Yes, as long as you either start or end on a weekend (or a Friday, and pay the daily fee) you can get by without paying for the weekends.

I regularly park at Millbrae on Friday afternoon and get back Monday morning - total cost is 2x$4 for BART, and $6 for the "airport" BART parking on Monday, for a total of $14 - of less than $5/day!

(Even though I'm not staying overnight on Monday they technically start enforcement at 4am - so even with a 9-10am arrival the one day is required)

Thanks for the tips, everyone. I parked at Lafayette BART and had no issues.

While it's probably not kosher, I've gotten away with not paying for weekends even when I don't arrive or depart on a weekend day. I just buy two passes book-ending the weekend, and display both on my dashboard.

It's totally kosher and perfectly valid.

I usually park at DC BART for weekend trips, but this weekend I am scheduled to arrive back in SFO just after midnight on Sept 6th. So I will miss the last northbound train. I've never parked at Millbrae BART before, since there should still be Millbrae bound trains running, I was thinking about parking here. If I arrive on Saturday and leave Tuesday early morning it should be free? Will I have trouble finding an open spot Labor Day weekend if arriving Sat. evening? TIA

Too late to help you, but parking will be free on Labor Day night until 4a.m. on Tuesday. And the Millbrae BART station lot has zillions of spaces available on weekends and holidays.

I am pretty sure I saw a sign in the lot saying that parking is now free at Millbrae from the first train on Friday, which is 4:12am. Note that the monthly reserved spaces still remain reserved until 10am Friday if you take advantage of this. Maybe someone can confirm this that I saw it right? If it's true, it suggests that if you park in a place that is not a monthly reserved space, you could now park free from 4pm Thursday through 4am Monday.

Turned out fine, I parked in an outdoor spot Saturday night, running late, otherwise I would have parked in the garage. Plenty of open spaces. Got back to my car around 12:30am Tuesday, drove home. A strange thing happened at the SFO BART station. When I arrived from the airtrain after midnight at the station, the ticket vending machines were closed up behind barricades. The station itself had metal gates deployed at the entrance, except for one opening on the side. I walked in and went to the agent booth, which was still manned. I asked, "Isn't there still a train going to Millbrae?". Agent responded in the affirmative, and gave me and another guy who was there, a free O/W ticket to Millbrae! Saved $4.00.

I parked this past weekend at Millbrae BART and parking charges are not waived until 3 p.m. on Friday. Sadly, the Sat. eve. trip from SFO to Millbrae took almost an hour from arrival at the SFO BART station to Millbrae, and involved an unexpected round trip to/from San Bruno, as someone decided to spend part of Sat. night walking the tracks from San Bruno to SFO.

I'll be flying to Hawaii this weekend, leaving this Friday (Veteran's Day), and returning early Mon. morning around 8am. If I park at Millbrae BART, am I right in thinking I could get away with paying only $2 for the Monday daily parking fee?

Veterans Day is recognized by BART as a parking holiday; but how will you arrange to pay in advance the $2 Monday fee? When I've done similar, I paid $6 for one day (Monday) of "airport parking" at BART. That allows a printed parking pass to be displayed showing that it is for Monday.

OTOH, If the holiday were on Monday, rather than Friday, you could pay $2 for Friday and not need to pay in advance for later days.

Well I've never actually had to pay for BART parking before so i had no idea how it works. So if I paid the $2 daily fee, I don't get some sort of parking pass or receipt that I can put in my car for Monday?

Yes, this is the only way to do it legally.

No. Daily parking is only for the day you get to the parking lot. You need to pay for "airport parking" for Monday.

Unless you pay for a day of airport parking via the BART website or have a monthly pass, my experience is that the daily fee is presumed to cover the day you pay it. Daily ($2) fees are paid by machine just inside the BART faregates. You enter your space number, and pay the $2. You get a paper receipt for your records which shows the date you pay the fee, but it is not to be placed in your car.

Even if you cross a weekend, you can still get by without paying for the weekend. For example, if your trip is Wed-Wed, just buy two passes - Wed-Fri and Mon-Wed. Put them both on your windshield and you're set. We do this all the time.

(I know I'm responding to an old post, but it's still useful.)

One more thing, can airport parking be purchased with a Clipper Card?

Daily parking at BART can be paid via Clipper Card but you have to set up an EZ-Rider account. See http://www.bart.gov/guide/parking/index.aspx and the section on Daily Fee Parking.

Airport Parking is payable via credit card and must be paid for in advance of arrival at the BART station where it will be used. When you pay for it, you'll print out a parking permit displayed on your dash.

