Advice required on internal flights in U.S.A.
 

We are from England and are planning to visit San Francisco in December or early next year. Will then be flying to Las Vegas and at the end of the stay there - possibly fly to New York.
Need advice on which internal airline to choose and is it worth paying extra for business class to N.Y.? Do the airlines fly to and from the international airports?
Many thanks for any replies.

The flight from the West Coast of the US, either San Francisco or Las Vegas (while not technically the West Coast Las Vegas is close enough) will be a minimum of four hours so YES. If you can, pay for the extra room in Business Class from Las Vegas or SFO to NYC. It is a long flight.

1) choice of internal USA airline: personally I think it's 6 One/1/2 Doz the other & choose by schedule and price. many flyers do have their own favorite -- which another may consider "the worse". For example, I don't fly Delta since they lost my daughter in Boston back in the early 70s(child flying alone/connecting flight missed/ very very worried mom).
2) have flown coach from Vegas to Hartford CT, north of NYC. It's no worse than flying coach to England, France, Spain & it was a shorter trip with a mid-way connection. So it's up to you based on your approach to comfort vs. cost.
3) I think you will find that all or most all major domestic carriers fly SF to Vegas or at least Vegas to NYC. You most likely will have to go from one terminal wing to another. No more difficult than going from incoming Heathrow terminal when flying from Scotland to outgoing terminal for leg home to USA.
Does your international carrier have a partnership agreement with a domestic carrier so you can get frequent flyer miles as one total amount? If so, you may wish to consider that as well as schedule and cost in your choice. Assuming that you have frequent flyer mile options in England.
Enjoy your trip.

I personally don't think it's worth the extra charge to fly business class, and I fly a few times a year between DC and Vegas and/or Phoenix. The extra space would be nice, but I'm not willing to part with the extra money. If budget isn't a problem for you -- then it may be worth it to you.

For San Francisco to Vegas travel, America West and United will probably be the cheapest. You can check on airfare at www.orbitz.com.

For travel to NYC, you might also want to consider www.flyi.com. You'll have a stopover in Washington DC (Dulles), but they frequently run airfare specials. No business class, but great little airline.

For a flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas check out Southwest Airlines - you can't find them on websites like Orbitz or Expedia. The airport will be Oakland - easy access to the airport by BART (inter-city underground system)

You will find loads of choices servicing those popular destinations, ranging from "legacy" carriers to regional and discount airlines. If you want to put together a patchwork of itineraries, remember that using common fare search engines often does not return options on the discount line such as Southwest or JetBlue, so you would have to look at their sites individually. SFO, LAS and the three major NY airports (LGA, JFK and EWR) all serve international destinations.

You may want to check on a multi-city ticket rather than several separate itineraries. And whatever airline you are flying acrosss the pond may belong to one of the partnerships (Sky Team, Star Alliance, oneworld) that would let you book the whole trip on one itinerary. One advantage to this scheme is that if there should be some sort of delay en route the airline would be more likely to accommodate you, and it may well be less expensive.
Another site that may be helpful is http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/login where you can look at various options, though not purchase (would need to go through a travel agent using the itinerary information obtained at the site.)

Most domestic flights are 2-class airplanes - coach and first class. First class is about what you would expect for business class on an international flight. It is nice to have the extra room if you have the budget for it. Some airlines now have something called Economy Plus or a similar name, which are seats in the coach cabin with a little more leg room.

Southwest flies from Las Vegas to New York..the airport is on Long Island I believe. Southwest has really good fares most places. They do NOT fly out of SFO however so if you use them to Las Vegas from San Francisco you would have to take BART to Oakland..so you'll just have to check around and see what's available and the price and see what works best. Also, don't know if flying into Kennedy or La Guardia would be a better choice for you than Long Island. It's about a 4-5 hour flight from the west to the east coast..haven't flown it in a long time..so I don't know how important business class would be for you. Hope you can work things out and that you have a wonderful trip.

Someone correct my reading comprehension here please.

The OP asked which airline to fly and if it was worth flying business class.

