SDCFans - The Unofficial Fan Site For Silver Dollar City
General Category => Random Talk => Topic started by: Gilligan on January 31, 2017, 08:17:58 PM
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What are your experiences with airports within 3-4 hrs drive from Branson? Sand, aren't you from Kansas City? Chittlins, you fly frequently? Looking for airfare from Branson to San Francisco. What airport do you suggest? Kansas City, Springfield, Bentonville area? Come on guys - help me out.
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MCI is more of a hub for Southwest and Frontier. I don't think STL is a hub for anything anymore.
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What are your experiences with airports within 3-4 hrs drive from Branson? Sand, aren't you from Kansas City? Chittlins, you fly frequently? Looking for airfare from Branson to San Francisco. What airport do you suggest? Kansas City, Springfield, Bentonville area? Come on guys - help me out.
I am ctually from the topeka kansas area.. I am sure you could get a flight form KC to frisco, with a pitstop in denver.
would be very surprised if springfield didnt offer the same thing, if not maybe a layover in phoenix or dallas...
I dont fly, so not much help... LOL
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The times my family and I have flown out to California, it's been from Kansas City. I like the airport there; I'm very familiar with it. I haven't flown into San Fran, though; just Fresno, Los Angeles (LAX), and... I can't remember which airport in the Bay Area (there are so many!).
I really like Southwest. Their planes have always been very well-kept and their rates have always been pretty decent.
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When I fly on my dime....I've usually flew out of MCO or TUL for the best deals which are both pretty far from my home in Northwest Arkansas. They both have Southwest and Frontier to go west and I've used them both before. I also have family near MCO that have dropped kids off at to help us get away;) I've flew out of Springfield before on Allegent to Orlando a few years ago too.
XNA (Bentonville/Fayetteville) is a great airport to get in and out of and growing airport and I use it all the time for work travel but it has some of the most expensive fares in the country (sometimes 2-3x more than TUL or MCO) since it's such a biz hub and doesn't have any very many discount airlines there (only has allegent that flys to Orlando and Vegas). I know the airport has been begging for more airline to come in to help with the competition and increase the non-biz travel. I know they have direct flights to LA but I'm not sure about San Francisco.
I've notice billboards up advertising that American is flying out of Joplin with free parking....might check on that too.
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When I fly on my dime....I've usually flew out of MCO or TUL for the best deals which are both pretty far from my home in Northwest Arkansas. They both have Southwest and Frontier to go west and I've used them both before. I also have family near MCO that have dropped kids off at to help us get away;) I've flew out of Springfield before on Allegent to Orlando a few years ago too.
XNA (Bentonville/Fayetteville) is a great airport to get in and out of and growing airport and I use it all the time for work travel but it has some of the most expensive fares in the country (sometimes 2-3x more than TUL or MCO) since it's such a biz hub and doesn't have any very many discount airlines there (only has allegent that flys to Orlando and Vegas). I know the airport has been begging for more airline to come in to help with the competition and increase the non-biz travel. I know they have direct flights to LA but I'm not sure about San Francisco.
I've notice billboards up advertising that American is flying out of Joplin with free parking....might check on that too.
Yes, there is a nonstop on United from XNA to San Francisco
There is now a nonstop to Regan National (DCA) Wahington DC via American from XNA as well.
Pricy isn't the word for it unless you have some comp on a route, you can snag good fares for nonstop NYC service if booked a bit in advance, was even cheaper till Delta backed off the route. It was a rare route that had three carriers. A leasure passenger focused airline like Spirit hasn't set up shop is beyond me. Here's the reasons i've heard. It couldn't handle the possible influx in growth of passengers all of a sudden and two things need to happen. More parking, specifically a garage and the new access road.
The 412 bypass is underway so the access road in about 3 to 5 years away but the deck is supposed to happen real soon.
I fly out of Memphis using Southwest most of the time when the destination is a long way off. I will really be using Southwest in the next year and 9 months (see my Companion Pass. We drive there and Mom dog sits and does the pick ups and drop offs for us. It used to be blanking expensive to fly out of there as well when is was dominated by Northwest and then Delta as a hub. It is now growing as O&D airport and has a major terminal redo in the works to centralize everything. Air Canada is restarting Toronto Service and the many of the majors are switching to larger main line aircraft instead of the tuna cans. Memphis has been specifically mentioned by Norwegian as a possible expansion location for Transatlantic low fare service . Within a 41/2 drive of Memphis there is 10 million folks with no hub closer than a 6 hours drive. Compare that to Nashville that is sandwiched by Charlotte, Atlanta, and Cincy and would face aggressive price matching by Delta and AA. I have learned to fly southwest to a major coastal hub and then book separately there when going abroad.
