Why does nobody talk about how long it takes to find cheap flights to smaller airports?

I spent like 4 hours last night trying to book a trip to Asheville from the West Coast. Every budget site kept showing flights to Charlotte instead, which is 2 hours away by car. Finally stumbled onto Allegiant's website directly (dumb, I know) and found a $49 one-way to a tiny regional airport nearby. Has anyone else dealt with this hidden airport trick taking forever to figure out?

3 comments

3 Comments

dixon.james1mo agoMost Upvoted

Man, that's exactly it. Just like @the_drew was saying about the grocery app, all these travel sites are designed to push the biggest airports and most convenient connections for their profit margins, not your wallet. You end up wasting an evening clicking through the same five destinations because the algorithm thinks you want the obvious choice, and the real gems are buried under three layers of filters and fine print.

the_drew1mo agoTop Commenter

Yeah the grocery app thing is NOT the same as airline pricing though.

ryanm601mo ago

Honestly that's the whole problem with everything now. Everything is designed for the most obvious option, so you gotta dig through layers just to find the actual good deal. It's like how my grocery app always shows the name brand stuff first even though the store brand is literally right next to it and half the price.