San Francisco Airport

Not Verified | Went through TSA Pre-check line at 10:30 am on a recent Sunday. The wait was over 45 minutes, and we timed people in the regular line getting through in 15 minutes on average. They kept letting all the flight crews go in front (understandable, but why not hold up the 'slow' line instead) and had only two lines open. There were no bins anywhere. If you had keys or a phone in your pocket, you were completely out of luck. My husband had a sweater they made him take off, but it got caught on the conveyor and damaged. Who has run into a baggage scanner which has no bins in use anywhere? If you have a big carry-on, you can put stuff inside - but then that, depending on your bag, means opening up your whole bag on the conveyor belt while they are yelling at you to move it along. I have knee replacements and told them, they sent me through the regular line which beeped of course, then made me go back through the body scanner line, holding others up, and then they had to do a manual search anyway. It was a disorganized mess - the worst security screening we've seen in the past year with about 60 flights in at least 24 airports. Shame on you, SFO!

✅ Trip Verified | 3 staff processing 600 people! The majority of reentry by ESTA got the dreaded X on their biometric scam meaning joining that dreaded queue. No sense of urgency, people missing flights as a result - hopeless!

Not Verified | An absolute nightmare. After an 11 hour flight we stood in line for passport control for 2 hours 50 minutes. People were passing out, paramedics called to someone. Complete chaos. Thought perhaps it was a one off but later met someone in SF who waited for 3 and a half hours in a similar queue. When we eventually got through no belt info for our flight and found all bags had been taken off the carousel. People missed connecting flights. A complete nightmare - one I never wish to repeat so will avoid SFO in future at all costs.

Not Verified | Customs was absurdly understaffed, and it took my husband almost 2 hours to get through. Being a US citizen, I was in a different line, and got through in under a half hour. We missed our flight because of how slow this line was. It's an utter disgrace to put people through that type of wait time after traveling. There were two agents for that huge line. Even having four agents would have made a huge difference. 8 agents would have cut the wait down to just over what I had, which was plenty. After missing our flight, we spoke to a few different help desks. They were all lovely and helpful, but rather low on correct knowledge. One sent us to a travel agency pretty far away to book a new flight, and when we made it there, there was no staff. They also told us we could go to airline counters to book flights which was incorrect. The best advice the one guy gave me was to not book with cheap airlines because they provide bad/low customer service when things go awry! If you're going to fly through here be prepared for possible long customs waits, and read the info on your airlines website (for instance, that the check in desk closes an hour before the flight even though the gate is 10 minutes away!). I guess, basically, be prepared.

✅ Trip Verified | This review focuses on Terminal 3, the United Airlines terminal. This is one of the better United terminals, with an interesting art exhibit in the connecting corridor between concourse F and the main terminal lobby. I've also enjoyed the office cubicles that are provided, although I wish there were more. Security lines could be long, particularly in the central one near the Global Services reception.

✅ Trip Verified | Terrible airport staff. Absolute worst experience, no employee knew what they were doing. One employee told me to keep electronics in my bag but once it was scanned, I recieved unnecessary attitude from another employee telling me 'I was told' to remove everything. I spent 1 hour at security check even though the line was very short. Extremely slow and rude. I will not return.

Not Verified | The Bay Area is the tech capital of the world. Try to find any place to plug your smartphone in for a recharge at this airport! Virtually NO electrical outlets available, and people laying on the floors near them trying to get a quick electrical fix. Even the United Club, their "upscale" lounge area, has installed USB connections that are routinely broken. Members are wandering around the lounge looking for their needed juice. "Free Wi-fi"? Hardly. Antiquated system tries to push advertising into the very very slow connections. And while ATT users get good high speed connections, T-Mobile and Verizon are pretty poor. It's a travesty.

Not Verified | I arrived in this airport after completing a 13 hour flight from New Zealand at 6am. It took 90 minutes just to complete a passport check and present my declaration form. After this I needed to collect my bag and deliver it to a transfer point to have it put on the plane to Toronto. Then came the security checks. There didn't seem to be enough officers to assist with this and only one to two lines were open. The staff themselves were extremely rude yelling at us and herding us around. Have never been treated so inhumanely. My home country is Canada. I will never fly through this airport again. Lastly our gate was changed four times before boarding. Very confusing after just completing an overnight flight.

✅ Trip Verified | What I do not understand is why such a great nation like US does not take care enough of their airports and the related infrastructure. San Francisco is such a beautiful city with such a worldwide publicity but it affords such a creepy airport. Let us just ignore the desolate state of the parking houses, the Bart Metro station and the highway connection and focus on the airport facilities. Information screens from 2 decades ago, slow and horrible security check and poor facilities. At least the immigration here is way much better then rest of the country. all in all - so sad!

Not Verified | SFO is our home airport and is convenient to where we live so we choose to transit here for flights. That said, SFO is a terrible airport, and if we had a better choice we'd take it instead. Firstly the international terminal is leagues behind its counterparts in most any other city. And as we specifically travel to western Europe and the UK SFO does not compare to any of them overall. Coming back home the differences are so glaring; it's like night and day. SFO's international terminal is so tiny, post security dining is extremely poor. Not to mention expensive. They don't even have a well-stocked newsstand. Worse, however, is the TSA and immigration staff. TSA staff members can be pretty rude and abrasive especially to foreigners I'm sure. We're used to the attitude, but it makes a bad impression. Immigration is either hit or miss mostly the latter. And don't even ask about customs officials. They profile certain races which is not only archaic but unfair. How many times the immigration officials allowed us clearance only to be abruptly stopped near the exits by some Oriental customs official who thinks that because we look like them that we are lying about what we listed on our customs declaration form. We always note down everything we are bringing back & we are always within the monetary limits as well as we do not bring back contraband items. Yet these agents think they are so smart to do this profiling whilst the true perpetrators have been allowed to go. It's time to do away with this third world mentality and if they want to search then they need to do it to everyone and not just the ones they want to profile. So for everything I wish there were a way to rate SFO with minus points. Since that's not possible then a 1 is the best they deserve.