<p>OK… D2 now thinks she might come home for Easter since she has a four-day weekend. So I did an travelocity search, using many combinations of airports, including the three in the Chicago area (O’Hare, Midway, and Milwaukee). Travelocity shows a RT fare between Allentown and Milwaukee for $196 on United, changing planes at O’Hare. So I did a search on the United website (and travelocity) to see what a flight from Allentown to O’Hare would be, and it’s $395! How can they justify charging an extra $200 when the cheaper fare is the exact same route, less one leg?</p>
<p>You’re trying to use normal logic. Doesn’t apply to travel and taxes.</p>
<p>Try [Cheap</a> Flights, Airline Tickets, Cheap Airfare & Discount Travel Deals - Kayak.com](<a href=“http://www.kayak.com%5DCheap”>http://www.kayak.com) , it is my favorite search site for air fares. (though Southwest does not use it)</p>
<p>I like farecast.com</p>
<p>I like, sidestep.com. But I don’t make the flight arrangements, kid does since 12. I only pay the bill.</p>
<p>My point is, no matter which search engine you use, they all come up $200 cheaper if you book the flight to Milwaukee, but the United flights all have stopovers in Chicago. Doesn’t make sense. There are some flights on other airlines that have stopovers in Cleveland, or Detroit, that are the same price as the flight to Milwaukee, but if we could get her on a United flight to Milwaukee, it would be a non-stop to O’Hare.</p>
<p>Oh, and yes, I would prefer to use Southwest (she could drive to Philly), but D1 is now coming home, but she’s flying from Boston, and has no way to get to Providence or Manchester to use Southwest, so I need them both to fly into either Milwaukee or O’Hare. Am going to try to get them both arriving and departing within a couple of hours of each other.</p>
<p>Well terwitt, the Travelocity fares are probably some kind of discount economy class fare, which is why it seems impossibly cheap. They might have more change fees and whatever, while the UA.com fare you found for 2x the fare might be a higher fare class which are much more flexible and have fewer nuisance fees and stuff. Otherwise, airlines just charge whatever they can get. Maybe Milwaukee has less competition or more competition or they need to have butts on seats to justify flying a plane at a horrendous loss to feed connecting traffic at O’Hare. Who knows. Apparently, under the rules of airline logic-the 1-stop to Milwaukee involves a connection at O’Hare, which is “less convenient” than the nonstop to O’Hare, which is in the same area, and therefore they will charge more for the nonstop, because it’s a nonstop and therefore “more convenient”. Makes absolutely no sense, I know, but that’s their rationale. </p>
<p>For example, if I search for an itinerary for San Francisco-JFK on UA.com, I get fares for up to $800+, the lowest fare often around $550. From Monterey-JFK via San Francisco, $350. The SFO-JFK leg on both itineraries is exactly the same, only difference is I get to stuff myself into a flying lawn dart and get a few more frequent flyer miles and save a few bucks as well as fly from an airport close to home in the latter case. </p>
<p>Even though I’m pretty much captive to UA (MRY-NYC) I usually search on itasoftware.com (log in as a guest) before going anywhere else. If there’s a fare I like, I can call a travel agent and have them book it for me. All you have to do is email them the fare code on the bottom of the fare details page.</p>
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<p>If it’s relevant, have you checked the aiport ground transportation system that connects Logan Airport to the airport in Providence? I’ll PM you a link.</p>
<p>I love Southwest because it seems to be the only airline that has reasonable fares , even last minute fares or changing flights. I just had both of my girls home for spring break. One was a week after the other. It was easy to coordinate the timing of one leaving, the other arriving. We changed the flight destination for one return because we used Manchester and their buses are now few and far between. We usually use Providence because the ground transportation is much easier and frequent.
I am so looking forward to the day when Southwest flys stright into Logan !</p>
<p>Airlines compete on routes, not legs. From Milwaukee, United has to compete against AirTran.</p>
<p>Flightline runs a shuttle between Boston (pickups at Logan and Sullivan Square) and MHT for $29 each way. The schedule is here.
[Flight</a> Line - Transportation For BOS - Boston Logan Airport, MHT - Manchester Boston Regional](<a href=“http://www.flightlineinc.com/mhtlogan.html]Flight”>http://www.flightlineinc.com/mhtlogan.html)
[Flight</a> Line - Transportation For Logan Airport(BOS) & Manchester Boston Regional Airport(MHT)](<a href=“http://www.flightlineinc.com/scheduledservice11608.html]Flight”>http://www.flightlineinc.com/scheduledservice11608.html)</p>
<p>It has been like this forever. They do not need to justify anything. Does anybody justify price for anything? If the tickets do not sell, price will go down or they eliminate the whole route.</p>
<p>I’m seriously thinking of doing a College search for child #3 using only locations served by Southwest airlines.</p>
<p>I don’t find this to be unusual at all. Milwaukee is a competitive airport with discount carriers Midwest and Airtran dominating. O’Hare is a fortress hub for United and American. That’s why prices to Milwaukee are cheaper than to O’Hare- it doesn’t matter to United how they get you to Milwaukee.</p>
<p>A trick for the future - if doing a round-trip from Chicagoland - buy Milwaukee-Chicago-Allentown round-trip - drive D2 to Milwaukee to start, on the return take the flight to Chicago and don’t bother getting on the 2nd flight to Milwaukee, presuming you live nearer O’Hare than Milwaukee.</p>
<p>We did not consider single college beyond 3 hours of driving.</p>