OK, this is strictly speculative--I am not sure if we can get a group travel discount, or if we do, that we could get it on everyone's first choice airlines, but for planning purposes, if you guys were flying to LAX, what airline would you typically fly on? I'm including domestic airlines only at this point--sorry internationals, but I don't think there will be enough of you guys--and I don't know if all of these even offer the type of discount we'd be after, but for planning purposes it helps to know what would benefit the most people. :)

ETA: You can vote for more than one airline.
ETA more: I tried to stick with the big ones, working off the list of airlines that fly to LAX, but please let me know if I missed one that lots of us are likely to fly on.

Shoot. I didn't read your ETAs. Usually I fly Southwest. But I would probably shop around for the best price first, Southwest just usually has the best price for me.

So I guess you can add "no preference/whatever is cheapest/other" to my vote as well.

s'ok. you can just make a note of any others that you like and I'll keep track of it. I don't think this will be all that long of a thread.

oh, and for capnbob--no, Oceanic is not an option. :P

who will get seat 23 a?

ummm...I only fly Oceanic Airlines. I have bonus miles with them! Free trips and stuff...Why is that not an option Carencey? :)

'Cause we want you to get where you're going. ;)

You should have added Oceanic for the heck of it. :24:

Honestly, if they don't get the details of the party up in the next two weeks then the only airline I am going to be flying is "Flights of Fancy." :frown:

I doubt that we will have ticket sales ready at that point, but it's definitely our goal to have more details (beyond what hijinx has posted already) up in the near future. BTW, can you be reached by IM in the evening? I did want to touch base with you on something but I can't PM you here until you have 10 posts. :) My YIM, AIM, and google chat names are all the same, in my profile (I rarely use AIM though and can't use YIM at work).

FYI. Golo and I found good air fares for Thurs through Monday, so we are thinking about locking in our flights now (or Monday actually). Although I'm still thinking about staying an extra day. I will think about that over the weekend. Perhaps I will start a thread to figure out how long people are thinking of staying.

Hi Carency, I can be reached via AIM or IM almost anytime- ozlady41563. It's the only type of instant communication I have - sorry! Feel free to contact me via email as well- same name at AOHell. ;)

Honestly, if they don't get the details of the party up in the next two weeks then the only airline I am going to be flying is "Flights of Fancy." :frown:
turn that frown upside down, :biggrin: , what do you need to know, costs is it? if you budget for a couple of hundred/or a grand for hotel and food drink shopping etc not inc flights which u can price yourself right now, you will have loads, i think the hotel cost me around 300 last yr, i roomied with the big_ragu so that cut the cost in half, it'll happen agin this yr, you can room with 2/3 people to split costs

not sure which airline i should vote for, ill be in San Fran time of party, so ill be flying domestically this time instead of internationally, i think i flew American airlines last yr, they were the cheapest, so prob will do the same this time,

how will this group thing work, surely most people will be flying in from all over and not the same plane ? :biggrin:

Bobby, Ozlady is being cautious because of the Flanvention fiasco, which is totally understandable. A lot of people lost money because that convention was cancelled at the last minute.

Bobby, you don't have to fly all together to get a group rate. When I've been to some national political conventions Delta airlines would give a cut rate, if people used them, because there were people from all over the country going.

American Airlines might not always be the cheapest. You just have to do some research. Depends if an airline is having a special, etc...

Don't forget we need to know how much the actual event is going to cost, to plan for that, as well.

PG, what was the Flanvention?

Flanvention was supposed to be this weekend and was a big Firefly/Serenity con. The organizers first started talking cancellation about two weeks ago and asked for a weekend to sort out their finances. This caused great distress, especially among those traveling. Well, the weekend came and went and they said things were back on, they'd gotten some finances handled. Then just three days ago, they cancelled again, but this time too close to the event for most traveling to be able to cancel. They were stuck with either losing all moneys or traveling here and hope to find something to do with their weekend. The So Cal and Nor Cal Browncoat groups have since gotten together and are putting on a grand Shindig up at the Burbank Hilton right now as I speak.


So, that's what that is all about. I can totally understand why someone would be gunshy right now.


As for Bobby, if you are coming down from San Francisco this time, you'd probably want to fly something like Southwest, just because it's more of a regional carrier and usually has good rates locally.

Bobby, both United and Southwest run wicked cheap flights from SF to LA! I grew up in Sacramento (though, as you may be able to tell from my using 'wicked' as a synonym for 'very,' I now live in Boston! LOL!) and still fly that route ~once a year when I go home to visit the 'rents. Your budgeting suggestions are top-knotch but I have the additional concern of trying to plan a *family* trip for July, and where we stay and what we do for THAT will be directly influenced by what I decide about the LOST party. No LOST party, the kids and I go to Comic Con in *style.* I go to the LOST party and, well, we scale things back a bit. :cool:

Yes, I am spooked because of Flangate. As I am sure most of you are aware, I have some experience with parties such as this one and while I know they are a far cry from a for-profit convention (fan-run or otherwise), all it REALLY does is make me MORE aware of what can go wrong! I have total faith in the ladies running this show, but I also know that sometimes even organized planning and good intentions can't stave off disaster.

