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I'm not a well experienced traveler so I'm appealing to the C-D experts to help me out on this....
My daughter, a newbie 2nd lieutenant in the AF, is now stationed at Vandenberg AFB and is currently living in Lompoc CA. My plan is to go out to visit her for Mother's Day, but since I have family in SoCal and a couple of friends in Santa Barbara I'm making this a 2 week trip.
Ideally, I would like to fly into San Diego and rent a car and spend the first week in SD visiting relatives then drive up the coast and visit my friends and the kid and then fly out of Santa Barbara. The problem is very few airlines fly out of SB so the cost of plane fare would be cost prohibitive.
What is the best way to make this trip cheaper?
*Use LAX as the hub and fly in and out from there?
*Fly in/out of SD and eat up one day commuting back to SD to catch a plane?
*Combine flights with different airlines?
*Any tips on the best time to book a flight or fly?
*Should I hop on board and get an airline credit card? What cards are the best?
In the past I've relied on Cheapo Air and Expedia--are they the best bet? Should I contact the airlines directly? Which airlines?
Also Keep in mind, Many Rental Cars have Drop off Fees, If you pick the car up in SAN (SD), and return it at LAX, You might get hit with a Drop Charge.
If you are going to have the car for a week or so, You might want to consider getting the car at the "Local" edition of the car rental firm, the Airport Rental Fees and Taxes can add 20-40% to the rental cost. ( You need to weigh off the inconvenience of getting/dropping a car off airport and cost of getting to/from the airport )
Some airlines like Southwest price one way flights the same as round trip. With others, there is typically an option for what's called an open jaw or multicity routing that treats it as an effective round trip rather than two one ways. Your airline search engine of choice likely has it under some sort of 'advanced search options.' Search into San Diego and out of LAX or vice versatile and see what the numbers are
Try Google Flights.. You can use multiple airports in your search.
Definitely look at other airports in the area. LAX is usually the cheapest but not always and it's a mess around there. I live a couple of miles from the Ontario Airport and its really nice and easy. Long Beach is nice too.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Fly into SAN (San Diego) or SNA (Santa Anna / Orange county)
Use the train to visit Santa Barbara.
Can take the train back to So CA or to Bay area for an air departure (SNJ) San Jose is the closest No CA airport to Santa Barbara, or you can get back to 'Burbank'. and Fly out of there.
Use SWA "low Fare Calendar, or 'Search by Map' options.
I get free drop charges from Avis, but they are not often too cheap for car rental. Enterprise has $9.99 weekend days from non-airport locations. 150mi / day max.
San Diego isn't THAT far. And yes rental cars you will have complications with drop off fees or mileage fees so it's best you make it round trip from one airport. I would use LAX as the hub, a pain to fly in and out of but I've been flying into there recently because both airfare and rental car costs are the most competitive.
OP: This past October I used LAX in just the area you are going to, the Lompoc/SLO/Santa Barbara area. A whole lot less expensive, and only about two hours to San Diego, traffic permitting. It's about three hours from LAX to Lompoc, although Google maps app took us through Malibu due to construction on US 101 near Thousand Oaks. We used Southwest in October, bonus was they allow changes at no charge and free baggage. Best days to travel on SWA: Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. We flew Dallas Love to LAX and the per-person RT was $162. (Yeah, $81 each way... it's $92 now.) SWA is having a sale that ends tomorrow (3-16).
I use Kayak as a start to figure the costs or see available flight times with their sliding sort feature.
I just got back from my trip to California. This is an update about what I ended up doing...
--Flew into San Diego airport from Bradley International (Hartford) on United (BDL to DEN; DEN to SAN) and rented a car for the week. My cousin suggested this as she was working all week and didn't have time to cart me around. This turned out for the best because I could explore the area at my own pace. I got to SD on Tuesday 5/2 and rented the car until Saturday AM (5/6)
Quote:
Originally Posted by StealthRabbit
Fly into SAN (San Diego) or SNA (Santa Anna / Orange county) Use the train to visit Santa Barbara.
--The above turned out to be the best advice ever! On Sunday 5/7 I took the train from SD to SB and it only cost me $34 senior rate.
--My friend Lynn picked me up from the train station in SB and was my ride for the rest of the week--we even folded in a side trip to LA and stayed overnight with her sister in La Habra. On Friday 5/12 Lynn drove me to Lompoc for my weekend stay with my daughter Lauren. On Sunday Lauren took me back to Lynn's condo in SB. On Tuesday 5/16 Lynn deposited me at Santa Barbara airport for my flight back to Hartford. The plane fare cost a little more but it was worth not having to waste time driving to LA or back to SD.
I flew on United as it's one of the few airlines that fly out of SB. There were no "incidences" except for the horrible weather on the return home. I nearly missed my Denver-Hartford connecting flight, got into Hartford a half hour late, but in the end it all worked out.
I would highly recommend the Pacific Surfliner Train https://www.amtrak.com/pacific-surfliner-train as the way to travel up and down the CA coast--less of a headache than driving and you actually get to enjoy the spectacular view!
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Changing Airports: Update
