Ski-Air Travel

Here it is: my home airport has been declared by an Australian travel insurance comparison company to The Most Stressful in the World! I'll put aside how I feel about travel insurance in general (a monstrous racket) and take the results at face value because I know that EWR has a bad reputation with many travelers. Feel free to pile on!

What's odd is my anecdotal experience: a sample size of flying in and out of it six to ten times annually for 23 years, first as a Continental flyer and then United. I've NEVER had any major issues: no serious delays outgoing or incoming, going through security (like many big airports, if you don't have TSA PreCheck or Global Entry, there can be long queues), no problems checking in or picking up baggage, passage through immigration, and very pleasant United Terminal C along with the almost new Europe-level Terminal A. I've had far worse experiences at major airports like Denver and LAX.

The one thing from my POV that needs a serious upgrade at Newark is the passenger pickup at Terminal C, a total goatf**k at peak times.
 
I agree with James
DEN imo is much worse
I fly out of ewr alot
It does have its moments
But no worse then any other major airport
 
Sbooker said:
stopover in Hong Kong or Singapore on the way there or the way home. Anyone checked out either city?
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It's been a few years, but used to go to/through both for work on a regular basis. Both worth a couple days, though they are heavily westernized, "Asia light" kind of cities. Still some good stuff to see and experience.
 
I finally got around to checking out airfares to next August's eclipse in Spain. We fly home from Madrid and airfares are about $950 one way. The good news is that we got it for 47,600 miles + $50. Incoming will probably be to Bilbao, with a car rental until the AstroTrails tour starts in Barcelona. That airfare we have not booked, but is quoted more reasonable at a little over $500.
 
I refreshed that Madrid - LAX flight to today's price of 30,600 miles + $50. Cash price is over $1,000 now. This may be the best FF miles to cash ratio I've experienced. The incoming to Bilbao we paid the $500 cash a couple of weeks ago.
 
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Tony Crocker said:
I finally got around to checking out airfares to next August's eclipse in Spain. We fly home from Madrid and airfares are about $950 one way. The good news is that we got it for 47,600 miles + $50. Incoming will probably be to Bilbao, with a car rental until the AstroTrails tour starts in Barcelona. That airfare we have not booked, but is quoted more reasonable at a little over $500.
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I typically fly to either Madrid or Barcelona, and then just use discount airlines.

Using mostly Vueling (maybe an EasyJet/Ryanair), I have previously hopped around to Lisbon, Porto, Bilbao, Ibiza, Majorca, Valencia, Malaga, Sevilla - typically $50-125 per direct flight from usually 2nd-tier population cities/Islands.

Competitive flight to a hub - Madrid, Barcelona, or even Lisbon. Give a few hours or overnight. Then a cheap ticket onwards. I would never price with an end-to-end with a US airline. (unless skis/checked bag were involved - but I would not fly to an Innsbruck, Salzburg, Turin, etc).

Europe is the king of discount airlines and ferries. The best was Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia. For Finns, it's an all-day Costco run. Finland is as expensive as Switzerland (hence I never bothered skiing there/combined with low light), so everyone takes a day ferry to Estonia to load up on goods/food/alcohol at 20-50% of the Nordic price. Afternoon ferries are packed and overflowing with bags.

It's worse than Europeans, especially South Americans (Brazilians/Argentinians), going to an outlet mall in Orlando or Miami and buying all the products that their country heavily taxes.
 
jamesdeluxe said:
call me cavalier; however, I'm very confident that my ski/boot bags will arrive with me on nonstop flights.
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Tony will be gleeful to know that for the first time since I was a college student, my luggage did not arrive with me on a nonstop flight! I went standby on an earlier departure this morning and got one of a handful of empty seats just before the door was closed for boarding; however, by that time they were having weight balance issues in the hold, didn't want to delay the departure, and put my ski and boot bags on the next flight 90 minutes later.

I wasn't planning on skiing today or tomorrow so no big deal but the "damage" is done -- The Streak has been broken.
 
jamesdeluxe said:
I went standby on an earlier departure this morning and got one of a handful of empty seats just before the door was closed for boarding; however, by that time they were having weight balance issues in the hold, didn't want to delay the departure, and put my ski and boot bags on the next flight 90 minutes later.
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I assume you changed your entire ticket before checking baggage for standby? Generally, one can make day-of travel changes with little friction.

You are lucky to live near a major hub. I am sure non-hub-city air travellers suffer much more baggage loss.

