The weather there can interfere. And there are a ton of rules and regulations.
I booked my own flights and had no idea about the SF airport, but that isn’t where we wanted to go anyway.
Bummer:
- a private plane caught fire on Oakland’s main runway about 2 this afternoon…runway still closed.
- If you manage to make it to SFO, starting Friday, the cable cars will be shut down for 20 days....
Crazy that the airlines knew so far in advance but apparently didn’t plan appropriately. W and I are flying into SFO on Sunday and if I’d known about this a couple weeks prior we would’ve flown into San Jose or Oakland instead.
And for the double-whammy I was planning on walking to the office and taking the cable car back to the hotel (we’re up on the top of Nob Hill), but now the cable cars are out too!?!? Guess I’ll be ubering back after work. No way am I hiking up that hill at the end of a long day lol.
Guys in my SF office are reporting different experiences, some with no delays at all, others delayed several hours.
I found notification of this repaving in a news article of Apr. 11 of this year.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/ktvu-local-news/runway-closed-at-sfo-due-to-a-12-inch-pavement-depression-
The problem is keeping such news front and center.
Well, got in 3+ hrs late. No plans to ride streetcars (will be on the S side of SF and in SV most of the time) but do hope to get home Sunday!
DS, DIL and GD will be flying out of San Jose for Thanksgiving. So hopefully that’s all good.
We will be flying in and out of SFO in mid/late November. Sure hope they’re done with their work by then.
If they’re not done before Thanksgiving—yikes on the congestion and delays!
So far, Alaska has not touched Mr.'s flights after the first week of November (but all earlier ones got rearranged!). So there is hope.
I love SJC. Mostly business travelers who clear security quickly and know what they are doing. SFO - it is a giant cluster even when there is no fog or closed runways!!!
My son and his GF (who live in SF) were flying from SFO to Long Beach this afternoon (on Jet Blue). It looks like that flight plane is already 3 hours delayed. I sent them the article and they got nervous so changed their flights to Oakland last night. The bonus is they are now coming in 4 hours earlier than anticipated.
My S left SFO on an 8:30 Alaska flight this a.m…on time!!! Hoping his good luck continues on his return Sunday…
If it is first flight of the morning, that helps with chance of being on-time, since any delay in aircraft arrival is absorbed into the time the aircraft is parked at night.
I.e. if the aircraft’s last flight was scheduled to arrive at 11:50pm last night, but actually arrived at 1:50am this morning (2 hours late), that does not prevent it from leaving on time for its flight sometime after 6:00am.
We just spend $300 to cancel D’s round trips from NYC and SFO to rebook the flights. It’s too risky to fly in and out of SFO. D had booked the flights before the repaving announcement.
I am not an airport expert, but looking at the layout, the airport has two more runways 19L and 19R, I am wondering why don’t they use those two in this situation. I know its shorter than 28L and 28R but they have been using the 19’s before. It is not usually used, because I used to live right under the flight path of runway 19’s and when they do use those runways, I got high pitched noises from the airplanes.
Just in case any of you get stuck at SFO - back in May when my kid and I got stuck at SFO on a 6pm flight to ORD that turned into the next day 10am, we begrudgingly decided to accept the United offer of a hotel stay, a $150 voucher (each), another $150 voucher (each) online, and $50 in meals that turned into $100 after I complained that the restaurant wouldn’t give me back change on the vouchers (total meal cost was $23 and I gave $40 in vouchers, and the vouchers were good for a whole day). The bad part was that we had to wait in line for 3+ hours (finally got to the hotel at 2:30am) before getting all this. Another bad thing was that our hotel that we ended up at was pretty much where I used to work, if I could have driven home it would have taken 25 minutes. (Uber would have cost about $70).
S is flying to SFO this weekend for work. I warned him about the runway issues, but he doesn’t want to eat the change fees & doubts his employer would reimburse him. He’s also concerned about his return flight since he’s got a tight connection.
@ProfessorPlum168
Next time you should try some smaller hotels/motels on El Camino Real, they have shuttles too and priced very reasonably. Millbrae is full of restaurants, just walk around you can find food all over the place.
Before I moved out, I was very involved in Millbrae, politically, education or business
@shellfell Fingers and toes crossed for you S, my D could not miss the flight so we paid the change fee, her patients cannot wait for her.
Well, I’m supposed to fly in Oct (was just called this morning). I told the arranger that I need to avoid SFO and everyone should while they’re working on the runways. M
He promised they will route me without having me go thru SFO. Maybe I will get a nonstop instead—fingers crossed!
The 19L and 19R runways are normally used in the other direction as 1R and 1L, which are mostly used for takeoffs. Only in unusual wind conditions are they used in the 19 direction (or the 28 runways used in the 10 direction).
https://www.flysfo.com/about-sfo/sfo-tomorrow/airfield
Ok. Have opted for the one airline that is nonstop HNL to and from my destination. Will wait for more details.