FYI, United has ~9 non-stops between SFO and SAN, starting at 6:30am and going through 9:30pm. All mainline narrowbody equipment.

Prices can be a little extreme though. UA seems to have enough connecting traffic on that route that they don't open up many cheap seats for O&D passengers. There have been a number of times I've had to reluctantly fly WN or do OAK-LAX-SAN on UA to avoid paying $800+ for the UA non-stops.

Thanks. Are these new? I thought I checked for SFO-SAN nonstops a few months ago, but perhaps I just overlooked these.

Hmm. Not as far as I know, but then again, I've only lived here since December 2005 so I wasn't really in the market before, but I'm pretty sure I've been seeing San Diego on the SFO destination screens for quite a while.

You're probably right. I must have overlooked them. It sure seemed odd to me that OAK-SAN was the only Bay Area nonstop other than SJC.

That's great to know for next time. Southwest is getting a little greedy with the N-S Cal. fares these days.

Unfortunately I don't think you can count on UA being much cheaper. Perhaps if you book waaay in advance, but on short notice, UA bends you over on this route. Unfortunately most of my SAN trips usually happen with between 4 and 24 hours notice.

Just for example, if I wanted the first UA flight down there tomorrow and a return flight on Wednesday, UA would sell me a ticket for $1,222. Fare code BUA on the outbound and QUAUP on the return. $559 each way plus tax. Other flights on the same days aren't much cheaper. Heads would explode in accounting.

No wonder Southwest is getting greedy.

I've had great experiences on F9 through Denver--great flight crews, good IFE. I hope their shorter SFO-LAX service is as good!

Separately, from the LAX area, there's always JetBlue out of LGB. A nice alternative to Southwest, if LGB happens to be convenient (a haul from SAN, though, of course).

-Hayden

Okay, maybe the OP didn't use the best choice of words about the Clampett factor. Putting that aside...

I fly out of SFO all the time. The lines at AA are always short -- I'm usually through security in a few minutes, maybe I waited 5+ minutes once or twice. All the gates are very close, and there's a small Admiral's Club. Food on AA side is not so interesting, but post-security you can easily walk to the food on the UA side of the terminal.

I've only flown out of Oakland once recently, on WN. I was doing a last minute trip to LA, and AA wanted $900 while WN wanted $99. At 9:45am I booked a ticket, left the Mission, and made a 12pm WN flight. But, that's only because I had no checked luggage, and I ran to the front of the security line and begged to go so first I could catch my flight. The WN staff at the front said "well, you'll have to ask these people who have been waiting" and the people at the front very kindly let me cut the line. Otherwise, I estimate the line was about 25-30 minutes.

Length of line: Have to give it to AA at SFO

Time to airport: Depends where you're coming from. From the Mission, SFO is faster by both BART and car.

No idea about rental car drop off at Oakland. At SFO, it can add a bit.

Unfortanately, it's also a bit at OAK. They used to have the rental cars right across from the terminal, but they are now just as far away (in terms of time) as they are at SFO.

Being able to walk to your rental car ranks very high in my list of important airport conveniences. It's a disappearing convenience at many airports.

I will only add that during one time during the price wars in the 90's, that FAs--at least the ones I knew--called it the "Summer of the Clampetts," and that some still do every summer. Something to do with plastic bags as luggage as I recall. Not my phrase, just my (poor?) choice of words. Still...ya gotta admit that frequent flyers and non-frequent flyers do not mix well and some--if they save for a year for a trip-- could plan for a minute to make sure they have a clue as to what they are doing TSA wise. Peace.

Peace, indeed. Sorry if I went off the handle on this, but I've spent 16 years in the Bay Area using SFO. I can't count how many times I've encountered some 20- or 30-something acting as if they were an intellectual gift to the world.

I'll travel with the "Clampetts" over these types any time.

They probably were. There are quite a few of those in the bay area, thanks to Stanford and UC Berkeley :D

I don't agree about the "Clampett" factor being more OAK than SFO. In my experience it's more the time of travel. I've been in a sea of yokels at SFO lots of times when flying around weekends and major holidays. The WN weekeday a.m. flights, on the other hand, are all bidness. Everybody seems to know the drill and get through pretty quickly. The nasty thing at OAK is the 6:30 a.m. security line. For some reason it gets insane some days, snaking around baggage claim and out the terminal.

Overall I'm pretty much split between the two. For me it typically comes down to whether I'm flying long distance and whether I'm leaving from the office (SF) or home (Alameda, a stone's throw from OAK).

If you're going to spend any time there, the airside facilities at SFO are FAR better than OAK. Unless you like Round Table pizza for $10 a slice (or whatever it is), in which case you're all set at OAK.

One advantage at OAK is that if the SWA terminal is jammed you can get in through Terminal 1 and walk back around airside to T2. Sometimes WN even leaves from T2.

UA has been flying this route regularly for awhile. It used to be a Shuttle route.

You are spot on with the prices. I can't book ex-SFO to SAN for less than $800 RT whenever I check. The best I've been able to do is when I either have a fixed departure or return is to book a cheap restricted OAK-LAX-SAN one way and WN fully refundable the other way (or vice versa). If the timing work out you can get on a mainline flight between OAK and LAX and go for the upgrade.

For me I'm driven by fares and schedules. If those two were comparable I would always fly out of SFO.

OAK used to be a great quiet alternative to SFO about 10 years ago. Not any more. It is so rundown compared to then that it is quite depressing to spend any significant amount of time there. In fact, if I have any serious delays out of there I look into trying to depart SFO, even if it means a longer overall trip and the need to get across the bay.

Nowadays I use OAK when I'm forced to ride WN or when I can get a nice discounted F ticket to and from the east coast which are hard to come by out of SFO.