Why You Need to Know Your Airport Codes

Planning your air travel centers around three letters – the letters that represent the airports your are traveling from, to, or through.  The right three letters ensure that you’ll have easy, smooth travels.  The wrong three letters result in your having to pay an exorbitant change fee, or worse – winding up in the wrong city!

Do you know your airport codes?

Many online ticket sites allow you to search for you airport code by listing your city in the itinerary search section.  But when a city has several airports, it’s important to pay attention which of those several you may be flying into.  Make sure that you are going where you think you’re going.

If the booking site that you are using doesn’t have a search for the airport code, you can try the reference site, World Airport Codes, or try a Google search using “airport code for XXX “ (with the XXX being the city you are looking for).  Again, be prepared to sift through multiple airports if you are looking at a larger metropolitan area.

When doing a price comparison, you should check using the same airport code.  But if there are more than one airport that is an option, contrast tickets prices by using different airports to see if you can save some precious travel dollars.  For example, if you’re flying into London, you have 5 airport choices:

• LCY – London City Airport
• LHR – London Heathrow
• LGW – London Gatwick
• STD – London Stansted (an unfortunate airport code)
• LTN – London Luton

Making your reservations isn’t the only time you need to pay attention to your airport codes.

If you’re checking your bags, you’ll want to make sure that the bag tags are coded for the correct airport so that you and your bags have a better chance of getting to the same place.

My home airport code is SEA.  Do you know yours?

Photot: raindog @flickr

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