To get to vegas, fly SFO,LAX,DEN TO PSP, and then connect PSP-LAS. Worked for me last memorial day, when they were using denied boardings on my direct flight.
That's so stupid. Why don't you just drive to OAK and fly out to Vegas. There are plenty of flights out of there, and you'll save money rather than flying out of SFO.
San Diego (SAN) is the second largest city in California, (one of the largest on the west coast), an amazing vacation town, and perfect for a low cost carrier. No carriers are currently hubbed there.
Do you ever read on the airliners.net forum about how KSAN is so pressed for space? It's a tiny airport, they only have one runway and gate space is very tight and demanding over there. SAN would be an absolute mess if they got a hub there. Until they find another area for an airport in San Diego, there will never be a hub over there.
Sacramento is the capital of California, and the suburbs are growing rapidly. This city can definately support an airline hub, and no airlines are currently hubbed there. The nice thing about Sacramento (SMF) is you are centrally located on the west coast. For instance, you can have a plane originate in SEA, fly to SMF, and continue on to SAN. Passengers can stay on the same plane, and the flight time is only slightly longer than a nonstop. However, the flight time will be significantly less than going, say (SEA-SLC, (change planes) SLC-SAN).
I don't get your logic. There are plenty of flights from SEA-OAK and then you can just continue onto SAN. OAK is only an hour and a half from Sacramento, that's not that bad of a drive. My two votes for new hubs are STL and ABQ. STL because of what others say, TWA moving out makes it very dead and it is a very underserved market, ABQ because it is growing very rapidly and there are plenty of job opportunities sprouting up out there, I think it was the number one place to start a business in Forbes Magazine, and there are a lot of big names sprouting there, Eclipse Jet being a notable one. Southwest does have a nice operation going there, but ABQ is a huge airport and it has plenty of room for expansion.