White Plains Airport (HPN)
 

Anybody have any experience flying out of this airport? We live in northwestern CT and have found some reasonable flights to FL from there.
We don't know anything about the area or parking situation. My adult daughter (who does NOT have allot of travel experience) may book her flights from HPN, and we'd like to give her a heads up. I know some of you must have some pointers! Thanks for any help---K.

I love it. It is tiny. TINY! It would be a great option for someone without a lot of travel experience. Parking is just a few steps away from the terminal - which is just a few steps away from the gates. Not sure what "pointers" you are looking for, but I love little airports and their ease.

Only thing to watch out for is limited flight options so try for non-stops if at all possible. Any delays on her return may result in no flights home.

It is a most convenient airport. Just be aware that there is always the problem that if a plane is cancelled for any reason, you don't have the fleixibiilty of a larger airport. It's not that easy (near impossible) to just bring in another plane or schedule you for the next flight, say, an hour or two or three later. Thyere may not be another flight to that destination that day!
That said, I've used the airport many times, and I lve the convenience.

It's very convenient if you live or work in that area. AirTran and JetBlue flights south are handy.

I HAVE had problems with parking - high cost (which I can deal with) and 2 times the garage was 100% full - not a space to be found. IIRC those were holiday periods.

If renting a car 1 way is a cost effective option consider that.

J62 is quite right about the parking situation. Happily, I usually get dropped off and picked up, so I avoid the high parking cost (and it is high).

We just flew from and to HPN a few weeks ago and it is a VERY easy airport to navigate. The parking is VERY limited though. We were worried about this and chose to use a car service and it worked out great. Our driver said that since our flight was at 9, and the airport opens much earlier,any available spots would probably be taken by the time we arrived . Granted he works for the car service....but if you go on HPN's website, they advise you not to park there. So, if you can drop her off and pick her up, i'd say it's a great airport.

The car service driver was obviously saying things to encourage and support his business. Sure, sometimes (like key holiday weekends), the parking garage may be filled up, but you can find a space most times.

well, when i posted the same question that klapenta posted, i was told by the fodorites that parking was an issue there too. the garage looked pretty small. could we have found a spot- maybe, but what if we couldn't. I don't know what we would have done.

Hi

We lived in Connecticut up until a month ago, now in Florida but that's another story.

We used HPN all the time.

We were going away and showed up for our flight and the garage was full and closed !!

They had us park up by the Net Jets hangars, maybe 1/2 mile away, they run a shuttle back to the main terminal. It is stupid expensive to park there though.

From my experience and the experience of many friends, you can usually find a parking spot. Again, I emphasize the word is "usually," NOT "always"!
emcash has cited the real problem, in that if the garage is filled when you get there, you may not have any recourse but to leave and perhaps miss your flight!
When I was parking there, I lived close enough that I could scout out the situation exactly a week before I was leaving (i.e., if I was going on Monday morning, I would check out the spaces the previous Monday morning.). That system never failed me.

I just re-read my post.
It's stupid expensive to park in the garage, not up by Net Jets.
Sorry.

I'll echo what the others have said. It's a small airport, not as crowded, unbelievably easy to navigate. Parking can be crowded (I've never been shut out though) and if your flight gets cancelled or significantl delayed there are fewer options than if you flew out of JFK or LaGuardia. In fact, we flew to Orlando in Sept and our flight was cancelled. We were rebooked on an afternoon flight several hours later. We just went home (but then we live close).

One tip -- there is a full-fledged coffee shop on the 2nd floor. It is really the only food option there, but you can sit down and have waitress service, etc. A good place to kill some time.

Since you live in NW CT maybe you should look into flights to Stewart Airport in Beacon(?), NY.

Thanks, everyone! Your posts make me a bit nervous about the parking. Are there no other lots nearby-- (Park & Fly)? And how stupid expensive are we talking to park at the airport itself? Think maybe we'll look into getting her dropped off.

$21.50 a day.
Here's the link to their website -
http://www.whiteplainsairport.com/pages/parking.shtml

It says parking is limited and recommeds having someone drop you off.