Hi. My D was accepted ED1 and has already sent in her deposit. The three times we visited Scripps (and other schools in the area) last year we flew Bos to LAX because LAX was much cheaper and a direct flight. My D will not be attending the accepted students day, but is thinking of visiting a friend who currently attends Scripps sometime in April. She will be going alone, so will not be able to rent a car if we fly her into LAX. Ontario is an expensive alternative, much more expensive, and flight is not direct and therefore much longer. But, she could Uber from Ontario to the school. I am wondering if any current students or parents could chime in on suggestions on how to get her to Scripps when she is traveling alone. If we fly her into LAX, she could take the commuter rail, but how easy is that to find and navigate from the airport? Or do we just bite the bullet and fly her into Ontario? TIA!
Here are 2 ideas:
- Get to Union Station then take the Metro to Claremont.
https://www.lawa.org/flyaway
https://www.metrolinktrains.com/
- Take a shuttle (like Prime Time or Super Shuttle) from LAX to Claremont.
Bite the bullet and pay to fly into Ontario. My D and I were just in LA this past weekend, flew into LAX and out of SNA (John Wayne Airport), the ease of navigating the small airport vs. LAX was so much nicer. Flying into Ontario will make her trip much less stressful, especially doing it on her own.
Could she fly Boston to Seattle to Ontario on Alaska Airlines?
If you decide to use SuperShuttle from LAX, there is a Scripps discount code. From info I got last year: “SuperShuttle provides a 20% discount on shared van ride service or a 10% discount on exclusive van service when you book your ride online. The College’s discount code is T2YEJ.”
Yes, Ontario is easier, but so is a direct flight. It’s not that bad to take a shuttle - just try to plan so it’s not in the heart of rush hour.
Another airport option is Long Beach. It’s small like Ontario and easy to get in and out of. It’s about the same distance as LAX but the traffic would most likely be better. And JetBlue flies direct between Boston and Long Beach. With this option, I think your best bet is a shuttle.
From LAX there is a Fly Away bus to Union Station that is nonstop . The nice thing about the train is avoiding traffice, of course. Total trip is 1.5 hours and that’s what my D and hubbie are doing for admitted students day. We are in NC and same boat – there’s a nonstop to LAX but expensive and long connections to ONT.
Good luck!!
Thank you all! Lots of options. I will sit down and discuss with D. She is a seasoned traveler, although not by herself. She does know her way around public transportation in Boston, so taking a bus and/or train should not be too bad if we decide to do that route. Whatever we decide, I am thinking this will be practice for the next 4 years.
Have you checked Southwest?
Our Pomona student likes flying into LAX. Even for busy Thanksgiving (horrendous), it was easy. You go online and book a reservation with SuperShuttle. Easy as pie. Door to door.
Alternatively, since the drive from LAX with traffic can be 2 - 3 hours, we do pay for more expensive airfaire and she flies into Ontario. You have to switch planes, but it is much more convenient. She can uber right to the college–about a 10 minute ride. You can also SuperShuttle. When you uber, you can ask for a woman uber.
@intparent No nonstop on Southwest either. We looked into flying out of Providence too. And not really any cheaper.
@preppedparent D uses Uber all the time in Boston so she is comfortable with it and if she flies into ONT will probably use Uber to get to Scripps.
My kids found Southwest pretty easy even with a seitch. They often use smaller airports.
Pomona fourth year who flies from Boston here. I’d recommend LAX → FlyAway to Union Station → MetroLink. It’s efficient and much much cheaper than Super Shuttle for a solo traveler. It’s also more reliable — SuperShuttle is often up to an hour late.
I’ll also second the Southwest recommendation. They’re not listed on Kayak et al, so you need to go to their website, but they’re often not too much more expensive than direct flights to LAX. They’re the cheapest/most direct way to get from Boston to Ontario of any airline, with only a layover in Chicago.
There is an Alaska Airlines flight that leaves Logan International at 7:15am, arrives Ontario at 4:15pm, with one stop in Seattle. Maybe not cheapest price available, but Alaska has amazing customer service. It’s the only airline we use when flying here on the west coast, to Hawaii, and when flying to DC.
@sdkb01 Thanks for the recommendation for FlyAway & MetroLink. Forgot that SuperShuttle might run late due to traffic, etc. Son may be going to Pomona by himself for accepted students day in April.
We were also trying to decide between Ontario, more expensive, not direct/possible flight delays and LAX/traffic.
LAX Flyway + Union Station is definitely doable and reliable, but it can take up to 4 hours from when you leave the airport to when you arrive at Scripps. Factor in the time to wait for the bus (runs every 30 minutes), the bus ride (35 minutes), finding the metrolink ticket station in Union Station and purchasing a ticket (10 minutes), waiting for the next train (if you’re unlucky, you could be waiting up to an hour and 30 minutes if you just missed the previous train. But the station has ample seating and eating options and if the time is long you could wander over to neighboring Olvera street for some sight seeing), riding to Claremont (60 minutes), and then walking up to Scripps (15 minutes). It’s important to align yourself the best you can with the train station (schedule here: https://www.metrolinktrains.com/schedules/?type=line&lineName=San+Bernardino+Line). Doing it once to head home is fine. Doing it twice in a day-three (depending on how long she stays) will probably frustrate her a ton.
Ontario to Scripps is correspondingly much easier. No need to bother with SuperShuttle. Just request an Uber to Scripps directly. 15 minute drive for about $20. Ontario is so small and fast that you can get out of the plane to Scripps in 30 minutes. Not an exaggeration.
I would strongly encourage just biting the bullet for Ontario and leaving the LAX option for the future.
I’m a Scripps student from Massachusetts with some thoughts! Although SuperShuttle and Ontario are extremely valid options, I’ve found that public transit in LA is way less efficient than the T and a little more exhausting. I always Uber to LAX, however I typically go with a group of friends and we split the cost amongst ourselves. It is still much cheaper to Uber to LAX than to fly to Ontario in spite of the pricy Uber. I would suggest once she leaves the airport walking to a nearby establishment like a hotel and then calling an Uber because prices will go down significantly. It’s simply much more convenient Ubering to the airport than messing around with the Metro–she’s going to be tired from her flight!
I agree that taking the Flyaway bus to Union Station then the Metrolink is doable but time consuming and often very frustrating. My D’s boy friend has used it multiple times to visit her, and sometimes it goes smoothly and sometimes not. Same for D’s experiences with it. On his last visit he had to wait 90 minutes for a Flyaway bus. Taking an Uber from LAX is expensive but I’d factor that into the cost and compare to flying to Ontario. How about Southwest BOS-PHX-ONT?
My daughter has been traveling to Scripps from Boston for 3 years. She has always flown into or out of Ontario. Though she has to transfer (often in Phoenix), it has never been a problem. Other advantages is that her friends with cars can easily drive her to or from the airport, and that timing to get to the airport for a departure is never an issue. I imagine it would be exhausting when going in either direction when one has to deal with that leg between Claremont and LAX. Anyway, this has worked for us!
Seriously — you will soon embrace Southwest. A 17 year old can handle a plane change. And it is much easier to get to & from campus from Ontario. We used LAX a few times for various reasons when my kid was at Mudd, but it is a bigger hassle.
Thanks all! It ends up that she could not make the visit to her friend work, schedule wise so next months trip is off. But, she still has 4 years of travel out and back to Scripps so we have a few months to figure it out.
I find it interesting that there are so many students attending Scripps/5C’s from MA. who knew?