Why do you still use sfo or oak airports? (Long Beach: appointed, mover)

[Chimérique]

Hey JohnS,

Many of those flights you mention, that are $150 or more are almost always based on a 2-3 month advanced booking, once you start decreasing booking time to 1 to 3 weeks you will find that SMF is quite competitive against SFO/Oak, and SMF often beats SFO/Oak.

Everytime we use SFO/Oak or if we don’t originate a flight from SMF we make it harder for the airlines to guarantee lower fares and more choices out of SMF. SMF loses 5 to 8 million passengers a year to SFO/Oak, that is a huge amount.

Every time an airline adds a non-stop/direct flight, or adds a new city, or simply adds more flights per day, Sacramentans have responded well and filled up those flights. The problem is we still spend our dollars using SFO/Oak. When our dollars stay with SMF you see better and better deals and choices.

How often do we not even consider SMF in our first inquiry when booking a flight?

How often do we immediately choose SFO/Oak over SMF simply because the flight we are looking is slightly less?

How often do we ignore the costs of getting to SFO/Oak and/or the inconvenience we might cause family and friends?

For years, Ive been guilty of immediately choosing SFO/Oak over SMF for as little as a $20 difference, which seems crazy to me now.

I think, we, as Sacramentans still consider SFO/Oak first, as a force of habit, a "bad habit".

It’s been awhile since I’ve lived in LA, but I absolutely loved having LAX 10 miles away and all the convenience that it brings. Same applies when I lived near SFO.

It’s strange to me that we would not want those same choices out of Sacramento. Anyone who lives within 20 miles of any hub or large airport would think its crazy to drive as far as we sometimes do to use a bay area airport.

Sacramentans have been breaking that "bad habitat" for several years and the more and more we do, the more and more are choices out of SMF improve.

More and more, we realize how freaking inconvenient its been to travel to SFO/Oak just to fly somewhere.

There will come a day when we will laugh in disbelieve that we actually used Bay Area airport to fly anwhere, :-)

[JohnS_15]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Hey JohnS,

Many of those flights you mention, that are $150 or more are almost always based on a 2-3 month advanced booking, once you start decreasing booking time to 1 to 3 weeks you will find that SMF is quite competitive against SFO/Oak, and SMF often beats SFO/Oak.

Everytime we use SFO/Oak or if we don’t originate a flight from SMF we make it harder for the airlines to guarantee lower fares and more choices out of SMF. SMF loses 5 to 8 million passengers a year to SFO/Oak, that is a huge amount.

Every time an airline adds a non-stop/direct flight, or adds a new city, or simply adds more flights per day, Sacramentans have responded well and filled up those flights. The problem is we still spend our dollars using SFO/Oak. When our dollars stay with SMF you see better and better deals and choices.

How often do we not even consider SMF in our first inquiry when booking a flight?

How often do we immediately choose SFO/Oak over SMF simply because the flight we are looking is slightly less?

How often do we ignore the costs of getting to SFO/Oak and/or the inconvenience we might cause family and friends?

For years, Ive been guilty of immediately choosing SFO/Oak over SMF for as little as a $20 difference, which seems crazy to me now.

I think, we, as Sacramentans still consider SFO/Oak first, as a force of habit, a "bad habit".

It’s been awhile since I’ve lived in LA, but I absolutely loved having LAX 10 miles away and all the convenience that it brings. Same applies when I lived near SFO.

It’s strange to me that we would not want those same choices out of Sacramento. Anyone who lives within 20 miles of any hub or large airport would think its crazy to drive as far as we sometimes do to use a bay area airport.

Sacramentans have been breaking that "bad habitat" for several years and the more and more we do, the more and more are choices out of SMF improve.

More and more, we realize how freaking inconvenient its been to travel to SFO/Oak just to fly somewhere.

There will come a day when we will laugh in disbelieve that we actually used Bay Area airport to fly anwhere, :-)

I don't know anyone that would choose SFO or OAK over SMF for flights if there wasn't significant savings to do so or the route just made more sense out of SFO/OAK. Anyone that is traveling long distances with kids is not booking flights 1-3 weeks out from departure. If it's just me maybe I save myself the journey and just pay the extra out of SMF but not when it's x4 or x5 the money. And anyone with kids knows that a potentially awful car ride to SF is not an ideal way to start a long trip - so if you have the extra cash maybe you suck it up and pay for the convenience of SMF.

