My girlfriend will be flying from OAK on Monday 31st Jan at about 10 in the morning. I've read everything on here about getting from central SF to OAK, so naturally I'm not overjoyed at the prospect. The flight is at 10, so originally we were looking to leave SF from Powell BART at about 8am.

I've seen many references to "peak" hours being very bad for getting to OAK and also about security at OAK. But which hours count as peak on a Monday morning? As it would appear that the timetable on the BART website may be overoptimistic - How long should I leave to get to OAK by 9AM latest? And are there cabs at Colliseum if AirBART lets me down?

I realise that SFO may have been an easier option - but SFO is also 3 times more expensive to my destination and was therefore not an option

Many Thanks