I lived in Ausitn for two years (until this August), and my family lives North of San Francisco, so I've flown AUS-SFO/SJC/OAK quite a bit.

The SJC-AUS nonstops on American are very convenient; I believe they're three times daily. Otherwise, flying via DFW is not too bad. United has one nonstop SFO-AUS, but I've never taken it.

At times, I found that flying "the (very) long way" on NW or DL works out nicely because it allows for a red-eye on the SFO/SJC/OAK-AUS route and earns almost twice as many miles as the nonstop. With DL, flying via ATL, you earn 5856 for the round-trip vs. 2942 on the nonstop on American.

Alex