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Oakland Airport Passenger Reviews and Oakland Airport Traveller Reports
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OAKLAND AIRPORT customer review : 5 February 2013 by J Wasem (USA) |
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Rating : 4/10 |  |
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Recommended |  |
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Don't stay over night in Oakland! We found a comfortable place to stay on a 6 hour over-night layover, then
security cleared the entire terminal. Everyone was forced to stay in an uncomfortable waiting area and go
through security again. Not pleasant! Seems to be a routine thing. Poor customer service in my opinion.
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OAKLAND AIRPORT customer review : 15 August 2012 by S King (Brazil) |
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Rating : 7/10 |  |
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Recommended |  |
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Although older, and with a more limited selection of flights, than nearby SFO, it is a decent airport and fare
(on Southwest) from Ontario to Oakland was far less than into SFO. We used it just for one arrival, so did
not use check-in facilities, restaurants, etc. It did take some time for baggage to arrive at the carousel, but
whether this is normal we don't know. Information on transportation into San Francisco was a bit confusing.
Getting to BART requires first taking a shuttle bus for $3 (?) per person. We ended up finding a shuttle bus
into SF for about $45 for two people.
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OAKLAND AIRPORT customer review : 28 January 2012 by T May (USA) |
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Rating : 9/10 |  |
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Recommended |  |
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I use this airport whenever I can over SFO. It's far cleaner and I've never seen a disgusting restroom. It is
small, security is a breeze and even with fog flights seem to take off on time. The restaurants are decently
placed, though expensive. It isn't a remarkable airport by any means, the facilities are lacklustre, there aren't
a lot of outlets, and it is nearly impossible to fly anywhere without Southwest or JetBlue, and getting there
without a car is nightmare. However it gets the job done, staff are generally nicer, the two terminals are
never seriously crowded and the signage is great. If only all airports could be like this.
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Oakland Airport customer review : 4 January 2011 by D Sedrick (USA)
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Customer Rating : 2/5 |
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I arrived yesterday on a fairly short hop from DIA. The baggage claim is a joke. There was no
information displayed anywhere as to which carousel our bags would be on - for an hour! There
is a screen displaying arriving flights, which ours was not on. The only DIA flights were
much later arrivals than ours. Very odd. Not only that, but when we spoke to someone to try
to find out where our luggage would show up, there was only a shrug and explanation that it
was busy. By the time we started looking at tags, our bags showed up under an electronic
board that showed a flight from Phoenix! No info on our flight showed up at all.
Oakland Airport customer review : 8 November 2010 by Ron Kuhlmann (USA)
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Customer Rating : 4/5 |
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In the past few years it has gone from being a vibrant and growing place to being a Southwest
plus a few other flights kind of place. I took one of the two UA flights remaining and T1 is
simply empty most of the time. It remains convenient for those of us in the East Bay but
offers little selection for those in legacy mileage programs at this point.
Oakland Airport customer review : 7 October 2010 by John Clift
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Customer Rating : 2/5 |  |
Flew in and out over this week, Southwest terminal area much better than other side. Rental
cars all in one place miles away and reached by ancient clapped out buses. Bart connection is
a regular service bus and takes for ever. Hotel courtesy phones cover hardly any airport
hotels and tourist / visitor desk is next to useless. Not a passenger friendly airport unless
your arriving or departing by car. Handy location for east bay but apart from that not much
going for it. Shame really.
