Originally Posted by chrisl137 (Post 33390011)

Northbound, my favorite is Hill, but I only take it from Adams. I use the Fastrak lane up to Adams and then skip the stop and go downtown by going up Hill. The part from Adams to around Pico is pretty quiet and not terribly sketchy, then north of there it's various business districts. The couple of blocks is all it takes to keep you from having to go through skid row, and I think you can turn on Cesar Chavez to get to Union Station.

Southbound it depends on where traffic backs up - mornings I would get off wherever it turned into a sea of taillights and take Fig to Pasadena to Broadway to Temple, or if I made it all the way to the Chinatown exit, take Hill to Temple, then Temple to Hope and then sail down Flower to the 28th St. Fastrak-only on ramp.

I don't think there's any good transit route yet though. The Gold Line is good for where it covers, but there will always be a few sketchy people, and there's too many connections to make all-metro work well. Your original idea of Flyaway from LAX to Gold line is probably the best, but you need a convenient way to park and/or get dropped at one of the terminals for the Flyaway to pick you up. The Flyaway is really meant for the parking to happen far from LAX. Once they open ITF-West, it might be reasonable - park in the ITF economy parking, take the bus (and eventually tram) to the terminals, wait for the Flyaway, then Gold Line from Union Station.

Originally Posted by OskiBear (Post 33392036)

Sorry to chime in late, but you've pointed out a great asset in downtown LA, which is the Union Station parking lot.
I've actually used it a lot over the years, starting from the mid-90's when I was working downtown.
I've used it for various same-day activities (Dodger games, Hollywood Bowl, Pantages, etc.) to avoid 101 traffic. I also have utilized it as a good meeting point with friends and when I did a few staycations Downtown, instead of $50 overnight parking, I'd leave my car at Union Station.
It's covered (b/c it's underground), freeway-close (especially good for me b/c I live in Long Beach and work in the SGV so my approach helps me avoid congestion points west and north of downtown LA), and seems relatively secure. I've even used it for weekend trips where I drive to Union Station, leave my car, take the Flyaway to LAX and then in return on Monday, where I head to office.
It's hard to beat $8/day!

Originally Posted by corky (Post 33392900)

How do you get to Dodger games or the Pantages from there?
I agree--seemed very safe and a great deal.

Originally Posted by chrisl137 (Post 33392957)

They run a shuttle for the games.

For the Pantages (and Hollywood in general) you just take the Red Line.

Originally Posted by OskiBear (Post 33393731)

The Dodger shuttle is great - they even block off a lane on the route so the buses have right of way while heading to the stadium.
They used to run a shuttle directly to the Hollywood Bowl - although I'm not sure if they still do so. I've also just taken the Red Line to Hollywood/Highland and walked the rest of the way (although there's also a shuttle from Hollywood/Highland to the Bowl)

Originally Posted by chrisl137 (Post 33410943)

Metro is introducing a new service to help cover the "last mile" from transit systems to destinations using on-demand & pre-bookable small buses. They're using ~10 seat sprinter vans that you can book with an app. The service is divided into zones that look mostly like places that transit passes into/through but that aren't well served for connections internally or to the transit. Intro prices are $1/ride for the first six months and if you go to their website they'll send you a referral code for two free rides. The service doesn't run 24/7, but is sort of broadly commuter hours in most of the areas (5:30am to 9:30 pm). Unfortunately the LAX/Inglewood zone is mostly filled by airport - it really looks like they should extend it down to maybe Artesia and out to Hawthorne to make it useful to a meaningful number of people.

For me the Pasadena one covers the ~4 mile hike I would have to take to get to Gold line station to get to the flyaway without getting a ride from someone.

Originally Posted by retirementdreams (Post 34604213)

To m y amazement AA does not fly anywhere in bay area to SNA--not even from Sacramento. Ill be staying maybe 4 nights at hotel near SNA< would prefer not to rent a car and drive and pay for parking whatever. What is the best method of transportation between the 2? i see a couple of shuttles online...1 is probably too cheap the other a bit pricey. for some reason checking uber it kept coming up wth Uber black etc which is also pretty expensive. Am I missing something?