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International Southwest Destinations From LAX

denvemosc46
Explorer C

Ok so this morning I was over the moon when I found out that my wife got approved for the Premier (in addition to the Plus) after they said they said we should wait 1-2 weeks for an answer.

So in my excitement, I immediately researched the various international destinations. I come to find out that every time I tried to book a trip out from LAX to Nassau (NAS) for example, it would say "invalid route with departure airport" What?? So I tried other destinations like Cabo (SJD) and Punta Cana (PUJ) and I got the same message. Am I missing something?

After looking at the route map, it appears as though there are direct flights from LAX to all these locations but I cannot seem to book them or even see them. I'm feeling kinda bummed right now. I hope it's just an error on my part.

3 REPLIES 3

Re: International Southwest Destinations From LAX

elijahbrantley
Aviator A

You can definitely fly to Cancun, but I am not sure about those other destinations. It may have to do with it being hard to get from LAX to those destinations in the same day, given that SW does not have red eyes and you would have to connect (likely through Baltimore or Atlanta); I would have to do more research.  

I assume you checked many different dates?

-A List, Companion Pass holder

Re: International Southwest Destinations From LAX

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

LAX may be a large airport, but it's not a big international airport for Southwest.  There are no international non-stops currently available from LAX.  As you've seen, Cabo and Nassau aren't available destinations, even with a stop.  You can view available routes using the Route Map in list view.  I did see Aruba and Montego Bay as available destinations.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: International Southwest Destinations From LAX

dfwskier
Aviator A

The situation with a lot of the cities in Central and South America is that they are served by one flight a day from US gateway cities. The airline wants to use one plane a day to do the outbound and return flights. That means that US departures tend to be  morning flights.

 

If you are coming from the west coast to get to say Houston, and have a three+ hour flight AND lose two hours heading to the central time zone, a 7 am departure from LAX gets you in to Houston at 12 -- add in another 45 minutes for a legal connection, and your international connecting flight  is probably long gone by 12:45pm.

 

I just checked. For tomorrow the earliest non stop out of LAX leaves at 8:50 am. So the earliest connecting flight out of Houston would have to depart at about 2:35 or later.