San Francisco Airport

Terminal 2 at SFO (Virgin America and American Airlines) was completed in 2011 and is in my opinion the best airport terminal in the USA hands down. Terminal 2 at San Francisco is clean and TSA lines are generally short and efficient. I mainly take the redeye to Washington DC (IAD). Terminal 2 blows away flying on United - the other older SFO terminal is one of the worst in the USA. But Virgin America are geniuses to be at Terminal 2. Terminal 2 has a great bookstore a nice massage area a very good restaurant and a number of good fast food options. The overall Terminal feel and look is clean reducing your traveler's stress immediately. This Terminal should be the blueprint/case study for American airports to study.

Utterly terrible. 2hrs and 5 mins to get through immigration. Only 4 desks for visitors out of a total 48 available positions. Only a volunteer helping to organise the queue. Absolutely no concern shown by staff. No one managing the situation. Its not like long haul flights with hundreds of passengers on arrive by surprise. This needs much better planning and management.

This is possibly the worst American international airport. I flew through on Delta on a 10 hour flight. The immigration and luggage went relatively smoothly however all the facilities are rather drab. On to the trek to terminal one. Rather dumpy and small. Possibly the worst TSA staff and experience anywhere. It would actually be faster more efficient humanely pleasant and likely more effective to have an actual police office frisk everyone instead of the system and staff currently in operation. It would definitely be quite a bit faster. Terminal one is depressing. Food options are pathetic no shopping no entertainment no nothing I would rather go sit in my garage for three hours. The temperature here is currently 0 degrees. The best part of this airport is the leaving. If possible route yourself through Portland or Seattle.

The most pleasant airport during my 3 weeks tour in the USA especially the availability of public transportation to the city. The terminal facilities are good and generally maintained in a good condition (even if the airport itself looks old in design and structure). As in any US airport the security is chaotic and adds to the stress of travel. All in all not a bad experience.

I arrived after a 12 hour flight to find hundreds of passengers packed into the arrival area. The elderly and some young families waited in line for over two hours. Of the 48 booths available only half were manned! At one point only six immigration officers were processing what had to be close to 600 passengers! A number of elderly passengers waited for hours along with several young families. Judging from the muffled comments around me the lack of immigration officials was not appreciated. Of course nobodies going to say anything! The large posters on the walls telling us all how professional and welcoming the airport was impressed no one. You would think the richest country in the world could do better!

Your average space constrained larger airport for a major city. It's really nothing special any more despite the improvements. Improvements which have been long overdue. My last trip through the airport did not meet with any major flaws. But then I live in the area and know what to expect. High food prices. Horrid arrival traffic and traffic management. Average time for baggage availability at the claim area. So so personalities at desks. But at least the airport is clean as it can be. However like other airports its audience is nearly a captive audience. Improvements also have to be managed while supporting traffic. So expect average service but do so with an eye on the fact they provide average service while building out new features and areas.

We transited through this terminal twice by Virgin America aka domestic and I can be sure I stepped into a world class airport ready to handle and provide genuine service to its travelers. Staff at the information desk gave good information on places to eat and directed us to the international terminal where there was more food. Directions given on the signs were adequate and baggage came off quickly. Though you have to pay for trolleys.

OK have only just arrived so the departure end is still unknown. But this was almost like arriving at a European airport. A good one! Maybe it wasn't so busy at the time but immigration was snappy. Almost as if arriving as a resident? Baggage claim worked without any incidents. Free baggage trolleys in the international Terminal! The AirTrain also has made it much easier to get around. Including car rentals.

We did not have any trouble finding our airline's check-in or going through security. What we did find lacking in the terminal were food services. Thanks to our airline we were stuck in Terminal 1 for almost 5 hours. We did not want to have the hassle of having to go through security again as the line-up was getting longer as the day wore on so we chose to stay in secure area of Terminal 1. There really were very few options for food. We found 3 places and did not feel that there were enough options or variety. We did not necessarily want to spend $50-$60 for lunch for four of us. We would have been quite happy with a quick inexpensive fast-food snack but there was nothing like that.

Not much to comment on in relation to the actual airport as it seemed pretty much like any other around the world (apart from Changi airport in Singapore). However the main complaint is about left luggage facilities. After lugging our suitcases around the airport we finally found the left luggage area only to be charged $80 + for 2 cases to be left for 5 hrs. Not a lot else we could do as we wanted to go back to the city for a few hours before our flight. What a rip off! Is this normal for US airports?