Originally Posted by
uastarflyer
The 6am 737 flight is pretty solid. After that it is a crapshoot
SMF is my base too. I would go early and ask nicely to take the earlier flight.
As SMF is my base I too 80% of the time drive to SFO night before and don’t bother booking the smf leg.
Just to update, I called United 24 hours ahead of the original 841am flight time (SMF-SFO connecting to NRT), and a very helpful agent was able to shift us to the 600am Sacramento departure (rather than the 841am RJ) while waiving the $75 fee. That flight, a 737-900 bound for Cancun via SFO , has operated normally every day, unlike the RJs, which were canceled twice in recent days and operated late on two other days I checked. Ironically, our flight day (2/6) will likely be a fine weather day, the first in about a week, so perhaps this was all unnecessary, but better safe than sorry. Needless to say, we're very pleased with United as nonstatus customers to help take care of this ahead of time and at no charge.
I had originally called United about two weeks ago and explained the potential problem, but decided to hold off making any changes until today. In any case, we would have arrived at SMF well ahead of time to get on standby for the 600am.