Flying To SFO This Summer? Leave Yourself Extra Time

If you want to take BART to SF downtown from SFO, it is much easier to walk to International Terminal from Terminal 3 (United side). The Bart entry is right there. It happened to me several times recently that I just walked from SFO BART to Terminal 2 via Terminal 3 or vice versa when AirTrain wasn't running (less than 8 min walk).

Thanks for the heads up!

Any frequent traveller to SFO knows to avoid AirTrain whenever possible with or without construction. Jeff is right that it is better to just walk to the International Terminal to take BART. The only time necessary is when you are forced to rent a car from SFO, and if you are returning it, it's better to stay at an airport hotel the night before an early flight as it can take 20 to 25 minutes to return the car and board the AirTrain to a terminal.

I'm here right now. I wish I knew this sooner. I got here last night and it took me 1.5 HOURS JUST TO GET ON TO THE BUS. Also, the driver was extremely rude and our bus was packed to the point that PEOPLE HAD TO HOLD THEIR SUITCASE OVER THEIR HEADS! It's terrible. Their was also very little busses and the driver stopped at every stop when we were already full. It took 45 Minutes for us on the bus to get from Terminal 1 to the Rental Car Center. Anyone who goes there, leave yourself ample time!!!

I arrived in SFO yesterday night from Florida at around 9:30. One Family from Japan waited 2 hours for the bus since they had 3 pieces of big suitcases and their wasn't any space. It's awful.

It might be worth noting that Samtrans just introduced "Route SFO" which services all terminals from the Millbrae station (free parking on weekends!)

I've used it a few times and it certainly helps.
http://www.samtrans.com/schedulesandmaps/timetables/Route_SFO.html

I arrived from FRA in the evening and rented a car. They direct you to the parking shuttle busses. It was fine... but definitely takes longer as it stopped at several spots before arriving at the rental car center. In summary.... not so bad but definitely an extra 15 - 20 mins and annoying when you arrive on a long haul and expect a quick trip to rental car center.

““Summer” temperatures in San Francisco often drop to the mid-fifties (Fahrenheit) at night...”

Thanks for the ‘(Fahrenheit)’ note, Steph. For a second I thought Celsius and was really worried SF got down to a chilly 131F at night.

If it's too busy just get an Uber/Lyft from the terminal to the rental car center. They pickup on the same level, departures, and the wait is usually 5 minutes.

Other than the car rental area, I really wouldn't worry about airtrain which you generally shouldn't bother with anyway. You can walk from the end of terminal 3 all the way to the other end which is the international terminal within 15 to 20 minutes. It's not that large of an airport. The car rental building is a different story. I wouldn't recommend walking there in the dark and outdoors. You won't see anybody else walking. Get lyft instead

Clearly they will need to tweak the service. But it will likely still be painful.

The one-way thing was pretty standard for night time service when I've been there late nights. They use only one of the two tracks.

https://www.flysfo.com/media/press-releases/sfo-announces-night-time-closures-airtrain-light-rail-system

What does Hertz gold plus get door to door service mean? Hertz has their own bus? Or a snarky joke I don't get?

For locals, it's also a big deal that the upper deck of the short term garage is closed. That's by far my preferred place to park, because there and the ground floor are the only places where you don't have to take an elevator to get to the terminal and then another elevator or escalator to get to/from departures. I found that out at 4:30 this morning when arriving for a flight, unfortunately.

This is not a big deal for T3 (UA) passengers, unless they're renting a car.

It's a real problem if you're a T2 or, especially, a T1 passenger and you need to get to BART or the international terminal. There is currently no walkway from T1 to International, so if you walk, you're going to have to go all the way around (T1=>T2=>T3=>INT) or shortcut across the parking structure to T3, and then walk to INT.

@Henry - What's your strategy for getting from RCC to hotels? Uber? I thought about doing this last week but couldn't bring myself to rally for a late night AirTrain/Hotel Shuttle journey.

@W and @ FL - That sounds terrible!

@Aaron - You're probably closer with the second one, but it actually is pretty close to door-to-door. You get dropped off on the ground level right by Hertz pick-up, and Gold Plus Rewards members can bypass the line and go straight to the cars. No snark intended, just a nice silver lining after an otherwise frustrating arrival experience.

@Kacee - Agreed.

Seriously though If you’re going between T1/T3 any combo. You’d essentially never take the Airtrain except maybe if disabled or elderly for T1 all the way to T3.

And yes you wouldn’t normally do it for T3 to International either. So this really limits impact to few travelers not renting cars.

And if you’re going to SF proper for God’s Sake don’t rent a car. Parking is insane and expensive at hotels. Uber /Lyft are everywhere. There are ways to go wine country’ even

"easy to forget if you are coming from a location that has any modicum of humidity"

We have plenty of humidity.. we just call it fog and watch tourists walk around in cheesy sweatshirts that some gift shop in Fisherman's Wharf overcharged them on.

Seriously though, if you visit SF anytime of year, bring layers and carry them on you. Even days where it does get warm, you'll notice locals carrying jackets with them, as the fog can roll in very quickly in the afternoon/early evening. Weather reports are vague estimates, and don't reliably predict the fog, and the entire region is filled with microclimates where the temp can change 10f in a mile.

@Steph .. if starting or ending my trip at SFO, I pick up and/or drop off my Hertz rental car at SFO Hyatt. It's an unstaffed location, but they just leave the keys/contact at the front desk and there's a lockbox to drop the keys and contract at the Concierge Desk. This usually works smoothly but I've had an occasional issue or two doing this over the years.

There's also a Hertz at SFO Marriott and some other standalone locations in that area.

-David