Anyone familiar with SAN? Where to spend time in the airport
 

I'm already a 1K member, and I need to spend ~290 dollars and fly ~2200 miles to re-qualify for 1K for this year. Obviously I've flown a lot this year, but I don't anticipate I'll be flying anymore for a while, probably not until the beginning of next year.

A few weeks ago there was some sale going on united.com, and I was able to book an IAH-SAN-IAH itinerary that had a base fare of literally 307 dollars (tax was like an extra 50sh dollars). Got really lucky.

Arrives into SAN @ 22:58, and leaves SAN at 06:40. I'll basically have a 9 hr layover, which is perfectly fine with me since I have a crap loud of work to finish (and I tend to work better at night). I used my last two RPUs, and I got an email yesterday confirming me on R for both flights.

I realize that at that time of the night, I can pretty much find any corner in the airport that would be quiet enough to get work done. However, I'm so used to the lounges that I was wondering if you knew of any that would be open 24/7. Or maybe if you knew a quieter part of the airport? Looking at the airport's website, it doesn't look like there are any lounges open 24/7, so I was hoping someone would be familiar with the airport to tell me where to hang out. Ideally, it would be a table with a chair in some quiet area.

No big deal - was just curious because I've never been to SAN before.

Thanks in advance :)

I'm going to move this to the California forum. You might also look there for ideas on where to spend time.

l'etoile
UA moderator

my apologies - thanks for moving it! :)

If you are planning to spend the night in secure area, there are rocking chairs.

Otherwise you will most likely have to spend your time in food court area.


sleepinginairports.com may be of help.

Me? I'd just take local bus to downtown and get a good night's sleep.



The Y is not fancy, but it's cheap and clean, and right on 922 route (IIRC).

Yes-- I'd definitely head downtown and grab a hotel. SAN is probably #1 in the nation in terms of proximity to the city. Makes for interesting landings...

No lounge at SAN is open 24/7. The 992 bus to downtown and the edge of the Gaslamp district is a great suggestion, though it only runs until 11:30 PM on weekdays and 11 PM on weekends:

http://www.sdmts.com/mtscr/route.aspx?r=992

That said, a taxi downtown won't cost that much if you don't want to sleep at the airport.

The OP is looking for a quite place to work, not sleep.

Denny's, there's three of them just West of the airport. Looks like there is one that is within walking distance of a Holiday Inn so you might be able to bum a ride on their shuttle, assuming they have a shuttle.

thanks so much for the above replies. TWA, you're right. I definitely have a crap load of work to get through so I was hoping I'd find a quiet place in the airport to get stuff done. I am for sure not looking to go sleep anywhere. I just need a chair and table, with some quiet. Not quite sure if Denny's will let me sit there for ~10 hrs (albeit minding my own business, but still).

I appreciate the website also. Very interesting. Didn't know there was something like that.

Again, your replies are very much appreciated.

I would 2nd the suggestion of one of the food courts, but I suspect that you'll be interrupted for at least a half hour by the guys pushing the rotating floor-waxers.

SAN pretty much shuts down (and all the lounges do) from around midnight~1 AM until 5 AM, except for the night cleaning crews.

Thank you all again for the suggestions. I am writing this post in case anyone in the future might have the same question:

As lhgreengrd1 kindly mentioned, SAN quite literally closes down a little bit after the last flight arrives that night. Also, security at the airport does a "security sweep" where everyone after the TSA checkpoint (i.e. at the gates) is told to leave. So you can't wait there, even if you just want to sit down at some random gate.

When you go through security there beyond TSA, everything is closed until 0500. I asked various people in the airport where I could go, and literally everything in the airport is shut down. At around midnight, the lights at some areas were even turned off.

In short, there is only one place in the whole airport that is open 24/7, and it is "Einstein Bros Bagels". As soon as you go through security (i.e. as if you're leaving the airport), you'll see an escalator to your right. When you get to the top floor, you'll see Einstein Bros Bagels immediately in front of you (or a little bit to your right). It's impossible to miss, because any light coming out of anywhere is coming from there if you're there after midnight.

I walked in, ordered a coffee, and just sat there. It was completely empty and I got 9 hrs of work done in so much peace that I thought I had rented myself a mini office at the airport. Every couple of hours, some really tired passenger would walk in, order nothing, find a table and lay his or her head down at a table to sleep. A few minutes later, an employee would come over to them and ask them politely to wake up, explaining that they are not allowed to sleep there. The passenger would just leave.

In short, it was the perfect place to stay at if you wanted some quiet and did not want to sleep. Hell it was better than some of the best airport lounges I've been at. However, if you're planning on spending the night at SAN, just know that you can't sleep anywhere. I'd take the advice of the other posters on this thread and just take the bus and find a hotel to sleep in. Between the night crew and everyone else working at night, you won't be sleeping at the airport. The employees at the store were kind enough to even close their doors every time someone would pass by with their cleaning machine or something, realizing I was working.

Very polite people, very quiet place, and I got more work done than I would have gotten done at my office.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply to my original post.