California - Warning for folks arriving at SAN in evening/night

The past week has been very foggy in the evenings (after about 6:30 PM). I was on a flight to SAN this evening and we were diverted to LAX, along with all the other SAN-bound flights scheduled to arrive 6:30 PM or later on every other airline (I know this becauase I met all kinds of interesting people in the terminal and at the rental car facility, from SAN-bound UA, WN, and CO flights).

If you have flexibility in your schedule, you might want to arrive in the afternoon rather than evening.

Just wondering .. did they compensate you for the rental fee?

Just wondering .. did they compensate you for the rental fee?

No. After we landed in LAX they said they'd wait an hour to see if the fog lifted at SAN (which everyone who lived in SAN knew was simply not going to happen--when the fog rolls in at 7, it doesn't burn off until early morning), and if it didn't, they'd offload all the bags and bus everyone from LAX to SAN. I, and a lot of other people on my plane, were not going to wait the 2+ hours that scenario would entail, and just rented a car. (I shared one so the cost didn't turn out too bad.)

They warned us ahead of time they would not pay for any rental car fees, etc. Which, to be honest, is reasonable, since the weather wasn't their fault. I was happier being at LAX than if they had cancelled the flight at SAN.

November and even more so Decenber is the time of year when fog is an issue in San Diego. Morning flights get delayed; evening flights get diverted. As someone who lives here, I make sure that I don't have a tight connection to an international flight. It's very common for outbound flights to be delayed an hour or more when there is heavy fog.

I've heard it is an even greater problem at LAX, but don't know this to be true. I've been told that LAX is the airport most impacted by weather in the US. Both airports are immediately on the water, where the fog is severe.

I've heard it is an even greater problem at LAX, but don't know this to be true. I've been told that LAX is the airport most impacted by weather in the US. Both airports are immediately on the water, where the fog is severe.

Hmmm...that's interesting. I guess I find it hard to believe that LAX is more impacted by weather than say, ORD or even SFO. There have been some delays at LAX lately due to the runway closure, but out of all the times I've been through LAX, I don't ever remember being delayed due to weather. LAX gets low vis conditions from time-to-time, but it's rare to get completely socked in.

November and even more so Decenber is the time of year when fog is an issue in San Diego. Morning flights get delayed; evening flights get diverted. As someone who lives here, I make sure that I don't have a tight connection to an international flight. It's very common for outbound flights to be delayed an hour or more when there is heavy fog.

Yes, two nights in a row now there have been diverts. It would be awesome if SAN had a CAT III ILS approach, but I guess even CAT I isn't possible because of terrain and nearby tall buildings.

Hmmm...that's interesting. I guess I find it hard to believe that LAX is more impacted by weather than say, ORD or even SFO. There have been some delays at LAX lately due to the runway closure, but out of all the times I've been through LAX, I don't ever remember being delayed due to weather. LAX gets low vis conditions from time-to-time, but it's rare to get completely socked in.



Yes, two nights in a row now there have been diverts. It would be awesome if SAN had a CAT III ILS approach, but I guess even CAT I isn't possible because of terrain and nearby tall buildings.

Runway 09 is CAT-I.

I'm flying in on 14th dec, this is useful to know so I can have a back up plan.

Runway 09 is CAT-I.

I'm flying in on 14th dec, this is useful to know so I can have a back up plan.

True, although I can say in the many trips into SAN, I have never been on a plane that landed reverse pattern (on 9). I have seen planes landing on 9 a few times. It looks like the RVR (runway visual range) is 5000 ft, so that doesn't provide much help.

True, although I can say in the many trips into SAN, I have never been on a plane that landed reverse pattern (on 9). I have seen planes landing on 9 a few times. It looks like the RVR (runway visual range) is 5000 ft, so that doesn't provide much help.

Not much help at all.

.. and if it didn't, they'd offload all the bags and bus everyone from LAX to SAN. I, and a lot of other people on my plane, were not going to wait the 2+ hours that scenario would entail, and just rented a car. (I shared one so the cost didn't turn out too bad.)

OK .. so there was an option for them to shuttle you from LAX-SAN but you just chose to rent a car instead.

I asked because I've never been in the situation before and wondered what would've happened.

I had a similar situation a couple of years ago in SAN. I live in Long Beach but I have meetings in San Diego frequently. This was a trip where I first needed to go to Denver, fly back in the evening and be in San Diego for an 8am meeting.

I thought I was being smart by driving to San Diego and then flying to DEN and then back to SAN so that I wouldn't have to fly back to LAX and then drive down in the a.m.

However, on our approach, we were told there was fog and they were going to circle to see if it would lift. after an hour or two of circling, we diverted to LAX. When we landed at LAX, we sat on the plane for 1.5 hours because they kept telling us they thought the fog would lift and we could fly to SAN. Finally, they told us they had to bus us. That was another 1+ hour wait for the bus.

Sometime around 2:30am we were driving down the 405 past Long Beach and I looked wistfully at my home...as i was headed to San Diego where my car was parked.

Ahhh, the best laid plans.... :-)

Yes the main problem in these divert-to-LAX scenarios is the extra time incurred while your carrier (1) waits for the fog to lift in SAN (it won't lift until early morning--it never does--but that doesn't keep them from waiting an hour or two), then (2) cancels the flight, unloads the bags, and calls for a bus (all of which takes another hour).

So your best-case scenario between landing at LAX and having a bus ready to take you to SAN is about two hours. That's why I and half of my plane jumped out when we landed at LAX and rented cars, even though we had to pay for them ourselves. (But splitting the cost among several people actually makes it quite cheap.)

Gotta question that claim. Compared to Denver, ORD, Logan, even SFO? I don't think so. Most of the fog is in the spring (June gloom), which screws up graduation ceremonies.

Plus, LAX has to have all the latest gadgetry known to man and beast for takeoffs and landings, having pilots onboard at this point is probably just a union issue.

Perhaps I'm not an aviation expert and am relatively new to SAN (5 mo.), but why wouldnt they divert to say SNA or CLD? Closer to SAN for one would be my rationale. I know SNA is a slot-restricted but heck even LGB is closer.

Is it more so that with the plane at LAX it has more options if it cant take back off to SAN? I'm flying back from ORD in late December and arriving into SAN at 10:41 PM. Fingers crossed the fog won't be an issue.

The people at SAN should perhaps hire the folks from ELAT (http://www.elat.com.mx/) to clear the fog permanently. ;)

One guess I would have for the diversion to LAX is that SNA and LGB have hours of operations restrictions, I believe. In the case of the diversion I was lucky enough to have been party to, it was well into the middle of the night so I doubt that SNA or LGB would have allowed a landing.

It's been many (20) years since I suffered a diversion. We landed in ONT and were bussed from there. That night, all the coastal airports were closed and ONT was a plane parking lot. We were kept on the plane for 2 hours while they waited for a bus.

The problem I have experienced more frequently and recently is the inability of early morning flights to take off due to fog. I am often connecting to an international flight, and take care to leave on the flight earlier than the one that I need in order to have sufficient cushion.

Two weeks ago, we drove to LAX for a flight on LAN to SCL. Our flight was to depart at 12:30pm. We were delayed an hour due to the late incoming plane. I was baffled, as the inbound flight is due at 7am. Come to find out, our plane had landed in SAN due to fog in LAX! LAN made a swap with a LAN Peru plane, and we got off an hour late. They still hadn't ferried the LAN Chile plane up from SAN when we left.