my thoughts, till I figured the OP meant Orange County,CA to NY
and Not Orange County,NY

Flew Out of SNA for many years
 

I flew several million miles on AA out of SNA until a few years ago when I moved to NJ and am now a CO Plat. AA has the most service out of SNA, and if your frequency makes you a top tier flyer, has the best upgrade opportunities. There is also an Admirals club. While the club is small and frequently crowded, the staff there is terrific in terms of remembering and take care of its most frequent visitors.

Continental does have the only east coast non-stop service. However, as others have pointed out, upgrades are very rare, as the FC section is small on the equipment used (737-700s). If you are a paid FC flyer, it is often difficult, and sometimes not possible, to get a last minute paid seat, even a full price. However, when you do, the CO EWR flight has the best food service of any domestic flight originating in SNA. It consists of a four course transcon-style meal.

Nevertheless, when I lived in Newport Beach, I generally took AA, because LaGuardia is much closer to Manhattan (in terms of time), offers relatively reasonable cab fares, and drivers who actually know something about where things are in Manhattan. AA gives you connection choices in DFW and ORD, with great frequencies..

For any SNA departure, they have a very strict "climb and hold" requirement to minimize noise over the Newport Beach / Balboa area. For takeoff they hold at the end of the runway, run up to full power, release the brakes, climb to a couple of thousand feet, power back significantly, and level out until after crossing the coast. This is all to minimize noise. This departure requirement limits the amount of fuel (and weight) that the aircraft can have.

I believe that SNA has one of the tightest noise restrictions in the nation.

OK, but if CO can fly nonstop from SNA to both EWR and (starting in March, 2010) HNL under the existing noise regulations, it's hard to see how those regulations limit the available destinations that could otherwise be reached from SNA's relatively short 5,701-foot runway.

I do see that SNA has an agreement with the community to limit the number of air carrier operations and the number of passengers served. Details here:

http://www.ocair.com/aboutJWA/settlement_agreement.htm

I changed title. Sorry about confusion I caused.

It sounds like there a lot of good options. I think I am leaning on the UA/CO combination.

I want CO to be one of the airlines. My family lives in Jersey, so that is an easier trip for at least a return. So I may do a full-trip out of Newark. Or, I may do open-jawed flights and maybe stay weekend in NJ with return flight out of Newark vs. NY.

Assuming CO is one of the two legacy carriers I focus on, that leaves either AA, UA or NWA/DELTA for the other spot.

Of the three, I was leaning towards UA. If UA matches my AA Gold, then that is great, and allows me to start accruing miles for more elite status via CO/UA combination (though honestly I'm not sure how this works just yet). I have liked flying through Minneapolis the few times I have done so on NWA, but I'm not savvy enough to judge whether the benefits of those hubs outweigh the UA/CO combo.. but I'm assuming that UA/CO combo has more benefits than CO + NWA/Delta combo.

Then I read DSWEET's post saying AA was the best for connections into LaGuardia.

So I need to figure out if CO + AA is better than CO + UA. DSWEET.. would be curious to your thoughts since you sound like an expert on the matter.

JBLU flights from Long Beach into JFK sound like a great option, which I will need to evaluate when I'm on the ground in California. I am not smart on geography out in Orange County, but I will be most likely living in Newport Beach or Laguna Beach, which would put me more south of Longbeach airport. Although I guess I could actually plan to live North of Newport Beach in order to be closer to Long Beach...

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I've been flying this route a bunch this month and one thing to add-- if price is a consideration the CO nonstop is often priced far and above other flights. When there are sales that airlines match, I never see that flight matched. I still like the UA/CO combo, as that gives you flexibility, and I believe UA has an RCC.

Jetblue is an easy option into JFK - except at rush hour, getting to LGB is pretty easy, and the security line there is generally the quickest in LA. Jet Blue is terrific.

I believe that AA currently has around 11 connections to LGA each day. UA has around 7.In addition, while DFW has a few bad winter connection days, ORD and DEN are both bad winter connections. While you may tend to forget about winter weather when you live in the OC, it is a huge factor in travel

There is one other aspect you may want to consider. If your total travel is likely to be 75-125K EQM (elite qualifying miles), you may want to try to stick to one alliance (CO and UA are now part of Star Alliance), so that you can qualify in either the UA or CO programs as a top tier, because you can earn mileage in one program using either airline. However, if your expected travel is 150K EQM or more (and this is not difficult with transcontinental flights), you are better off splitting your miles into two alliances and qualifying top tier in both. This opens up far more reward travel opportunities, because the number of available airlines increases dramatically.

I fly DL (and the former NW) regularly but am not a fan. Too many DC9s, and I really don't like ATL.