Lol - 90-minute delay for next Newark-Denver flight. One time, my UAL ski bag beat me to SFO from Denver because I decided to do a 90-minute layover instead of a 30+ minutes. I was never confirmed for the earlier flight, but my bags went on ahead!
 
EMSC said:
Should we assume United in this equation to DEN?
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Since Southwest consolidated its tri-state region operations at LGA in 2019, United is the only airline flying nonstop from Newark to Denver. I've mentioned before that despite "owning" this route, they don't gouge. The roundtrip fare for this trip was $157, obviously at their basic economy level, but a serious bargain for a four-hour flight. If only United could do something about the YTD snowfall here!

ChrisC said:
assume you changed your entire ticket before checking baggage for standby? Generally, one can make day-of travel changes with little friction.
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Usually, I just show up at the airport with baggage, request to go standby on an earlier flight, and if they have more than a handful of open seats they'll immediately check me and my bags in for that flight. For yesterday, I saw the night before that the earlier flight was almost full so I registered on their app, which is always a good idea to make sure you're at the top of the standby list. I mentioned above why my bags didn't make the flight but they were delivered two hours after I arrived at my brother's house in Denver so it was no real inconvenience.

ChrisC said:
James cannot ski certain places in North America, because United does not fly directly to them from Newark. He's forced to go to Europe.
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Hah, guilty as charged for the most part; however, for the record: I've changed planes in the past to go to Spokane and Albuquerque two trips each, to Jackson three times, and to Calgary once.
 
ChrisC said:
I typically fly to either Madrid or Barcelona, and then just use discount airlines.

Using mostly Vueling (maybe an EasyJet/Ryanair), I have previously hopped around to Lisbon, Porto, Bilbao, Ibiza, Majorca, Valencia, Malaga, Sevilla - typically $50-125 per direct flight from usually 2nd-tier population cities/Islands.

Competitive flight to a hub - Madrid, Barcelona, or even Lisbon. Give a few hours or overnight. Then a cheap ticket onwards. I would never price with an end-to-end with a US airline. (unless skis/checked bag were involved - but I would not fly to an Innsbruck, Salzburg, Turin, etc).
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Even though I've been retired for 15 years, I still have some responsibilities at home with elderly dog and mother and try to limit days I'm away, so I usually don't use your "Madrid or Barcelona, and then just use discount airlines" and "Give a few hours or overnight. Then a cheap ticket onwards." As recommended by Chris Elliott, The Travel Troubleshooter, I want my flights on one ticket so if there is a delay with one flight, the airline we booked through is responsible for getting us to destination. While having a layover in Madrid could be OK on flight to elsewhere in Spain, missing a Madrid-US flight on return could require buying another flight at last-minute price.

Flights on one ticket cost us extra last Fall getting to Santiago de Compestela for Camino. Iberia showed 4 seats on flight from SFO with long enough layovers at O'Hare and Madrid to easily make flights. But we tried for more than 10 days to book and could not. After a couple of calls, Iberia was able to book flights, but it cost a few hundred $ more and we never got explanation why they showed flights at price we could not book.

Some people in tour group were delayed in Madrid due to security personnel labor action and got to Santiago de Compestela much later than planned or the next day. We arrived a day before our tour started and would have been unable to use a one night booking in Fisterra if we were delayed. Two ladies were able to arrive earlier by moving quickly to Ryan Air which I used to get from Girona to Ibiza many years ago. I was stuck sitting next to guy with bad cold that I flew home with a week later.
 
ChrisC said:
Competitive flight to a hub - Madrid, Barcelona, or even Lisbon. Give a few hours or overnight. Then a cheap ticket onwards.
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Not in my case next August. The cash price for the flight home from Madrid was twice the price of the incoming to Bilbao.
jamesdeluxe said:
The roundtrip fare for this trip was $157, obviously at their basic economy level
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And how did you not pay bag fees using basic economy? The comparative fine print always mentions things like no mileage credit, no seat assignment etc. Does the credit card free bag override the basic economy limit? The no mileage provision is a nonstarter for me, especially as I close in on the Million Miler objective.
 
Tony Crocker said:
Does the credit card free bag override the basic economy limit?
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Yes, credit card holders get the free ski and boot bag, even with basic economy.

Tony Crocker said:
The comparative fine print always mentions things like no mileage credit, no seat assignment (...) The no mileage provision is a nonstarter for me, especially as I close in on the Million Miler objective.
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We're completely different travel animals. Not sure when they instituted some additional fine print to disincentivize basic economy -- a $100 or more fee on the one-year travel credit when you cancel an itinerary.
 
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