On Wednesday 24 Jan I will be flying:
Alaskan 689
Palm Springs - San Francisco
Dep 12:40 Arr 14:08

I will be connecting to (seperate ticket):
KLM 606
Dep 16:10

I'm keen to find out from other peoples experience / knowledge if the 2 hours is sufficient to transfer between flights. As Alaskan is a KLM & Nortwest partner will they be able to check me in for the KLM flight in Palm Springs. As far as I'm aware they can at least tag my baggage through to Amsterdam so it will save me time by not having to collect my bags at SFO.

criscokid: I got information from Alaska that they will pass a connecting bag through to KLM if you show the agent in PSP your KLM ticket. I'd double check it with AS in PSP when you get there if I were you, though.

You will have to check in at KLM's counter at SFO.

It's about a 5 minute walk from the AS gates in the South Terminal to KLM ticketing in our new international terminal. Please see the airport guide at http://www.sfoairport.com for more information.

As to whether two hours is enough time or not, well, SFO is legendary for weather delays due to the fact that we have two runways that are very close to each other, and air traffic control will shut one of them down in bad weather conditions. Personally, I wouldn't chance it.

I don't think I'd be as pessimistic as dgolds. SFO is definitely subject to weather problems shutting down one of the two closely parallel runways, but the most common time for dense low-level fog is early summer, not mid-winter. It's possible for us to be having a severe rainstorm then that would also shut down a runway, but not nearly as likely.

Two hours should be OK. Something that might be a good precaution, though, is to get to the Palm Springs airport early enough to standby on the Alaska 12:00pm flight to SJC (San Jose) if there is confirmation of weather issues for SFO. The taxi ride from SJC to SFO is only about 45 minutes, and about $75. (And it should be significantly cheaper than that to take a shuttle bus between the two airports, although a shuttle bus would take significantly longer.)

The big problem that I see is that separate ticket. That means you don't have a two hour window, you have a one hour window. You'll need to get to the KLM counter and be checked-in an hour before your departure or you risk losing your seat.

I agree with pshuang about the potential for fog being low, but as he said, winter storms can also wreak havoc at SFO.

I'm going to disgree with both.

SFO has weather delays year-round due to fog. In the last month, SFO has had 7-10 days of fog delays. The fog generally directly effects flights between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m., and then scheduling is usually back on track by 5 p.m. Winter storms add increased possibility of delays. The high has been holding together keeping storms out so far, but that could be changing this week.

I also think 2 hours is cutting it close, even if you have no delays.

Just an FYI - during fog and rainstorms runways are not closed at SFO, rather during good visibility pilots can do side-by-side visual approaches. When the weather is bad and visuals are not permitted, they must do off-set IFRs, which reduces operations by 15-32 per hour. In good weather 60 airplanes an hour can land, in bad weather it ranges from 28 to 45, depending on when the pilots can sight the runways.

During winter storms, when the wind shifts to a southerly or southeasterly, different runways come into use. The arrival patterns are changed and, with three airports being in close proximity, it doesn't work smoothly. You are also then using the same runways for departures and arrivals and the arrival rate becomes very low.

... and that's probably way more than you wanted to know about operations at SFO.

[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 01-07-2001).]

I've gotta go with the consensus opinion that 2 hours is a bit tough for this time of year. Because of weather, you either have gobs of time, or you need ~4 hours.

Particularly with the 2 tix.

Greg