<p>I'll be a freshamn at harvard next year. In planning to go to prefrosh weekend, I noticed that flying to Boston is extremely expensive, over $300. This is probably bc its such a major business city. </p>
<p>Does anyone have any adivce for transportation to Harvard. The train is cheaper, but it takes so long from VA to MA. I need to find a cheaper way to travel since I will be going back and forth for the next four years. Any discounted student programs??</p>
<p>Thanks for any advice!</p>
<p>You live in the greater Washington DC area?</p>
<p>yes, I do
10char</p>
<p>Beginning in August, Southwest Airlines should begin to fly between Boston and Baltimore if that helps.
[Southwest</a> to start daily flights from Logan Airport to Chicago, Baltimore in August - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/travel/getaways/us/articles/2009/04/14/southwest_will_start_logan_run_in_august/]Southwest”>http://www.boston.com/travel/getaways/us/articles/2009/04/14/southwest_will_start_logan_run_in_august/)</p>
<p>I’m assuming you used a site like Kayak.com to check fares from DCA + IAD to BOS? If not, do that first!</p>
<p>Some other ideas:
Consider flying out of BWI (Baltimore) and/or into PVD (Providence).
AirTran flies BWI-BOS and is cheap. Southwest flies BWI-PVD (I think), and may even fly BWI-BOS (they just started flying into BOS).</p>
<p>Getting from PVD to Harvard isn’t super easy… Probably the easiest way is to take a Peter Pan bus from the PVD airport to South Station (the Boston train station, you can take the subway from there to Harvard). All in, it probably costs $20 and takes a bit more than an hour.</p>
<p>If you’re <em>really</em> hurting for cash, I think you can take a chinatown bus from DC -> NYC, and then another chinatown bus from NYC -> BOS. I wouldn’t recommend this though.</p>
<p>[Cheap</a> flights for Students and Teachers; Airfare, Hostel and Rail discounts | STA TRAVEL | STA Travel Home](<a href=“http://www.statravel.com%5DCheap”>http://www.statravel.com)</p>
<p>Seems like you can comfortably get under $200 roundtrip.</p>
<p>AirTran flies out of BWI and has the cheapest airfares; you can get an AirTran Visa card and earn one frequent flyer mile per dollar charged. You get a free trip on AirTran with 8,000 miles. At holidays it can cost a lot each way, but at off-times, we’ve gotten flights at $69 - $89 each way.</p>
<p>Once you get to Logan Airport, you walk outside from the luggage carousel and pick up the T’s “Silver Line” bus for $2 ($1.70 if you get a swipe card and put $ on it). It takes you to the subway “Red Line” which takes you directly to the Harvard campus.</p>
<p>As a student, your free time is not valuable. Hence, taking a bus is cheap, but takes a long time. Your choice if you want to pay the $$$'s to save time.</p>
<p>Look into Amtrak as well. You can buy Student Advantage for four years very inexpensively, and that gives you a discount. Amtrak goes to South Station in Boston and you can pick up the T from there.</p>
<p>Amtrak is the way to go IMHO. It takes a long time, but the train is very comfortable. Bring your books and your computer and you can get a lot of work done (or relax and watch a DVD).</p>
<p>thanks for the advice everyone!</p>