Oakland International Airport by S Glavan
17 July 2008 Customer Rating : n/a
I recently moved to the Bay Area from the Pacific Northwest, and was accustomed to Portland's ultra-
efficient, ultra-clean moderate sized airport. So imagine my chagrin when I first tried to utilize
Oakland's terminals. I understand that the airport is in the process of remodeling and
restructuring, but there seems to be little regard for the traveler in this process. Curbside drop
off and pick up are disorganized and confusing. The people charged with directing traffic appear
unable to bring any order. Long term parking is also confusing, and shuttles are inconsistent. Using
public transit as an alternative is a poor option. Unlike San Francisco airport’s direct BART access
the nearest BART stop is several miles away from Oakland’s airport, and passengers have to transfer
to a shuttle bus that charges an additional fare to get from the BART station to the airport, often
stuffing passengers to the limits of standing room only. One can only assume that this is done in
order to maximize the fares for each trip. Once at the airport, ticket check-in and TSA lines are
often overwhelming, and leave passengers feeling like cattle in a pen. Lines often stretch out the
doors onto the sidewalks, leaving passengers little time to reach their gates once they have
navigated this maze. Restaurants and shopping options are limited and crowded. Arriving passengers
must deal with a baggage claim system which includes electronic signs at the carousels that often do
not reflect accurate flight information, and waits of a half hour or more for luggage to arrive on
the carousels is not unusual. San Francisco offers far better amenities and services for the
traveler, but can be difficult to reach for those who live in the east bay. Fares to and from
Oakland tend to be lower than those to and from San Francisco, but almost identical to San Jose, if
one is willing to drive a little further south to avoid all of the hassles. All in all, with the
choice of three major airports serving the Bay Area, there seems to be little attraction for
choosing Oakland’s facility.
Oakland International Airport by Leslie Garlinghouse
5 October 2006 Customer Rating : n/a
All in all, I prefer this airport to SFO as it is easier and quicker to
fly in and out of. But there are two areas desperately needing
improvement. With this, in my opinion, OAK would be ideal. First,
baggage claim. OAK has the slowest baggage claim I've seen. Without
fail, I am waiting for no less than half an hour after getting to
baggage claim and it's been much longer at times. I can only speculate
as to the reason whether it is the baggage transfer staffing or the
facility design, but it is always the most frustrating task at the end
of a long trip. Second is the drop-off/pick-up area. It was ideal with
there was a small parking lot for those waiting to pick up passengers.
It hugely reduced the traffic congestion and otherwise was such a relief
to those who had to go around and around and around while waiting for
their passengers (who were probably waiting 45 minutes for baggage). The
baggage claim is definitely the higher priority of these two.
Oakland International Airport by Brian Locicero
15 February 2005
Not as good as SFO in terms of facilities, but usually a quicker, easier
and more practical option as the fares are somewhat lower and the check
in time considerably shorter. Now if it only had a direct BART
connection instead of the rip-off shuttle bus that costs 2 bucks for 2
miles and always gets stuck in traffic.
Oakland International Airport by M Gibson
14 December 2004
I have used Oakland Airport four times in the last 12 months. Yes, the airport is small, crowded,
noisy, old and unimpressive looking. But I had no problems or delays with my flights. Checking in
was OK. But the baggage claim area is simply too small considering the size of the airport. On
Friday evenings, the car traffic into and out of the airport overwhelms the few narrow lanes
available. As a domestic airport it is OK. As an international airport, Oakland leaves much to be
desired.
Oakland International Airport by M Moore
28 November 2004
I spent four years in Oakland before moving out of California recently and did most of my domestic
travel out of OAK. Oakland offers several advantages over SFO. Its East Bay location makes it easy
to get into San Francisco, assuming traffic on the Bay Bridge isn't at a standstill. There are fewer
fog-related delays and cancellations at OAK than SFO. Airfares tend to be a bit lower at OAK, as
well. In terms of size, the Oakland Airport is manageable and reasonably convenient; you can be off
the plane and out the front door in a matter of minutes. If you time your arrival and departure
well, it's a snap to get in and out.
The biggest problem is that the other seven or eight million people in the Bay Area have also
figured these things out. Fly at a peak time and the traffic jams on the access road can be
daunting. Ditto the queues at the security checkpoints. There is ostensibly a BART station, but the
shuttle bus gets stuck in the same traffic jams, which sort of defeats the purpose of using mass
transit. (The new direct rail shuttle over to the main BART line will remedy this situation when
it's built.) And the facilities themselves are on the tattered side. Renovation is underway, but I'd
like to see a better range of dining options and cleaner restrooms. Decent carpet and more
electrical outlets for laptops and cell phone recharging would be great, too.
Overall I enjoy the experience of being in SFO more, now that I don't live in the region -- vastly
better food, plus the convenience of the Airtrain and the on-site BART station, the cleanliness, and
more comfortable facilities give it an edge over Oakland. I'm willing to risk weather-related delays
and longer security lines for these amenities. Most of the time, anyway.
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