May 3, 2013, 1:32 pm

FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

Last edit by: RichardInSF

Short term parking:
ParkSFO
Pros:

Generally highest rated by FTers
Fast and regular shuttles
Quick & easy access from 101 freeway
Register for emails to receive monthly coupons
Coupons for 1 free with 3+ days, 2 free with 5+ days, 3 free with 7+ days, and 4 free with 9+ days parked in a single stay.
Coupons are blacked out during Thanksgiving, Xmas, and other peak periods
www.parksfo.com/coupons/
June 2013 Coupon

Cons:

Often full or forced to valet at higher rate
More expensive than other off-airport options, especially if no coupon
Reservations required or risk likely being turned away at entry
Price listed online does not include tax and fees (which is around 16%)

QuikPark
Pros:

Online reservations
Relatively cheap

Cons:

must prebook online for best rate and bring printout to give to attendant
Slow shuttles
Even with a reservation, sometimes fill up and hard to find a spot
(note: if you book on-line and the lot is full, they will find you a space-you will be stopped at the gate but all you have to do is show them your pre-paid receipt)

Burlingame Airport Parking (ParkBAP)
Pros:

Consistently one of the cheapest, especially for weekly rates.
Generally do not have to prebook to get the best rate.

Cons:

3 shuttles an hour only, and a bit slower than average due to distance. Try to arrive at or before :00, :20, or :40 to allow a few minutes wait.
September 2013: For pickups late, I feel the turnaround times are more consistent with 2x per hour for the shuttle. No posted change, however.
Poor ratings (see yelp)

Anza
Pros:

With Burlingame Airport Parking, the only parking South of airport (Other than BART)
Easy access dropoff, not so easy to get back on freeway (S-101)
Valet is free (no extra charge) when they are near capacity
Frequent parker program: Each 30 paid days yields a 5-consecutive-day park for free. Check in on facebook and receive credit for 1/2 paid day as well. (Note: This program has changed. It is now tied into the Fivestars card rather than a paper punch card.)

Cons:

When partially full, they require you use their free valet service, and this requirement varies from hour to hour. Be sure to have nothing valuable in your car!
Poor shuttle service for SFO arrivals at busy weekend/holidays (30-45min wait)
Need a printed coupon from their website to get the best rate

BART
Pros:

Free over the weekend (except the cost of using BART to the airport) and holidays, even as part of a longer stay
Online reservations for weekday parking
BART schedule is known well in advance
Pretty much guaranteed a parking spot

Cons:

Hard to use if you're trying to park or pick up when BART is closed for the night
Possibility of getting a ticket if you overstay your reservation
Can wait up to 20 minutes for BART in off-peak hours, or have to go to San Bruno and back to Millbrae during peak hours (or take a taxi for about $12)

SFO Long Term Parking and Lot D
** The shuttle buses look exactly the same! One says 'Lot D', the other says 'Long Term Parking' (likely no longer a concern? see below re: AirTrain)

SFO Long Term Parking
Pros:

~~Regular shuttles (not the fastest, not the slowest)~~
AirTrain blue line now goes to Long Term Parking (no more bus shuttles) but makes quite a number of stops before reaching the domestic terminals
Sometimes if the normal area and Lot D fill up, you'll get a voucher to use the short-term parking at long-term rates
Covered Parking in the garage - it gets full at peak times

Cons:

Expensive
However, current promo is $12/day for 3 days prepaid online (and the rate decreases for additional days)

SFO Long Term Parking Lot D
Pros:

Sometimes if the Long Term Parking area and Lot D fill up, you'll get a voucher to use the short-term parking at long-term rates

Cons:

Expensive

Tips for Long Term Parking and Lot D
- Park near Stop 5 in Long Term Parking and you are the first off the bus and out of the parking lot!
- Although the signs will indicate that a floor is full, I am often able to find a spot on these floors.
- Airtrain station is on level 5 of the garage
Month or longer parking:
Someone who's done this please add experiences - I (rob_flies_ua) would just pay for a shuttle or car service at this point. unavaca recommends taking Uber in this case.

AirportParkingReservations.com coupon:
$5 off: FBFRIENDS415
EXPIRES 12/31/16 @ 11:59 PM PST Coupon Valid Online Only

SFO Parking

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May 11, 2016 | 6:40 pm

#211

tom911

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I see they have over 43,000 parking spaces as of 2008 (lots of parking structure add-ons), so a car burglary every 15 hours sort of signals to me they're doing something right. I'd expect much higher numbers than that across the whole system with that amount of vehicles. I'd be more worried about auto theft, particularly if you have one of those hot new Camaros that are disappearing or older model Hondas that seem quite easy to steal.
Bay Area Becomes Top Spot In Nation For Auto Theft

May 11, 2016 | 7:00 pm

#212

Non-NonRev

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Accords are also the most stolen cars in Florida. Mpst are chopped and the parts sent to central and south america.

May 11, 2016 | 9:20 pm

#213

dhuey

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BART parking might be relatively safe, but larger picture with car parking around here is that the smash & grab crime rate has gone through the roof in the last couple of years. You see broken car window glass all over the place. It's affecting my decisions on where to park. At the margins, this cuts in favor of private, protected lots over unprotected public parking.

May 11, 2016 | 11:41 pm

#214

returnoftheyeti

Join Date: Jan 2010

Location: SFO

Posts: 2,139

Nothing is guaranteed of course, but i have no worries parking in San Bruno Bart, with its cameras, on top of the BART Police station, and it's pretty much only accessible via car or BART.
Meanwhile at home i street park every day, and every day on Nextdoor.com somome is posting "I left my non-valuable item in my car, my window was smashed and they stole it". The next post is always "dont leave anything in your car".