I get your point about patronizing SMF when at all possible to keep business local. Personally I'm invested in Sacramento as a city and the place I'm raising my family and want to support it however I can. But there are situations where it just doesn't make financial sense to fly out of SMF - and maybe if carriers start to provide budget direct flights to major international hubs like London, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo etc. like they have done with Oakland, San Jose, San Diego then that will change.

I use SMF for pretty much every domestic flight these days. But it is not yet a proper international airport - and just like there is no getting away from the fact that Sacramento is hot as balls 4+months out of the year - there is no getting away from the fact that it's still significantly cheaper to fly out of SF airports when traveling internationally no matter how much positivity you spin on the forum.

[Nn2036]

Can't believe that this thread is still going on.

[JohnS_15]

Originally Posted by Nn2036

Can't believe that this thread is still going on.

See the "do we underestimate how good the Sacramento weather is" thread

[Chimérique]

Sacramento International was rated the #1 for mid-size airports! Again, This is like the 3rd time.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpNAbILMvNk

[Chimérique]

Sacramento International Airport is on track to reach 13 MILLION PASSENGERS for 2019!

That is a huge number, especially considering we lose millions of passengers a year to SFO and OAK.

The addition of Non-stop flights from Sacramento to Hawaii is a huge step in allowing SMF to be sort of a mini-hub, meaning more passengers from other cities outside of California connecting through Sacramento to Hawaii. This means more competitive pricing, and more flights.

Because More than Half of SMF's total flights are on Southwest means SMF is not just a final destination, but SMF is now a CONNECTING city to Hawaii. So, for the first time, SMF is acting like a mini-hub by allowing passengers from other parts of the country to connect through SMF for a final destination that is not Sacramento, but in Hawaii.

Because of Sacramento's location on the West Coast, it could never really act as a CONNECTING CITY for short and medium range flights because there are next to zero cities west of Sacramento (excluding Hawaii), but now Southwest can connect its large number of SMF bound passengers onto Hawaii.

Unlike Hawaiian Air and Alaska Air, the other two airlines that offer Non-Stop to Hawaii from Sacramento, Southwest can fill its flights from SMF to Hawaii not only with Sacramento area passengers, but with passengers from numerous other cities across the country. Hopefully, Hawaiian Air and Alaska Air should continue to do well because they offer 1st Class, and Business Class, a market share that Southwest does not compete in.

Also, SOUTHWEST Airlines is Celebrating their New Non-Stop flights to HAWAII FROM SACRAMENTO
with a public gathering at Fremont Park in Midtown Sacramento every evening this week til Nov 9. Hula Dances, free flights, etc.

[webdev]

Originally Posted by Nn2036

Can't believe that this thread is still going on.

Sacramento has been a drab state worker cow town for so long. The new Airport is one shining light outside the arena and some newly sparked private development. It fuels the "we are the best" thing for long time residents.

I like SMF, but as many posters have mentioned, it still does not carry the varied options for International flights like Oakland or SFO. I look forward to the day when it does. I hate driving to SFO or Oakland.

[Hemlock140]

Sacramento is OK when going on vacation to Lake Tahoe but we prefer Reno and take the Mt. Rose Highway, since we usually stay at Incline. Most of our CA trips are to visit family and friends (also weddings or funerals) in the east bay, so Oakland is far closer than Sacramento.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by webdev

I hate driving to SFO or Oakland.

If only more felt this way, the millions of Sacramento passengers that still use SFO or OAK would steer the airlines to offer even more and better service out of SMF.

The service is already very good at SMF, but to think we lose 5-8 million passengers a year to SFO-OAK is amazing!

If we didn't lose that many passengers, SMF would have 18-21 million passengers a year; that's the size of some hub airports and/or Metros twice the size of Sacramento.

Having said all that, there has been definitely a major shift in the last 3 years or so, in that Sacramentans seriously think of SMF first; whereas, in the past SMF was sort of their 2nd or last choice.

There will come a time when we look back and think "how crazy" it was that we would even think about driving all way to SFO or Oak to fly anywhere. We will say, "did will really drive that far to fly somewhere".

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

Sacramento is OK when going on vacation to Lake Tahoe but we prefer Reno and take the Mt. Rose Highway, since we usually stay at Incline. Most of our CA trips are to visit family and friends (also weddings or funerals) in the east bay, so Oakland is far closer than Sacramento.

Thanks for the response, did you mark the poll appropriately? Remember you can mark more than one response.

So, do you actually use SMF when you go to Tahoe or anywhere else in NorCal?