Drive to LA or commute to LAS
 

If in the Orange County area, would you drive and fight LA traffic/parking or commute out of SNA to LAS? Thanks

Lineholder or reserve? AM or PM trips? Driving time to and from LAX?

Folks do both. It's up to your pain tolerance for driving or flying your commute.
The car will always be there at the end of a trip. I know that drive sucks, but if you hate it you can always switch. (LAX has a 6 month lock, so you had better be sure).
If it were me I would drive, no question. Bonus, LA has Hawaii trips and free ice cream in their lounge.

the freezer is always gone by the time I get in there on PM trips. This ice cream is a unicorn.

no lock as a new hire. Plus most likely the drive would only suck one way with how our trips are built.

I’d move out of CA

In all seriousness, a crappy drive is still not a commute. There will be good days and bad.

20 years in SoCal. I bailed.

Personal opinion, I'd drive. I commuted out of Burbank to Vegas for about a year a few years back before LA base. SNA has a few less SWA flights but a couple delta so about same total. If you are an AM'er you'll have to fly to Vegas the night before and stay in a hotel or crashpad, no flights get you there early enough for almost any trip. If you're a PM'er you're usually not going to make the last flight back to SNA after your trip, so again hotel or crashpad for the night or I guess lounge chair if you can stomach it. While you're on reserve, which could be a while with this slowdown, you're flying to Vegas to sit around, again night before for an AM and probably not getting released in time to go home on a PM. Hotels in Vegas are plentiful and not that expensive if you plan in advance but if big shows are in town it can get tough to find something last minute reasonable.

Haven't really looked at LA lines but if they're like most other bases on an AM you're probably showing before most traffic, 5AM or so and getting done midday so home before worst of afternoon traffic. On a PM you'll show midday and get done after 10PM. Unfortunately with our 2 hour call out for reserve you may end up having to preposition yourself a bit closer to LAX but having done similar in another base I'll take watching a movie or hanging out drinking coffee an hour from home over flying to Vegas to sit around the airport.

Check backroads too to see if there’s alternate routes which save time. Prob aren’t any since we’re talking LA.

Either way,...I’ll drive to work any day of the week over wasting my time with a commute.

Drive, no other option! Bid early start, late finish PMs. You're gonna drive early afternoon, during low tragic (for SOCAL), and drive back late at night. I used to do Yorba Linda to LAX on average 50 minutes each way. Driving to SNA, parking, jumseating and hotels on either side. Sounds like a nightmare to me. Plus, you'll get to do Hawaii. Why are we even discussing it?!

I’ve never had to show an Ops agent their own manual to get a seat in my car. It’s also never left the garage without me.

Drive.