The airport is a bit of a ghost town today. Zero line at security (though there are people in the lounge). Additional ground delays (didn’t affect us, fortunately as we didn’t rent a car) with the train/rail from the rental cars to the terminal.
Picked up a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle to take onto the plane. The headline is “SFO pilots mixed up runways FAA finds” 
fortunately not a current issue.
Yikes. Safe travels, @jym626.
Thanks, @BunsenBurner
One dog on the plane… so far (dressed in a body suit!)
Actually, OAK is closer to downtown San Francisco than is SFO. Depending on traffic (time of day), OAK may be faster by taxi to downtown SF, but SFO will be faster by BART.
Dh is from the Bay Area. We used to visit at least once a year back when our kids were younger but it’s been years since I’ve been there. Dh goes for business so visits his family then and MIL comes here occasionally. My younger kids have also gone a few times the last couple of summers on their own to visit their cousins. We live on the East Coast.
After seeing this thread, I was thinking, hmm, we’ve never had problems flying to SFO. Then I remembered two years ago, D17 was going to visit MIL when she had a long weekend her freshman year. She was flying from San Diego to SFO. She called me from the flight before it took off b/c there was all kinds of confusion onboard - flight attendants were announcing a delay but D17 was looking at the airline app which was showing her flight was canceled. Eventually they announced that people could deplane if they wanted since they had a long delay, still telling them the flight wasn’t canceled. I instructed D17 to immediately go to gate attendant to rebook (I knew if it was canceled, she needed to be at head of line!). Meanwhile I was trying to get in touch with MIL who wasn’t answering her phone, as she was supposed to pick D17 up from airport. While D17 was in line, she found out that SFO was closed due to fog. At that point I had already found a flight to San Jose, got in touch with BIL to let him know what was going on since MIL wasn’t answering her phone and to make sure they would be able to get her from San Jose instead. D17 ended up getting the last seat on the San Jose flight which was currently boarding and raced to get on it. D17 learned a few lessons that day - how to think ahead about possible options, get in line immediately, and be checking other flights online (and calling if necessary) while waiting. She had no trouble flying out of SFO on the way back.
After seeing this thread, I’ll think twice about booking my kids into SFO in the future. I hadnt really given the fog much thought since it hadn’t affected their flights before, WTE of D17, which I had forgotten about. San Jose is definitely farther from where my in-laws currently live, but it’s an easy drive so not a big deal to book there instead of SFO.
San Jose isn’t perfect either…and fog can affect anywhere. DD was flying a shuttle from San Jose to San Diego for Thanksgiving week one year. She called me from…LAX. Say what? There was fog in San Diego (morning) and their nonstop was diverted to LAX until the fog lifted. Our note to self was…fly into San Diego in the afternoon!
@vonlost
From OAK to Fisherman’s wharf is 20.8 miles, from SFO it is 15.4 Miles. From SFO to Candlestick Park is 9 miles, from OAK it is more than 25 miles, depends which bridge you take.
The point is not the distance or BART, because an Airport MUST also handle cargos, and to cross the bridge for cargos is not practical. that is why SFO is where it is.
In addition, SFO is basically built in 1927, at that time, there was no BART, not sure if there is the infrastructure as today for transportation. At best, there is El Camino Real and primitive Automobiles. When they started SFO, it had the best weather condition and closest to the city. Whether it is still the best location in 2019 is debatable, but you cannot change the fact. And there is absolutely no space on the Peninsula to build an airport.
@thumper1 that’s interesting! While I have experienced “June gloom” in San Diego, and not just in June, I (and D17) have never had a problem with flying into SAN and had any delays due to fog. The flight we take from the east coast arrives around 8:30am PST. Watch, next time one of us takes that flight it’ll be delayed due to fog!
“Could be that the higher delay risk mean that many passengers consider flying out of SFO to be undesirable, so fares need to be lower to fill planes flying to or from SFO.”
Not really. In the late 1990s/early 2000s, SFO was much more expensive than SJC and OAK, which are both well served by Southwest, whereas SFO had few low cost airline flights. That all changed when Virgin America set up at SFO in 2007 and forced other airlines to lower their fares. In the same timeframe SFO also completed the new international terminal, freeing up room in terminal 2 (which had previously accommodated all international flights) after it had been refurbished and added BART, making it easier to get there from SF. So SFO became a lot more popular with travelers.
Then in the 2008-9 downturn the network carriers cut back on flights at SJC and OAK, particularly those to destinations away from the west coast, reducing competition there, while strengthening their operations at SFO to compete with Virgin America. That became a virtuous circle for SFO and a downward spiral for SJC and OAK, as passengers shifted their airport choices.
In recent years, SJC and OAK have tried to grow, but realistically they aren’t going to see United, American or Delta come back in a big way (not least because the international and transcontinental connections at SFO are a plus for those airlines) and Alaska now has a big SFO hub after buying Virgin America. Southwest will remain dominant at both SJC and OAK, and it is not promoting cheap fares as aggressively as in the past (free bags resonates more with Southwest’s specific target customer base).
So despite SFO’s problems (in large part caused by the parallel runways being too close for simultaneous instrument landings), I don’t see either SJC or OAK becoming a major substitute except for flights in the western US and to Hawaii, or offering much cheaper fares than SFO, in the near future.
Not sure what do you want to convey. BART service to SFO and Millbrae started in 2002, I was the first group of riders who had the honor to experience the service on day one and it was free. That has nothing to do with the build of SFO in 1927.
Son flying home from Long Beach to SFO today. Flight was supposed to be at 1pm. About 11 AM it showed it was 2+ hours delayed. They rebooked to San Jose, just in case there are further delays. So far flight to San Jose is on time.
@artloversplus I won’t re-quote it again, but your post that I quoted sounded to me as if you didn’t know there was transportation to the airport. If you had said you were on the “maiden voyage,” or any voyage for that matter, the first one or you rode it today, then I wouldn’t have been confused by your post.
So what I wanted to convey was information about BART to the airport.
I just got a push alert from the SF Chronicle that the runway construction project will finish a week early and all runways will be open by 9pm tomorrow (Thursday).
Not a minute too soon! Thank you. Passed that info on to Mr. who will be flying Friday.
Great news! They had huge orange barricades across the runway and a big lighted “X” when we were there.
I wish I had clicked on this thread days ago, but didn’t because it had no relevance to me. However, D & SIL are sitting at BNA right now waiting to fly to San Fransisco with a delay so far of 3 hours:( Hope they get in the air soon!
Good News! But it is too late for me. We have already weathered the delay and paid $300 to change the flight for D. Anyway, she should not book the flight months in advance, based on her unpredictable work schedule. Lessons learned.
We do avoid SFO at all costs because OAK is so close to me and SJC is always easier to get to and fewer passengers.