lsquare

My starting point will be Seattle. I'm going to start from the West coast and eventually head east, concluding in either Boston or New York City.

Here are the list of cities that I want to visit: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Honolulu, Chicago, Orlando, Miami, Washington D.C, and then either New York City or Boston.

Looking at some of the places, I might not have to fly all that often. I haven't really travelled around the west coast of the US. I don't know if it's easy to go from San Francisco to LA by bus or car. I'm not sure if either of those options are cheaper than taking the plane. I've taken the bus from Washington D.C to NYC and then to Boston before. There are lots of cheap buses from NYC to Boston especially from Chinatown so I'm not worried there.

So having mentioned what I want to do. Can someone tell me how to do this cost effectively? There's no specific timeframe to this trip.

Thx!

BLI-Flyer

Not enough info. Do you want the cheapest flight no matter what? (i.e., multiple connections, overnight flights, no FF miles, etc.)? Is earning airline miles important, so you want to stick to one airline or one alliance? Is your in-flight experience important? How far in advance will you be purchasing your tickets? What prices have you found so far? What do you consider "cheap?"

All of the cities are available on Alaska Airlines (AS), and you can use your flights for AS, AA, or DL miles. WN (Southwest) might also be a choice, but it's a very different experience at the airport and in-flight than other airlines. Let us know more about what your priorities are.

lsquare

Sorry if I wasn't clear earlier. I would prefer direct flights or at the most 1 stop so I guess that means it doesn't have to be the cheapest flight. I would define cheap as a price being less than "normal prices". In-flight experiece is not that important and I would prefer to book couple of months in advance. I haven't done any searches because I wanted to get some opinions on how people normally travel on those routes. I figure I might get an opinion on two before I do any serious searching on this matter.

It would be nice to collect frequent flier points. Is Alaska Airlines part of the One World program or Star Alliance? For clarification purposes, are you saying that AS points can be used on AA and DL flights as well?

BLI-Flyer

AS is not a part of any alliance, but you can earn and redeem miles on AA, DL, and a number of international carriers.
http://www.alaskaair.com/as/mileagep...rs_Airline.asp

cblaisd

Since the op's question isn't limited to "the West," I'm going to move this to Travel Buzz.

cblaisd
Senior Moderator