When visiting ND last week we took a direct flight from Newark airport into South Bend on United, then took a 10 min taxi to campus. It was very convenient but United offers minimal daily flights which may be tricky if and when my daughter wants to fly home for breaks. I heard many students use O’Hare or Midway (both in Chicago) and take a bus to and from campus, which is 2 or 3 hours. Can anyone from the NY area chime in on what route and airline has been most convenient? I’m not concerned about Aug and May as we will drop her off and pick her up.
We usually book United or American out of O’Hare since they have flights to the NY airports (LGA,JFK or Newark) almost every hour. If we get a good price, we might go with Southwest out of Midway especially if my D has luggage since bags fly free. JetBlue on occasion but the price and schedule are not always the best. The bus brings them right from campus to either Midway or O’Hare and is scheduled to run every 2 hours. They do have to remember that Chicago is in a different time zone when planning their bus time! Sometimes, they get a ride to the airport from a friend that is heading home toward Chicago.
Flights in and out of South Bend are usually very expensive and the new flight that United runs is only once a day and usually not at the best time. You can choose to do connecting flights out of South Bend but then you run the risk of missing the connection in Chicago/Detroit etc. for the convenience of using South Bend airport.
You might consider getting a summer storage unit at the end of freshman year either off campus or some dorms have a summer storage trailer to store any items that are not needed for the summer at home. The amount of stuff that they accumulate from that first drive out there seems to multiply rapidly and would never fit back in the van for the ride back to NY.
Best of luck to your D and welcome to the ND family!
Asked a friend and here is what his daughter does:
United and its affiliates fly in and out of South Bend. In fact, there is now a direct flight (again) from Newark to South Bend (evening) and South Bend to Newark (early morning)…every day. However, Newark and LaGuardia mostly send UA flights to Chicago, then hop on the puddle jumpers into South Bend.
Delta has the old Northwest into Detroit and then to South Bend and Delta itself has the flights into Cincinnati and then into S. Bend. However, UA is the main gig in town for the Northeast.
That’s what most metro-region do with frosh and sophomores…
Once kids start getting cars, you’ll see tag teamers hitch rides.
Oh, one last thing…book early: particularly for Thanksgiving.
The direct flight to South Bend is ideal if you can make the times work. It wasn’t an option when my S went.
He had a problem over Thanksgiving when his South Bend to O’Hare flight was cancelled last minute and we had to scramble to get him home so we swore off of that way of travel pretty quickly.
When my S was there for grad school he’d usually take the bus from campus to O’Hare and leave from there. Spirit was generally the cheapest choice but almost every airline goes from NY to O’Hare. He tried taking the small plane from O’Hare to South Bend but felt the bus was easier, cheaper, more flexible. Before/After vacations they generally run buses directly to/from the campus and the airport. Sometimes he’d get a bunch of people together and take a cab to/from the airport and the price isn’t that much different than the bus.
Thank you all!
O’Hare/SB flights can get cancelled, especially if they are the last flight of the evening, or first in the morning. Often, folks traveling in and out of South Bend will transfer through Detroit or Minneapolis to avoid the risk of cancellation in Chicago. The non stop Newark-SB flights are a great new development, just started in the fall.
Or, just take the Coach Bus from O’Hare or Midway to South Bend, and avoid the risk of cancellation entirely.
Do Detroit/SB flights get cancelled often, or is this only an issue with O’Hare/SB and Midway/SB flights?