That said get on Scott's Cheap Flights. It showed this yesterday now that is worth the 5 hr drive and parking long term, basically what Norwegian would be pitching for places like Memphis and KC, drive and save big
Those same dates out of XNA were over 6,000 for 4 at that same time
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Thanks for the very valuable help! I booked United out of Kansas using mileage plus miles and about $400 for two round trip tickets. It would've been cheaper if I had booked further out. Yes, XNA was going to be about $900 person!!!! Holy cow! Springfield was also very expensive. I'll add Tulsa to my list to try next time, also. Again, thanks so much!
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yeap...xna's fares are depressing. A certain retailer has deals with the three big airlines that fly out of it where they get access to X amount of seats to help ensure their teams can get in and out when needed. That deal plus what seems to be a handshake like deal between the airlines to not compete with each other on routes causes the prices to be jacked up. Region has a steady biz traffic in and out everyday and the airlines seem to be content to not mess with the cash cow they have. But yeah....i don't get why southwest, spirit, blue jet, or frontier hasn't tested out the market yet....the region is ready for them and the airport has room to add one pretty quickly....and plenty of room for bigger expansions.
I've got some Delta miles and credit I need to use this year (had a nightmare travel day with Delta last week). I've been eyeing fights to NYC for a get away. I've got a personal trip planned for Denver this spring too will probably go through Tulsa.
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Thanks for the very valuable help! I booked United out of Kansas using mileage plus miles and about $400 for two round trip tickets. It would've been cheaper if I had booked further out. Yes, XNA was going to be about $900 person!!!! Holy cow! Springfield was also very expensive. I'll add Tulsa to my list to try next time, also. Again, thanks so much!
When Chase introduced the Sapphire Reserve,they offered a 100,000 bonus points, the wife and I each got one. That gave us 200,000 points combined in the Chase Ultimate Rewards program plus what we had from out Chase Freedom Card we have had for years. The Sapphire Reserve offers enough freebies to make up for the annual fee.plus travel is 3x points every day.
We booked the Hyatt Place/National Mall for 4 nights thru Southwest and got 21,000 points that counted toward the Companion Pass for one of us.We paid on the Sapphire Reserve and got the 3x the room total in points instead of 2x if we had used the Southwest Card. We can transfer them over to Southwest 1 for 1 but don't count toward a companion pass.
We did the same thing for our stay in the Williamsburg area and Philadelphia for what I've dubbed our "Founding of a Nation" vacation. All together using Southwest for Hotels we got over 60,000 points that counted for companion passes
Plus the 5x points on the Freedom card this quarter was convince stores, I've been going back and forth every weekend in January to Duck Hunt in Eastern Ark. I got till March to hit the max of 1,500 dollars in purchases and that gives me 7,500 points, basically a free one way ticket from Memphis to Orlando, Tampa, Chicago, Baltimore on Southwest. I've got the game down, lol.
Last quarter it was wholesale clubs during Christmas season, that was the easiest 7,500 points yet, lol.
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yeap...xna's fares are depressing. A certain retailer has deals with the three big airlines that fly out of it where they get access to X amount of seats to help ensure their teams can get in and out when needed. That deal plus what seems to be a handshake like deal between the airlines to not compete with each other on routes causes the prices to be jacked up. Region has a steady biz traffic in and out everyday and the airlines seem to be content to not mess with the cash cow they have. But yeah....i don't get why southwest, spirit, blue jet, or frontier hasn't tested out the market yet....the region is ready for them and the airport has room to add one pretty quickly....and plenty of room for bigger expansions.
I've got some Delta miles and credit I need to use this year (had a nightmare travel day with Delta last week). I've been eyeing fights to NYC for a get away. I've got a personal trip planned for Denver this spring too will probably go through Tulsa.
I've heard rumors of Alaska using regional jet equipment to fly XNA. First it was to Seattle using code shares with Delta for TransPacific but that partnership has ended but the chatter still exists. And...with their takeover of Virgin America, a flight to Dallas particularly to Love Field via Virgins gates there to connect to California(LA and San Fran) along with the college kid travel could be very successful.
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When I fly on my dime....I've usually flew out of MCO or TUL for the best deals which are both pretty far from my home in Northwest Arkansas. They both have Southwest and Frontier to go west and I've used them both before. I also have family near MCO that have dropped kids off at to help us get away;) I've flew out of Springfield before on Allegent to Orlando a few years ago too.
XNA (Bentonville/Fayetteville) is a great airport to get in and out of and growing airport and I use it all the time for work travel but it has some of the most expensive fares in the country (sometimes 2-3x more than TUL or MCO) since it's such a biz hub and doesn't have any very many discount airlines there (only has allegent that flys to Orlando and Vegas). I know the airport has been begging for more airline to come in to help with the competition and increase the non-biz travel. I know they have direct flights to LA but I'm not sure about San Francisco.
I've notice billboards up advertising that American is flying out of Joplin with free parking....might check on that too.
MCO is Orlando. Did you mean MCI?
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When I fly on my dime....I've usually flew out of MCO or TUL for the best deals which are both pretty far from my home in Northwest Arkansas. They both have Southwest and Frontier to go west and I've used them both before. I also have family near MCO that have dropped kids off at to help us get away;) I've flew out of Springfield before on Allegent to Orlando a few years ago too.
XNA (Bentonville/Fayetteville) is a great airport to get in and out of and growing airport and I use it all the time for work travel but it has some of the most expensive fares in the country (sometimes 2-3x more than TUL or MCO) since it's such a biz hub and doesn't have any very many discount airlines there (only has allegent that flys to Orlando and Vegas). I know the airport has been begging for more airline to come in to help with the competition and increase the non-biz travel. I know they have direct flights to LA but I'm not sure about San Francisco.
I've notice billboards up advertising that American is flying out of Joplin with free parking....might check on that too.
MCO is Orlando. Did you mean MCI?
Sorry....yeap...MCI (KC)...was just at MCO (Orlando) last week...still in my brain :o
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When I fly on my dime....I've usually flew out of MCO or TUL for the best deals which are both pretty far from my home in Northwest Arkansas. They both have Southwest and Frontier to go west and I've used them both before. I also have family near MCO that have dropped kids off at to help us get away;) I've flew out of Springfield before on Allegent to Orlando a few years ago too.
XNA (Bentonville/Fayetteville) is a great airport to get in and out of and growing airport and I use it all the time for work travel but it has some of the most expensive fares in the country (sometimes 2-3x more than TUL or MCO) since it's such a biz hub and doesn't have any very many discount airlines there (only has allegent that flys to Orlando and Vegas). I know the airport has been begging for more airline to come in to help with the competition and increase the non-biz travel. I know they have direct flights to LA but I'm not sure about San Francisco.
I've notice billboards up advertising that American is flying out of Joplin with free parking....might check on that too.
MCO is Orlando. Did you mean MCI?
Sorry....yeap...MCI (KC)...was just at MCO (Orlando) last week...still in my brain :o
If you live in Benton County, MCI is a good option. Being out here at Stonebridge in Southeast Fayetteville, it's a near push for MCI, MEM, DWF/Love. Southwest flights out of Tulsa on Southwest has gone up in price quite a bit the past couple of years.
Thing with Southwest is they don't have enough metal to add flights without taking away from elsewhere.
They pulled out of Dayton just to move to Cincy. Dayton performed well for them.
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I live just a couple miles from MO line in benton county....MEM and Dallas are too far (6+ hours). Its about 4.5 hrs to MCI...2.5 to TUL. I wish MCI was on the southside of KC....takes an hour just to get through/around town. I usually check XNA, Springfield, and sometimes St Louis and Little Rock for fares too but they've never beat TUL or MCI.
One day I just hope I can afford to not have to travel so far to travel. Having a good airport nearby with competitive fares is a great first world benefit.
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Looking at the stats, XNA got a near 3.5% rise in total passengers this year after a very sluggish start of the year. December was up over 12% from Dec. 2015.
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This is Scotland specific but a birdie told me Dublin could happen too. It is not the first or second time he has dropped Memphis out there for routes. This coincides with their getting the Airbus A321LR which has 767 like range but at much better fuel economics.
Edinburgh/Memphis
http://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/norwegian-to-launch-cheap-flights-from-edinburgh-to-los-angeles-and-san-francisco-1-4477392
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Chief executive Bjorn Kjos also plans flights from the Scottish capital to Midwest cities like Memphis in 2019.
Also, today Memphis said they experienced exteodinary growth in June. The airport operated at 85 percent load factor. So 85 percent of all seats availible to purchase had a tush in them that leads to bigger planes, more flights and new destinations.
JetBlue to Fort Lauderdale and Boston seem like a no brainer
Den and Vegas Via Southwest seems worthwhile as well
Oh, Frontier is going to fly to San Diego and Denver Via Tulsa next spring.
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Yeah, as much as security sucks, the golden age of air travel is just getting better and better. I already know a lot of people who have been able to snag international trip deals for less than half of what it used to cost. Soon it won't be hard at all to hop over the pond to check out a different country, and flying across the country can be as cheap as $100 each way already.
I've been thinking more and more about just booking a quick three day weekend to Orlando one of these days... It's ~$90 each way on Allegiant, I just don't know how much I trust them. Plus the rental car is still the big expense. I may be able to get around a city like Orlando without one, but its still tough and unpredictable.
Frontier coming back to TUL is a big deal for me. I prefer Southwest, but more competition brings all the fares down.
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Yeah, as much as security sucks, the golden age of air travel is just getting better and better. I already know a lot of people who have been able to snag international trip deals for less than half of what it used to cost. Soon it won't be hard at all to hop over the pond to check out a different country, and flying across the country can be as cheap as $100 each way already.
I've been thinking more and more about just booking a quick three day weekend to Orlando one of these days... It's ~$90 each way on Allegiant, I just don't know how much I trust them. Plus the rental car is still the big expense. I may be able to get around a city like Orlando without one, but its still tough and unpredictable.
Frontier coming back to TUL is a big deal for me. I prefer Southwest, but more competition brings all the fares down.
I hope Kjos follows through. He flights should be less than 300 r/t. I hope the A321LR performs at the range Airbus is promising. Boeing is about ready to answer with a small wide body that would carry etween 200 and 250 with a better range in response to the void that the 321LR seems to start filling. A void caused by Boeing killing off the 757 and not improving it. The ieal of hitting up the UK and Ireland for an extended weekend ex cites me. My nephew and I are already discussing about catching A Tottenham match once a year. Once you get there, 5he air fares are stupid cheap via easyjet, Ryanair, wizz, and Norwegian. You can often upgrade to Air Lingus, British, Air France for a little more due to the competition.
On Aug 30 of this year, I can book a one way to Hamburg from London for 13 dollars, yes 13 dollars. $17 to Cologne and Phantasialand
More imprortantly, I can get 1.5% value for my points via my Chase Ultimate rewards on Norwegian.
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Yeah, as much as security sucks, the golden age of air travel is just getting better and better. I already know a lot of people who have been able to snag international trip deals for less than half of what it used to cost. Soon it won't be hard at all to hop over the pond to check out a different country, and flying across the country can be as cheap as $100 each way already.
I've been thinking more and more about just booking a quick three day weekend to Orlando one of these days... It's ~$90 each way on Allegiant, I just don't know how much I trust them. Plus the rental car is still the big expense. I may be able to get around a city like Orlando without one, but its still tough and unpredictable.
Frontier coming back to TUL is a big deal for me. I prefer Southwest, but more competition brings all the fares down.
We flew Allegiant to Florida in May. We didn't have any issues and when flying on a budget I think Allegiant is definitely the way to go. The price it originally says is not the price you pay, however. You have to pay to select your seat along with paying some extra taxes. It still comes out much cheaper than other airlines. They also don't serve complimentary snack and beverage on flights. But like I said, if you're on a budget then the cheaper options usually win out.
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The size of the nuts on Southwest are a joke, the cups of soda are a farse. Here's a pro tip, if you ask for the whole can, they give it to you usually still with the cup and ice. I recently had a bang up bunch for a crew on our way back from BWI to MEM. They actually made two rounds on the nuts and soda on a 2hr flight.
Spring Break extension came out for Southwest today. Times were better than for weekends leading up to it!
We'll get a full day in at Busch Gardens Tampa before heading to Orlando.
MEM got 3x daily on Sat and Sun and 2x daily on the weekdays to MCO for March and first week of April.
Prices are about 20 bucks higher across the board compared to 2017 prices for March.
