Hi there, coming to the Bay Area next weekend and will be based in Pleasanton, SF and Palo Alto, so using Bart, Muni and Caltrain and Clipper seems the way to go. Is there anywhere to buy a Clipper card at SFO? The nearest locations seem to be Walgreens in Millbrae. Are they really not sold at BART stations?

I realise that you can buy them online, but they won't ship to outside the US. Seems a bit odd that international pax arriving at an international airport can't get the most flexible form of ticketing...

The Clipper Card is not "all that." And how you charge it up can be confusing. I'm still not clear on how the unrestricted "cash" portion of the card works when you already have BART or MUNI fares stored. Or how the discount applies when going from BART to MUNI.

By the way, BART and MUNI station agents do not handle money, sell tickets, or do things that you might expect that agents would do if you were familiar with most every other transit agency in the world. There are no places in the stations to pay cash to a live being and get a ticket, or in some places, get change.

doesn't look like there's a way to get on at SFO, but if you are taking BART you can get one at the BART station once you get to SF.

I have found the cards useless, they don't work half the time especially if you load a cash value and not a pass.

However the clipper site does give a lot of info on how to use/load.

www.clippercard.com

Passes and ride books, High Value Discount tickets and cash are stored separately on your card and are not interchangeable once loaded onto your card.

Clipper is not as slick as Oyster, although I have not found anything that is slick as Oyster and I've got 8 different RFID transit cards.

My suggestion would be, as someone who visits SF once/twice year to someone who I assume is only visiting for a short time:

* Just buy a BART paper ticket from the BART vending machine at the SFO BART station.

* Then buy a Clipper card at a downtown BART station, or wherever you can. (Or maybe you could you buy it online ahead of time and have it shipped to where you are staying/working?)

* Just put 'cash' on it, especially if you are only there for a short time. Do not worry about passes, ride books, or high value tickets.

* Do not use autoload, or plan on using autoload, while you are there. Also, do not add value online. It takes days to setup autoload or for value to be added if you do it online, so only add value at a station. (I've had Clipper and Translink for several years and I have gotten caught or been confused since the online services are far from instantaneous.) Walgreen's might be instantaneous, but I have not tried it yet.

As a visitor, I have never had a card not work with my cash value, except when my original TransLink card became damaged somehow and just quit completely. I think the new cards are better designed since that chip is no longer exposed.

BillJ

By the way, if you're traveling with others, and depending on where you're going, you might consider just taking a taxi from SFO, rather than BART. BART isn't cheap to/from the airport.

Thanks for the responses. The goal was to have one card that worked for three forms of transport since I'm moving about the Bay Area but it sounds like Clipper isn't the perfect solution. I'll be visiting the Bay Area about once a quarter so it's not an issue if there's value left on the card since I'll be able to use it on a future visit, and it's an advantage if that value isn't tied to BART, or Muni, or Caltrain. Sounds like I'll just get a paper ticket on arrival and then try and get a card later in my stay.

Normally I'd just cab to downtown SF, but this time my first stop is Pleasanton in the East Bay, and there's only me travelling, so a cab is pricey and I'm reckoning Bart is preferable to Supershuttle. I'm picking up a car later in my stay but don't need one for the first few days (and don't want to pay parking in SF when I'm there)...

wcj1, annoyingly you can't even buy a Clipper card online if you don't have a US credit card, I tried to get one sent to my Pton hotel, but the "USA" part of the cardholder address is hardcoded and it won't go through. Anyone would think SF didn't want international visitors...

I actually like my Clipper card(s). Occasionally they do not work on Muni, but I have never been asked to pay in cash when the readers are out of order. My suggestion would be to pay for your Bart ticket from SFO to your first destination. If you are near a Walgreens, you can get a card and add whatever value you want. I have one card with a monthly "A" pass for work, and another with cash value that I use to go to the east bay each week. If you do add value on line, the website warns that it could take 3-5 days to add the value (this is, IMO, the only bad and poorly planned part). Otherwise, you can instantly add value at most Bart and/or Muni stations.

Paper ticket to get where you're going then a clipper card with cash for everything else. I only hate them because of MUNI.

I'm not fond of Muni either, but at least they are not enforcing payment when the machines don't read the cards. I'm more p**d off at Muni when I see a sign saying 57 minutes to the next bus at commute time when the bus is supposed to run every 20 mins. They're response.. oh, I forgot, it's Muni - NO response.

Result of the typical Muni caravan consisting of several buses or trains from the same line traveling together.