That said, I remain ever-hopeful and confident that things will come together and in a timely fashion!

I'm a member of American and Delta so those would be my choices.

But I have to say, the best flight of my life was a cross-country flight (NYC to LA [Long Beach]) on Jet Blue. They have a little TV in the back of every seat that gets about 60 channels. I watched movies and flipped channels the whole way there. When we landed, I was like, "Already? - but I didn't get any work done!" Plus, the flight was pretty cheap.

They don't fly to LAX however. This was the only time I've ever been to LA so I don't know how far Long Beach is from everything. We had to drive for a while, but isn't that true of LA in general?

Jet Blue does fly into Burbank airport, which is closer to Hollywood than LAX is, but it may not come from that many cities into the LA area. Long Beach has many more flights, so yeah, it's an option, the coverage just may not be there.

thanks for the tip Ozlady, i checked the southwest site out of curiousity, ya, cheap as chips !! under 50$ each way,
hope to see you there, :biggrin:

BobbAAAAy!

Looking for a roomie again?

I'm gonna reserve a room at the Ren this week, Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sun nights.

Let me know :)

hmm. my super researchers q and goloptious have found out that our two most popular airlines don't offer the discounts...and some of the others will penalize us if not enough people fly.
does the fact that airtran added codeshares with frontier last month make much difference to anyone? they don't fly to burbank, though. :(

That's stinks, Carecey. I don't know what kind of discout it would have been, but I looked at a flight from Manchester, NH to LA on Southwest and I could fly on March 29 or 30 and return April 2 for around $220.

yep, it's looking like the airlines that are good for most people aren't the ones that will give us a discount. and a discount is non-helpful if the flight still costs more than the other airline! and that's a pretty good fare for going cross country!

we should still be able to get a discount on the supershuttle though, am just going to wait a bit until i know roughly how large the group is.

I should add that Burbank is closest, but most of us will have more/cheaper options for flying to LAX. I don't recall the ride from LAX to the hotel being all that bad though, unlike the ride to Pasadena last year that made me carsick. lol

What's the supershuttle? What kind of transportation would we have access to from the airport to the hotel? And do you have an estimate on costs?

the supershuttle is the major van line that runs from the airports to the hotels. they are the blue vans. as I recall, there is another line that runs red vans -- don't recall the name, may just be a socal or LAX line, but they will pounce on you if you show up without a reservation. :)
looks like the LAX-Renaissance shuttle is $15 each way, and the Burbank-Renaissance varies depending on how many people are on the shuttle (looks as if it is $9 unless you have the shuttle to yourself) -- but we should be able to get a discount off the roundtrip price for both airports. The shuttles are generally the cheapest way to go, but can take a little while to get where you're going because they may stop at other nearby hotels first. I can't guess at cab fares for you, since I am not local...and cab fares here have jumped a lot in the past year because the cabbies finally got the fare increases they had requested to go with the increased gas prices.

dude. I just found a killer fare for nonstop flights from BWI-LAX on southwest too.

Awesome news on the airfare, Carency! What is it?

The shuttle sounds better than a cab. When I have my flight plans set up, I'll make a reservation. I checked a flight into Burbank and it's more expensive than LA, although, I should check it against counting in the shuttle. Of course, if I'm on that Burbank shuttle by myself, I may pay more, anyway. :D

with taxes, $209 roundtrip! for nonstop flights. that's good enough for me to hang onto my credit with USairways for Thanksgiving or something.

we had noticed the drivers that took us to Pasadena were a bit freestyle with the fares -- no one went above the posted maximum, of course, but some people got very cheap trips, and others of us paid the posted rate. :(

Well, that's not cool, Carencey. But your airfair is awesome!

i bought San Fran to LAX return for $ 123 how cool !!

with taxes, $209 roundtrip! for nonstop flights. that's good enough for me to hang onto my credit with USairways for Thanksgiving or something.

we had noticed the drivers that took us to Pasadena were a bit freestyle with the fares -- no one went above the posted maximum, of course, but some people got very cheap trips, and others of us paid the posted rate. :(

That's pretty much what I got from Southwest for Philly to LA, it's not non-stop though, although I think I prefer a little break. I don't like being cooped up in the plane that long.

I think the fares depended on how many people were in the shuttle. They tried to fill it up as much as possible and then I think the fare was less? If they couldn't fill it I think it was the posted price? That was my impression, anyway.

BobbAAAAy!

Looking for a roomie again?

I'm gonna reserve a room at the Ren this week, Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sun nights.

Let me know :)
Excellent Jeff, count me in, thanks