From that post I didn't get that he was asking for discount airlines.

If I'm asking if Business Class is worth it, I probably have the money for it.

Am I wrong here?

Many thanks for the very helpful replies. Most appreciated.

Personally I would not pay extra to fly business class from west coast to NY unless budget is of no matter to you.

As everyone said check out Southwest Airlines. We fly them often and they are very good and their prices are generally lower then anyone else. You might also want to check on Jet Blue, another lower fare airline that serves many cities in the US. Unlike Ryan Air in the UK these two airlines do not charge you extra for luggage (unless you are WAY over the limit).

Most airlines have flights into international airports, but most do require a terminal change. Some airports frequently have lower fares then others, for example flights into Newark (for NY) are often cheaper then into JFK. It really all depends on what you feel comfortable with. We travel to England every year and fly into Heathrow. I'd pay extra for connecting flights out of Heathrow rather then connecting through Gatwick if needed. Everyone's priorities are different, but it is good to gather as much info as possible. Happy Planning.

Hello stsu, I had friends visit the US from Italy. They took JetBlue airline from JFK in NY to LasVegas. After a few days in LasVegas they flew on JetBlue from LasVegas to LongBeach, short stop, no change of plane. They then flew to Oakland's airport. They used the BART Shuttle to get to the closeby BART and took BART into San Francisco. JetBlue has leather seats that are roomier than the average planes. You might want to check out this airline.

Their website is www.jetblue.com.

Best wishes.

From Las Vegas to NYC, three airlines fly non-stop:

Continental (CO) to Newark (EWR). First class and coach.

America West (HP) to Newark or Kennedy (JFK). First class and coach.

Delta (DL) has one flight a day from LAS to JFK. First class and coach.

Jetblue to JFK. Coach only.

Those first class seats on CO and HP are domestic first class seats. They are wider and have more legroom than coach, but aren't as good as international business class seats.

For those "big" seats from the West Coast to NYC, you need to fly from San Francisco (SFO) or Los Angeles (LAX). United (UA) has their "ps" service on 757, and American (AA) uses 767s. Many of these flights have 3-class service - coach, business and first. Business in these 3-class flights will be better than most 1st class on a 2-class flight non-stop from LAS. First class will be even better - like UA's flat bed on their "ps" flights.

Worth it? Up to you....Continental Las Vegas to Newark, $559.00 First Class.least expensive economy = $154.00...America West First Class (YUP Fare)$668.00, same economy = $154.00 but are offering a limited time special of $109.00, very restricted and not always available one way fare.Las Vegas to New York flights are often packed to the gills, on any given day of the week.Its up to you.

I use the 3 hour rule. Under that I go cattle car - since it doesn;t matter that much. Over 3 hours I find that the extra room in "first" - which used to be business - is really important. But then I'm tall wth long legs - and when I fly steerage I just leave my feet in the aisle - and on longer flights people move around a lot more.

IMHO - all of the airlines are equally bad - it pretty much depends on the luck of the draw.

Don;t know what you mean about flying to/fro internatinal airports. All three major airports in NYC have a large number of domestic flights - but the smallest - LGA, which is domestic only - has mostly shorter flights (but also a few from the west coast) since it can;t take jumbo jets as the runways are too short.

JFK and EWR have both international and domestic flights.

Your replies are incredibly helpful for people like me who have never taken internal US flights.

It sounds like we might take low cost airlines' 1st class for the LV to NYC part. I can't bear sitting squashed in a packed flight - life's too short! I'll check out the various airlines mentioned. Thanks.

stsu: You may be misunderstanding the low-cost airlines. They are one-class service-- all coach. Having said that, I think the best choice LAS-NYC is JetBlue. Southwest's seating procedure is a glorified cattle call. JetBlue allows you to select your seat online-- and they basically open up the entire plane to seat selection; they clearly indicate the seats with the most legroom, a major plus. Even better, they fly into JFK, which is much more convenient for getting into Manhattan than Islip, which Southwest flies into.