Quickly accumulate rapid rewards or companion
Snag a WN Chase card at the current promo- 2 roundtrips w/ $1000 spend I believe. Also sign up for the business version of the card and do the same.
Apart from RR, grab the WN iPhone app and enable Ding alerts. Every few days they push ding only deals out. I'm in Sac and 90% of the time the Ding includes LAX/SNA/BUR AT $50-$80