
When we travel internationally — whether it’s to Europe, Central or South America, Asia, or elsewhere — we often find and book the cheapest flights from bigger cities to our destination. From Kansas City, where we live, there just aren’t as many cost-effective options. Typically, we use Southwest points we accrued in our former lives as corporate consultants to help us get from KC to our destination city.
Our favorite place to transfer is Boston (like we did for this Europe trip we’re on right now) because Boston only has one airport and we only have to change terminals, but a lot of big hub cities have multiple airports. And Southwest typically flies into the smaller airport of the two. Which means we have to plan the transfer into our travel day. Depending on the airports and cities, this can range from a minor pain to a major one.
The four cities we’ve transferred airports on a travel day are Chicago, Fort Lauderdale/Miami, New York City, and Houston. Here’s a review of what it’s like to change airports using public transportation in those four cities, ranked from best to worst, with ratings based on a few factors. [Read more…]