We are heading to Zihuatanejo at the end of January and flying out of Sacramento. We have the following options:

1). Southwest to LAX. Arrive at 7:30 am and need to get over to Alaska for a 9:30 flight. So we would have to grab our bags and recheck or do carryons.

2). Fly Southwest as above, but go the night before and spend the night near LAX.

3). SMF connecting through Houston on United. The connection going to Zihua is 1 hour. Coming home, the connection is 90 minutes. I have never been thru Houston, but are these connecting times even doable?

I would like any input on these scenarios. Thank you!

T-1 to T-6 at LAX is a nasty transfer. (Was going to post what I really think but decided to keep it clean )

Is the flight out of IAH also with UA? Of those options I'd probably connect through Houston on one booking. But If theu are different airlines - probably not enough time.


. . . Have you looked at AA to LAX? Not sure if the times work for you -- but those Amer. Eagle flights land at Remote T-4 and you shuttle to T-4. T-4 to T-6 is easily walkable, But that only works if there is an early enough AA flight. (Haven't looked it up)

Right now the earliest AA flight out of SMF leaves at 7:00, so that would not work. Me, tight connections that involve changing terminals at LAX make me nervous. I would probably spend the night near LAX.

I have no experience with IAH.

Thanks for checking socal. I suspected as much.

IAH is pretty easy for making connections - better than LAX but that's a low bar! - I'd go with that IAH option.

I was curious because we are flying from SMF to LAX on AA to connect to our BA flight to LHR in a few days. Our flight is at 9:00, wondered when the earlier flight left.