Is it that hard to get a direct to Pitt?

[Izlude_Tingel]

Hi,
This is to the travel experts here. I am trying to arrange a direct flight from JFK (NY) to UPitt in Feb. I have tried high and low to arrange a direct flight, but I get nothing, just 1-2 stop flights that take like 8+ hours to fly just to Pittsburg. I only found one non-stop, but it costs 800+dollas !?! That is more then going to Europe! Am I doing something wrong here? I do remember someone saying that getting a direct flight to Pitt is hard, but I am not sure why? Any advice as to what carrier I should try to go via? Thx

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[Apollyon]

What's the big deal about 1 stop? I've done multiple iterations, and the flight times are as short as 5 hours, and all the fares are ~$220.

 

[Izlude_Tingel]

Hi,

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind doing the one-stop thing, but I'm just curious why it seems difficult to get a direct to Pitt. I'm not too familiar with flying to that area, so if a direct is not readily available, I would happily do 1 stop flight. I'm just curious what people's exp was. Thx

 

[EctopicFetus]

I used my personal favorite site to look stuff up on. Kayak.com, it looks through all the sites then I go directly to them to buy my tix. I chose come random dates and came up with ~380 on United. It seems cheaper flying out of other NYC airports than Kennedy. Good luck, not quite sure why this is so hard.. but it appears to be. Another option if you dont care about timing of flights is hotwire. Good luck

 

[The White Coat Investor]

Drive man Drive! That was the best part of residency interview season. I drove from Michigan to Maine and got to see part of the country I'd never seen before. I lucked out too and they were out of compacts, so they gave me a Mustang!

One thing to consider, do you really want to live somewhere during the busiest time in your life where the only way you can fly back to see friends and family is to pay $800 for a 1 hour flight?

 

[Lara]

I live in Pitt, so I guess I'll reply even though I'm applying in peds. Unfortunately US Airways (the airport's major airline) apparently cut a good number of direct flights last year. I found out the hard way when Montreal got cancelled, so it's always a connection to go home which sucks.

I do think that La Guardia has more direct flights to Pitt - is it impossible to fly out of that airport? I was searching on US Airways.com for flights to Lebanon NH for Dartmouth (connects through LGA) in January, and it was under $300 round trip, with about 3 flights available a day.

But yes, the connection issue probably *will* play a part in my rank list. Luckily I have four Chicago interviews...

 

[GCS:3]

Try southwest. They're coming to the burgh now...

 

[EM Junkie]

I found Delta nonstops for $411 from JFK, and Continental nonstop out of Newark for $363. Still pretty steep!

Airfare is one of the main reasons I declined the Greenville, NC program. I figure during the first year, my wife may want to come back home once a month or so. Nonstop flights and airfare <$200 is certainly a plus!!

Good luck!