I feel like there must be some kind of conspiracy to give intra-California flights lower takeoff/landing priority into SFO. I have faced absolutely pervasive and severe delays from much of SoCal (LAX, SAN, SNA) into SFO. Whereas in the last five years of flying 100K miles per year on various carriers, I've had about 5 flights into SFO delayed for ATC reasons when flying in from an airport not on the west coast.

I end up having to fly WN most of the time within California because they have such good flight schedules, but their delays (especially LAX-SFO) seem to be getting increasingly bad (regularly in the 3-4 hour neighborhood) over the last couple months. I assume ATC is ATC but can anyone say if the delays are also of this magnitude on other carriers?

Fortunately I have the flexibility to change my flights easily since I nearly always book business select. And yes, I could fly in and out of OAK more often. My budget is often enough that I could book first class on another carrier, though.