iapetus

Just where in Pasadena, California, do you need to be? Is it close enough to the gold line to make taking public transportation feasible? Having a car will probably make the trip back to LAX quicker. But, at that time of the day, public transportation to Pasadena might be a better option.

kef0913

The Union Station Flyaway to the Gold Line could be an option if you are meeting the person (or can convince them to meet you) near a Gold Line stop. Travel time for that route (according to MTA.net) is 60-90 minutes. Of course, if you need to stray too far from the Gold Line any benefit is lost.

YVR Cockroach

Moot point now as I lost the auction (hot last minute bidding). We'll just stay in El Segundo/Manhattan Beach now (have to burn up McCormick's coupons courtesy of AS).

BTW, what about:

1) the Radisson shuttle that will take so long

2) int' departures? We're off on UA to SYD (on the UA LAX-AKL mistake fare)

No bags as we've learnt that AS's luggage handling at LAX T3 is molasses-slow.

kef0913

Nothing particular to the Radisson Shuttle. The hotel shuttles generally run 20-30 minutes, and it takes about that long for one to make the loop around the arrivals level at LAX.

Since you won't have any bags, you will have a much quicker time on your flight departing LAX. Are you flying out of TBIT or Terminal 8? I forgot how UA does their int'l flights. Either way, plan on getting to the terminal 2 hrs ahead of flight time.

iapetus

I'm pretty sure that UA international is all out of terminal 7 (maybe there are some out of terminal 6). And, as YVR Cockroach is * Gold, they'll get to use the elite check-in area on the east side of terminal 6. Two hours would be safe, but y'all can cut it closer than that.

Boghopper

I would recommend the Flyer to Union station and train to Pasadena. The traffic from downtown (where HOV ends) to Pasadena is going to be a bear that time of night and I just don't think there would be enough time. You could board the flyer much more quickly than you could get your rental car, and the bus goes nonstop to Union station, from which you can take a train to Pasadena.

rally

are there any options except Super shuttle ( Blue or the Red one ) to go to Agoura Hills which is the far west San Fernando valley on the 101 freeway,

are there any valley only shuttles or ones that go to Oxnard - Ventura that could drop me off

thanks for the info......Rally

Prime time or Super Shuttle is approx $45

jackal

I don't think public transportation is an option. The farthest the "rail" system extends is the Warner Center in Canoga Park (it's actually the Bus Rapid Transit--fake light rail--Orange Line). That's still 14 miles from Agoura Hills.

I don't know if any LACMTA or other buses serve that area. A review on the http://www.mta.net trip planner didn't seem to turn anything up. Maybe there are other options that I don't know about (maybe Thousand Oaks Transit, although I couldn't get any of their routes to show via the Google Transit interface).

You may be stuck with Super Shuttle et al...

Roadrunner appears to specialize in the Valley and Ventura/Santa Barbara counties, but I would guess their rates are comparable to Super Shuttle/Prime Time. Check the shuttle listings here (towards the bottom).

rally

thanks for the info, I forgot about Roadrunner,

the $40 or so is not my real concern , its just if some provider was only doing that area it might be quicker

Public Transportation was really not on the list because of the time it would take ,

Rally

kef0913

Really, this case falls back on the old adage - "When in L.A. - rent a car!"

sonoftheheartland

Am haviing to make short business trip to client with offices at SNA John Wayne Airport.

Coming from IAD and wondering about best connections. Brief scan of Expedia shows connecting through DEN or PHX or other intermediate taking 7 or 8 hours overall flight time. Appreciate any suggestions.

Would it be just as comfortable to fly to SAN and drive up, or fly nonstop to LAX and ground to SNA?

What ground services are there from LAX if not wanting to rent a car to drive through most of metro LA?

Thanks.

climbermom

No, definitely not. The freeway traffic could add hours to your driving time from either SAN or LAX.

SNA is a much smaller airport than the others and easier to navigate -- there's no shuttle bus to rental cars, you simply walk across the street.

IMO, any time savings you will get by flying direct will be wasted by the traffic.

gtownguy

No question about it - best thing is to fly right into SNA. Traffic on the I-405 from either LAX or SAN can be horrible. Don't do it! I remember one trip from LAX to SNA took me over 2 hours on the 405 freeway - all for a distance of about 30 miles.

Beijing'sMama

Completely agree! Traffic in either direction is brutal at most hours. Also flying out of PHX to SNA would probably be on a regional jet, it has to arrive in PHX before it can head back out. If it gets hung up, you have no other options.

SkiAdcock

Ok maybe it's me but I think it's funny that all those who are warning about the traffic don't actually live in LA, or at least that's what it looks like from their locations.

Obviously if you fly into SNA that's the closest to your meeting, so if you can work the connections so that they're not too long that might be your best bet. Of course w/ connections there's always 1 more thing that can go wrong.

Depending on when you fly into LAX & have to get to SNA, traffic might be ok-heavy. If it's during rush hour then yeah it can take 90minutes. If not during rush hour, then about 45min.

If you did decide to get a car, it's a straight drive down the 405 from LAX to SNA. You're not going to get lost.

I'd say it's 50/50 on what to do; you'll have connection time if you don't do the nonstop, but if you do the nonstop you have driving time.

Cheers.