Columbia airport - prices are too high to fly from there.

[us 378]

Family member of mine had to fly to rural New York on no notice....

Price to fly round trip with no notice - $1,000 from Columbia to White Plains, NY via layover in Philadelphia

Price to fly round trip with no notice - $440 from CHARLOTTE to White Plains, NY via layover in Philadelphia

Check some other prices out also like flying from Columbia to New York JFK vs flying from Charlotte to New York JFK... again, the price was twice as much from Columbia.

It seems the price nearly doubles from flying out of Cola airport vs flying out of Charlotte or Atlanta..... UGH!!!

I'm just venting.....

So we drove to Charlotte to make the flight....... Way to keep on losing business Columbia.

[swampfox]

It's always that way. Charlotte and Atlanta have big international airports. So even if a plane is taking you from Columbia to, say, New York, it probably will involve stopping over somewhere so they look at it as two flights.

I have found, though, if you're flying overseas you can usually add a flight from Columbia to Atlanta, for example, for not much. I think I paid $50 for this last time.

Of course the prices are going up almost daily now because of fuel prices.

I should have bought that fleet of planes when I had a chance.

[us 378]

Here is some quotes to Baltimore....

The first price is one from Charlotte to Baltimore, round trip, leaving tomorrow, coming back 7/31/2008.. the second is from Columbia leaving from the same date to Baltimore. It cost 3X as much to fly from CAE as from CLT.

But what is insane is that the cheapest flight from Columbia to Baltimore involves two stops including one in BOSTON!!!!! You figure it would be cheaper just to fly from Washington to Baltimore but noooo.... they fly into Boston from Washington, then back to Baltimore. And check out the price difference..... This is insane.

The high prices into flying to Columbia has to be hurting businesses and conventions wanting to do business here.....

$288 + $27 taxes & fees = $315 per person
Price Assurance Price Assurance


Choose this departure

Leave

Sat, Jul 26

AirTran Airways 320
AirTran Airways

Depart:
8:00am
Arrive:
9:24am

-----------


$827 + $54 taxes & fees = $881 per person
Price Assurance Price Assurance


Choose this departure

Leave

Sat, Jul 26

US Airways 2578
operated by US Airways Express - PSA Airlines
US Airways

Depart:
6:25am
Arrive:
7:52am



Columbia, SC (CAE)
Washington, DC (DCA)
2 stops

* Economy
* 1hr 27min
* Canadair
* View seats


Change planes. Time between flights: 0hr 38min


US Airways 2024
US Airways

Depart:
8:30am
Arrive:
10:05am



Washington, DC (DCA)
Boston, MA (BOS)


* Economy
* 1hr 35min
* Airbus A319
* View seats


Change Airline. Time between flights: 1hr 10min


Delta Air Lines 5405
operated by Comair, Inc
Delta Air Lines

Depart:
11:15am
Arrive:
12:58pm



Boston, MA (BOS)
Baltimore, MD (BWI)

[Gator96]

It DOES suck. Somewhere between Memphis and Columbia, I had to stop in DETROIT. Yeah. It sucked AND it was just a little out of the way.

[TahoeT]

Originally Posted by us 378

... Way to keep on losing business Columbia.

Well - you can't blame Columbia for the price of the airline tickets, unless you want to blame them for the fact that not enough people want to fly into Columbia in the first place.

Airports (nor cities) set the prices for flying in and out (other than their landing fees.) It's Free Market Capitalism at its finest.

Back before airline deregulation, airlines were required to service smaller cities and communities, and had to charge the same sort of fares as their more profitable routes.

Deregularion promised competition, better service, and lower fares.

Instead, it has cost the American Taxpayer billions of dollars in subsidies and bailouts, some of the worst service in the history of the "service industry" and $1000.00 flights out of the South Carolina State Capitol.

Free Market Capitalism at its finest.

[swampfox]

What I would wish for my country, if I could only pick one thing, is that we would pick the best ideas just because they're the best and not because of where they came from, who said it, or who else is doing it.

