I am going to SFO for business. My return flight is CX873 (0050 departure) on a Sunday morning. I have the full Saturday free after a long week of meetings. My hotel is in San Jose (I think it's 30 or 40 miles from SFO airport?). Any suggestions on what I could do during the Saturday? Don't mind some sightseeing stuff? Can I check in early during the day to get rid off my luggage then head out? Much appreciated.

I fly this route pretty often. Yes, silicon valley (assuming that's where your hotel is at) to SFO is roughly a 45m-1hr commute. Use Google Maps to get an updated travel time forecast.

Here's what I'd suggest you do on Sat (this is what I would do):

Assuming you have heavy luggage:
- check out of yr hotel early AM, and have the hotel keep your bags for you
- Uber your way to downtown San Fran and see the sights... Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39, Lombart St. etc. Easily takes up the entire morning
- Early 4pm ish (before rush hr), head back to your hotel, reclaim yr luggage, and U turn back to SFO. You shd arrive at SFO around 6pm ish.
- Have an early dinner at SFO and laze around, until check-in counters open
- Check in, drop bags and head into the CX lounge air-side (you can shower there), and rest/have supper.

If you don't have heavy luggage, then I'd suggest just bringing your bags with you downtown.

Maybe someone here knows of storage lockers in downtown S/F where OP can store bags? That'll save on a return trip to SJ and dealing with rush hour traffic

You certainly have enough time to see things. A couple of questions:

- is this your first trip to SFO?

- are you driving in from San Jose, if yes, were you planning on driving in to the city or dropping the car at SFO and taking BART or Uber?

- one of the issues I had at LAX and elsewhere is that some airports only allow the international airlines to open counters 3 hours prior to departure.

- According to the CX website
https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...l-airport.html

San Francisco International Airport
International Terminal, Island 8, counters 99-112
Opening hours
4 hours prior to scheduled departure time
(Check-in counters are closed punctually 40 minutes before scheduled departure time)


You might also want to ask these questions in the San Francisco Forum

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/san-francisco-468/

If you're driving, leave your luggage in the locked trunk in a secure garage in SF. No way I'd drive all the way back to SJ just to pick up luggage left at a hotel.

If you want public transit, take Caltrain from SJ to the Millbrae station, the the BART connection to SFO.

https://www.flysfo.com/faqs

Then take BART from SFO into the city. All sorts of great things to do there.

If you have a car, you could also drive over to the coast, maybe Santa Cruz, a fun beach city, the drive up the PCH to highway 92 and head back over the hills in the evening.

It all depends whether you have a car and what you want to do.

Have fun!

Thank you guys for your useful input.

Yes, this is my first time to SFO so I am inclined to spend the day in downtown/wharf etc.

Would it be possible to fit in a visit to Alcatraz?

I am thinking of hiring a car pick up from San Jose and drop off at SFO. Is it easy to find parking in downtown?

Good to hear the CX lounge has shower. Would you recommend CX lounge or there are other OW lounges?

Lastly, one of the other threads mentioned the meal service is served at "usual times" on this flight. Could someone please elaborate - is it supper served after take off then breakfast before landing (I am in J)?

Yes, you can definitely squeeze Alcatraz in. Suggest taking the Blue & Gold fleet (purchase tickets online prior). If I'm not mistaken, the B&G ferries are the only ones licensed to land at Alcatraz and discharge passengers.

If you're headed to Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39/Embarcadero - there's plenty of garage parking available.

I haven't been to other OW lounges, so I can't comment on their showers. I find the CX showers adequate... water pressure isn't great, soap/shampoo is some generic unbranded bottle, and the ventilation inside the shower room isn't that good either. But, it's good enough to clean yrself up, after a hard day of sightseeing

CX lounge for sure. JL lounge is terrible and BA I don't know if it's open, but either way CX has the best OW lounge at SFO period.

correct.

supper service immediately after takeoff, and breakfast a few hours before landing.

there are cold and hot snacks available in-between. you can find our J Class MEnu threads (we have one for each year) to see what the hot snacks are, it's basically a very abbreviated version of a la carte dining. Usually they have a solid hamburger option of some sort, perhaps a quesadilla, wonton noodle soup, etc.

Super! Thanks everyone!!

Yes you can surely find parking downtown but I found it to be very expensive in San Francisco. I would therefore recommend to park the car outside of downtown and then take an UBER to downtown (probably cheaper than paying for parking)

@Austfella

You can scroll through this page in the J menus thread and see my photos of some of the menus, mid-flights snacks such as the burger (yum) and so on.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...-2017-a-4.html