Help on Flights!

[jo552006]

Hi all,

I am reaching out to the MMM community for help trying to find reasonable flights.  I understand that flexibility and price have a direct correlation regarding flights, but I'm not sure how to start trying to find an affordable (or maybe efficient is a better word) way to get to my destination.

Here's the guidelines, I live in Southern Maine and want to visit San Angelo TX for a weekend.  My only real flexibility is that every other weekend is available to travel, so I could leave May 09, or May 23, etc.  I have a regular 9-5ish job and very little leave (PTO), but want to maximize my time in San Angelo between Friday Evening and Sunday evening.  I *think* that means traveling Friday and Monday.  What I'm having difficulty is that there are no large airports that close to San Angelo.

On the departure side, I can either leave a regional airport (PWM) or Boston Logan, but it's trying to find efficient ways to get to San Angelo that I'm drawing a blank on. 

The only big airports near there are San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas, but all those are 3+ hours away by car.  San Angelo has a regional airport, but I don't know any websites to see what common flights fly in and out of that smaller airport.  I think I once saw a map with airports and common (read cheap) routes on it, but I haven't seen it in years... if I'm even remembering correctly.

I'm kind of stumped on where to begin.  I would like to keep price reasonable if possible.  Right now, my best efforts leave me with a cheap flight from Boston to Dallas ($73) and renting a car... but that's 4 hours of driving EACH way.  Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

[Brystheguy]

Googling flights from Boston to San Angelo (SJT), I see flights that cost @$650 round trip. AA is the only airline that operates out of there. A little pricey? Yes, but might be worth it to save 8 hours of driving. Although, if you can get a cheap morning flight from Boston to somewhere else and drive, maybe the time isn't that big a deal.

[GilesMM]

Tuesday and Sat are cheaper for flying. American can get you there for $414 RT in June.

[reeshau]

You might also look at Midland.  It's a smaller airport, but served by multiple airlines, including Southwest.  And < 2 hours' drive.

[lucenzo11]

Google flights has a lot of great tools, but it does take some effort to find exactly what you want.

First, here's their explore page where you can put in a single airport and with applying the filter for flights only and nonstop only, I can see that the only commercial airline flying into SJT is American and they only fly to and from Dallas. So any flight to SJT is going to have to stop in Dallas.
https://www.google.com/travel/explore

Next I'd compare some basic flight searches from either BOS or PWM to DFW and then SJT to see the price difference. Not looking at specific dates, but seems to be about a $300-$400 difference. So this part is easy and that you can consider whether the extra leg from DFW to SJT is worth ~$300 or whether the car and time makes more sense at that price point.

Once you've kind of identified the route you want to go, use their regular flight search and put in the first weekend that you'd consider doing.
https://www.google.com/travel/flights
So for example BOS -> SJT on the May 9th - May 12th. Once you've done the search, and applied any filters that you want, there are two features above the list of departing flights. The first is called "Date grid". This will show you a table with the prices on surrounding days. So really helpful if you have a day of flexibility, like you could come back Sunday or Monday and this table will show you if there is a potential price difference.
But the other feature, which I think is more helpful for you, is the Price graph which shows the prices for that route at the set # of days of the trip for every possible departure day. This will allow you to see whether the 9th, the 23rd, or some other future day might be cheaper for the same 3 day trip.

You could also consider other small airports nearby. Looks like Abilene could be another option.

It's going to take some fiddling around, but hopefully these tools can be helpful.

[jo552006]

@lucenzo11

Wow, this is EXACTLY what I was looking for.  I figured out by trial and error that Dallas on AA was the only way to SJT.  I gave my friend a few options.

1.  I make his life easy by landing on his doorstep.  In that situation we stay put and enjoy time together.  Most costly, but has the benefit of Saturday, Sunday, and partial Monday over the 3 day weekend.

2. Midland.  That's an intermediate sized airport (like a Portland ME) that is 2 hours away.  Much cheaper, but requires some logistics work.

3.  I can easily and cheaply get to any of the 3 big airports.  San Antonio, Austin, Dallas.  That's 4 hours to San Angelo though, so we would need to plan to be around the area.

Thank you so much for these tools, I thoroughly appreciate it!  (Especially the explore option if it allows me to see common flight paths and stuff)

I have a new question.  I know NOTHING about Texas, what's there, or what people do.  If we don't just stay local (which means I buy tickets to him or to Midland) what are some good regions or things to do?  I'm looking at San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, or Midland surrounding areas in that scenario.

Thanks!

[reeshau]

I don't know about Midland, but there is PLENTY to so in any of those Metros.  So, I would pick the route, then look at things.

The only caveat I would say is that concert season is kicking off, so if that's your thing, you might look at a concert to center your visit around.