Reminds me of the schools. Many other countries' schools are doing better than ours (we were 27th out of 30 on some international test of advanced nations recently). Why can't we look at what some of them are doing and just DO IT?

Let me not get started on the schools.

[us 378]

Originally Posted by TahoeT

Well - you can't blame Columbia for the price of the airline tickets,

That's true. The lack of competition & Cola not being a hub means much higher ticket prices. If you book like a month ahead of time, it's about 80 bucks more to fly out of Cola round trip than out of Charlotte or Atlanta.

It's too bad really because CAE is a nice airport & well located. They spent a lot of money to make this airport nice in upgrades and a parking garage. I guess there isn't enough of a population base for it to be a major airport and Southwest airlines choosing Raleigh over Cola didn't help.

I just wanted to vent about the prices though.........

Now we could talk about Amtrak out of Columbia... nah, that's another time.

[TahoeT]

Now we could talk about Amtrak out of Columbia...

Ah yes... the railroad robber-barons made their millions, and then the taxpayer bailed them out, too... (I see a theme, here...)

We're taking Amtrak from San Francisco to Paoli, PA in November:
----------------
Rail Fare: $331.20
Upgrades/bedroom Price: $739.00
Ticket Delivery Fee: $0.00
-------------------------------
Total: $1,070.20

For two people, all meals included. The Zephyr to Chicago, Capitol Limited to Pittsburgh, and The Pennsylvanian, home.

I was originally balking at the sleeper price, and then figured 4 nights in a hotel and meals would probably cost as much....

I'm looking forward to it...

[us 378]

Amtrak is kind of unique in Cola, the trains (all 2 of them last time I checked, one in each direction) only come in the middle of the night. That's of course if they are on time, which is rare.... What's weird is checking their prices, it's cheaper to take an Amtrak than a Greyhound if you get the ticket a few weeks prior....

[Phantom 447]

Several years ago I priced a trip to Mass. and the airfare at that time was about half as much as Amtrak.

[swampfox]

It may seem like a little thing, but the Columbia airport is the only one I've ever been in where you have to pay ($3) to use a luggage cart. Anybody else seen this anywhere?

[Captain Worley]

I'd seen that back in the mid nineties at SLC and ATL, I believe.

[swampfox]

Not anymore in Atlanta.

[us 378]

Update. Searching for flights to Washington, DC 4.1.09 and return 4.8.09

Columbia to DC - direct flight cheapest fare $537 round trip
Columbia to DC - change at Atlanta, cheapest fare, $346 round trip

Charlotte to DC - direct flight cheapest fare $178 round trip

looks like Charlotte is getting our business again.

This has to be killing the airport......

[BAD HaBiT]

The Price is higher because Columbia (KCAE) Is a Metropolitan Airport.

Charlotte (KCLT) and Atlanta (KATL) Are international Airports.

Thats really the only reason.
I've made that trip to Charlotte several Times myself due to the same reasons you have stated.

[us 378]

And it continues. My next flight up CLT to BWI is $119
To fly From CAE to dCA is $359
To fly from AGS to BWI via ATL or CLT was 249
To fly from CAE to BWI via ATL PHL or DCA was $299

And thy wonder they a shuttle services exist to take people from CAE to CLT by bus for 45 bucks door to door

[Captain Worley]

CAE doesn't do themselves any favors with the price on parking, either.

[BAD HaBiT]

Originally Posted by us 378

And it continues. My next flight up CLT to BWI is $119
To fly From CAE to dCA is $359
To fly from AGS to BWI via ATL or CLT was 249
To fly from CAE to BWI via ATL PHL or DCA was $299

And thy wonder they a shuttle services exist to take people from CAE to CLT by bus for 45 bucks door to door

Must have been Airtran...They have some great prices!

[us 378]

Sorry so many months late following up. Air Tran does have low prices but US Airways match them in price at CLT and BWI. If not for Air Tran, US Airways probably does charge more.