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Any recommendations for San Francisco (SFO) vs San Jose (SJC) airport choice

Any recommendations for San Francisco (SFO) vs San Jose (SJC) airport choice

Old May 17, 2019, 7:58 am
  #16  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: MSN
Programs: AA, BAEC Gold
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SJC is less prone to weather problems than SFO.
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Old May 17, 2019, 8:00 am
  #17  
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Join Date: Oct 2017
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Thank you all for the detailed advice. I have booked SJC so will see how it goes.
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Old May 17, 2019, 8:06 am
  #18  
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Somewhere between SFO and LAX...FYI aka FAT
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Posts: 464
Originally Posted by Steve_ZA
SJC is a great airport relative to SFO. With GE and TSA-Pre you can be aircraft to curb or curb to lounge in under 10 minutes.
...
I assume that's without checked bags? The last number of times returning to SJC we did get through immigration very quickly due to global entry then waited at least 20 minutes for the bags to arrive.
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Old May 17, 2019, 8:14 am
  #19  
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
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I know you've already booked, but for anyone else who may be interested in coming to the East Bay, to be hones,t if you have GE both work reasonably well.

I live in Pleasanton and last night I landed in back in SFO from LHR, once they finally got the doors open I was through the airport in about 10 minutes, the regular line looked awful though and there was a QF 380 landing around the same time which wouldn't make it any easier. The ride home was about 1.10 minutes. Once you get onto the San Mateo bridge it's fairly straightforward. I work in the Milpitas area and my homebound commute any time after 1600 is anything between 50 minutes and 1.5 hours with the average being about 1.10 - Friday is a nightmare though and a WFH day, you should figure on an extra 20 minutes at least from SJC to Pleasanton

So in summary GE- SJC/SFO is about the same, if not I'd go for SJC - Better dining options in SFO though if that's a factor l - Gott's Burgers! (I haven't taken one into the cabin though)

Last edited by Soupdragon62; May 17, 2019 at 1:35 pm
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Old May 17, 2019, 8:26 am
  #20  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: UK
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Originally Posted by JayeJ
I assume that's without checked bags? The last number of times returning to SJC we did get through immigration very quickly due to global entry then waited at least 20 minutes for the bags to arrive.
Yes HBO timings but but baggage delivery is pretty quick compared to other US arrival points.
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Old May 17, 2019, 1:08 pm
  #21  
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: PHX, SEA
Programs: DL Silver, Avis President's Club, Hertz President's Circle, Global Entry (Former AA Plt/Gold)
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I flew to SJC on the Dreamliner and had a nice flight. So much easier than getting out of San Francisco since your destination isn't in the city. Customs was far less crowded from what I could see. The middle (2-3-2) Club seat gets warm with the partitions up, just be warned. I know you're Gold but sometimes options 'last minute' selections are less than ideal so I wanted to mention it.
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Old May 17, 2019, 2:45 pm
  #22  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: UK
Programs: BA Gold, LH *S
Posts: 45
I've used both and prefer SJC (if the price is right) as it's much more convenient for Silicon Valley. The only downside is that if you are not GE the immigration queue can build up quickly depending on where you are sat on the plane, I was in a queue where only one agent was processing all the non-US/non-GE. Also had a bad experience last time leaving, checkin systems were down and they were processing manually, we were nearly 3 hours late arriving back home (2 hours of which were sat on the plane with minimal information while they tried to reconcile POB). But overall I'd recommend it.
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Old May 17, 2019, 3:21 pm
  #23  
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 413
Originally Posted by Soupdragon62
I know you've already booked, but for anyone else who may be interested in coming to the East Bay, to be hones,t if you have GE both work reasonably well.

