Getting to PDX - would you consider San Francisco as gateway?
 

We are going to Portland, Oregon next summer and going to book a redemption flight in J and trying to pick an airport to fly from London to.

Any insight into the best choice?

Like many on here - we count the flight on part of the holiday.

While Seattle is the obvious place to fly - would we be mad to consider San Francisco instead - either SJC or SFO. Even Oakland from Gatwick.

We will be staying over at an airport hotel on arrival and going to Portland the next day (i find too much stress of trying to make a connection the same day).

SEA - obvious choice - but redemption can be difficult - 1st flight is a killer jetlag wise i find. Afternoon flight is 747 - fine if you can get upper deck i find but no status so unlikely. Expensive hotels.

San Jose (SJC)- short flight with Southwest the next day (love the 2 free bags). 787 flight so a smaller cabin and a more modern plane that the 747 to Seattle. I am thinking quicker immigration. Relatively cheap airport hotels.

SFO - again short and cheap flight with Southwest the following day. A380 so again a modern jet. Again - airport hotels cheaper than Seattle by quite a margin.

Basically, any arrival gateway (with the possible exception of SEA) will be a flight away, and in that sense, there is no absurd or obvious choice. In may ways, you might well get cheaper stuff from ORD, LAS, or LAX than from SFO because of greater competition. But then if you found SW at a price you like that is certainly fine too!

Alaska Airlines has a good 'commuter' style service between SJC to PDX; back when I lived in the area, I took that a number of times, and a number of people commuted weekly. These are smaller planes and you could check in closer to the boarding time. I believe sometimes the flights were run by Horizon Air, and they served free beer and wine which was very popular on the Friday evening flights back.

If it's a single booking it is the airlines problem if you misconnect, they will get you on a later flight (if you like low stress leave a long gap in the first place)

Another option is to drive to Portland, you will be driving through a beautiful part of the world ("the real Northern California"). after landing first drive north out of bay area to lower cost locations. this is a 2 day (10hrs....) drive if you want low stress and sight seeing along the way

It depends what you are expecting out of your stopover. If it's just a connecting point and bed for the night, then SJC will likely work out as the easiest/cheapest. Immigration queuing will be minimal compared to SFO, and hotels are likely much cheaper. Just that there isn't anything to do in the area. For restaurants etc you'll either need to take what you can get in the hotel or take an Uber out to Santana Row or something like that.

Sounds odd but one of my colleague goes to PDX every 3 months, she's done the SEA/SFO route (not sure if shes done SJC) but she actually enjoys going via SAN and taking one of the AS flights up to PDX either with a 2 hours connection or going on the early morning/midday flight the next day.

I've done the SJC route and the 789 is the way to go so long as your not in Y, although I would definitely consider SAN if time is on your side.

Depends on whether you want to explore the SF Bay Area at all or just plan on staying in your hotel. If it's the latter, I'd go with San Jose, SFO can have a lot of issues due to the fog here. If you want to explore San Francisco, SFO is about a 15min drive from the city.

YVR is another option. A380 in the summer, arrive around 7pm well outside prime hours for Canadian immigration and customs. Excellent airport hotel (Fairmont YVR).

Flights to PDX operate on small aircraft with US preclearance.

Thanks for all the tips.

We pretty much just want a bed for the night. We generally just get a few pints in the hotel bar with a bar snack for dinner on day 1 when we fly to the west coast.

Do fancy the driving up from San Francisco one day - it is on the list but won't have time this trip.

San Diego - not thought about that - will have a look. Think SJC makes sense - in J so get a smaller cabin as a 787 and the "commute" the following day is pretty much the same as from Seattle.

Will not need a car while in Portland (we go to the coast later in the week when we will need a car).

Did look at train from Seattle - but not sure i am convinced.

Thanks again - very helpful info.

That is also tempting - will price it up.

Don't know where abouts in Scotland you are but consider starting your trip in INV to save on the tax, it's around 350-500gbp saving for two people I think. You can finish your trip at GLA/EDI/ABZ.

Portland is a very interesting town with a gritty English-German heritage (think sausages) on a prominent river crossing, and the good public transport system there indeed would make a car a liability more than a convenience. In late June this year I took the Seattle train north to Vancouver, in business class, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Drinking hot coffee in a roomy seat while the coast went past was excellent. It's the same rolling stock/fleet used down to Portland and from the handy brochures they give out it looks to me to be an interesting and scenic ride.

[Only oddity about Portland is that for complex reasons it has a huge homeless population, almost as many people as London in a city far smaller. It causes remarkably few problems as far as I can tell, but it's the unspoken feature about that city. This shouldn't put you off however.]

You could just fly LHR-PHX and then connect onto an American Airlines service to PDX.

I connected through Phoenix to Portland once before and it's fine. Not sure what an overnight is like there but I'd look into it.

Or just fly to BOS and connect next day to Alaska BOS-PDX.

The train from Seattle to Portland is about 4 hours and I'm with CWS on this, its most enjoyable.

In fact I'm on the Portland to Seattle train in October (after getting the train to Portland from Chicago)

Cws - I've taken the Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver and it's a marvellous way to travel!