Budget Travel - (MR babysteps westcoast) comfortable but not too expensive hotels via mass transit

I'm new to MRs but would like start doing it with baby step, such as flying from east coast to west coast cities when there is a good fare. Also, I must be one of those weak souls who can get tired easily and feels it would be a bonus to stay at the destination city for a day or two to make it a mini-vacation.

I tried to search for airport hotels but too many came out, and also since I'm a city slicker I feel taking mass transit from the airport into the city would provide far more options if mass transit is available from the destination airport. I've been to SFO (also ORD,Toronto but the latter two are a bit too close to my home city for MR purposes) to know mass transit is available.

I was wondering if someone could share whether SAN, LAX, SEA, or any other west coast cities that have mass transit from the airport; alternatively if mass transit is not available but a nice airport hotel is easily accessible, I would be interested to know as well.

Many thanks,

deltame

The FlyAway bus from LAX is an easy way to get downtown (Union Station). From there it is easy to connect to other parts of the city.

There is also FlyAway service to Westwood and Van Nuys if you care to explore other parts of the greater LA area.

There are many airport hotels at LAX and being based in LAX, I have not stayed in any of them--but if you have to choose one I would go with Westin because their product has been consistently good IME.

Check out www.biddingfortravel.com.

In SAN you can take the bus from the Airport very easy and from LAX you can take the LRT (Green Line) in to downtown or anyware in LAX you just switch from the Green line to the Blue line to get to Union Station.

When you go to the web sites of the different Airports and look under Transportation, it will tell you all about available Public Transit.

I'm new to MRs but would like start doing it with baby step, such as flying from east coast to west coast cities when there is a good fare. Also, I must be one of those weak souls who can get tired easily and feels it would be a bonus to stay at the destination city for a day or two to make it a mini-vacation.

I tried to search for airport hotels but too many came out, and also since I'm a city slicker I feel taking mass transit from the airport into the city would provide far more options if mass transit is available from the destination airport. I've been to SFO (also ORD,Toronto but the latter two are a bit too close to my home city for MR purposes) to know mass transit is available.

I was wondering if someone could share whether SAN, LAX, SEA, or any other west coast cities that have mass transit from the airport; alternatively if mass transit is not available but a nice airport hotel is easily accessible, I would be interested to know as well.

Many thanks,

deltame

It will cost you a whole $1.75 to take the bus from SeaTac into Seattle (30 minute ride).

My only complaint is that it is difficult to understand the announcements for the stops (I watched my GPS instead :D).

I've done mini-vacation MR's to each of the cities which you mentioned. Of these, SAN is by far the easiest to do with mass transit. Bus #922 will take you from the airport to the downtown area in about ten minutes, and from there you can connect by bus or trolley to just about anywhere you want to go. The current cost is $2.25, or $5.00 for an all day pass. Unless there's a big convention in town, there's usually a surplus of hotel rooms, so there are many bargains. A great destination for a short vacation - or a long one, for that matter.

If it is a mileage run and not a pleasure trip, then your time will be limited. All of the ailrports you asked about, and any major airport, will have decent airport hotels. You just get on the free shuttle that runs every few minutes. I agree with the poster above who suggested the Bidding For Travel website to get an idea of how much to bid on Priceline. 3* or 4* hotels are normally comfortable, and on Priceline they are not too expensive.

For LAX, there are hotels south of the airport that are an easy walk to the Green Line which you can then use to transfer to the Blue Line to downtown (and on to the Red Line to other parts of downtown and to connections to Pasadena and Hollywood that I admit to not being remarkably familiar with).

Another option is to stay in one of the hotels on the Century Blvd strip and walk over to the transit station next to Parking Lot C. You can then take the Santa Monica bus to downtown Santa Monica to go to the beach. (There are also RTD and Culver City bus lines that serve that transit station; I just don't know them as well.)

I did a recent trip to SEA and found the bus service (line 194 if I recall correctly) to downtown to be easy to use. In my case, because I was coming in late on Friday and leaving early on Sunday, I stayed at an airport hotel and used the bus Saturday to go to the Experience Music Project and Safeco Field. But you could stay downtown and take the bus to your hotel (and back to the airport).

This question/discussion of US westcoast hotels near mass transit is being moved from Mileage Run Deals (which is for the fare deals earning status miles for next to nothing) to somewhere more destination-specific.

Cheers,
BiziBB
Moderator, Mileage Run forums

PS. IME SFO is good for transit.

(thanks to SanDiego1k for moving it once discussion turned to options outside California... hopefully you get a good range of answers from its three-forum tour. :))

OP, what is(are) your home airport(s)? I find PDX, SEA, and SFO to have the easiest mass transit systems. LA is kinda spread out and really not my kind of town. I've never been to SAN.

PDX has lightrail between airport and downtown. SEA is building a light rail system between the airport and downtown. Its bus system works fine. SFO, as you know, has a pretty good rail and bus system.

The three cities mentioned above have fairly clustered downtown area that you can walk.

Welcome to the MRing world. Be careful, you may get hooked on it :)

regards,
drew

SEA is building a light rail system between the airport and downtown.


Opens July 18..^

I know this thread has bounced around a bit, and I do apologize. Since the focus of the thread is economic transit from the airport to the city, rather than the flights itself, I am going to move the thread into the Budget Travel forum. It's certainly a judgment call, but I think it best suits there.

SanDiego1K
Senior Mod

Thanks everyone for your input. I think I'll visit SAN first since it was 10+ years since I last visited. I almost forgot the airport is close to downtown, and also the good old bus service that I took advantage of for cheap "tours" between UCSD and downtown area while I was on short visiting assignments at UCSD some 10+ years ago :-)

So this would indeed become more of a weekend pleasure trip with miles than a pure MR!!! I do hope to be able to complete this trip by June 15 to enjoy earning DEQM. Also many thanks to the posters who recommended Priceline, I will first try to bid a downtown hotel before finalize booking my flights.

Sounds like this thread has gone on a mileage run of Flyertalk! :D

Sounds like this thread has gone on a mileage run of Flyertalk! :D

Maybe time to move it back to MR Forum ;)

And yes, LAX, SEA and SAN all have good public transit, SAN and SEA in particular. And it will be even better when the SEA LRT opens ^

EmailKid

Well, I won a bid for $68/night for a four star hotel in downtown San Diego. My overall redeemable mile-per-cent ratio isn't too great by FT standards but I consider it a vacation and also DEQM will put me in the elites.

My overall redeemable mile-per-cent ratio isn't too great by FT standards but I consider it a vacation and also DEQM will put me in the elites.

I've seent the term "blended run," which is what I do. Have yet to do a pure mileage run.

EmailKid