Best Airport

[DarthGallifrey]

Hey All,

I am trying to figure out if I should use SNA vs LAX. With the latter there are direct flights from Boston and I save some money but is the headache of traffic going to make it worth it?

I would be looking to land around 10-11am on a Sat so I am not sure if the LA traffic would be that bad or not as I am not familiar with that area at all.

 

[ParkHopper1]

All things being equal SNA...but for a cheaper non stop flight LAX is fine for a Saturday arrival. Not too much traffic then and you will be an hour drive vs 20 min drive from SNA

 

[lalasmama]

I much prefer SNA over LAX for a few reasons. The airport is smaller and easier to navigate. The ride from SNA to the resort area takes about half the time, which means less money for transportation back and forth as well ($95 vs $45 for a taxi [of course, there are cheaper options, but taxi prices are easiest for me to remember]). The cost savings that I have experienced is negated with those transportation costs, generally.

I'm generally willing to do a plane transfer to avoid LAX.

 

[smartlabelprint]

I’d do lax because of non-stop.

I am flying in and out of lax next trip due to flight times as well.

With our kids we always do sna. There are no day time non-stop flights from our home airport. We can’t fly at night with toddlers.

 

[youngdeb12]

I would only fly into LAX if it were cheaper and the times were better. It turns out for us that flying into SNA is cheaper and a great connection so it makes the choice easier.

 

[LilyJC]

IMHO LAX is never worth it. I’ll throw another airport into the mix for you to price out. Ontario (ONT) is one of my all time favorites. It’s about the same distance as LAX to DLR, but you are able to avoid the insanity and hassle. Our family has even ditched the direct flight option to WDW (out of LAX) and use ONT for those trips as well. Needless to say...we despise LAX.

I definitely am not familiar with Boston flights, but my sister flew out of JFK for Thanksgiving. She found that JetBlue had a direct flight into ONT and back which was reasonably priced. SNA is for sure closest/easiest, but I just thought I’d suggest another option. Good luck!

 

[tarheelalum]

SNA regardless unless the cost is 70% or more higher. SNA is a joy to move around within, drive to and from. Its just an overall low stress experience at SNA. LAX is the exact opposite in every way.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Personally I’d rather make a connection than go direct LAX. On a solo trip if the cost was less than $200 more I’d SNA. I don’t have kids so can’t honestly say how much more I would pay to avoid LAX then. (It would probably be a lot. LAX is a pain in the rear of an airport while SNA is super easy.)

ETA: Long Beach is also supposed to be very easy if that’s an option.

 

[chopstick]

I think you can fly direct to Long Beach from Boston on JetBlue... anything is better than LAX, but I LOVE long beach - it's such a cute airport!

 

[goooof1]

SNA or LGB..... the easiest and closest airports to DLR.

 

[MillauFr]

BOS-LGB nonstop is what you want. #2 would be LAX non-stop and #3 SNA connecting flight.

 

[nkereina]

IMHO LAX is never worth it. I’ll throw another airport into the mix for you to price out. Ontario (ONT) is one of my all time favorites. It’s about the same distance as LAX to DLR, but you are able to avoid the insanity and hassle. Our family has even ditched the direct flight option to WDW (out of LAX) and use ONT for those trips as well. Needless to say...we despise LAX.

I definitely am not familiar with Boston flights, but my sister flew out of JFK for Thanksgiving. She found that JetBlue had a direct flight into ONT and back which was reasonably priced. SNA is for sure closest/easiest, but I just thought I’d suggest another option. Good luck!

Sorry to hijack, but question on Ontario. We're debating between a nonstop flight to LAX (JetBlue) versus flights with a 90 minute connection in Phoenix to Ontario (Southwest). The flights to Ontario are about $50 cheaper in total, so negligible price difference. The flights to LAX have better times - 4pm arrival vs. 10pm arrival and 5pm departure vs 1pm departure. It seems Ontario and LAX are equally as far from DL, just in different directions. We will be taking Uber from the airport. Which flights would you choose?

 

[LilyJC]

Sorry to hijack, but question on Ontario. We're debating between a nonstop flight to LAX (JetBlue) versus flights with a 90 minute connection in Phoenix to Ontario (Southwest). The flights to Ontario are about $50 cheaper in total, so negligible price difference. The flights to LAX have better times - 4pm arrival vs. 10pm arrival and 5pm departure vs 1pm departure. It seems Ontario and LAX are equally as far from DL, just in different directions. We will be taking Uber from the airport. Which flights would you choose?

