If you had to go west coast - CVG via red-eye, what would you choose?
#16
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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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#18
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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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#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).
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).
#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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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).
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).
#26
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It's even worse in that the OP has (mid-tier) status on DL and UA.
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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.
#28
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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.
#29
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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.
#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.