escape4

LOL I know I can always count on you to further my hotel education

Regarding the shower head, which one are you referring to? See picture of the bathroom in my review - there were two shower heads, and in fact we could use both at the same time unlike many hotels where it's one or the other. It was definitely not just a sprinkle; I guess other rooms might have issues but for ours it was fine such that I did not notice anything out of the ordinary.

Regarding the motion sensitive lights under the bed I thought it was more a positive than a negative, at least for me.

And no problem with Air Train for us otherwise I guess you are right, it might have tainted my opinion regarding the location.

Kacee

IME (I have four or five stays) neither provides a good spray. The adjustable one provides a very tight, concentrated stream, the overhead provides a light sprinkle. The pattern on neither is adjustable.

AirTrain worked great my last stay (last week), it's just kind of hit or miss and depends on the airport.

I definitely prefer GH/AirTrain to off-airport hotel shuttle right now. Stayed at HR a few weeks back, had to wait 30 minutes for shuttle, it was absolutely packed, and a UA pilot sitting across aisle from me refused to wear his mask.

bgriff

Was this red line outage a long-term reduction due to COVID or a short-term thing? I don't see any service alerts currently about red line suspensions so I assume I can expect normal AirTrain service?

CaptJOB

If they aren't making announcements about it I imagine it's running. When I stayed there a lot less people were flying than there are now so if it was Covid related it makes sense that they've increased service to permit more distancing.

Kacee

This is correct. If there are service limitations, they're disclosed on SFO's website. Red line was running when I stayed here about a month ago.

econ

Red line was running around a week ago.

gabbygrrl

Staying here next week. Flying in late from the East Coast but we have luggage to claim. Is it difficult to get from baggage to the HY?

Also the next morning we have an Alamo car to pick up. My "skip the counter" instructions say to head to baggage claim, through double doors, etc etc. So do we bypass the Rental Counter stop and really head back to baggage claim from the HY? We chose the hotel because it seemed easy to navigate with such a late arrival....but now I'm not so sure.

bgriff

The Grand Hyatt and the rental car center are both on the AirTrain, which is landside (e.g., outside the security checkpoints, e.g., accessible from baggage claim). Map here. So you would follow the signage from baggage claim to the AirTrain and then take the train to the Grand Hyatt, and then the next day take the AirTrain again from the Grand Hyatt to the rental car center. You can ignore the first part of your Alamo directions, which assume you're coming from the terminal -- instead at some point the Alamo directions should have you get on the AirTrain and provide directions for what to do when you get to the rental car center AirTrain stop, which is where you would pick up with following the directions.

Note the arrows on the map of the two services (the red line and blue line); going from the Hyatt to the rental car center on the blue line would take you around the entire loop, or you could take the red line over to International Garage G and change to the blue line there. So that's a slight complication. But it is still easier than any other airport hotel, all of which require taking a shuttle bus (unless you were going to just take an Uber from your hotel to the rental car center in the morning).

MSPeconomist

Are you planning to take luggage with you to the rental center or drive back to the hotel to check out and retrieve your bags? Without luggage, it's a pleasant walk through the landslide part of the international terminal to catch the air train on the other side of the airport.

gabbygrrl

We will have our luggage. We plan to skip the counter, head straight to the car, load up and head out.

Kacee

This makes no sense. You can't walk from GH to any terminal (at least not without risking life and limb crossing multiple lanes of traffic illegally).

If picking up a car in the morning, the only way to do it is to take the blue line from Grand Hyatt to the Rental Car Center (or I suppose you take the red line and transfer at Garage G, but that's unlikely to offer any advantage).

gabbygrrl

Great! Thanks for all the info. I took a picture of the map you linked, so I’ll have easy access once we get going.

MSPeconomist

I took the little train and then walked across to avoid riding around the other terminals in the loop and because I wanted to see the new international terminal. There was no risk whatsoever to life and limb. It was a pleasant and safe walk, but a long way if one has much luggage. The point is that you can cut across rather than taking the train the entire way, especially if some of the little trains aren't operating or if there's service in only one direction around the terminal loop.

econ

This is certainly a valid route if one just wanted to take a stroll through the International terminal.

Hard to envision how anyone would get to the Rental Car Center any quicker this way though. The same Blue Line train from the hotel that stops at Intl A eventually makes it around to the other side at Intl G. I suppose if you got off at A, sprinted across the Intl terminal over to G, it might be possible to catch an earlier Blue Line train. Walking at a leisurely pace will likely result in missing the same exact train by the time you get to Intl G.

Fact remains that the only designated path on foot from the hotel to any of the SFO terminals is via an AirTrain.

Kacee

This detour accomplishes nothing at all except causing you to arrive at the Rental Car Center at least one train later than you otherwise would have.