NorCal to Michigan or Chicago next week

[SpaceSquirrel]

Greetings,

I tend to overwhelm myself with flexibility in searching for airfares.

I'm in the Sacramento / SF Bay areas hoping to get back to Michigan early next week. It might be nice to be in the MidWest on Election Day, but not an absolute necessity. I think Sacramento (SMF) -> Traverse City (TVC) would be ideal, but TVC is a rather expensive airport, so I'm willing to go via GRR (closes), DTW, ORD, or others and rent a car or take a bus up to Northern Michigan.

So far, the best deals I've seen are:

$100.60 (including taxes)

Oakland (OAK) to Chicago (ORD) - Tue, Nov 6

Alaska Airlines 351 Dep: 2:20PM Arr: 4:17PM 1h 57m Boeing 737 Coach (T)

Layover in SEA 1h 48m

Alaska Airlines 26 Dep: 6:05PM Arr: 11:50PM 3h 45m Boeing 737 Coach (T)

$204.60

Sacramento (SMF) to Detroit (DTW) - Mon, Nov 5

US Airways 592 Dep: 9:59AM Arr: 12:45PM 1h 46m Airbus A319 Coach (G)

Layover in PHX 45m

US Airways 230 Dep: 1:30PM Arr: 7:18PM 3h 48m Airbus A319 Coach (G)

I used the better bidding PRICELINE link to try $60 then $62 with non-jets allowed ($62 = ~$113 with taxes) SMF to GRR and got a "suggestion" of raising offer price to $289 or $246 for SMF to ORD.

One question I have is whether Priceline is significantly better for Round Trip vs One Way tickets. I prefer one way because I'm not sure when or from where I might want to return to California. If it's only going to be like 10-20% higher though, I could put in some dates I "might" use later on.

Haven't checked rental car rates or bus ticket prices in much detail as yet. With all my flexibility, # of re-bids shouldn't be an issue. My issue is deciding how to value my "time in transit" and the relative benefits or drawbacks of various airports and relative [in]convenience of rental cars and/or buses (with or without transfers).

Thanks for the great site!

SpaceSquirrel aka Bill.

[Romelle]

I'd seriously doubt you are going to find anything cheaper than that $100.60 OW. And while you are searching, it just might go away.

I did a similar search on ITA, and also turned up a same day 10AM departure that has a slightly shorter layover time and does get you in to Chicago at a little more civilized time.

But it will also depend on how you factor in the late arrival (airport hotel cost?), non-direct flight, and driving costs. I personally think driving out of Chicago is also a challenge.

The $300+ flights into Grand Rapids with just the one stop do look like they might price favorably to the hotel+driving from Chicago?

Fares to GRR on Nov 8 look like they are more in the $200+ range (I used the +-2 day feature of ITA).

I think I'd bid the OW SMF-TVC&GRR, day of your choice, up to something like $200, and see what shakes out.

Or maybe play with just a non-stop to Chicago?

IMHO.

Romelle

[SpaceSquirrel]

Thanks for the input Romelle!

I ended up going with a ~$200 SMF->DTW. While Southwest declining to publish fares to ITA and the like irritates, it's more than made up for by their not charging any fees for checked bags or to change a flight.

[Romelle]

Good thing you thought to look beyond ITA. I'm glad you found a good solution.

Romelle