San Francisco Airport

Check-in was painless and quick. Having travelled through SFO airport before I knew to eat before you pass security as food places after are poor. Going through security was a little slow (took about 30-mins) but the people in charge seemed friendly and chatty - unlike Boston. Wi-Fi was good and quick. Getting to my gate was a little walk but nothing too strenuous. Overall SFO airport is pretty good and I won't mind travelling in/out of there again.

Arrived at San Francisco international Terminal at 8am after long flight from Sydney. Quickly through immigration which was well organised with bags appearing a little time later. Selected for customs search which was also quick and courteous. Bag drop queue non existent. Through pre TSA at T3 without delays. From landing to waiting at the gate for our ongoing flight in T3 around 45 minutes. SFO certainly had its act together on this occasion.

This is for the International terminal flying with BA on the north side. We arrived on BART then took the light rail to the terminal. Check-in was a bit of a walk from the light rail, but we aren't old. We had arrived early for the earlier of the two BA flights so security was quiet and fast. But that's the end of the good news. SFO has totally dropped the ball. I don't want to hang around before security because I want to get the chore out of the way. But after security there is almost nothing but bathrooms and gate seating. There's a small cafe serving plastic wrapped food near security, a crummy little over priced personal pizza and plastic wrapped food restaurant right at the end on the right and an expensive and thoroughly disappointing coffee shop on the left. There are no proper sit down restaurants. The only stores are the over priced duty free and the usual tourist junk stores. There's no good book shop, there's no pub, there's no waited table service. There isn't even a cafeteria or food court style restaurant. They built this huge terminal with it's millions of dollars taller than it has any need to be statement of a check-in hall but they forgot all about the fact that people want to pass their waiting time in the departure lounge in some comfort. It's more like a railway station than an airport. For a heavy jet it seems to take ages to taxi for takeoff from the east-west runways, but it is all factored in to the expected duration, so relax, you are leaving and someone will finally provide, oh right, airplane food. Why couldn't I get a decent meal at the airport? Returning to SFO we had booked a rental car, cheaper than a taxi and much more pleasant than a shuttle, we did a one way to KOAK which is just a few miles from home and cut out the waiting and sharing and discomfort. The aircraft taxi time is a lot less for arrivals. We got off the plane promptly but some other flights were in too. Immigration now has electronic service. I hope you look like you. But they haven't improved baggage handling. Airports like Manchester in the UK should give masterclasses to the sluggard baggage handlers at SFO, I have got off the front of an A330 in Manchester, flashed my European passport in the EU lane and walked straight in to the baggage claim to see my bag already waiting for me there. No danger of that at SFO. Any time will do. Even with a nearly new and purpose designed facility they are in no hurry to do their job. So we stand and wait and wait. Eventually the bags turn up. Show the paperwork to the customs guy and you are on your way. Out the door through the throng of people not waiting for us then follow the signs up to the light rail and a few minutes later you are deposited at the car rental facility. I am a frequent renter with several companies, this time I took Alamo and we were in the car and leaving inside of ten minutes after getting off the train. Join the loyalty programs, they are well worth the time. We can go over the Bay Bridge or San Mateo, both are about the same distance and both are well sign posted from the car rental exit. Basically turn right then follow the signs to US101, unless you are going somewhere else.

Arrived on a United Airlines Boeing 747 from London. We landed 15 minutes early at 1pm only to be told there was a plane in our gate and we would have to wait until around 1.30pm for that plane to leave. At 1.45pm, the plane had finally left and we started moving to the gate. Then the other plane had to return to the gate because of an emergency. Leaving us still waiting on the tarmac for another 20 minutes. Finally they moved us to another gate and we were able to disembark. There should have been better organisation at the airport to prevent such delays. When we got inside the terminal we had to walk a long distance to the immigration desks where there was a very long queue. Many of the desks were closed and the area was totally unprepared for the numbers of people coming through despite it being mid-afternoon. There were no staff controlling the queues so some people were able to skip ahead of others. Very badly organised. Finally got through to baggage claim. There were a number of other people at the carousel and we waited for our luggage for ages. Then we realised that the luggage from our flight had been taken off and left aside. Nobody from the airport or airline bothered to tell us where our luggage was. Really poor experience this time at SFO.

Airport is great except for wait times at immigration. I've been one of the first off my plane and still had to wait nearly an hour to get through I feel really sorry for the 400+ people behind me. Where are all the staff?

Used global entry at immigration fast and easy except at 5ft height the picture was of the top of my head only. A very mean security guard told me to go stand at 37. Looking around to figure out which line was 37 he yelled at me to go now. I walked to 37 and then he again yelled to stand where he pointed. There were no markings on the floor to tell me where to stand so I looked at his pointing finger to figure out where he wanted me to stand and then he yelled at me again to get moving up to the booth. I'm 67 years old female and I hadn't been yelled at like that for about 50 years. The immigration officer was nice asked about my trip and welcomed me home. The security in Mexico hoped I had enjoyed my stay in Puerto Vallarta and wished me a nice day.

Arrived mid afternoon from Heathrow to very long immigration lines for visitors but once US citizens cleared all booths opened and cleared in just over 1 hour. Still too long but at least they were organised and a lot better than other US airports in Summer. The facilities are fine no idea why people complain about this aspect apart from maybe late opening for any early overseas flights including Canada. Local transport to SF downtown is excellent.

Compared to LAX SFO is pretty OK for US airport. Our arrival and departure it was fairly seamless in the International Terminal - cleared immigration and security fairly quickly. Despite delay (14 hours) SFO is reasonably comfortable but more distractions would be nice. I was comfortably cloistered in the Business class lounge but took walks out and noted apart for food and shopping they could do with free wifi and computer terminals phone/tab charging kiosks.

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.