SFO or SJC?
 

Booking a flight to DFW from San Francisco and there are good options from both SFO & SJC. We'll primarily be in San Francisco while we visit so it would seem that SFO would be the logical choice but with SJC so close I thought I'd consider that airport too.

If it matters, we'll be dropping a rental car off and will be flying AA. I saw the posts on the new terminal but not sure I'd drive to SJC just for a new terminal. I'm more looking for opinions on which one is easier to get to, drop off the rental car, better overall experience, etc.

(If there's already a thread on this topic, please point me to it...I did some searches but came up empty).

SFO is much closer. And a very pleasant airport. On your return, if you get there early, just take the train (from the rental car dropoff) to walk around the beautiful Int'l terminal before the short walk over to T-3 for your AA flight.

SFO - SJC is still the poor relation imho.

SJC Isn't THAT close
 

From SF proper it's an hour's drive; little less to SFO.
The only consideration in favor of SJC is that flights seldom get delayed at SJC for fog.

The new SJC terminal isn't worth going out of your way to see IMO... Since SFO will be 45m-1.5h closer depending on when you go and the restaurants are better, I think you have your answer.

The only advantages I can see for SJC are that it is a smaller airport (depending on the airline taxiing could be a lot quicker for example), and it won't get fogged some times of the year in like SFO, which limits the rate of flights in and can cause some backup

I think I should've worded my first post differently to say "I wouldn't drive to SJC just for a new terminal."

This will be an award flight (booked through a partner) so it may come down to availability. Right now it looks like SJC has more/better options so I'll need to see if it's worth flying at 2pm vs. 9am for SJC vs. SFO. We'd rather fly out later and the 2pm would give us more time, although I need to factor in the hour it will take to get there.

Oakland Airport is actually closer to downtown SF than is SFO.

Certainly a whole lot closer than SJC.

If you're going to be spending most of your time in Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County/southern Alameda County, SJC makes a lot more sense geographically. If you're going to be up in SF, then SFO is your logical choice. Apart from that, yes, SFO has more fog related delays, though.

I second this. OAK is much better for SF than SJC or SFO. SJC, in reality, is nowhere near SF. Neither is SFO, but that is a different discussion. Aside from renting car and driving it, I'm not even sure how to get to SF from SJC. The only downside to OAK is the hostile bus drivers on the BART bus. And the Coliseum BART station leaves much to be desired.

OAK is much less prone to the delays that plague SFO. And the BART ride is much, much shorter. You just have to endure that bus .......

My assumption is that the OP is flying AA, which means OAK isn't an option.

It is a sign of how overlooked SJC is when it does not even rate a mention on VTA's list of "popular destinations" (http://www.vta.org/schedules/popular_destinations.html )— but then, this is a breathtakingly bad website for an agency serving Silicon Valley. There is a free shuttle (route 10) that connects SJC to the Santa Clara CalTrain station, or if you really had time to kill you could get off at the Metro/Airport light rail stop and take the light rail to San Jose Diridon. Not nearly as easy a connection as SFO or OAK, but still quite possible using transit.

VTA was almost named SCAT. What do you expect? It wasn't until an article appeared in the paper that the Board of Supervisors apparently realized that this was not the best name for a rail system.

If only OAK wasn't, uh, in Oakland!

I disagree with this advice. The OP is renting a car, but even if the OP were taking Bart, SFO is both easier (with Bart in the terminal) and nicer.

As to SJC, I don't know the answer to this, but are rental cars in the short term garage across from the terminal? If so, I think it's going to be a good option for the OP. It's a longer drive than SFO (30+ minutes more) but you'll save some time renting and returning the car. Add better flight times to that and I would probably pick SJC.

Are you claiming that SFO is "nowhere near SF?" :confused:

In fact, the driving distance (via US Hwy 101) from SFO to downtown SF is only about 13 miles.

The driving distance (again via US 101) between SJC & SFO (i.e., between these 2 airports) is approx. 34 miles.

And the driving distance (via I-880 & I-80/Bay Bridge) from OAK to downtown SF is ~21 miles.

Driving times on all of these routes are quite variable, as all are heavily traveled highways & subject to congestion during peak commute times (& other times ;)).

All this info is readily available from online (and/or paper) maps....