Wilmington NC

imp1

Hi,
I am trying to book flights to Wilmington, North Carolina. Norwegian flights to Stewart are available, but internal flights in the US are much dearer than crossing the pond. Am I missing something in what is the best way to find internal flights in the US.
Thanks for any pointers.

dennyk

Nope, internal flights in the US tend to be more expensive, especially for flights to tertiary airports like Wilmington. I'd look for flights to larger nearby hubs instead and rent a car there to drive to your destination; Myrtle Beach is 1.5 hours away, and Raleigh is about two hours. Don't forget to check some of the US LCCs also, like Spirit, JetBlue, and Southwest, who aren't typically listed on booking agents or aggregators. Spirit has nonstop flights from LGA to MYR for decent prices, for example, if you don't mind the usual LCC hassles.

imp1

Thanks for that, it's for a daughter heading off to college there so car rental is a non runner.
I will have a look at these LCC's
Ta.

Manic Moran

You don't specify a date, but I'm showing round trip prices beginning of Sept DUB to ILM for just under $1100 US on United, which seems reasonable for a transatlantic to me. What sort of dollar figure were you looking for?

Don't forget to visit the battleship they have parked there...

imp1

Thanks, Manic, ex Dub 15th Aug and coming back mid Dec I can now find for $1067. Much cheaper on their own website rather than expecting Expedia, Skyscanner etc.

The Norwegian flights at €80 are some bargain, but tying up the whole trip is not easy.

The battleship does look impressive on its mooring, if it was me I would be trying to visit, not so sure it has the same attraction for 20 year old girls though!

HDMI

imp1 wrote: »

The battleship does look impressive on its mooring, if it was me I would be trying to visit, not so sure it has the same attraction for 20 year old girls though!

My wife is from the US and her sister is currently attending the University of North Carolina in Wilmington. Like others have said it's the smaller regional airports that really bump up the fares. My in laws live in New Bern NC and over the past few years we have yet to find reasonable priced flights into New Bern. We are actually moving over hopefully the end of June and are just in the process of booking flights at the moment. Working out much cheaper to fly into DC and do a one way rental with Avis and drive the rest of the way.

Our normal route is Aer Lingus to Boston and on to Raleigh, normally costs between 1000-1200 euro for both of us. The last trip we used American Airlines direct to Charlotte and drove the rest of the way. Maybe your daughter can find out if any other students are doing the commute and grab a lift. A lot of them just use college accommodation for the school year and then head back to their own towns, so they will be making the journey back. I bet there's an online notice board or similar.

The battleship is an excellent couple of hours and well worth seeing.