isn’t as great, and fewer airlines send fewer planes into and out of those locations. But that reduced demand often means that it’s also cheaper to live in places with smaller airports, while major airports are often in areas with high demand and high costs of living. Very few people get to have the best of all possible worlds. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/52 "2019-09-20T13:35:21Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > OP, if I can put this in a slightly more charitable way than **Dinsdale** , maybe you could think about it this way: instead of focusing on how much it costs you to fly somewhere, focus instead on how much cheaper your life is because you’re not dealing with the expenses of living in a large city… It is a point very well made. I live in a small rural town, London and the closest major airports are a fair distance away but the small amount of added expense and time for getting to the airport by car or train every now and again is dwarfed by the lower cost of my living expenses. I can get to Heathrow in 3 hours, door to door, for about £30 return. Even if I were right in London it’d take me an hour and cost £10. Am I willing to put up with that extra hassle and cost? yes, because I can live in a house that costs a third of what it would in London and walk on the beach each day. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/53 "2019-09-20T13:52:26Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > errr…so you can take less clothes? so you don’t have to lug a massive case? so you don’t have to pay extra for baggage fees? so you don’t have to wait for the carousel? so you don’t get shafted by late or lost baggage? so your hire car can be smaller and cheaper? so you can wear things you like more than once? > > apart from that, no reason. I’d rather pay baggage fees than do laundry on vacation. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/54 "2019-09-20T14:20:40Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > I’d rather pay baggage fees than do laundry on vacation. You do you. For many of us the ability to travel light allows us to do things on vacation we couldn’t otherwise do. When hiking we’re carrying everything on our backs all day. You can go further, faster, easier if you have less weight. There’s no need to organize luggage transfer, deal with checked baggage, or keeping track of your gear on trains/buses. Lately we’re traveling with two sets of clothing; hiking/biking/skiing and hut. And hut clothes double as city/travel clothing. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/55 "2019-09-20T14:23:19Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > You do you. For many of us the ability to travel light allows us to do things on vacation we couldn’t otherwise do. When hiking we’re carrying everything on our backs all day. You can go further, faster, easier if you have less weight. There’s no need to organize luggage transfer, deal with checked baggage, or keeping track of your gear on trains/buses. > > Lately we’re traveling with two sets of clothing; hiking/biking/skiing and hut. And hut clothes double as city/travel clothing. Hiking? On vacation? The hell you say! Serious question, what is “hut clothes”? Edited to add: Yes, I can see why traveling light when doing that type of vacation would be preferential. ---
**Author:** ![cjackson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@cjackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjackson)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/56 "2019-09-22T04:46:32Z")
The airport nearest me is Tri-Cities Airport (TRI). It has few direct flights and is in an Appalachia hicktown. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/57 "2019-09-22T05:09:39Z")
> [@cjackson](#): > > The airport nearest me is Tri-Cities Airport (TRI). It has few direct flights and is in an Appalachia hicktown. I know where that is. This is exactly what we’ve been talking about - you’re an hour and a half from Knoxville down I-81, and even less than that from Asheville. Bet you can get cheaper flights either of those places. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/58 "2019-09-22T05:56:35Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > You want cheap, ready access to air travel, move near a major airport. Or, as others have observed, make use of the readily available and very inexpensive busses that will take you to nearby airports. You choose to live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, then either stay there or pay what it costs to escape. Yeah, simple. :rolleyes: This logic reminds me of the guy who asked why all the starving people in Ethiopia didn’t just move to where there was no drought. ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466/59 "2019-09-22T12:51:18Z")
> [@cjackson](#): > > Seriously, when you have no major airports around and must rely on regional airports the prices are ridiculous. I’m just venting because everywhere worth going is over one thousand dollars in cattle class. How the hell do people afford to travel? Anyway, if there are any of you stuck in a hicktown like me and want to sound off about exorbitant prices, please do so. Right now, Expedia will get me to LAX from TRI on Delta, leaving tomorrow (Monday) afternoon and returning Sunday overnight for $588.00. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airfare-sucks/840466.md?page=2)