price of airfare

Why is airfare to Bangor, Maine from the Chicago area SO expensive? Why is it we can fly almost anywhere else in the United States cheaper? I have family in Maine and would visit more often if this were not so. The thing that REALLY bothers me though is, each time I have a relative with fast fading health problems and need to get home quick before they pass, I cannot find a round trip for one person under 800.00 dollars or more. This means if both my husband and I go , we pay over 1600.00 to see our dying relative plus hotel and other expenses. Even the comppassionate flights are that high. I went in 1998 to visit my dying mom and it was 886.00 just for me even after showing all the proof I needed. Why can%26#39;t there be some reasonable rates to Bangor or even Portland and then we could rent a car and drive the rest of the way?

Sincerely Harriette

price of airfare

Dolly,

Unfortunately, Southwest does not fly to Bangor or Portland. You may want to consider flying into Manchester, NH (MHT) and driving from there. You should be able to get a non-stop from Midway to MHT for as little as $130 when they are having a fare sale, to maybe $225 +/- with advance booking. Even with little or no notice, your fare should be less than $400 RT. MHT is about a 4 - 5 hour drive to Bangor.

I just checked USAirways and put in a random RT set of dates for July 7 and July 18. This is long enough to include a Saturday night stay. Chicago (O%26#39;Hare) to Bangor. When you enter the date info, there is an option to select ';Low Fare Finder (For flexible dates)';. This will show you the lowest fare available one day either side of youor departure and return. You can also manipulate the dates to see other low fare possibilities. I got a fare for July 6, 7 or 8 departure and July 17, 18 or 19 return of $422).

There might be better options available if you looko further.

price of airfare

Hi dollydimples,

The reason the fares are so high is there is no cheap (i.e. Southwest) compitition flying into Maine. The other poster has it right about flying into Manchester. We are flying in in July and have 2 round trip tickets IND-MHT for under $400.00. You can rent a car and drive 4 hours to Bangor and still pay no more than $600.00.

You can go to sites like farecompare.com to find days that would be cheaper than others. You can also check out the Southwest site for prices from Midway to Manchester. Southwest is not in any of the airfare sites(Expedia, ect).

I hope this helps.

Yes, no competition, probably because demand is limited. If it makes you feel any better (and the flip side is that), a Bangor *departure* is expensive as well. Manchester NH and car rental is an excellent idea and friends who fly Southwest to Chicago love it. Manchester seems to be equidistant from Boston. What is really interesting is that I can%26#39;t get an international flight from Bangor *International* Airport. I have to fly over Bangor to Philly to catch the plane back to Bangor. Makes for a very long trip.

We live east of Bangor but always fly out of Portland to get much better fares. Next month we go to San Diego and BGR to SAN was at least $600 but we got PWM to SAN for $298. For the last three years we have been getting much cheaper fares out of Portland. However, we also book well in advance. Our flight next month lays over in Chicago (ORD). I would look closely into airfare into Portland. Portland now has Jet Blue and soon will have Air Tran and this is making for more competative fares with all airlines, we are flying United. The Bangor fares are always terrible. Manchester is definately cheaper but is such a long drive for us, distance wise Boston (Logan) is just as close as Manchester but the traffic is worse and therefore it taks longer to drive.

Lots of folks in the Bangor area will take the Concord Bus (just opposite the Bangor terminal) to Portland or even on to Boston Logan where they can take advantage of much more affordable airfares. See concordtrailways.com/maine_bus_schedule.htm Makes the trip much longer in terms of trave time, but that%26#39;s the cost of trying to fly to an airport where there isn%26#39;t much demand/competition.

When your relatives aren%26#39;t sick and you can be flexible about travel, try the farewatcher function at Travelocity and book your flights when there are fare wars. travelocity.com/info/鈥?0.html