Originally Posted by
econ
I wouldn't recommend driving from SF to Vegas or San Diego at all. Those are both 8-9 hr drives with not much of interest to see in between, at least not if you take the most direct routes. I've done both and would not look forward to doing them again if I had to.
There are some very interesting things to see if you went out of your way a bit (Yosemite, Death Valley on the way to Vegas...or Hwy 1/101 on the way to SD), but that would definitely make it more of a multi-day road trip.
Personally, I wouldn't bother with Domestic First on those routes. Both are only an hour or so in the air. Although AA (oneworld) doesn't fly direct to LAS/SAN from SFO, Alaska does. I don't think they're supposed to be completely in oneworld by March 2021, but you can earn/use Avios on AS at least. As mentioned above, Southwest is another good option.
I did the drives in 2017, albeit that was a road trip so we were stopping off along the way - hence why I don't want to do the drives again.
The trip itself is still a long way off, but I was curious for folks views on flying within the US. We are looking to try and maximise the time we spend on the trips outside of SF and flying is going to be the quickest way to get around. I suppose my question should have been - are there any airlines to avoid when looking at locations to fly to on the West Coast? Either way, the information given so far is a big help so I will keep looking and see what I can come up with. After all, I'll need to book accommodation in SF first!!!