Why do you still use sfo or oak airports? (San Jose: new construction, live)

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by JohnS_15

I love SMF. I flew to Cancun on Southwest last year via LA and it was so easy to just park in the economy lot 20 minutes from my house. I've also taken the bus a couple of times from downtown Sac - there's an express bus that goes to Davis via Woodland and stops at the airport. And I've taken Lyft or Uber and it's so easy and the airport itself is awesome.

However, like others that have posted on this thread... for most international trips to Asia or Europe I'll fly out of SFO or OAK. I'd rather get a non-stop flight to London on a major international airline like Virgin or British Airways out of SFO than fly American Airlines or United from SMF stopping in some place like Houston or Chicago and having delay issues and ****ty in-flight service. Sure you could take a cheap flight to LA and transfer to a big non-stop international flight but by the time you've arrived to the airport early and taken the flight and picked your bags back up and transferred over to the international terminal, worried about being delayed etc. you might as well of just driven or taken the train to SFO or OAK. Off-site airport parking is not that expensive if you are only away a short time or stay with friends or even an airport hotel the night before or you can sometimes find cheap one-way car rentals.

Do you work for the airport? I've never seen someone quite so enthusiastic about an airport before!

Yeah, I get it, I fly out of SFO Internationally to Asia, but I disagree about European and South American destinations, for me it is a wash, the hassles of getting to SFO, parking, rentals, hotel night over or staying with family, I would rather fly out of SMF and make ONE connection at any of these Hubs: Dulles(DC), JFK, Atlanta. ORD, DFW, Hous, Boston, Philly, Charlotte, MSP, Denver, Seattle, or Salt Lake. But that doesn't mean I haven't flown out of SFO to Europe.

Word is out that SMF may get a Non-Stop to Paris and/or London soon. :-)

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by Nn2036

International Flights are rarely canceled from SFO (very expensive for carrier, big plane, lot of passengers,etc).

If my international flight is canceled, I can just simple drive home.

If I miss my connection to my international flight elsewhere, I have to try to find hotels, rental car,etc in unfamiliar cities.

If my connection is tight, I will have to run in these big airports trying to make my connection. Too much stress.




You are luckier than a lot of us.

You can just drive home....to where? If home is SF or within 30 mins no big deal, but if home is 2hours away it becomes more of a hassle, especially when you have to drive back to SFO to catch the next flight.

Don't pick a connection that is too "tight", no running needed.

I don't know if you are a Bay Area person or not, but I find it funny that all these bay area folks are making the case for SFO or Oak for Sacramento residents. You would think that Bay Areans would prefer that Sacramentans didn't use their airports to reduce traffic and congestion.

So, if all the good deals and the most options were out of Sacramento(SMF), don't you think the average bay arean would see it in a different light because its 2-4 hours away, its not exactly home. You would be more willing to pay a little extra for the convenience of flying out of your "own" nearby airport.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

I don't depend on luck when I fly international, I rely upon common sense and a nonstop flight is far more likely to get me to my destination on time. Sorry but that trumps any loyalty that I might feel toward a particular airport and always will.

You keeping harping on "loyalty", this as nothing to do with loyalty.

For me, as a Sacramentan, it makes good sense to always consider SMF first. And I always factor in the costs, time, and inconvenience of flying out of a bay area airport against an SMF airfare.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by Nn2036

Let look at some of the fare right now:


SFO :I can fly to Paris in March to May period for $688 (A few weeks ago, I found flights for $500)). I can even fly for $448 if I want a low cost carrier (Wow)

SMF: $939-$1282 with 2 stops. Cheapest 1 stop is $1182-$1373

Tell me ,which airport should I flying to?

It would be helpful if you listed the airlines.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by savoytruffle

I like SMF a lot, except the one time we had to wait in a customs line for 2 hours coming back from Mexico because there was only one passport agent serving a flight of 100+ people (mostly Mexicans). Other than that my experiences have been good and the airport is big, clean and nice, and security has always been fast for me.

But I agree with everyone who says flying SFO internationally is easier. For example, I am flying to London Heathrow this fall and tickets from SFO to Heathrow nonstop were $350 per person cheaper than SMF to Dallas or wherever, then to Heathrow. So of course I am going to take the SFO deal. We can take Amtrak's Capital Corridor to BART to get there and not have to worry about parking for 2 weeks (which would indeed erase the cost savings). And actually my concern would more be with a potential Capital Corridor or BART delay than any delay at SFO.

I admire the OP for being so pro-Sacramento because I like it here too, but acting like some tourism bureau representative when it comes to SMF is silly. I don't know anyone who'd fly out of San Jose or Oakland than SMF, anyway. The prices are the same or SMF is cheaper. However, SFO being a massive international hub makes it a better option most of the time when flying to the major airports in Europe.

