Commuter Programs?
 

Hi folks, new member here.

I'm considering commuting San Diego (SAN) - San Jose (SJC) every Sunday night/Monday morning until Friday night. Are there any programs to purchase flights at a fixed price if you travel every week?

I was also looking at the Southwest companion pass. Has anyone considered pairing up with another weekly commuter to split the cost of travel by using a companion pass?

It's looking like the commute is going to cost $10k+ per year, and I would love to cut that in half.

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to FlyerTalk, TBench.

I doubt there are fixed programs that lower your cost.

There's a frequent poster in the Southwest forum with the handle nsx who does something like that, except LAX-OAK, and I know from his posts that he buys these the normal way on Southwest's web site, not some fixed cost thing.

There don't seem to be that many people who do such things week-in-week-out on any one given route. So even if it were possible and allowable (per Southwest T&Cs) to do such companion pass "sharing" (which I don't know), I have my doubts that you'd find someone else who flies the exact same route at the exact same time every week of the year (who doesn't have their flights paid by their employer).

Not sure if there's anything like this in your area, but CapeAir does a "commuter book."

https://www.capeair.com/scripts/commuter_book.php

Maybe it's worth looking into if other airlines have similar concepts? Though this might at least jumpstart your search :)

Since there are only two carriers that fly the OP's intended route nonstop, it should be easy enough to just call those two carriers (Alaska and Southwest), and ask.

If the OP is willing to connect, then he should investigate AA's AAirpass program to see if it would offer meaningful savings in his situation.

These used to be popular back in the day before the GDS when carriers could not effectively slice and dice the market with multiple fare bases. Now that there are thousands of permutations (if not more) on any given route, there is no need.

The old Eastern Airlines used to sell coupon books of 10 on its Shuttle between LGA-DCA and BOS. You simply pulled out a coupon and that was your ticket.

There certainly are corporate discounts available on almost all carriers. Depending on why you are commuting, perhaps the company for whom you are doing the commuting might have such a contract available if you are on of its contractors. Perhaps not. But, worth asking.

Thanks for the replies. I'm hearing that a weekly commute is much less common than I thought it was, so it looks like the Companion Pass idea is out.

I was looking for something exactly like that commuter book, but I can't find an airline that has one. I found an article that says SkyWest is partnered with Alaska to do 3x daily SAN-SJC trips, but I couldn't reach SkyWest directly.
http://patch.com/california/santee/a...ego-san-jose-0

The Alaska flights are actually pretty great -- 6:30-8am Monday, 8-9:30pm Friday, $147 round trip ($7.5k/year). I would like to remove the uncertainty of traveling near the holidays though with a fixed rate fare.

American's cheapest AirPass package is $10k, and it doesn't look like they fly direct at good times.

I'll definitely check whether my company gets a corporate discount too.

I also saw this place: https://www.onego.com/
They're an expensive ($1500/mo) subscription flight service that basically gambles on customers flying infrequently enough that they profit. It might be interesting to see a similar commuter travel service.

Thanks for the replies. I'm hearing that a weekly commute is much less common than I thought it was, so it looks like the Companion Pass idea is out.

I was looking for something exactly like that commuter book, but I can't find an airline that has one. I found an article that says SkyWest is partnered with Alaska to do 3x daily SAN-SJC trips, but I couldn't reach SkyWest directly.
http://patch.com/california/santee/a...ego-san-jose-0

The Alaska flights are actually pretty great -- 6:30-8am Monday, 8-9:30pm Friday, $147 round trip ($7.5k/year). I would like to remove the uncertainty of traveling near the holidays though with a fixed rate fare.

American's cheapest AirPass package is $10k, and it doesn't look like they fly direct at good times.

I'll definitely check whether my company gets a corporate discount too.

I also saw this place: https://www.onego.com/
They're an expensive ($1500/mo) subscription flight service that basically gambles on customers flying infrequently enough that they profit. It might be interesting to see a similar commuter travel service.

Surf Air has a membership program that offers unlimited flights for a fixed fee. But I don't think they fly from San Diego to San Jose. They do fly out of Carlsbad but not to the Bay Area as of yet. They also fly out of San Jose, but not to Carlsbad as of yet. But it might be worth checking them out.

Thanks for the tip. I checked them out and found that they fly between Carlsbad and some other bay area airports at good times.

I don't think it's uncommon to do a weekly commute, but I do think it's uncommon to self-fund it like you're doing. Most weekly commuters like myself are reimbursed by their employer, and therefore don't have the incentive to complicate things with the Companion Pass.