Weekly Commute LAX to SFO. Halp!
 

Hi Guys,

Total n00b here. I'm an AA Platinum road warrior, but I pretty much always let my company's travel service deal with booking tickets, so I know next to nothing. Now, though, I'm looking at a Bay area job but with my family staying in Southern California.

I did a forum search and came up with a thread that discusses such a commute, but was full of terms I didn't understand such as 'DBL06' and 'BE account.' I presume that DBL06 is code for a discount of some sort that insiders understand. What the heck is a BE account?

I don't yet know whether the company or I will be paying for the tickets. I'm obviously interested in getting the best deal in either case... Any hints would be appreciated. Also, best deals/hints on parking near both airports.

Thanks,
Jerry

lawfive_ welcome to FlyerTalk. While I don't "commute" weekly, I do make several trips/month from SFO to So.Cal, and there are some FlyerTalk members who do fly a weekly commute.

Some issues for you to consider: do you want to build status with the same airline or just take whatever the agency throws you? A related Q. is what airports do you want to fly in/out of? (BUR? LAX? SFO? OAK?) WN and UA own the general Bay Area market, with AA/AS having fewer flights. WN will reenter the SFO market mid-year but is unlikely to have much presence at SFO.

So far as parking, there are some deals around SFO or OAK, though not familiar with the LAX or BUR area deals, if you would be going out of one of those. Send me an email or PM if you want some info about SFO or OAK parking.

Finally, if you have Qs about facilities/airports in either the SF or LA areas, please check out our specific travel forums for California->San Francisco OR -> Los Angeles as many knowledgeable locals post there.

Where is your home in SoCal and where is your job in SF? Getting to and from the various airports in each region can be a big deal. Also, will your schedule be fairly fixed or not? If not, you will likely be much better off with Southwest (from Oakland or San Jose to pretty much anywhere in Southern California) or United (from San Francisco to LAX) simply due to higher frequencies.

Thanks guys. Home in SoCal is in Corona. I'm close to ONT and SNA, either of which would be dramatically more convenient, but fares seem to be best out of LAX.

Work will be right next to SFO in South San Francisco. My commute schedule would be pretty much fixed: LAX-SFO Sunday evening; SFO-LAX Friday evening.

Can't seem to find these forums. Are they on this site, or somewhere else?

Thanks again!

This is a toughie, as the fares are indeed lower on the majors from LAX. If cost/convenience are the main factors, you might want to do ONT->OAK on WN and then take BART rapid transit or a car over the San Mateo Bridge to So. SF. If your priority is to continue to build status with AA, or seek new status on UA, you'll have to go to LAX (about $118 RT with 14 days advance) or pay a good bit more to fly out of ONT.

I have to go from SFO to the Inland Empire a few times per month and stay on UA whenever possible. I have time flexibility so can hit the 60 or 10 from LAX when it isn't crowded (doing a SFO->LAX), or route from OAK->LAX-ONT or OAK->LAX->SNA to avoid the lately much higher ONT->SFO fares, now that TED has pulled out of that market. But it's a tough call except for using WN. In that case, ONT would make the most sense.

I will check photos soon but what a wonderful selection of cities...we love each one and visit often...now off to review your photos.

Thanks

747LWW

There are tons of cheap fares on WN between LAX/ONT/BUR-SJC/OAK. SNA tends to be more expensive.

Alaska also flys OAK/SNA if you want a more "full service" airline from OAK - but from SSF, SFO is only a few minutes away. SFO/SNA fares are generally horrible.

Having done this in the past (when UA had shuttle service and before 9-11) it wasn't a lot of fun, and there are frequent delays (esp in winter when sfo is often down to 1 runway b/c visibility). Now with all the airport hassles and less frequent flights I'd seriously consider driving ;)

There were many nights when flights were delayed hours and I was wishing I would have driven (and that was with highest status which got me bumped up on wait lists and I often bumped people who had been waiting hours longer than me).
Know this isn't what you asked -

Standby for early flight may be an issue
 

UA will let you standby for early flights on an fare. Confirm earlier for $25. One of the few areas were WN is significantly weaker.

True, but since you can cancel WN tickets and re-use the funds for a future trip without any penalty whatsoever, you can always hedge your best by booking multiple flights especially in an inexpensive intrastate market where you will be commuting on a weekly basis.

I've been doing the commute for the past 6 months. Because of the varying fares and the fact that SNA-SFO is so expensive, I've always had to decide whether to commute some distance to LAX, or from OAK/SJC.

For the best availability, it's definitely LAX-SFO, with so much frequency.

SNA-OAK is my backup, since I can access BART from OAK. The problem here is that (on AS/AA) there's only one morning SNA-OAK flight.

SNA-SJC gets me there soon enough, but I don't relish another hour commute via bus/train/BART.

IMO the best flight in OPs situation is ONT-SFO for the convenience... but I think only UA serve that route, so I have to imagine they have a lock on the pricing. (But WN just announced service from SFO, so maybe that will have an effect). #2 (taking price into consideration) would be LAX-SFO, and commute by train/bus to LAX (vs. fighting traffic).

While I don't do a weekly commute, I tend to go down there 1-2 times/month. I would suggest SERIOUSLY considering WN. They have many frequent flights AND they are rarely late (if they're late, the frequency helps a lot). I've had numerous problems with other carriers, including AA and DL because their infrequent schedule screws everything up. If there are ground holds (either upstream or at SFO), your flight will be the one that is most likely to be impacted, since it's a short-haul. OAK rarely experiences ground holds, and most aircraft flying SoCal-OAK fly to SoCal from a variety origins, meaning that if there's a problem upstream, you're not likely to be delayed for more than an hour, again due to the frequency of flights.

While you won't get upgraded, and you'll get no miles/segments, only Rapid Rewards, I personally feel that this is where WN's FF program gets you the best value: short hauls => free ticket.

Consider what I said and try flying on AA. If it works for you - great. If not, switch to WN.

Ont/Oak is the best bet as far as the least delays because of weather.
LAX/SFO best bet when it comes to price.
I do this trip at least once a month now and have never had a delay LAX/SFO on UA.
The drive to corona from LAX can be a bear.Consider coming in late friday/really early sat and then late Sunday or realllllllllllly early(4 am)monday.