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If you had to go west coast - CVG via red-eye, what would you choose?

If you had to go west coast - CVG via red-eye, what would you choose?

Old Jun 28, 2021, 10:26 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by zrs70
Fwiw, my meeting is on a Sunday morning. Traffic should be negligible.
That helps the situation since traffic shouldn’t be an issue in either Indy or Cincinnati. But even then, I’d argue that a 5:45 AM arrival into IND would be pretty tight for getting to Cincinnati by 8:00. As I said, I put in IND to downtown Cincinnati in Google Maps and right now it’s just a few min under 2 hours at now 12:30 AM - what I would imagine as about the same traffic conditions and levels you’ll encounter at 6:00 - 8:00 AM on Sunday morning. 15 min to get off the plane and pick up a rental car seems and then make a ~2 hour drive overly optimistic to me though. Of course only you know where you have to go in the Cincinnati area and how comfortable you are driving at/above the posted speed limits to arrive on time as well as your risk tolerance or any flexibility for this 8:00 meeting on Sunday morning.
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Old Jun 28, 2021, 10:55 pm
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by zrs70
While I see that flight through August, it’s not available (as of now) in September and beyond.
I put in 9/11 and I'm seeing the LAX-CVG red-eye but it's not showing on 9/18
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Old Jun 28, 2021, 10:57 pm
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Originally Posted by zrs70
Fwiw, my meeting is on a Sunday morning. Traffic should be negligible.
Then Indy is looking like the best option with your time constraints; but it's still not a slam dunk. If you venture down that path then heed my earlier warning about Waze and a radar detector if you have one, otherwise keep your eyes peeled as Indiana State Police uses unmarked cars and they do a lot of rolling patrols. Indiana drivers know this and are pretty good about keeping to the speed limit which is why it's hard to really speed sometimes. Between Greensburg and St. Leon is probably the most patrolled area from my experience and they will arrest you if you're going well over 100. YMMV.
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Old Jun 29, 2021, 7:45 am
  #19  
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Originally Posted by wakesetter93
I put in 9/11 and I'm seeing the LAX-CVG red-eye but it's not showing on 9/18
Google Flights is useful for searching these things (by specifying evening departures so it will only show red-eyes and then click on the date field). The flight switches to a daytime flight on 9/13 with 1:25PM departure and goes from 5x weekly to daily. Of course it's still possible they could make changes to the September schedule and they might switch the flight back to a red-eye.


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Old Jun 29, 2021, 8:01 am
  #20  
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What really gets me is the memory of multiple daily L1011 flights LAX-CVG - back in the day.
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Old Jun 29, 2021, 8:05 am
  #21  
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Originally Posted by zrs70
What really gets me is the memory of multiple daily L1011 flights LAX-CVG - back in the day.
The L-1011 was the best, I'd almost go as far as to say the best plane Delta has ever operated. One of the main reason I enjoyed flying Delta in the 90s.
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Old Jun 29, 2021, 9:33 am
  #22  
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Originally Posted by zrs70
What really gets me is the memory of multiple daily L1011 flights LAX-CVG - back in the day.
Originally Posted by cmd320
The L-1011 was the best, I'd almost go as far as to say the best plane Delta has ever operated. One of the main reason I enjoyed flying Delta in the 90s.
if y'all want to reminisce about the TriStar (and the Convair 880, and the DC-8, and ...), come on over to the Old Timers' Airline and Airliner Quiz and Discussion thread in TravelBuzz
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Old Jun 29, 2021, 10:02 am
  #23  
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OP if you can fly out of Burbank, there is an option on Frontier that departs BUR at 8:33 PM, connects in LAS and arrives at CVG at 7:05 AM. Similar option on Frontier out of SNA, departing at 8:07 PM and connecting to the same LAS-CVG redeye, arriving at 7:05 AM. Not sure what would be more preferable - a direct to IND with a very tight window to drive to Cincinnati or a connection to CVG that leaves ~1 hour to get off the plane and get where you're going in the Cincinnati area. Landing in CVG also means not having to do an ~2 hr drive after getting off a redeye.

Third option would be, as jrl767 noted which would be booking DL on two separate tickets on LAX-LAS and then LAS-CVG, which arrives at 5:22 AM, with 44 min in LAS. Some risk here. Sub-option 3B would be booking LAX-LAS on any of the numerous carriers that operate LAX-LAS then booking LAS-CVG on DL. B6 has a departure right at 8:00 PM and AA has a departure at 8:15 PM (I didn't check WN).
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Old Jun 29, 2021, 10:20 am
  #24  
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How reliable is Frontier? Remember that if you buy a Frontier ticket and need to change it, you'll deal with their customer service and will probably be stuck with a Frontier credit that you can't use before it expires.
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Old Jun 29, 2021, 10:21 am
  #25  
 
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Originally Posted by ATOBTTR
OP if you can fly out of Burbank, there is an option on Frontier that departs BUR at 8:33 PM, connects in LAS and arrives at CVG at 7:05 AM. Similar option on Frontier out of SNA, departing at 8:07 PM and connecting to the same LAS-CVG redeye, arriving at 7:05 AM. Not sure what would be more preferable - a direct to IND with a very tight window to drive to Cincinnati or a connection to CVG that leaves ~1 hour to get off the plane and get where you're going in the Cincinnati area. Landing in CVG also means not having to do an ~2 hr drive after getting off a redeye.

