Hypothesis:
It is ultimately cheaper and worth the hassle to take the Megabus to
Chicago and fly direct out of O'Hare, instead of flying out of Cedar
Rapids?
Conclusion:
No.
Experiment Background:
The nearest airport to Iowa City is Cedar Rapids, which is a half-hour
drive away, so you better hope you have friends available to pick you up
or drop you off--it's either that, or pony up the $40-odd to take an
airport shuttle. But even then, all that tiny airport does is put you
on a little region-hopper to a major airport. Thus, if you ever want to
fly further away than Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis, or Denver,
you're never looking at a direct flight out of Iowa to anywhere.
Methodologies:
My roommate suggested a different approach--compared to the airport shuttle, it costs a mere $25 (less
if you book in advance) to ride the Megabus direct from downtown Iowa
City to downtown Chicago. Also, since Chicago O'Hare is a major hub,
tickets are often cheaper out of there than out of Cedar Rapids. So,
for my flight to Washington for Christmas break, I decided to test this
hypothesis.
Results:
My first problem was when I found that the only Megabus that would get
me to Chicago on time left at roughly 3am. December at night in Iowa is
not exactly amenable to standing outside waiting for a late bus.
The bus takes 4 hours to reach downtown Chicago. Since my actual flight didn't leave till 3pm,
I thought I'd maybe do a little sight-seeing...however, as the bus
pulled pass the Willis Tower at 7am and I gazed up with only 3 hours
sleep, I knew that that wasn't going to happen. Instead, I hunted down
the subway, and in my sleep deprivation rode the Metro ($5 for a
single-trip pass) for the next 45 minutes to O'Hare. I slept fitfully
at the terminal.
Now, the goal in flying out of Chicago had been to fly as cheaply as
possible, so I naturally booked the cheapest tickets I could find, which
were on Spirit Airlines (AKA "The Worst").
The booking on-line said "Chicago to Portland," so it wasn't till I
printed the booking passes that I learned of my layovers in Las Vegas
and San Diego. Way to give me a heads up there, Spirit (serious, Spirit
is the worst).
Other terrible things that Spirit isn't forthright about: they charge
you for your carry-on, they charge for drinks and snacks (exorbitantly, I
might add), they'll charge to print boarding passes at the kiosk, and
they'll charge you if you want something other than a middle seat. All
told, accounting for all these extra charges, even settling for middle
seat and no water, it would've been cheaper to fly, say, Delta or AA out
of Cedar Rapids--and I would've had more leg-room, too (again--and not
to belabor the point--Spirit is the worst).
Spirit also had a long, inexplicable delay at Vegas, so on my return trip (which had 3 layovers,
not just 2), I decided that, to be safe, I better take the Megabus the
next morning, in case I was delayed again. Thus, I booked a hostel in
downtown Chicago for the night. In addition to adding still more to my
overall travel costs, this meant it took 2 solid days to travel from
Washington back to Iowa.
To put that into perspective: it took about the same amount of time for
me to take a train across central China and fly over the Pacific back to
America.
Recommendations:
Denizens of Iowa City and environs! Learn from my fail! Stick to Cedar
Rapids airport! What you don't pay in money you instead pay in time and
hassle...and you don't actually save any money, either!
Conclusions:
Iowa really doesn't like it when you try to leave; like a clingy
bad
date who knows you're not going to call back, or an incompetent company
that adds cancellation fees to try and keep your business, or a Soviet
dictatorship trying to prevent mass defection, Iowa likes to
make it as hard as possible to get out. I've seen t-shirts around
campus that read "Iowa, Love It or Leave It!" Oh, if only it were that
easy...
Also: At the risk of sounding repetitive, Spirit Airlines is the worst. That is all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment