Fly Huntsville

Fly Huntsville

Ironically, no one is paying me to write this post, but I’m wondering why I didn’t ask that before I began typing this. On The last few trips we’ve taken, we’ve chosen to fly out of Huntsville for several reasons. I’ve had this conversation with so many people lately so I decided it would be a great blog post.

5 Airlines

In this post, I share my experience of flying out of Huntsville for my recent trips. There are five airlines that fly from Huntsville, including American, Delta, United, Silver, and Breeze. While I usually prefer American, I have also been checking Delta flights due to my friend’s son becoming a Delta pilot. Although I haven’t flown with the other three airlines, my daughter prefers United due to their discount. They offer a 5% discount to flyers (18-23) who book their own flight, via the APP. Last May we booked Silver from Huntsville to Orlando, but that flight never happened, which resulted in a caravan driving through the night to reach our destination. Silver did, eventually, refund our purchases. I think I’m the last one of our crew to receive the refund, with the return leg still pending.

Reasons for Flying from Huntsville

1. It’s easier
2. It’s closer
3. Parking is cheaper
4. Less time
5. Convenience

Easier

I don’t know about y’all but the traffic to Huntsville is bad enough, but trying to get to Birmingham or Nashville has just become insane. Our best option is to take a 5 AM flight or else, you have to plan an extra hour just for traffic.

Closer

to BNA- 103 miles, 1 hour 33 minutes without traffic.$39.01 gas. to HSV- 23 miles, 24 min without traffic. $12.22. to BHM 99 miles, 1 hour 27 minutes.$32.57

Parking is cheaper

HSV Economy parking $8 day. BNA economy $18. BHM $10/12. While I’m talking about parking, I have to mention the extra time BNA and BHM takes to get from parking to security. In Huntsville, you can park and be in security in less than 10 minutes, no shuttle needed. In BNA and BHM, it will take you much longer to walk that, especially if you are in economy parking or you will need a shuttle and that adds to your time.

Less Time

The biggest reason for us is the time. When we are figuring a flight time, we will allow an extra hour, in case of traffic if we are going to BNA or BHM, so we typically, say 2 1/2 hours for travel time. Then, we know we need to be at the airport 2 hours before our flight time to allow for parking/security. So, before we book a flight, we figure we will need to leave 4 1/2 hours before the time of the flight unless we take that 5-7 AM flight. If we take the early bird flight, we can take 1 hour off because we have more confidence in early morning traffic times versus mid-morning- night time travel, but then that has us leaving the house at 2-3 AM depending on the flight time. Now, the return flight doesn’t suck up as much time, but you land, and then depending on the arrival time, you have a 2-hour process of driving home. If you’ve had a long travel day that is a L.O.N.G drive. To be fair, Nashville probably offers the most nonstop flights of the 3 airports, and depending on where you are traveling, Huntsville has fewer options. However, since we have discovered the AMEX lounge, we’ve decided we would rather have a layover in an AMEX lounge than fight traffic and security in Nashville for a nonstop option.

Convenience

If you are flying from Huntsville, you can most likely get a friend/family member to drop you off and pick you up vs paying the parking fees. Nashville/Birmingham you will need to pay their gas or buy them a meal, which depending on who it is, the parking/gas expense might just be cheaper. 🙂

I’ve given you 5 positive reasons why Fly Huntsville is the best option, but the biggest negative is the price. Now, don’t get me wrong here. The thing about this being an empty nester space is I’m comparing 1-2 tickets for a trip, not 4-6 tickets for a family. For 1-2 tickets, you could easily argue and $30 net increase is worth all the benefits of less time, etc., but when you are looking at the expenses of 4-6 people on a trip already, that extra $120-$180 might make a big enough difference to choose the other options.

Southwest

I love flying Southwest. I know they’ve received some bad press lately, but their flights are fun, checked bags are free, flights are typically lower, and they offer so many nonstop flights. But Huntsville doesn’t offer Southwest. I’m convinced if Huntsville could get Southwest it would be a total game-changer for our area. For me, when I start pricing a trip, I start with Southwest options and work my way back.

Google Flights

I just recently became a fan of Google Flights. It does not price out Southwest options, but it compares all of the flights from destination to destination. It’s a great way to find the best travel dates for cheaper prices for where you are headed. This is especially great if you are flexible on your travel dates. The best part is you can set travel alerts to come directly to your email. When your flight price drops, you will receive an alert and then you are ready to book. You will also receive alerts when it goes up. Don’t let it stress you unless you are 30 days from your flight. At this point, it’s probably not going to get lower. I’m linking this post. I don’t know this guy, but he does a great job explaining Google Flights and giving you great tips to help you book a cheaper flight. These steps will become your go-to process for planning your next trip.

Amazon Travel Must Haves

You have to have an Airplane Mode shirt. I love the cheesy travel shirts and the great thing is you are not alone anymore in wearing travel-themed shirts.

This carry-on backpack is a new purchase for us. I’m so thrilled by this option and can’t wait to use it. We’ve been working hard to become better packers and this is the carry-on game-changer we’ve been looking for!

: Fly Huntsville

I had a friend recommend this travel bag recently and I’m thrilled with my purchase. I love that it hangs!

All of this talk about booking flights makes me wonder, Where are we going next?