One of the fees of flying: parking rates
|
||
 All Along Destinations Get in gear Going Strong Outbound Real deals Sensible traveler Taking Off Where they went
|
||
Airports in Manchester, N.H., and Warwick, R.I., have gained a loyal following in Massachusetts by offering lower fares, easier access, and fewer hassles than Boston's Logan International Airport.
But rising parking rates, particularly at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, are making it harder to justify the commute. Long-term parking at Green now costs $13 a day or $56 a week, with the full-week charge kicking in after just four days. The weekly rate is up 60 percent in the last six years, with the most recent increase coming last July, when a 5 percent state surcharge took effect.
For someone like me, who lives just south of Boston, Green has always been an attractive alternative to Logan. Fares are often cheaper. According to the most recent data compiled by the US Transportation Department, the average fare at Green was $133 in the second quarter of 2002, $53 less than at Logan.
Getting to and through Green and to a gate is also less stressful than navigating Logan. It takes me 45 minutes to drive to Green, and checking in and boarding is generally faster than at Logan.
So, whenever I'm checking fares, I check both airports. And when I bid in February on an air fare to St. Louis with Priceline, I followed the website's suggestion that my chances of having a winning bid would increase if I agreed to fly out of either Logan or Green. My bid was accepted for a flight out of Green.
But as I pulled out of the long-term lot after my return flight, having just paid $56 to park for five days, I began to wonder whether Green was more attractive after all. Earlier this month I placed another bid on a flight to St. Louis with Priceline, this time limiting the search just to Logan. I ended up paying about $5 more than when I flew out of Green, but I saved far more than that by taking the subway to the airport, although it took longer to get there and involved more hassle.
Dan Clarke, director of property management at Green, said the airport is concerned enough about the cost of parking that it is considering opening a new lot with lower rates.
"The time has passed when airports can take their passengers for granted," Clarke said. "We want our customers to add up the total cost of the package and come to Green."
Parking costs are slightly less onerous at Manchester, where the average fare was $63 less than at Logan. Long-term parking there costs $8 a day with no maximum, so the $56 weekly fare kicks in only after seven days.
Airport manager Kevin Dillon acknowledged that the parking rates may make people in metropolitan Boston think twice about driving to Manchester to fly, but he says parking rates at Logan are so much higher that anyone farther out from the city wouldn't think twice about it.
"If you're in the Andover area, what are you going to do?" Dillon said.
Logan's cheapest parking is $16 a day in the economy lot with a maximum weekly rate of $80. The daily rate at Terminal B is rising from $22 to $24 on April 1. The daily rate in the central garage is staying put at $22.
Dillon said he believes that people choose an airport for much more than price. He said many people try Manchester once and because of the convenience decide never to return to Logan. As one example, he said, passengers returning from trips after the recent blizzard found their cars dug out by parking lot officials.
"They loved that," he said.
Points and miles
Readers offered a lot of suggestions for the couple in my Feb. 23 column who were looking for ways to merge American Express points and American Airlines miles.
Susan Dynarski of Somerville suggested converting the American Express points into Starwood points, which can be exchanged for American Airlines miles. Like the approaches I mentioned, the cost of the conversion process is steep, with 60,000 American Express points, after converting to Starwood points, translating into 20,000 American miles.
Marsha Slayton of Wayland had a common-sense approach, suggesting the couple use the American Express points to take a trip and then use the American miles to take another. That's probably the smartest thing they could do, but if they truly wanted to merge their points and miles, Karen Schragle of Wayland Travel offered perhaps the best suggestion.
She suggested converting the American Express points into air certificate rewards that match up with what an American miles holder can obtain. Schragle noted, for example, that American miles can be converted into a flight on Swiss airlines to Europe. American Express points can also be converted to a Swiss air certificate.
"These things are really complicated," Schragle said. "I can make a living making sense out of miles for customers."
Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.