Third option would be, as jrl767 noted which would be booking DL on two separate tickets on LAX-LAS and then LAS-CVG, which arrives at 5:22 AM, with 44 min in LAS. Some risk here. Sub-option 3B would be booking LAX-LAS on any of the numerous carriers that operate LAX-LAS then booking LAS-CVG on DL. B6 has a departure right at 8:00 PM and AA has a departure at 8:15 PM (I didn't check WN).
If I'm the OP, there is now way I'm going to take a connection on Frontier over the options listed on mainline carriers through LAS. I'd book the earliest flight to LAS that you can reasonably make and then take the DL LAS-CVG redeye.
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Old Jun 29, 2021, 10:26 am
  #26  
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Originally Posted by wakesetter93
If I'm the OP, there is now way I'm going to take a connection on Frontier over the options listed on mainline carriers through LAS. I'd book the earliest flight to LAS that you can reasonably make and then take the DL LAS-CVG redeye.
It's even worse in that the OP has (mid-tier) status on DL and UA.
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Old Jun 29, 2021, 10:50 am
  #27  
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Originally Posted by wakesetter93
If I'm the OP, there is now way I'm going to take a connection on Frontier over the options listed on mainline carriers through LAS. I'd book the earliest flight to LAS that you can reasonably make and then take the DL LAS-CVG redeye.
While I would probably opt for the same option you would if I found myself in this scenario, I was simply providing OP a set of possible options that would meet the strict criteria OP has laid out. With little flexibility in the parameters, sometimes beggars can't be choosers and in this scenario, there is no "perfect" option since each of the possible options has its own cons. Even in my preferred scenario (taking AA or B6 up to LAS then the DL redeye to LAS), the risk here is that OP is not protected in terms of getting to CVG from LAS if he runs into issues on LAX-LAS on another carrier. On the F9 BUR/SNA-LAS-CVG option, OP would at least be fully protected and eventually make it to Cincinnati by F9, even if late for the meeting. OP could also do DL LAX-LAS and then LAS-CVG but 44 min is a tight window (though certainly manageable if things run on time) and at least DL would (most likely) protect OP onward to Cincinnati even if he/she ran into issues on LAX-LAS, unless DL looked at the tickets and determined these tickets somehow violated some rule by not permitting enough time or something.

It's ultimately up to the OP to decide which of the non-perfect available options he/she prefers to take based on the pros and cons of each option available.
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Old Jun 29, 2021, 11:12 am
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Originally Posted by ATOBTTR
Even in my preferred scenario (taking AA or B6 up to LAS then the DL redeye to LAS), the risk here is that OP is not protected in terms of getting to CVG from LAS if he runs into issues on LAX-LAS on another carrier. On the F9 BUR/SNA-LAS-CVG option, OP would at least be fully protected and eventually make it to Cincinnati by F9, even if late for the meeting. OP could also do DL LAX-LAS and then LAS-CVG but 44 min is a tight window (though certainly manageable if things run on time) and at least DL would (most likely) protect OP onward to Cincinnati even if he/she ran into issues on LAX-LAS, unless DL looked at the tickets and determined these tickets somehow violated some rule by not permitting enough time or something.
I don't think there is much protection on any carrier. Sure, they might get you there, but it will be too late, likely much too late. Given the constraints, significant delays or a misconnect and you are SOL, regardless of how it is booked. The best protection would be to have 2 discrete paths. Assuming it is very important to the OP to be in person for a Sunday 8am meeting, I'd do the connection at LAS via AA/B6/WN then on to DL as a primary, but buy the LAX-IND ticket as a back up. With no change fees, if you cancel, you have a full credit to use and are only giving DL a short term small interest free loan. If LAX-LAS goes sideways you'll have time to jump to the much later LAX-IND flight.
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Old Jun 29, 2021, 11:18 am
  #29  
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Originally Posted by El Boocho
I don't think there is much protection on any carrier. Sure, they might get you there, but it will be too late, likely much too late. Given the constraints, significant delays or a misconnect and you are SOL, regardless of how it is booked.
True - but I did address that. I was merely saying that if the OP's ultimate destination is Cincinnati, regardless if OP is late or misses this meeting (such as if OP misses this meeting but OP has other business later in the day/week in Cincinnati), the single ticket on F9 would eventually get OP to Cincinnati in the event of IROPS. I would presume the DL LAX-LAS/LAS-CVG tickets would also get OP to Cincinnati. If on AA or B6 or WN to LAS and OP experiences IROPS in LAX, that airline is only obligated to get OP to LAS, not CVG. And OP would then have to buy a new option to get to CVG.

Originally Posted by El Boocho
The best protection would be to have 2 discrete paths. Assuming it is very important to the OP to be in person for a Sunday 8am meeting, I'd do the connection at LAS via AA/B6/WN then on to DL as a primary, but buy the LAX-IND ticket as a back up. With no change fees, if you cancel, you have a full credit to use and are only giving DL a short term small interest free loan. If LAX-LAS goes sideways you'll have time to jump to the much later LAX-IND flight.
The problem with this scenario is DL may see both LAX-IND and LAS-CVG bookings for the same date/times and then cancel one or both of the tickets due to being conflicting tickets (this also violates program rules). OP's other option in this scenario would be if he/she gets to LAX and there are delays that would cause OP to not arrive in LAS in time for LAS-CVG, OP could cancel LAS-CVG and then apply the value as a credit towards LAX-IND but this would be subject to availability and to the walk-up fare pricing.
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Old Jun 29, 2021, 11:23 am
  #30  
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I like the LAS connection option. And if I need to purchase separate tickets, no need to stick with DL-DL. I can always get another flight LAX-LAS that will connect. And if it's separate tickets, I won't be automatically protected in a misconnect anyway.
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