diverg

I have an International flight on Qantas on December 26 aroujnd 8:55pm. Looking at booking Southwest from AUS-DAL. What are the transit options between the two? Taxi, Uber/Lyft, and what if any other options? With an 8:55pm departure what would be the latest time you would recommend arriving at DAL. NOt a big fan of DFW so want tos pend as little time as possible, but also not wanting to stress with tight connections.

jjbiv

You can take the route 55 DART bus from Love Field ground transportation to the Orange line station (about 5-10 minutes away) and it's a straight shot to DFW airport by light rail. The whole trip takes about an hour from when you leave to when you arrive.

Driving it is about 30 minutes (plus or minus depending on traffic) plus you may have to wait a few minutes for a car to arrive.

I would want to be at DAL by 5 PM at the latest. Ideally you should leave at least one flight earlier incase something happens so you don't miss your flight to Oz. If you can get a rental car or catch Megabus/Flixbus/Vonlane the ride from Austin to Dallas is only about 4 hours (depending on traffic).

deltheking

Uber/Lyft or taxi is the best. Takes about 30 min or less depending on traffic from DAL to DFW. And as said above 5pm would be good to arrive at DAL , maybe you can stretch it to 5.30pm. But not beyond that - not worth having that stress. DFW terminal D for sure is a better place to hang out than DAL - more restaurant options, lounges..

azepine00

I d rent ow from austin and skip the madness of whatever Christmas travel may bring.. gonna be faster too..

zdcatc12

AUS - DFW on I-35 during Christmas season is going to be madness also!!!

SAT Lawyer

I’d set a Google flights alert for the afternoon AA nonstops from AUS-DFW and see if the price drops into your comfort zone. In the meantime, book the WN flight on points so you can cancel and refund if the AA fare drops. $109 WN versus $210 AA right now; if that narrows, the avoided $35-$40 cost of the Uber/Lyft plus the lower hassle and risk of arriving at DFW might tip the equation in favor of AA.

Looking at the WN flight schedule, the 6:05 pm arrival at DAL is probably too risky, which means you’d have to opt for the 4:45 p.m. arrival.

envgeo

Monday after Christmas - yeah its going to be a mad house at airports.

i think the travel time between the two wont be an issue, likely not rush hour traffic that day.

NoStressHere

For $100 difference, I would take AA myself and eliminate the crosstown connection.

And, with Qantas as a partner airline -MAYBE they can check your bag all the way through for you? Have you checked to see if they can add the Austin flight to your current ticket?

djp98374

taxi/ uber/ Lyft would be the best.

i did once a transition from DFW to DAL pre Covid via bus/ light rail and it was a #$&ing PITA

Kevin AA

Take the bus from DAL (route 55) to the Orange line station, then the train (westbound) to DFW. It's $3. Easy!

pgh234

I took the light rail from DFW a few weeks after it opened (in 2017?)

-There were no signs directing you to get there in DFW
-No DFW employees knew how to get there.
-Once I finally found it, the power was out at the ticket station so I couldn't buy a ticket at the ticket machine.
-One stop later, a transit police guy gets on and targets me (and only me) for not having a ticket.
-I finally get out of it by conveniencing the guy to call his ops center to verify the station had no power.
-I got off the train and was acousted by a group of angry teens who apparently wanted my ticket (which is good for two hours) that I didn't have. They were very mad at me. (It took a bilingual bystander at the station to explain to me what was going on).

Needless to say I ubered back to DFW. I have never had such a terrible mass transit experience even in third world countries.
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swag

Worth noting that the Orange line train drops you at terminal A. Qantas operates out of D. If you check in online and have no bags to check, you can clear security at A and ride the Skylink train to D. Otherwise, you need to take the rickety and slow Terminal Link bus to get from A to D to check in there.

wrp96

AA will only check through if it's on the same ticket.

Cledaybuck

I think I would probably just drive to DFW.

deltheking

Think you made the best choice. Public transportation in Dallas is a mess and actually that's for all of Texas. TX is just not the place for public transportation unlike say NYC..