How DARE You!

I, your obedient servant, am retired, having put in 30 years of taking people from Connecticut to New York City via Metro-North's New Haven Line.

And while it was a job that (for the most part) I loved, I always looked forward to some vacation time.

I'm sure there are a lot of you out there who work hard at your jobs. Maybe you have a wife and at least one child. Hey, ya do what ya gotta do.

So, if you're fortunate enough to have a little money saved up, you too want to get away from it all, if only for a week or so, and live a little.

And, while your desire is to splurge somewhat, you also want to look for some deals to help stretch your vacation dollar.

Sure, you'd like to stay at the Ritz-Carlton, but your budget is saying "Motel 6."

And my guess is you'll be renting a Nissan or a Toyota versus a Benz or a Beemer.

Oh, and while you'll probably spring for dinner at one nice restaurant, Applebee's and TGI Friday's is probably a more on the menu.

If you're traveling to a destination requiring you to fly (oh, I don't know, Disney World, perhaps?), you want the best airfare deal you can get.

Tweed New-Haven Regional Airport is fortunate enough to have not one, but two low-cost carriers serving it: Avelo Airlines and Breeze Airways.

Provided you don't attempt to book at the last minute, when they sell the remaining seats at higher fares, you can get some pret-ty good airfares for yourself and the bunch.

BUT...

There are those factions out there who are against Avelo (mostly for their deal with Immigration & Customs Enforcement to deport undocumented immigrants out of the country) and Tweed itself for having the temerity to accommodate commercial jet aircraft.

The Avelo case I can understand. But you also have Breeze, which is worth a look.

Tweed is another matter.

Ever since Avelo started service out of the airport in 2021, airport opponents have mounted a campaign attempting to dissuade flight-bound travelers from going through with their travel plans. They've even borrowed a term made popular by self-styled environmental justice warrior Greta Thunberg: "How dare you!"

Yes, how dare you! How dare you take your family on vacation! How dare you seek to escape winter's cold for several days in the warm sun! How dare you try to save a little money! How dare you take a little time off from your job! Get back to work, schlub!

In my piece from April 29th of 2024, "Vacation, New Haven Edition," I wrote at length about how for years Tweed's foes extolled the virtues of the "cheap" fares out of Bradley International Airport versus the "expensive" fares out of Tweed. And the fares were cheap...provided you didn't factor in such variables as surface transportation to Windsor Locks, either limo or driving, parking, if you chose the latter, and even an overnight stay in the airport hotel for those early morning flights.

The addition of the two low-cost carriers at Tweed changed all that, with lower fares.

I know, some of you who've flown Avelo will say, "They charge for everything additional, from bags to snacks!" Don't you think all that is included in the higher fares of the "legacy" carriers such as American, Delta and United? Kind of like when the mortgage company advertises "no points." How can they do that? Pssst, it's already included in your mortgage.

"Well, the parking is expensive at Tweed! Bradley is cheaper!" No argument there. But do you know where it's cheaper? In those "economy" lots that are so far away from the terminal as to be in another zip code. You want to park close to the terminal at Bradley? You're gonna pay.

"Well, Avelo has been known to delay or even cancel flights!" What's the worst that can happen? You go home, versus sleeping on the hold room benches of a faraway airport or, worse, springing for a room for the night at the airport hotel. Especially if someone who was nice enough to give you a ride to Windsor Locks or Queens doesn't exactly cotton to getting back in their car to rescue you.

Judging by the robust boarding figures Tweed has posted since 2021, a lot of folks have concluded that it's worth doing your homework to get a more affordable fare out of Tweed. I mean, more than half a million people a year can't be wrong, can they?

Now, I don't know what your finances are. Maybe you can afford the trip to that airport upstate or out of state. Maybe you can afford the overnight stay at the airport hotel. But if you're like me (and if you're not, you should be), you're looking for value. You want to have some spare change left over to pick up a few tchotchkes to bring back home.

So, should your trip through the Tweed parking lot include an encounter with someone (most likely an airport or ICE opponent) who asks, "How dare you!," you may want to ask what kind of job they have (if, indeed, they have one,) where they can take time off from work to interrupt your vacation plans...unless, of course, they want to pay for you to fly from somewhere else.