FLight planning issues

[diverrick]

My wife and I are planning our next adventure, which includes flying from California to Maimi, then on to Georgetown Bahamas. August 9th 2008. My problem is finding a reasonable flight from SMF (Sacramento) or OAK, SFO as back ups, to Miami.
It appears there are no direct flights from any of these airports to Miami. WE searched as well as the travel agent. and cannot find anything direct.
The travel agent who is helping us, seems to always have us fly through Houston, which adds a big chunk of time to our enroute time.
Originally it was a red eye flight to Miami, then on to Georgtown in one big tiring blast.. WHEW!!! thats a long flight.
We really don't want to do the redeye, and arrive for vacation exhausted.

So we had them look into leaving on Friday, stay in Miami overnight, and fly on to Georgtown on Sat. OK so fares went up, still going through Houston. Long flights, AND a hotel bill for 250.00 to add on top.

There has got to be a route that goes direct to Miami from SMF, OAK or SFO. or have things gotten so bad in the airlines that you have to do a national tour getting there? I have left nothing in Houston, so why do I have to fly there, when we are going to Miami? I know Hub and spoke, yada yada. HECK, I told my wife I could almost fly our little cessna there faster, but not cheaper.

 

[sfbarry]

American Airlines Flies non - stop SFO-MIA . As for Sacremento and Oakland , I doubt you will find anything. I would take the 6:10 out of SFO arriving mia around 2:30 then take American on down to Georgetown.

I live in Houston, If you do take Continental , IAH is a very pleasant airport to be in compared to many.

 

[diversteve]

Southwest flies from both SMF and OAK to FLL. But not direct. There were a couple of flights on the 9th that were one-stop with no plane change. Not knowing your return plans that was all I looked at.

BahamasAir flies from FLL to Georgetown. Not sure about times/days since I haven't looked at it in a while. Both are off the radar for most travel websites, they don't codeshare with anyone else.

There's probably not a lot of traffic between SMF/OAK and MIA. With the airline troubles I doubt there ever will be direct flights. You might look at something local into LAX then on to MIA. There's gotta be some good connections on Southwest or USAirways.

 

[MeiLing]

My wife and I are planning our next adventure, which includes flying from California to Maimi, then on to Georgetown Bahamas. August 9th 2008. My problem is finding a reasonable flight from SMF (Sacramento) or OAK, SFO as back ups, to Miami.
It appears there are no direct flights from any of these airports to Miami. WE searched as well as the travel agent. and cannot find anything direct.
The travel agent who is helping us, seems to always have us fly through Houston, which adds a big chunk of time to our enroute time.
Originally it was a red eye flight to Miami, then on to Georgtown in one big tiring blast.. WHEW!!! thats a long flight.
We really don't want to do the redeye, and arrive for vacation exhausted.

So we had them look into leaving on Friday, stay in Miami overnight, and fly on to Georgtown on Sat. OK so fares went up, still going through Houston. Long flights, AND a hotel bill for 250.00 to add on top.

There has got to be a route that goes direct to Miami from SMF, OAK or SFO. or have things gotten so bad in the airlines that you have to do a national tour getting there? I have left nothing in Houston, so why do I have to fly there, when we are going to Miami? I know Hub and spoke, yada yada. HECK, I told my wife I could almost fly our little cessna there faster, but not cheaper.

Welcome to my world! I thought I would thank my lucky stars when Continental started flying directly into Newark from Hawaii. Bear in mind that when you are flying that route, a good part of the exhaustion is that you are losing 2-3 hours in just crossing the time zones. Try losing 5-6 or even 12 if you're going to Europe! Or being expected to layover in Atlanta when flying from Hawaii to Hartford, CT.

Many airlines are cutting back and that does mean that the direct flights will be less and less as the airlines try to increase capacity to maximize their fuel usage.

If you do happen to find a direct flight, grab it if the cost is not so exorbitant that it is out of your budget.

Good Luck!

 

[WOODMAN]

Diverrick, I wish you luck with your hunt for air transport to Georgetown, and be sure to give the Carribean Explorer my love when you get there. (I assume that is your final destination, as there sure isn't much of anything else there. ) She is a fine boat, but be sure that they got clean water when they topped off the fresh water tanks- they got salt contamination from the dock supply when I was last with them, and it took all trip to get that c--- out of the supply. Woody

 

[Sinbad the Diver]

Jet Blue from Oakland to Fort Lauderdale....get a shuttle to Miami.

 

[Sinbad the Diver]

Sorry....you'll have to go to Long Beach for a direct flight from CA to Ft Lauderdale. Also looks like you can go San Fran to Lauderdale with a stop in Austin, seem more direct than the other Jet Blue options through NY or DC.

 

[DandyDon]

Jet Blue from Oakland to Fort Lauderdale....get a shuttle to Miami.

Sure, add the stress that! Why not just fly Fort Lauderdale non-stop to Georgetown...?

BTW, if you arrived in Georgetown on Friday, you could stay at Marshall's. A clean, no frills at all hotel, around $100 I think.

 

[huge]

OAG (Official Airline Guide) is a excellent tool to have when planning the flights. American Airlines is flying SFO-MIA three times a day (6:10, 11:55 and 20:50), every day.

 

[aMc10]

Anything available from San Jose? If you're considering OAK and SFO, SJC isn't too much further.