All the Way to Reno
 

Over the past couple years I've gradually moved my business from UA + WN to AS. I'm still a UA plat, and recently lost A-List + CP status. On AS I'm a 75k MVP, and would have probably hit 100k barring one big change in my life: I'm changing my cadence from SF 60% of the time/Tahoe 20% of the time/travel 20% of the time to Reno 60% of the time/ SF 20% of the time/travel 20%.

Alaska flies to Reno, but with limited frequency and difficult connections. The lack of a SFO flight is hard, as is the just one flight per day to LAX. The Mrs and I visit HNL frequently, and there is no nonstop flight on any airline, and she visits HND/NRT quarterly which is a hard connection on AS. A better HNL connection, and more service to California really would be a game changer for us.

The simple answer would be to shift back to a WN/UA combination...but we really like Alaska more, and have had a few great experiences with AA. As the pandemic slowly eases and flights increase does it make sense to remain with the airline whose product we prefer or shift to a different combination that is otherwise just not as good. Life advice?

The airline should work for you, not the other way around. It doesn't make sense to go out of your way to make airline schedules and networks fit your life to extra inconveniences.

Flying AS means flying RNO-SEA; UA means RNO-SFO; DL means RNO-LAX/SLC.

In my opinion, going to HNL is pretty decent on all three. I would give UA the edge for widebody lie-flat seats to HNL if you're relying on upgrades, and I would give DL the edge for better airports: SLC has a new terminal, and LAX will be brand new in a few years (just avoid it for now).

You're in a bit of a unique situation, in that neither of your options are really that great.

That being said, if your wife is flying to Japan 4x a year, the possibility of you both being OWE would be better in my mind than *G.

With *A/UA, you're going to have one carrier via SFO, but OW and LAX may be a slightly better option when factoring in lounge access (QF F, OW Biz) and doing AS/JL for her trips.

Personally, I value OWE over *G, but a case could certainly be made for the opposite.

RNO/SFO flights are amongst the first "to go" during inclement weather. You're going to be dealing with connections for most travel, no matter what you do. Where are your most pain-free connection points? SFO won't be it. WN to anyone else won't be it.

AS has a daily RNO/LAX (at least for now)- so long as you can stay airside and bags (if any) are checked through, you've got AA and all the OW partners. If you can keep any OW status, you're "good enough to go" for when you want to fly AS. The airside AS to TBIT connection at LAX is easy, albeit a bit confusing the first time.

I'd probably go for the OW combo, and choose whatever program works best (which might be AS) and use WN for the occasional short hop.

Another option is AA. You can fly to HNL through PHX. You can fly to TYO on JL or AA metal. This has the added advantage of getting some status benefits (through your AS status) on AA while ramping up on AA status.

I agree that you need to pick your airline based on your location. Unfortunately RNO is kind of a minor airport so you are not going to have a lot of direct options no matter which airline you pick.

I know we have oneworld fans in here, but RNO-LAX is once a day on AS. PHX on AA (twice a day) is complete backtracking for HNL only to fly there on new Oasis seats. Might as well fly Southwest the whole way.

I think the odds of RNO-SFO on AS are lottery odds, as well as meaningful expansion of RNO-SEA/LAX beyond what exists now.

I’d probably go with AS/AA/whoever in OW makes sense, with occasional forays to WN when it makes sense. If UA does make sense now and then the Silver you get as Marriott Titanium isn’t completely useless.

I do think that OW is the best alliance. Also I'm fine with Oasis; I find it more comfortable (but I don't like a lot of padding) Actually I find that the F seats are a bit uncomfortable but I'm good with the econ ones.

As far as the backtracking, I don't really care about flying 3500 miles vs 3000. The length of the connection is more important to me (and AA is a bit long at 2 and a half hrs)

RNO-LAX is scheduled to go twice daily this summer if that helps at all. I don't know anything beyond what Alaska puts out for public consumption, but it wouldn't surprise me if Alaska started RNO - Hawaii at some point, even if not daily. I would expect further expansion from RNO as new planes roll in.

It would be a dream if Alaska had a RNO-HNL flight that connected us to JL. The 2x daily LAX flights would make HNL connections much easier. Hope you are right!

As someone who will split his time between Reno and San Francisco, and has 75k status, it is tempting to maintain my AS Vs AA status…but put credit card spend on an AA card. I’ve found quite different award prices for the same flights using each currency. And even if my UA Platinum status evaporates I should have Silver as a back up (and have pseudo Gold UA status via my Presidential Plus credit card in either case.)

what about RNO-SEA-NRT on JL? Or are you looking for a stopover in HNL on your way to Japan? In any case, here's to future Hawaii flights from RNO! :)

SLC will be the better airport in 2-4 years but because the airport authority decided to do a full demolition of the old terminal last year rather tearing it down in phases that would have kept some gates there during the construction process- they saved like $300 million that way- it’s kind of a mess right now.

LOL...I doubt this makes it to the top 100 potential routes to be added. Perhaps they will announce it along with new non-stops from RNO to HND :)

Also keep in mind, AA is planning to resume 3X daily RNO-LAX flights in summer, and 2X daily RNO-LAX flights in winter. Whether they actually resume it with such frequency remains unknown, but I think that should also be taken into consideration. While AS has only 1X daily flight to LAX rn, it would go up to 5X daily on oneworld alone (2X AS+3X AA) this summer.