Home Before Midnight, Barely

[kevin_standlee]

I did manage to get a seat on the SFO-bound flight, which landed at SFO before my original Oakland-bound flight left PDX. (Both flights are ordinarily scheduled to depart at 8:05 PM.) I did not try the trick of getting off at Oakland Coliseum and riding back and forth to the airport to retrieve my luggage -- too much chance of getting stuck there. As it was, the BART train I was on arrived Fremont about 20 minutes before midnight. I took a short taxi ride home, and got in just before Midnight. This is still much better (and cheaper; $7.35 BART fare and $10 for the taxi) than having to take a taxi home from Oakland airport and getting home about 1:30 AM or thereabouts.

I'm sure glad I'm planning to work from home tomorrow.

Comments

Public transportation

[nwl.livejournal.com]

You sort of answered a question we had about flying out of SF after Worldcon. We're planning on traveling up the coast and spending a few days in SF and flying home from there, rather than LA. rwl thought we might have to hang onto the car, but I said there was probably public transportation to the airport from a downtown hotel. I was wondering if BART went there, as we will be near a BART station.

Public Transportation to Bay Area Airports

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is public (rail) transportation directly into SFO. The BART line has a station inside the airport, adjacent to the International Terminal. From there you can either walk or take an internal shuttle train to your domestic terminal. If you're flying United or American, it's probably just as fast to walk; for the other carriers, the shuttle is marginally faster -- I rode the inter-terminal shuttle train last night, for instance.

If you're flying out of Oakland International (OAK), BART can get you there as well, but it requires transferring to the AirBART bus and paying a separate $2 fare. The AirBART bus is a full-size bus (with luggage racks) that runs a dedicated express route (no other stops) between Oakland Coliseum/Airport station and the two terminals at OAK. You can pay either a $2 BART ticket or $2 cash, exact change only, to the driver of the bus.

Public transportation alternatives to San Jose International (SJC) from San Francisco include taking Caltrain (conventional rail) to Santa Clara station and then the free Valley Transportation Authority #10 "Airport Flyer" bus to the airport. This is not quite as good as AirBART because #10 is a local bus and makes intermediate stops, but it is possible, costs nothing, and also has luggage racks like the dedicated AirBART buses.

I don't know if you've ever ridden BART, but in case you have not, I can reassure you that it should pose no surprises to anyone familiar with the DC Metro. The systems are nearly identical. I've been told that their fare cards were even interchangeable at one time, although I wouldn't expect that to be the case now.

Unless you need the car for travel outside of The City, and assuming you are staying in downtown San Francisco, I recommend not keeping the rental car. The amount you spend parking the car (plus the rental cost) exceeds the value you'd get from having the car just to drive to the airport.

Re: Public Transportation to Bay Area Airports

[nwl.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the info. This is what I needed to know. I wasn't interested in keeping the car as we'd only be there just two days.