I am so dam* mad at the airlines right now! So, anyway, I'm in a long distance relationship for just a few more months until I get out of the military so my girlfriend and I have to keep buying plane tickets to see each other. Well, long story short she lives in West Michigan and I live in Oklahoma City (home of 3.2% beer and tatoos are illegal). I wanted to fly her out to my hometown Las Vegas, but it turns out I don't want to spend any leave so I can get out of the AF early. Now, her closest airport would be Grand Rapids, and like I said, I'm stuck in Oklahoma City, which itself doesn't have an international airport. So, to fly her from Grand Rapids to Las Vegas was only going to cost around $280 now I'm not sure how far that it is, but it must not matter to the airlines, because a flight from Grand Rapids to Oklahoma City is going to cost $476, that's almost double!!! and the fact of the matter is Grand Rapids to Oklahoma City is about 900 or 1000 miles or something, and Grand Rapids to Las Vegas is well, a lot more, so can someone explain to me why it is so much cheaper to fly farther? I really feel for folks who live in the country because for some reason you are going to pay a lot more flying out of some little airport than a major international airport regardless of distance. Ok rant over. (BTW: I could save about $90 to fly her into Tulsa, OK which is a little confusing also).Jeff

Hi Jeff,It's not only distance, but how many tickets they can sell. A flight to Vegas is going to bring more people so tickets are less.Have her drive to Chicago and pick up a flight there. Detroit would also be good but too far to drive.Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-community-sigbanner.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/

Thanks Jim! I suggested Detroit to her, I don't know how she feels about Chicago, but I'll definitely suggest it.Jeff

Hi JeffIf she drives to Detroit, there are some good off-airport parking lots that are pretty reasonable.Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-community-sigbanner.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/

Nice, I was just researching that actually. Thanks again!Jeff

>Hi Jeff,>>It's not only distance, but how many tickets they can sell. A>flight to Vegas is going to bring more people so tickets are>less.>It's the amount of people (tickets/revenue) and the fact that LAS is a focus city for both US Airways and Southwest. So, to fly into a mini-hub is (usually) cheaper than to fly between two "spoke" cities.

Flying to a hub can be expensive if it means one airline is dominant. I used to fly a lot for the navy, and it was cheaper to fly DC to LA than it was to fly to STL, just because TWA / NWA controlled the airport. Once SWA came in it upset the apple cart. Same thing with NWA and MEM. Can be cheaper to go to Little Rock. scott s..

Airlines try to price so that average revenue from the flight covers costs, plus some profit in good years. A long flight that is consistently full can be ticketed for much less than a feeder from a small airport that runs too empty. The costs can also be much lower on a full large plane, than a full small plane.OKC and Tulsa are not very high volume, Grand Rapids and Lansing have too little passenger traffic to support low fares. From Grand Rapids to OKC, I would look into flying out of Chicago Midway, probably on Southwest. Southwest doesn't do bargain fares, in a big way, but at least they are consistent, comparable fares for comparable distances. If you took SWA from Detroit, at least part of the time you would go through Midway anyway, and pay for an additional Detroit-Midway segment.

>I'm stuck in Oklahoma City, which itself doesn't>have an international airport.Oklahoma City and Grand Rapids are both international airports.Being designated an international airport has nothing to do with the volume of flights or passengers that the airport can handle. It has more to do with US Customs being available to process passengers arriving from flights that originated outside the United States.So you'll have some airports in out of the way places like Watertown International Airport in New York or Nogales International Airport in Arizona - having an international airport.As far as fares go - the bean counters and marketing folks figure all that stuff out.