Needed a new push mower recently, 4x points on Southwest's shopping portal at Sears. I got a nice one so I cleared over 1,000 points.
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This is Scotland specific but a birdie told me Dublin could happen too. It is not the first or second time he has dropped Memphis out there for routes. This coincides with their getting the Airbus A321LR which has 767 like range but at much better fuel economics.
Edinburgh/Memphis
http://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/norwegian-to-launch-cheap-flights-from-edinburgh-to-los-angeles-and-san-francisco-1-4477392
Quote
Chief executive Bjorn Kjos also plans flights from the Scottish capital to Midwest cities like Memphis in 2019.
Also, today Memphis said they experienced exteodinary growth in June. The airport operated at 85 percent load factor. So 85 percent of all seats availible to purchase had a tush in them that leads to bigger planes, more flights and new destinations.
JetBlue to Fort Lauderdale and Boston seem like a no brainer
Den and Vegas Via Southwest seems worthwhile as well
Oh, Frontier is going to fly to San Diego and Denver Via Tulsa next spring.
This a follow up on some that previous post of mine.
This is very interesting:
http://www.anna.aero/2017/09/13/kansas-city-becomes-the-largest-unserved-market-in-the-us-from-europe/#comment-161510
It is interest ing to extrapolate the data from Austin and do it with KC and then Memphis.
KC comes in around 117,000 and Memphis at around 92,000. They you go and compare the total passengers at each airport. KC at over 13 million a year and Memphis at just 4.5 million. What is cleat is that KC has more originating TATL and Memphasis has more tourist coming as a destination. My friend back home sez that Mthis doean't even capture those that enter at New Orleans or Nashville and stay in Memphis as well as visit one or both of the others. They (MEM) feel Memphis could top 200,000 either direct or connecting with three years of service with the right service and price (think Norwegian/ WOW). That the market stimulation of a smaller market would easily fill what the the Europen originating traffic didn-'t over with a 2x to 3x weekly from the UK on a 787, not a smaller 757 type aircraft.
Dig further and put OKC and Tulsa in the same basket and then add NWA and Tulsa could become a market on down the road being placed between OKC and NWA. We already see this in concert booking. Tulsa gets tons of concerts due to placement between the two.
Anywho, summer to fall 2018 should be interesting come new TATL announcement time.
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I'd argue that NWA has been stealing concerts from the SW Mizz and Little Rock markets more than Tulsa market. The AMP has been getting some pretty amazing bookings the past few years.
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I'd argue that NWA has been stealing concerts from the SW Mizz and Little Rock markets more than Tulsa market. The AMP has been getting some pretty amazing bookings the past few years.
LR gets plenty of gigs and has no viable amp for regular concerts. River Amp doesn't count. They get even more of the arena tours than Memphis. It, like Tulsa, benefits being fairly close to another major city whose arena has a NBA team as a permanent tenent. They are much more flexible for booking purposes. For crying out load Tulsa has landed Rogers Waters twice. As the U of M football teams continues its rise to respectably, hopefully Memphis can come up with a downtown. stadium that is right sized at about 55,000 with the idea of concerts and NCAA tourny basketball in mind. Ten thousand of those would be a upper level that would professionally designed to stay hidden unless needed, like for the Liberty Bowl.
They already know that they built the amp too small, needed more fixed seats and be 10,000 with lawn seating
The plan is that after the end zone is done, Bud Walton gets a major redo. Like a new outer concourse and parts of the old converted to club areas, a net decrease in capacity with added loge seating in certain areas, new back of house areas and expanded docking, so that it becomes the arena of the area for larger concerts. Supposedly the Walton Art Center(walmart) will be in charge of booking. They are the ones booking the AMP. After that, the Uof A will build a new smaller arena to replace Barnhill for gymnastics and such and will be multipurpose as well.
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The Tulsa/San Diego Flight ilon Frontier is now bookable. Tues, Thursdays, and Sundays. That seems like nice spacing.
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Frontier is adding San Jose CA and DC/Dulles nonstops from Tulsa.
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Allegiant is finally adding Destin from XNA.
Now they need to add Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans, Baltimore and Austin
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Allegiant is finally adding Destin from XNA.
Now they need to add Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans, Baltimore and Austin
You just beat me to reporting that news....lol
I've got family near Daphine/Gulf Shores. I might be able to afford to fly the whole family down now and have them pick us up.