If you can tolerate the less than optimal flight times, I would definitely use Ontario. It is such a chill airport, and the drive to DLR will also be much more pleasant. My kids always think we’re going to die at/around LAX (especially when someone else is driving ). LAX is an overall miserable experience.

 

[matheke]

This will be our third trip to DL this February. The other 2 we flew into LAX because of being able to fly Non-stop and it was about a $150 per ticket cheaper. We never really had any problems and rented a car off-site both times.

This time we are flying using miles and will try Orange County.

 

[goooof1]

Check the ground transportation costs from each airport, too. LAX and Ontario may be a similar distance, but ground transportation costs to DLR from each may be a big difference! Shuttles from LAX are relatively cheap, but not from Ontario (or Burbank)!

 

[ParkHopper1]

Sorry to hijack, but question on Ontario. We're debating between a nonstop flight to LAX (JetBlue) versus flights with a 90 minute connection in Phoenix to Ontario (Southwest). The flights to Ontario are about $50 cheaper in total, so negligible price difference. The flights to LAX have better times - 4pm arrival vs. 10pm arrival and 5pm departure vs 1pm departure. It seems Ontario and LAX are equally as far from DL, just in different directions. We will be taking Uber from the airport. Which flights would you choose?

Me? I am taking the LAX flight hands down. Would rather deal with an extra 45 min of traffic and get in earlier and get settled in relaxed vs they and "save" time arriving later into ONT and arriving at midnight.

LAX and traffic is not THAT bad...I totally agree that SNA, LGB and even ONT are "better" airports, but that is considering all things being equal. There are a LOT of factors such as flight tome, airfare cost, connection options that all need to factor into what is the best choise

 

[felice]

International travelers such as my wife and myself tend to have no other choice but to use LAX, even though I have read decent reports on SNA.

We've not found LAX to be too bad, however, yes it can be crowded on arrival but as long as we remain calm and ensure we have all documents in order then we are normally fine. The TSA staff, I must say, have always treated us well without any problem there either.

Even flying out from LAX has been a good experience, particularly since we started to fly premium economy to the USA in general. As a bonus with this we get to use one of the airport lounges in the Tom Bradley terminal, this is a recommended visit

 

[smartlabelprint]

Sorry to hijack, but question on Ontario. We're debating between a nonstop flight to LAX (JetBlue) versus flights with a 90 minute connection in Phoenix to Ontario (Southwest). The flights to Ontario are about $50 cheaper in total, so negligible price difference. The flights to LAX have better times - 4pm arrival vs. 10pm arrival and 5pm departure vs 1pm departure. It seems Ontario and LAX are equally as far from DL, just in different directions. We will be taking Uber from the airport. Which flights would you choose?

You could also purchase 1 way flights. Different airport coming or going.

 

[Kittyskyfish]

Me? I am taking the LAX flight hands down. Would rather deal with an extra 45 min of traffic and get in earlier and get settled in relaxed vs they and "save" time arriving later into ONT and arriving at midnight.

LAX and traffic is not THAT bad...I totally agree that SNA, LGB and even ONT are "better" airports, but that is considering all things being equal. There are a LOT of factors such as flight tome, airfare cost, connection options that all need to factor into what is the best choise

YES! We fly from the Midwest and flights into SNA are connecting flights* that are more expensive and arriving mid-afternoon. Through LAX, we can get direct flights for about $100 less per ticket, arriving just after 9:00 a.m. If it means an extra 45 minutes of traffic, we'll take it because we'll be in the parks by noon at the latest. Or we could save on the traffic, spend a little more money, fly into SNA and miss 6-7 hours of park time.

*We choose direct flights because we don't want to risk winter weather delaying the departure flight, causing us to miss the connection or have us running through the airport at a heart-seizing pace to just make our flight. We've experienced the mad dash twice before and will never bother taking that risk again.

 

[christyd2]

I'd personally avoid LAX at all costs. SNA is very easy to navigate and I've never had a bad experience. The one time I flew into LAX was my last. I found it poorly laid out, overly crowded, and the employees were rude and unhelpful. We also had shady people coming up to our car asking for money. We just wanted to get to our hotel ASAP, but it took an hour to get there. To me it was definitely not worth saving some money.