enviroian

I had a business saver J booked lhr-lax-phx (on AA metal) booked on 12/27. Well I'm moving to Dallas in September so I changed my flight. Of course lhr-Dfw on 12/27 wasn't available in saver J on AA metal so of course I wanted to keep my lhr-lax flight. There were no lax - Dfw flights available that day. I arrive at 3:15 pm and booked the non stop out of john Wayne that leaves at 5.30 pm. It's just me traveling with only carryon. If I grab an Uber or lyft when I arrive is this doable?

Yoshi212

You have a scheduled 2h15m with anywhere from 40-70 minutes of travel time between airports. Being conservative that leaves 1h05m to deboard, walk to CBP, go through immigration & customers, order an Uber and travel to SNA, then go through TSA and be at the gate 20 minutes before boarding. Also if you have baggage you are required to check-in for the flight and deliver bags by "At least 45 minutes before scheduled departure, for flights within the United States."

To summarize, I wouldn't do this.

enviroian

I used to live in Irvine so I remember the traffic patterns. Carry on luggage like I said in my OP. HOV lanes to Santa Ana I would think would be no more than 30 minutes this day of the week at this time. All the 405 traffic at time is heavy north bound.

I'll gladly spend the night either at lax or sna but there were no morning departures available the following day.

Of course a more favorable routing may come up but I wanted to confirm what was available now. I can change as needed as an exp which is nice.

C17PSGR

You probably know the traffic pattern better than I do but setting aside that it typically takes me 90 minutes from the Hertz lot at LAX to get in the area of SNA (I know you're Ubering but ...), that seems risky. Plus, just getting out of LAX lately is really a problem and can take 15 minutes after getting in the Uber just to finally get out of the airport.

When is the next departure out of SNA if you miss your flight?

Doc Savage

There is no way I'd ever try this. You never know what traffic will be like.

Have you looked at PHX-DFW?

Yoshi212

This has held true to my two last arrivals into LAX and was built into my time line. Uber takes 5-10 minutes to get to you plus 10-15 to get onto the highway and then travel time.

enviroian

I know I don't like it either that's why I'm asking advice. Do you mean lax-phx then Dfw?

There were no other award options that day. The next day that same flight was available and a few AS options via pdx that gets me in at midnight.

ual744777sta

I do this commute everyday. It can take up to 2 hours.

JDiver

This question is not airline related, so will move to the proper forum for best input.

/Moderator

enviroian

Thanks. I'll seek alternate routes

Unterwegs

It is around 42 miles from LAX to SNA. If things go really well driving time from terminal pickup to drop off should be around 50 min. In the afternoon around 3 traffic is usually heavy. I would guess that it will take around 1 hour, sometimes longer.

OtherHand

I assume you have Global Entry as that will affect how quickly you're out on the street. With carryon, it usually takes me 10 - 15 minutes with GE to make it to the curb. Mostly it's the walk time. So IF your flight arrives on time, you should be at the curb around 3:30, assuming no problems with GE.

Travel time, curb to cub from LAX to SNA is around 45 minutes in ideal conditions. Leaving LAX at 3:30 is far from ideal, as you'd just be dumping into the start of peak traffic. Normally it wouldn't be pretty, but it being Christmas week could change the usual traffic pattern a lot. There might be less traffic, but with people off, more would be in the HOV lanes (you see this on weekends). In all, there are a whole lot of unpredictables to this.

My estimation is that you'd have about a 50% to 60% chance of pulling it off.

Craig6z

To add emphasis to comments upstream, getting an Uber/Lyft to you and exiting the airport seems to be taking a lot of time these days. 3:45pm might not be an awful window, but I now give myself 20 minutes from the time I order the car until pick-up if I am at the pickup spot between Bradley and T-4. Then you have to add at least another ten minutes to reach the freeway.

Also I've found Lyft a few minutes faster than Uber to arrive this year, but that could just be related to my use patterns.

codex57

I don't see it being possible. Even without checked luggage.

LAX's immigration isn't known for being efficient. It also takes a good 15-20 minutes even to be picked up due to the general chaos of LAX traffic patterns unless you're extremely lucky (don't count on it). SNA's security can also be horrifically inefficient. Precheck helps some, but it doesn't change the TSA's idiotic staffing patterns there.

Don't live there anymore, but my wife used to do the commute. Friends still do that commute. The 405 is just bad. Whether North or South, the 405 is arguably worse than the 5 (and I've done the Burbank to North OC commute) as the worst overall stretch of LA traffic, which is saying something.

At this point, traffic has already started by the time you've arrived. I'd give yourself 2-3 hours just for the drive. After immigration, security, etc, there's just not enough time that I can see. There's a reason Kobe took a helicopter to practice and games.

enviroian

Yeah I'm screwed. Im better off paying the ridiculous $450 fee to fly ba non stop lhr-Dfw. If something opens up after i can always cancel and rebook for n/c.

Thanks for the help!