nelsonian

My daughter who lives in Wellington NZ is wanting information on the cheapest way to fly to Columbus Ohio. I suggested she fly Air NZ to San Francisco where she could stay a couple of nights with a friend then fly out of Oakland to Columbus. However I couldn't find any flights with South West airlines. Do Jet Blue (yes I know about the delays!!!) fly there from San Francisco. Any other suggestions. Thanks

rjw_lgb_ca

I just checked. JetBlue does offer Oakland-Columbus service, connecting through either JFK or Boston.

Southwest DOES fly Oakland-Columbus-- involving at least one stop.

Their fares seem comparable. What dates are you using to look?

nelsonian

Thanks I will have to have a proper look at Southwest travel schedule. I couldn't see Columbus there as an airport, is there another name I should be looking for? Dates I was using 21 May returning 28th May.

ribeyefan

www.southwest.com

Columbus, OH (CMH)

rkkwan

For those dates, Southwest or Jetblue cost at least $430 from Oakland.

Cheapest I can find is on Northwest out of San Jose $289.

rncheryl

Depending on your dates of travel, I think SW is soon to fly from San Francisco as well as Oakland. Have flown SW to CMH (Columbus) MANY times!

rkkwan

Southwest had flown from SFO before, but pulled out after a little bit. I have not heard it's trying to restart SFO service.

nelsonian

I now have some dates, so would appreciate it if you Fodorites could help me find the cheapest fare from LA to Columbus Ohio on June 3rd. DD's flight to LA from NZ gets in at 12.40pm, she would like to then fly to Columbus that afternoon. Doesn't need to be SW airlines.
Any recommendations as to hotels by Columbus airport would be appreciated also.
It's 640pm in NZ so I will spend the evening reseaching airlines and hotels as well.

crefloors

Southwest does not fly out of SFO. I flew them last weekend into Oakland and from the new terminal they are building I think they are there to stay.

mrwunrfl

When/where is the return.

Why didn't she just buy a ticket to Columbus?

mrwunrfl

That is a bit late in the day to be flying back east. There are a couple of connecting flighst on United and one on American that depart around 2:30PM but still get to Columbus late that night.

Thing is that the trip is 6 hours, with the connection, and a loss of three hours in time zones. So, departing at 2:30 means arriving at 11:30. Nothing after that until 11PM or a midnight departure with 9AM arrival.

mrwunrfl

It's $166 on United one-way LAX->CMH on June 3, 11:15PM departure, connect ORD, arrives CMH at 9:43AM on the 4th.

dfr4848

We fly to CMH fairly often. I would check all options, and not just SW and Jet Blue. We've found that over the past year, CO actually has had cheaper fares to CMH than SW (and for us they're nonstop, so it's a no brainer).

Also, SW did announce in Feb that it is returning to SFO. Specific date hasn't been announced, only that it will be "early fall".

janisj

Because of the length, flight times, time change, etc. I would highly recommend she use priceline to book an LAX area hotel for that night. Then she can fly w/ anyone the next morning.

After a looooooong flight from NZ, the last thing I'd want is to hang around LAX all day and take a red eye to Columbus.

nelsonian

Thanks mrwunrfl for finding out the cheapest option, I think that one will arrive too late (or early) to work properly. May have to pay out a bit more for a flight that arrives at a reasonable hour.
Dfr4848 what airline is CO, non-stop does sound like the way to go. I am trying to convince her to stay the night at LAX, her theory is she would like to get to Columbus and then sleep!!!

joesorce

She should stay overnight in Los Angeles. travelodgelax.com
If the flight arrives late into LAX, with customs etc, she could miss her flight to Columbus, why risk it?

mrwunrfl

If 11:30 PM is too late an arrival and the morning, after a redeye flight, is too early, then she would have to spend the night at LAX. The afternoon departure-late arrival flights (if she had time to catch them - I think so with almost 2 hours) were about $200 one-way.

There aren't other options if she sticks with Air New Zealand flight #6 to get to the U.S.

nelsonian

Also looking at a Qantas flight arriving LA 10.45am, would a flight leaving at around 1pm give DD enough time to get through Customs etc. What airlines fly non stop to Columbus? Thanks so mcuh for all your input.
We are also looking at a SW airlines flight at 2.45pm which gets in at 11.30pm. Still very late but might work.

mrwunrfl

The fare on American is less than Southwest. I don't know how long to take for the connection but 2 hours ought to do it.

AA.com shows routing from AKL that day via LAX. The Qantas flight arriving at 10:45AM and connecting to an American Airlines flight to Chicago departing LAX at 1:05PM and arriving ORD at 7:15. Depart at 8PM arrive Columbus at 10:10.

If it was me, I would get the whole trip on one ticket.

dfr4848

Nelsonian - CO = Continental. One of her options would be to fly out of San Francisco, Oakland, LA, etc then connect in either Houston (IAH) or Cleveland (CLE) for flight to Columbus (CMH). CO has 5 nonstops a day from IAH to CMH and 4 nonstops from CLE to CMH.