San Francisco is number 1 in the nation for smash and grabs.

May 12, 2016 | 11:40 am

#215

dhuey

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Quote:

Originally Posted by returnoftheyeti

San Francisco is number 1 in the nation for smash and grabs.

So frustrating when the smash & grabber does $200 in damage, creates a big mess and hassle, and all to grab something worth maybe $20.

May 17, 2016 | 12:14 pm

#216

returnoftheyeti

Join Date: Jan 2010

Location: SFO

Posts: 2,139

Irony - came back to find my car had its center caps (hub caps) stolen.

Sigh, this is why I cant have nice things.

May 17, 2016 | 12:31 pm

#217

dhuey

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Quote:

Originally Posted by returnoftheyeti

Irony - came back to find my car had its center caps (hub caps) stolen.

Sigh, this is why I cant have nice things.

Crap. I'm not sure if Prop. 47 is to blame, but something needs to be done about this crazy spike in property crime in California. Causes and solutions are topics for OMNI/PR, but the important thing for visitors to California to know is that there is this problem.

May 18, 2016 | 5:40 pm

#218

Eastbay1K

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Quote:

Originally Posted by dhuey

My prediction for when cellphones could be easily bricked was that the petty criminals were going to need something else to steal.

I just searched around and found this article. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2476612,00.asp

" In San Francisco, cell phone robberies dropped 27 percent, while iPhone thefts were down 40 percent."

May 18, 2016 | 5:46 pm

#219

Eastbay1K

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Quote:

Originally Posted by returnoftheyeti

Irony - came back to find my car had its center caps (hub caps) stolen.

Sigh, this is why I cant have nice things.

Sorry this occurred, and no, it isn't an "I told you so" moment for me. I've had a car in the Bay Area since 1988, and the only time (many years ago) I've ever suffered vandalism was at a BART station.

Back sort of on topic - apparently rental car agencies are looking into how to make identifying features (i.e., bar codes, etc.) less obvious, because these have been the largest targets.

May 20, 2016 | 11:40 am

#220

Matthew330Ci

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: SJC, SFO

Programs: Motel 6 Super Diamond

Posts: 354

Quote:

Originally Posted by docbert

I gave up driving my own car, and use rental cars now. Thankfully I live very close to both an Avis/Budget and Hertz, and between our corporate rate and general weekend specials I can normally get a one-way to the airport for (on average) about $35 incl gas, and a return for about $55 (due to the $20 airport fee at SFO).

That's far less than paying for parking (+mileage) for everything except a very short trip, a little less than Uber (and I'd prefer to drive myself anyway), and scores me a pile of frequent renter points.

The only catch is that one-way rates can be very low, or they can be very high - depending on the day/company/etc. If you don't have (legitimate) access to a corporate rate that has low one-way rates then the prices could be double or more the above rates.

Thanks for this idea, never thought of it but I think for getting to the airport, this seems like a cheaper option for me as well with my corp rate. For coming back, seems like Uber/Lyft are a bit cheaper with less hassle.

May 26, 2016 | 5:13 am

#221

channa

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Quote:

Originally Posted by dhuey

So frustrating when the smash & grabber does $200 in damage, creates a big mess and hassle, and all to grab something worth maybe $20.

Worse, I just had one in Rockridge...nothing in the car, they smashed the side window so they could pop down the rear seat and look in the trunk. There was nothing.

Jul 22, 2016 | 5:36 pm

#222

boxo

Join Date: Aug 2007

Location: MRY/SFO/SJC

Programs: AS MVP, Hilton Diamond, IHG Nada

Posts: 7,839

^ Thanks for all the info in this thread/wiki. Looking at SFO parking for the first time.

I just booked Anza through AirportParkingReservations.com via Ebates (10% cashback). http://www.ebates.com/coupons/airpor...com/index.htm?

Three days of outdoor valet parking x $12.85 per day + $10.53 taxes/fee
= $49.08
- $5.00 online coupon (INDEPENDENCE5 or BOOKME or PDTB1)
- $4.40 cashback
= $39.68 ($13.27 per day)

I compared Anza with ParkSFO. With their "1 day free" coupon, and estimating taxes at $10, outdoor valet would be ~$46 total.

Btw, Anza's special deal paper coupon is $13.99, so APR.com's $12.85 beats that. http://www.anzaparking.com/sfo_parking_coupon.php

And both Ebates and Groupon have $4 off online APR.com coupon codes for other airports SJC/OAK/LAX/MSP/ATL/SEA/EWR/LGA/ORD. https://www.groupon.com/coupons/stor...servations.com

Aug 21, 2016 | 5:40 pm

#223

boxo

Join Date: Aug 2007

Location: MRY/SFO/SJC

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Posts: 7,839

AirportParkingReservations.com coupon received by email:

$5 off: FBFRIENDS415

EXPIRES 12/31/16 @ 11:59 PM PST | Coupon Valid Online Only

Aug 21, 2016 | 7:58 pm

#224

docbert

Join Date: Jul 2007

Location: Brisbane, Australia

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For anyone that uses the 2-day-free coupons from ParkSFO which previously required a minimum 4 day stay (which really means >3 days), these now require a minimum 5 day stay (ie, >4 days).

For 4 day stays you'll need to revert to the 1-day-free which has a minimum 3 day stay.

ie, their prices just went up by $17 for a >72 but <96 hour stay...