What hub to get to Portland & Raleigh?
 

Hi all,

I've read on these boards before that certain cities are hubs for certain airlines so flights are cheaper thru them.

I need to get from Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) to Portland, OR, and on a separate trip from Halifax to Raleigh, NC.

Does anyone know if any airlines use these cities as hubs? Which airlines would be the best bet for pricing?

Trips are for Oct 30 & Nov 13. The travel is for courses, all of which I am paying for personally. I have time but not $$ so saving a few hundred dollars through an extra stopover is worth it for me.

Any info appreciated!

I think Raleigh is an AA hub but is also serviced by Southwest and maybe Continental.

Charlotte, NC is a US Airways hub.

RDU is no longer an AA hub. Bunch of airlines fly here, but no non-stops to Halifax. AirCanada does fly non-stop to Toronto if that helps.

When I've priced flights out of rdu, prices seem to be in the same range. Check something like Yahoo travel for quotes. But that doesn't include Southwest or JetBlue.

By the way, Charlotte (a USAir hub) is one of the most expensive airports because it lacks competition.

I'm seeing fares in the vicinity of C$630 for YHZ-PDX and C$500 for YHZ-RDU. To some degree it will depend on your length of stay at the destinations (Saturday overnight helps.) I also looked at WestJet from YHZ-Vancouver for the PDX portion (then Jazz or Horizon to Portland) but I don't think there's much savings there when you add in the YVR-PDX segments. If you could live with the train from Van to Portland, then you could probably do the west coast trip for C$500 or so all in.

If you wanted to make it all one trip, i.e. YHZ-PDX-RDU-YHZ, then it comes in at C$727 using United (including codeshares with AC.) But that would mean turning it into a longer period away from home.

I just flew in and out of Raleigh this week on United. I was on a Denver to Raleigh trip and they routed us through Chicago on the way. Coming home we went through Dulles.

I did see a lot of AA gates at RDU.

Thx a mint for your replies and help with this.

Now I know which airlines to check that won't show up in travelocity-type searches (e.g., Jetblue, Southwest).

Gardyloo, thx for your detailed response. With hotel and dining out costs, it's not cost effective for me to make it just one trip.

Enjoy-la!