Flying from Portland, OR help getting flight deals

[biochemgirl]

Planning a trip Nov 18 to Nov 23. We're coming from Portland. I want a direct flight. Which airport and airline will give us the best price and least hassle? What's the optimal time to book - now or closer to dates?

 

[Geemo]

I like JetBlue into LongBeach.
Look at their website and you'll see they have some pretty good airfares.
I also use PDX and it's easy to get flights to SoCal without having to go into LAX.
If JetBlue doesn't have the price or times that meet your needs you can look at Alaska in SNA.

But JetBlue is usually the best for me due to the price.

Geemo

 

[SMD]

That's Thanksgiving. Flights will start disappearing as soon as the dates open up.

 

[Karyanne30]

Southwest into sna! That's what we usually do and get great rates!

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

Definitely Jetblue to Long Beach, that's what we do and it's so easy. Love that small airport. Cheap flights too

 

[nikkislaght]

done both SNA And Long Beach.. Jetblue and Alaska .. both good airports/lines from Portland

 

[cmpeter]

I always find the cheapest flights into LAX, but they aren't the most hassle free option.

I love the Hopper app for tracking and looking up low flight options

 

[lalasmama]

Jet Blue to LBG. Usually about $59/flight if you book right when the dates open. It goes direct to Long Beach, which is a small, small airport (but full-size planes!). So much easier than LAX and even SNA.

 

[smithfamilyof7]

We've done JetBlue from pdx to Long Beach the last two trips and we love it! This trip, we're doing southwest into John Wayne. We got the tickets for about $40 each way! But after we booked (direct flights both ways), they changed our flights to one stop instead of non stop. I looked at their available flights and there were no longer direct flights for the entire month!

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

JetBlue to LB gets really low when they have sales. Went as low as $32 each way in the Fall. Crazy cheap!

 

[lalasmama]

Okay, so I'm back. Just looked up flight prices. Furthest days out are in September 2017. I priced a flight 9/1-9/5/17, which is the last day they have open thus far. Both have flight prices from $59 one way (carry-on only, 7am flight, non-refundable, from PDX) to $171 ("Blue Flex," 2 checked bags, 1:50pm flight from PDX). For the record, my "Jet Blue Buy Price" is under $75. I don't think I have paid more than that my whole time flying with them. Their sale prices are even better, of course! I've been flying in/out of PDX/LGB for about 18 months now. I'm in love. It's even better than PDX, and I LOVE PDX.

This picture is taken just after the TSA screening, in the courtyard. See that building? Boom, you're at your "concourse"....



Here's the concourse. Yup, 7 gates on this side (and I believe 4 maybe on the other side/building/concourse, but I've never checked it out before. I should one of these days)....



And here's our full-size, normal plane (I can't remember exactly, but it's like 120 seats or so--20 rows of 6 seats or so). On the right, you can see the front ramp to board the plane. Picture taken in the courtyard area.



Bonus points--if you fly with JetBlue a few times, you will quickly earn free trips after you sign up for your Blue Rewards or whatever they call it. I think ours was 5 round-trip flights to LGB/PDX, and it paid for my last round-trip ticket

 

[Mousequake]

I've flown from PDX > Disneyland dozens of times, and these are invariably the best options, usually in this order:

1. JetBlue to LGB
2. Alaska to SNA
3. Southwest to SNA

 

[Darkbeer1]

LAX is a nightmare, and expected to stay so for the next few years....

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-lax-problems-20161229-story.html

On the other hand, love the Long Beach Airport.

 

[MillauFr]

LAX is a nightmare, and expected to stay so for the next few years....

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-lax-problems-20161229-story.html

On the other hand, love the Long Beach Airport.

The only question is.... when will LAX cease being a nightmare? Probably never.

 

[iKristin]

I 100% am all for JetBlue from PDX to Long Beach. Used to do that three times a year! Love that airline and with the Long Beach Airports update, it's super nice

 

[JanJan324]

Another vote for Long Beach. Love the airport! Nothing better than sitting at the airport in open air drinking wine! We usually fly out of Seattle, and it's either LGB or SNA for us. I'd do LAX if it was cheap enough, but that rarely happens.

 

[BlondieQ182]

Guess I am in the minority here,but we ALWAYS fly southwest pdx to sna. Last flight we paid $88 round trip AND bags fly free! Can't beat that

 

[natfrac]

I will agree that Jet Blue into Long Beach is nice, but winter weather can create problems for Jet Blue since they're based out of New York. We had a morning flight booked with them from PDX to LGB that at first was cancelled because the plane the night before from New York didn't make it. Then the flight they rebooked us on was delayed several hours because of fog in Long Beach (coming from LGB to PDX and back to LGB). We lost an entire day of our 3-day weekend. If it's late fall/winter, I'm booking a larger airline into SNA.

 

[danceanddisney2010]

For our flight we always do the Southwest wanna get away rate and the last trip we took it was $59 each way

 

[lurpee]

I always fly out of PDX. I've taken Alaskan to LAX, Jet Blue to LGB and this month we'll be flying Southwest to LAX. I prefer JetBlue and Southwest to others because of the inclusion of two checked bags and good prices. I also prefer LGB to all other airports because of how close it is to Disneyland as well as the size of the airport. Due to pricing we are going to LAX this time with Southwest. I'll try to repost if I regret it.

If you go with Southwest, I know they often have sales around September or October. But you can also put a search into kayak.com and choose to receive notifications for when you should buy your tickets (it monitors for low prices).