Good post, thanks for thinking it through. We've done every option you mention and I keep coming back to, "I'd rather Fly out of SMF". My nephew just recently missed an SFO flight because of BART....and it didn't help that he started in Sacramento(a friend of his drove him to BART).

Oh, now I'm the tourism bureau rep, lol, I'll take it as compliment, nothing silly about discussing better options for Sacramentans and improving our options out of SMF.

Wouldn't it be nice to never ever have to think about SFO when traveling Internationally. And isn't it odd that these Bay Area folks seem to care that we would rather use SMF.

Having said that, it seems like I am the only one in this thread so far that doesn't hate SFO, maybe because I don't use it as my primary airport. I do hate OAK's airport though. And so far, everyone LOVES SMF despite its few limitations.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by tstieber

Some of these flight savings for international flights are indeed much cheaper at SFO. Everyone has a price, and if it's a BIG savings, then it may be worth the commute. For a couple hundred bucks on a long distance flight, probably not. For $400 or $500, probably yes. For a short regional flight, I don't think anyone would bother going to OAK or SFO bc the savings would be negligible, if any, and the travel would cost more than the savings. It's a case-by-case situation.

Yeah, for those really good deals out of SFO, if it worked for your schedule, of course, I would fly out of SFO, but only after considering the costs and time wasted getting to SFO from Sacramento. If its still a good deal yes I would fly out of SFO.

But do consider, this isn't 10 or 20 years ago when it was an automatic decision to fly out of SFO. SMF options are getting better and better and they will only get better the more we use our OWN airport. Opps I shouldn't have said that, I'll be accused of being "loyal" again. or worse for wanting better options for Sacramentans, how dare I even think such a thing, :-), lol

[Nn2036]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

You can just drive home....to where? If home is SF or within 30 mins no big deal, but if home is 2hours away it becomes more of a hassle, especially when you have to drive back to SFO to catch the next flight.

Don't pick a connection that is too "tight", no running needed.

I don't know if you are a Bay Area person or not, but I find it funny that all these bay area folks are making the case for SFO or Oak for Sacramento residents. You would think that Bay Areans would prefer that Sacramentans didn't use their airports to reduce traffic and congestion.

So, if all the good deals and the most options were out of Sacramento(SMF), don't you think the average bay arean would see it in a different light because its 2-4 hours away, its not exactly home. You would be more willing to pay a little extra for the convenience of flying out of your "own" nearby airport.

If your international flight is once a day, you drive home and go back tomorrow. If this happen at a hub airport you are connecting to, then you have to figure out how to get a hotel room( usually expensive) and possibly car rental.

Feeding Flight time+ connecting time can easily adding 5-6 hours each way, more than time to drive to SFO.

Sometimes, tight connection cannot be avoid because that is your only option.

Flying back from oversea with connection is particularly risky. I usually want at least 3 hr connection due to custom and immigration.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by Nn2036

If your international flight is once a day, you drive home and go back tomorrow. If this happen at a hub airport you are connecting to, then you have to figure out how to get a hotel room( usually expensive) and possibly car rental.

Feeding Flight time+ connecting time can easily adding 5-6 hours each way, more than time to drive to SFO.

Sometimes, tight connection cannot be avoid because that is your only option.

Flying back from oversea with connection is particularly risky. I usually want at least 3 hr connection due to custom and immigration.

So driving home....2-4 hours one-way, and 2-4 hours back to SFO the next day is ok with you? Because that is what a Sacramentan has to do when flying out of SFO.

We have never missed a flight because we used ONE connection at a Hub Airport from Sacramento and the layover was never more than 2 1/2 hours, and when it was 2 1/2 hours the time "flew by", pardon the pun, because we entertained ourselves at a restaurant or bar within the airport, or caught up on a good book.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Yeah, for those really good deals out of SFO, if it worked for your schedule, of course, I would fly out of SFO, but only after considering the costs and time wasted getting to SFO from Sacramento. If its still a good deal yes I would fly out of SFO.

But do consider, this isn't 10 or 20 years ago when it was an automatic decision to fly out of SFO. SMF options are getting better and better and they will only get better the more we use our OWN airport. Opps I shouldn't have said that, I'll be accused of being "loyal" again. or worse for wanting better options for Sacramentans, how dare I even think such a thing, :-), lol

Hello? SFO and OAK are part of the options available to Sacramento people. And speaking of 'loyal', you act as if flying from the Bay Area is treacherous.

LOL

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Hello? SFO and OAK are part of the options available to Sacramento people. And speaking of 'loyal', you act as if flying from the Bay Area is treacherous.

LOL

LOL, treacherous? I didn't describe it that way. But if you choose to, thats with me.

Why do you even care? Are you a loyalist for OAK airport. Would you regularly use SMF if airfares were $50 less, and drive 2-4 hours from the bay area, or not bother because you have other airports closer to you?