I have not flown very much on UA, but I understand that there economy plus seating (with more leg room) would be a big advantage on long flights like these. There are many factors, and as always, it comes down to what matters most to you. IMHO, the best upgrade opportunities are AA. The greatest frequency is AA. The AA club and its staffing are good. I have not used the UA club. CO has no club. The shortest flights (and the only one with meals in coach) is CO. The best FC experience is CO (by far). UA's economy plus legroom would matter on these longer segments. UA's system wide upgrades are also a nice perk.

Bottom line: If most of my flights are from/to NJ, I would use CO, period. For LGA, I would prefer AA, but YMMV. I would see no reason to fly to JFK from SNA. From LAX, UA and AA are extremely expensive; so I would fly Jet Blue from LGB if I had to go there.

Good Luck!

Other interesting options out of LAX:

DL is now offering BE service (they claim the same meal service as international flights) LAX-JFK.

And VX is worth a look LAX-JFK.

Aaaaaargh! Me too!

I hate poorly titled threads!

:mad::mad::mad:

OTOH, I've found upgrades as Plat on AA to be relatively easy out of SNA to DFW in my limited experience. (Onward from DWF, perhaps trickier to some destinations, while still easy to other destinatiosn.)

The thing is, the less of a "focus" an airport is for a given airline, the easier the upgrades (for low status), the more of "focus" it is, the harder the upgrades.

So the fact that CO is the only airline with transcons from SNA and the fact that CO is harder to upgrade on than other arilnes from SNA seem in my experience to fit together. And vice versa, the fact that AA treats SNA just like any other "spoke" only airport and that AA is eiaiser to upgrade than other ailrines from SNA seems in my experience to fit together.

Also, you have to figure this for yourself, but (a) I find upgrades less critical if I'm connecting midway, and (b) I find DFW a nicer than average connection airport.

Keep in mind that DCA and LGA (two of the other airports on your list) are also "severaly restricted" airports. So you're talking about flying between one airport that's "severely restricted" to another!

Now, if you were willing to fly from LAX and fly into IAD, that would be a whole 'nother story. Both UA (obviously, since IAD is a hub for them) and AA fly nonstop on that.

Btw, Newport Beach to LAX is indeed a crappy drvie if you're by yourself, but there's now a carpool lane the whole way (carpool in CA = 2+ people in car), so it's not as crappy a drive if you take a taxi or a shuttle or a FlyAway bus or carpool with a fellow traveler (though in the latter case make sure you know alternate routes for when you come upon accidents!). And for reference, a PrimeTIme shuttle between LAX and SNA takes a couple hours or less and costs as little as $34 one-way.

Btw, to answer another person's questions, noise restrictions mean among other things that only a subset of airplanes (with fewer and/or quieter engines?) qualify for SNA. Presumably CO flies a single-aisle plane to EWR from SNA, even though plenty of airlines fly double-aisle planes to various NYC airports from LAX.

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Not so much anymore. Aside from one of DL's LAX-JFK rountrips which is operated on a 767, and QF's flight which is not permitted to carry local traffic, I think only AA provides widebody service between LAX and JFK. And I'm not seeing any current widebody service at all between LAX and EWR.

I am pretty sure DL LAX-JFK is serviced by 757 now i have not seen any 767 in awhile.

I fly out of SNA regularly on DL, unfortunately DL/NW is only flying 737-800 and A319 out of SNA to ATL and DTW/MSP respectively. The upgrades have not been affected the switch from 757 to 737 due to fare class that is purchased.

As with these noise restrictions no flight can take off after 10:15 pm or arrive after 11 pm (FYI i have flown into at 11:10pm due to weather, so i do not know if they allowed us because of the weather that night). No flights leave prior to 7am even though they state 6:45am, you might leave the gate but you will sit on the taxi way waiting until takeoff.

As far as LAX depending on takeoff and arrival times you would be extremely lucky that it only takes you 1 hour from deplane to home. I would say atleast 1.5 hours to 2 hours. Whereas SNA you would be home in less than 45 mins.

Just my two cents.

SNA
 

I have flown into SNA for years, a breeze to fly in and out of. Also look to use Long Beach, 10-15 away, will offer other options.

There are a bunch of airlines flying out of both, no real "hub" options. Your best bet is to look for direct flights that meet youe timelines and stick with those. Avoid LAX if you can, will add 1-2 hrs to your trip, depending on when you travel.

I too prefer the Equipment flown into LAX, however what cant be beat is it takes 2 mins for me to go from the Gate to the curb.While @ LAX its usually a madhouse and takes a heck of alot more time to go Gate to curb

also when checking a bag I find @ SNA it usually will be coming out alot quicker then if I was @ LAX