Originally Posted by
zan5hin
Thanks for the info on San Diego by rail. I will strongly consider it. However I don't understand why SEA-SAN is not a oneworld flight when it's an established AA route and part of the oneworld "where we fly" interactive network map.
I guess I might go to SJU in between JFK and DFW instead, I can't really think of anywhere else I can go in North America that's interesting but if you have any ideas for me I'd appreciate that. I will be using NY as a base for Boston, Washington, Montreal and Toronto and Seattle as a base for Vancouver and Portland, Miami for Orlando and San Francisco for Vegas and the Grand Canyon.
SEA-SAN is an established AA route, except that flight is operated as a codeshare flight on Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines isn't a OW carrier. Restricted to OW, you
could fly to SAN-DFW-SEA though I'd hardly recommend wasting your time backtracking to DFW when you can go straight north on a separate ticket.
As for your base:
If you want to visit the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, Los Angeles is closer, cheaper, and faster choice for a base than San Francisco. Heck, Los Angeles is in a nice geographical location that can be used as a base for San Francisco and San Diego too. And I'm not saying this because I'm a local Angelino, but because of the wide variety of cheap transportation options available in and out of L.A.:
- Amtrak rail to San Diego
- Long-distance buses to Las Vegas, Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon (Greyhound and Amtrak buses)
- L.A. also offeres competetive airfares to Las Vegas as well (US Airways, American, Southwest, Delta, Northwest, United)
- Very competetive airfares to SFO/OAK/SJC (American, Southwest, Alaska, United)
- Have lots of time, patience and taste of a cool adventure? Then I highly recommend traveling on Amtrak's Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Oakland (San Francisco) to Seattle - all on rail
When you're in San Diego, you can also take a day trip to Tijuana just to say that you've been to Mexico. There is a trolley station in front of the San Diego Amtrak station which takes you all the way down to the US-Mexico border. After that it's just a walk across the bridge and you're in Mexico.
If you're into collecting entry stamps in your passport, ask the station personnel in one of the buildings right after you cross the border into Mexico. Usually they don't give out stamps since most people visiting Tijuana by walking across the border are there for less than 72 hours.
Getting a stamp placed in your passport is a hit and miss though. Ask nicely you might get it for free as a souvenir. However, if the guy is in a bad mood you'll have to do the legal way of filling out a Mexican tourist card and pay $27 at a bank to get the stamp.
Other places of interest - if you are into planespotting, I suggest visiting SXM (St. Maarten). You can get there from MIA using AA and include that into your trip. That will be one interesting experience as you'll never find any other airport that will let you be as closest as you can be directly underneath the landing path! Oh, and beautiful beaches too ^