When I come from the east coast I like to stay overnight in LAX or another west coast town. We are always more "refreshed" at the beginning of our vacation in Hawaii. If we go straight in we are exhausted for days! The last few trips the miles were the same whether I was coming from SAT or LAX! So we made the trip all in one day. This year we are breaking it up in both directions! We are flying Alaska Airlines out of San Jose. We used some Alaska miles and also got a seat using American miles for another family member on the same flight... all were mile saver...