<p>What is the best way to travel to Bama from NY airports? How far is the school from the airport and how do students typically get there?</p>
<p>Either Southwest from ISP or LGA, or Delta from LGA are usually best. Over his freshman year, DS flew each, along with USAirways once. There will almost always be a connection. There is one nonstop each way between Birmingham and LGA (Delta). It is early morning going north, and evening going south. If those times work, great. Usually they don’t. Fortunately so far, DS has had no problems with connections. </p>
<p>BHM is one hour away from the school. There are UA shuttle buses before and after school breaks. Many students also get rides with friends (there is a facebook rideshare page). When those don’t work, there are private and shared ride services. When even that doesn’t work, there may be an incredibly generous offer from someone on these boards.</p>
<p>Well put. My S usually drives back and forth, but he has arranged his driving so that he can pick up or drop off someone at BHM at least once. I think that you will find despite its size, UA really is a rather tight-knit community and we pride ourselves on being able to help one another out.</p>
<p>The evening direct Delta flight out of LaGuardia has moved from an 8pm slot to a much better 7pm slot and seems to have a much better on time percentage than the 8pm flight. It’s a quick 2 hour flight. My wife and son during BamaBound decided to take early flights to Birmingham and an evening flight home to NY. Both required connections. It took over 5 hours total going and coming home the evening flight was canceled with no warning almost leaving my DS and DW stranded until the next morning. Fortunately there were other flights to other NY airports but they took 7 hours to complete.</p>
<p>^ it’s 7:50pm out of LGA, and 7:00am out of BHM. Flight down is 2:51 scheduled flying time, less the hour time zone change. It’s a nice choice if the times work. DS usually finds the 9:41pm arrival at BHM too late for his needs.</p>
<p>We did the nonstops for Bama Bound. Flew down the night before (required anyway in order to be there for 8am start), then stayed the last night before the 7am flight home.</p>
<p>When we initially toured the school, we flew into ATL to combine with a visit to Georgia Tech. Rented a car for the easy 3 hour drive to UA. Total travel time was about the same as connecting flights would have been. We did the same for move-in, since flights and rental for the whole family were much cheaper than BHM. ATL is not really an option for students (tough to get rides), but if the family is going, it’s worth checking.</p>
<p>If you’re going to connect, I’d recommend connecting in CLT over ATL, ATL is a mess when any weather comes through.</p>
<p>^ I’d second that. Unless the sun is shining, ATL is a disaster. Sometimes, even when the sun is shining, it is still a disaster. That place shuts down at the mere mention of any sort of frozen precipitation. They just don’t know how to handle it.</p>
<p>Almost any airport in the Southeast is going to close when snow is falling, it happens.</p>
<p>I’ve connected in ATL many times, sometimes twice in the same day (planned in advance) and hardly ever have delays. When I do, I just hop on a different flight. The new Concourse F is hardly ever busy and has great food options. Along with Southwest and the occasional American flight, Delta tends to fly mainline aircraft out of BHM, which are less likely to be cancelled or delayed than regional aircraft. Contrary to popular belief, upgrades are also possible out of ATL; my flights back to Alabama after spring break were all in first class.</p>
<p>Out of NYC, you have a lot of options. Connections are fine, especially if you connect in the larger hubs. Airfares can vary widely between JFK, LGA, and EWR, with outlying airports often not being much more expensive. Remember that sometimes it’s worth paying the extra $20-$100 to get more convenient flights, especially if spending more money means less of a wait for an airport shuttle.</p>
<p>BHM just opened a brand new terminal which is quite the improvement over the previous terminals. Security lines generally move quickly and still use the traditional metal detectors.</p>
<p>Just as another point, I’d highly recommend using ITA to search for your flights at <a href=“http://matrix.itasoftware.com%5B/url%5D”>http://matrix.itasoftware.com</a> . It’s excellent.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great info everyone!</p>
<p>^^^^Chardo, our August move-in flight to BHM on Delta direct is a 7pm flight. Maybe they changed it for the summer since I saw that my Sept Parent weekend flight is back to 7:50pm.</p>