Here's some things that confused me. I had an 11am flight on a Thursday, returning on a Sunday. No holidays involved.

--Do I have to buy two days of parking or just one (the latter seems a lot more logical since Friday night is free)?

--If I buy just one, which day do I buy it for?

--Since I'll arrive there before 10am, can I park in the reserved area anyhow?

For this itinerary, you'd have to do the following:
1) If you want to park in the reserved area, buy 2 days of airport parking ($6 per day) for Thurs. and Fri.

2) If you want to park away from the reserved area, you can buy Thursday parking for $2 in the station machine. In advance, buy a $6 airport parking pass for Friday, since you need that to cover you from Fri. 3 a.m. to Fri. 3 p.m. Display that Fri. pass. Under either option 1) or 2) parking between Fri. 3 p.m. and until Mon. 3 a.m. is free.

OK, thanks. What I did in that situation was wrong then -- I bought reserved for Thursday and parked in the unreserved section. Fortunately, I wasn't ticketed.

I think you were fine. You can park anywhere with airport parking but can't park in "reserved" without a reserved pass or the airport parking pass.

i have a question regarding parkinga t the long term lot at Millbrae.
I wont need to start parking there til after 3PM friday but would need to park there on a Monday (Mon wont be a Bart holiday).

The online resv thing says to choose Fri as the start date. If i do that i'd get charged the wknd days.
Can i just select saturday as the start date? i dont think any one checks after 3pm as it is free after then.

Why not set the airport parking option up for simply a Monday stay -- arriving at 4:00 a.m? I've done this several times when arriving after 3:00 p.m. on a Friday but when not planning to leave until after 4:00 a.m. on the next Monday which is not a holiday. Have not had a problem.

Yes. You can either select Saturday or Monday as the start. Either way it'll just cost you the one day ($6) as the weekends on the edge of the stay are free.

You can do this even if you're arriving on Friday before 3pm - just pay for Friday as if it was a normal stay (ie, pay $2 at the ticket machine - just remember to take note of your space number), and then use the airport parking for Monday only (or Sat-Mon).

BART parking is free from 3pm Friday until 4am Monday, and more importantly, the 24 hour maximum rule does NOT apply during that period, so you only need to worry about the periods before/after those times.

Hi all! First post here. I found this thread via a google search and am hoping some of its principles still apply in 2016.

I will be flying out of SFO on a Friday red-eye and back the following Sunday (9 nights of parking). I plan to park at Millbrae since the direct BART to the airport will be running during my departure and return. I'm hoping to avoid paying for the full first weekend because of the ~3 hours that I'll be there on a Friday night before the clock strikes midnight. The official word from BART is that I need to start my APLT permit on Friday night, thus paying for the entire first weekend, which will add $21 to my bill. I just want to confirm that my plan is OK, or if not, see what my best options are.

Current plan is to buy an APLT permit starting Saturday, display it on my dash when I park there on Friday night, and park outside of the APLT section in case they are enforcing APLT parking on Friday night. It's my understanding that they do not enforce general parking between 3 PM Friday and 4 AM Monday.

Should I instead just buy a second $7 APLT day for Friday and display both permits? That would allow me to park in the permit zone with peace of mind.

Or is my current plan kosher? I just heard that they're starting to enforce APLT parking on Friday nights, so I'm a bit worried.

When you sign up for parking, it automatically deducts the weekends. If you start parking at 21:30 Friday night, and don't want to be charged for Friday, just set Saturday as your start date. No big deal. I have done this more than once. Also, be aware, even Friday night you can park in the "permit required" spaces.

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Edit for clarity, you dont need to pay for Friday, its free after 15:00. So start your permit on Saturday, you wont be charged for Sat and Sunday.

Awesome, so they won't ticket me on Friday night even though my permit will say Saturday? I did set the parking to start on Saturday as a trial run through the website and it only charged me $35 (for Mon-Fri). :D

I'm just paranoid that they'll start enforcing it on Friday night and I'll get a ticket for not having a permit that starts Friday.

Nope. All parking at Bart is free from 15:00 friday until 0400 Monday.
It encourages the drunks to take the train and leave the car.

Even when not going to the airport, or having an airport permit I've left a car over night for various reasons.

And even if you're arriving before 3pm on Friday, you can simply pay the day parking rate ($2/day) at the station to cover Friday, then have your airport parking start on either Saturday or Monday.

The above works for all days, not just weekends. If you're arriving after 3pm you do not need to pay for that day as fees are only enforced between 4am and 3pm. If you arrive before 3pm, you can pay $2 for the first day.

Excellent. Thanks; you've given me a lot of peace of mind!