What airline?

Southwest. Low fares (the "wanna get away" fares) and there's no extra charge for luggage (one small carry-on like a purse or laptop, one larger carry-on, and two pieces of checked luggage per person). There is no food service aside from a soft drink and light snacks (nuts/pretzels), but you can carry on your own food, not that you'd need it going from San Francisco to Vegas. There is an extra charge for early-bird check-in, which means you can check in online a day before your flight to get better seats, but it's worth it. Southwest has no assigned seats, so without early-bird check-in you might end up not being able to sit with your travel party.

I checked, and Southwest does fly into/out of San Francisco and Las Vegas and has several nonstop flights each day.

We almost always fly Southwest. They have one of the highest satisfaction ratings among US air carriers.

I fly southwest for work a great deal. Book with early bird and your golden. Very quick flight as well.

That's too bad about Southwest and your times not matching Keep checking, you never know! Sometimes it's better to go through the website directly, than through the travel sites. We flew Southwest for the first time this last trip. We always flew AirTran, but Southwest bought them out. I agree with what CCP had to say about Southwest. Here are a few observations we also noticed.... The Southwest planes are 3 seats each side, so 6 seats per row. Overhead compartments fill fast because there are more people on plane and less overhead storage. Not sure if you would need to pay extra for the early bird check in because I am pretty sure they allow medical boarding first. You would have to check on that. If I remember correctly, it went medical boarding and/or guests needing assistance, business/elite travelers, then those that paid early bird (which are section A) then family boarding (which is suppose to be for families with small children under the age of 4, but depending on gate agent they may allow older kids too)

Now I might be in hot water for this one, but the family boarding sorta ticked me off. I can understand families with little ones, but there were clearly families abusing this with older kids. There had to be close to 40 or more people with kids that moved up into that line to board ahead of us. We were in section B (I checked us in exactly 24hrs before our flight). For me, I have anxiety issues around flying, so I *need* to sit with my DH, so that didn't calm my nerves much. It did work out in the end though which is good. There was a couple behind us and they were pretty mad about the family boarding too. They said they fly Southwest all the time and have never had that many people with kids jump in front. They also said that they don't usually fly out of Orlando though.

Another observation we had.... because the rows are 3 and 3, finding 2 seats together will probably not be an issue *if* you are early enough in the boarding process. Of course I'd imagine that flights in and out of Orlando will have the most amount of kids on them, so I'm guessing this won't be an issue for you.

My DH has flown on Delta and he really liked Delta. I would caution you to stay away from Frontier. My sister in laws mom just got stuck in Tampa for 1 week over Thanksgiving holiday because of plane issues. It was a mess.

I would rule out United. I've heard plenty of stories and bad experiences with United ever since United and Continental merged. Based on customer ratings and experience, I would really only consider two airlines in the States: Southwest and JetBlue. Interestingly enough, starting on January 5th 2015, JetBlue will now have flights from San Fran to Vegas and Vegas to San Fran.

http://worldairlinenews.com/2014/10/01/jetblue-airways-to-add-a-new-route-between-san-francisco-and-las-vegas/

They only offer two flights which I think may clash with your preferences though.

But in 2015, I've read that JetBlue is adding a baggage fee but it's more so of a bundle fare where the seat and baggage fee isn't separate like most airlines.

http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/new-at-jetblue-baggage-fees/

Like everyone else, Southwest would be my first choice. But JetBlue isn't too bad of an alternative. There's complimentary live DirecTV on their planes and like Southwest, light snacks and soft drinks so you'll have to bring your food and drink if you want to eat a full meal. Good amount of legroom from what I've experienced, as well.

If you were checking travel sites, that's why you didn't see Southwest. You can only book Southwest through Southwest's website.

I would definitely echo the suggestion that you look at Southwest website directly rather than go through other travel sites. it my preferred airline here in the US.

I also fly JetBlue. However, their non-stop service out of Chicago is very limited. If they fly non-stop to Orlando, I would have used them a lot more often.

Zz.

I used to be very loyal to United, but since the merge guest services for coach passengers have really taken a nose dive. First class is still nice.

Southwest is a good choice for such a short flight, even with the 3 across seating.

Another vote for Southwest (two free checked bags, but no assigned seating) or JetBlue (one free checked bag, but you get to choose your seats). Had great experiences with both.

To me, the no-assigned seating for Southwest is the biggest advantage. I know people really don't like not having assigned seating and have to be alert to check in as quickly as possible when the window opens (unless you pay extra for early boarding priority), but I prefer it that way.

I know there are folks here who travel with their small children, so please don't take any offense at this, but I really do not wish to sit anywhere near such a group. Being able to choose my own seat allows me the flexibility to move to another part of the plane that might be "immune" to small children. This might be a challenge especially when one is traveling to Orlando. If I am in Boarding Group A, I try to scan how many families there are with small children. If there aren't that many, I will try to risk sitting further up front. If there are plenty, then I will just walk almost all the way to the rear of the plane and get a seat there where there's less of a chance of these families making it all the way back there (families with small children tend to board in between Boarding Group A and Boarding Group B if they don't already have Group A assigned to them).

So yes, I like Southwest because I think I have the "system" down pat. Only now and then will I get unlucky and sit in front of a child that thinks that the front seat is meant for kicking.

BTW, how come we don't ever hear of a parent of a seat-kicking child him/herself getting his/her seat kicked on during the same flight? I know that the likelihood of that happening is very rare, but it must have happened, don't you think?

Zz.

I vote Southwest also.