I live in Pleasanton and last night I landed in back in SFO from LHR, once they finally got the doors open I was through the airport in about 10 minutes, the regular line looked awful though and there was a QF 380 landing around the same time which wouldn't make it any easier. The ride home was about 1.10 minutes. Once you get onto the San Mateo bridge it's fairly straightforward. I work in the Milpitas area and my homebound commute any time after 1600 is anything between 50 minutes and 1.5 hours with the average being about 1.10 - Friday is a nightmare though and a WFH day, you should figure on an extra 20 minutes at least from SJC to Pleasanton

So in summary GE- SJC/SFO is about the same, if not I'd go for SJC - Better dining options in SFO though if that's a factor l - Gott's Burgers! (I haven't taken one into the cabin though)
Interesting. What method do you use to get there? We live in Berkeley, and when OAK isn't an option (aka 90% of the time) we have not even considered SJC because we figured it would be too long/too expensive to get there. We usually BART to SFO unless there is very little traffic in which case we'll Lyft to SFO for about $40.
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Old May 17, 2019, 4:21 pm
  #24  
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Location: Northern California
Posts: 115
Originally Posted by anyuser
Thank you all for the detailed advice. I have booked SJC so will see how it goes.
I think this is the right choice. If you needed to take public transit such as BART then it’d be SFO but heading to Livermore SJC is good. Just don’t be surprised if there’s traffic no matter what time of day (or what day) you arrive. Hwy 680 can be real bad going over Altamont Pass and they’ve been repaving recently at night. 880 to 580 is even worse at commute times or anything approaching them.
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Old May 17, 2019, 5:28 pm
  #25  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
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Isn't SJC mixed fleet vs LH crew out of SFO?
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Old May 17, 2019, 5:31 pm
  #26  
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
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Originally Posted by dblumenhoff
Interesting. What method do you use to get there? We live in Berkeley, and when OAK isn't an option (aka 90% of the time) we have not even considered SJC because we figured it would be too long/too expensive to get there. We usually BART to SFO unless there is very little traffic in which case we'll Lyft to SFO for about $40.
Going to SJC for the BA flight, you are against the traffic the worst being where 880 meets 101, so it's usually a good run down (40 mins from p/ton). Coming back it's with the traffic and with 680 over Sunol it's the usual terrible journey which I am well used to.

Usually I get a car service to and from either SFO or SJC (if it's for work they pay) Uber is about $45.00 to SJC from here and I (well, work) paid $77.00 last night from SFO, but from Berkeley as you know you are just that bit further up the bay making it more expensive to SJC. You could always BART down to Fremont and lyft/uber from there, but thats a bit of messing around when you can go direct to SFO.
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Old May 17, 2019, 11:34 pm
  #27  
 
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Location: Rugby, United Kingdom.
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My vote goes to SJC

I had the option of flying to either for a trip back in March. Wheels down to sitting in Lazy Duck Brewing with a Beer was around 45 minutes. Sat in economy and no GE or anything like that. I was very impressed.
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Old May 18, 2019, 2:53 am
  #28  
 
Join Date: Mar 2018
Programs: BAEC Silver, IHG Ambassador
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Originally Posted by Last20
That really does sound completely bonkers. I'm heading to SJC at Christmas (booked before the current sale - Grrr) and was planning on heading straight out to Monterey. I might hang out a bit in SJC to see what other wonders they have. It also sounds like I won't need to do my usual ridiculously cautious three-hour-before-the-flight arrival thing.
If you are heading to Monterey for a tourist visit, my advice is don't bother, instead continue around the coast to Carmel. Apart from the aquarium, which is OK, we found Monterey fairly boring and had a great time in Carmel. YMMV though.
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Old May 18, 2019, 10:55 am
  #29  
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Programs: BAEC GGL
Posts: 842
Originally Posted by Sprodo
ANA isn't daily either I don't think. Hainan isn't daily rather...

Flew back from SJC in March. The experience was fine, lounge is pretty good. I've always been massively underwhelmed by SFO so the 787 + flight times made it an easy decision for me.
I'd dispute the statement re the lounge. It's consistently full and dirty, and I'd not eat anything there for fear of food poisoning. The SFO one isn't great either, but at least is cleaner (or should I say "was cleaner" as it was out of service last time I was there).
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Old May 18, 2019, 1:28 pm
  #30  
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
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I also regularly fly to both...SJC any day for the lack of hassle coming in, going out, and on the roads (for The Valley of course...if you need to be in San Fran the latter doesn't count). I do prefer the 380 over 787 but forgo that pleasure for the aforementioned reasons.
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