Landing at San Francisco International Airport

What SFO is like

San Francisco is the airport the technology crowd treats as a commuter stop, and it is the gateway to the whole bay rather than only to the city. The terminals sit in a ring around a central area, with an internal train linking each of them to the city rail station and the car rental centre. A good share of the people landing here never go into the city at all, but drive south instead towards the office parks of the valley. That split shapes how the arrival hall empties.

On arrival

Turn the line on at touchdown; the bay shore is thick with masts and you normally have data before the aircraft comes to a stop. Immigration is in the international building and the queue is heaviest in the afternoon when the Asian arrivals land one after another. Once you have collected your bag and cleared customs, a domestic connection means walking or riding the internal train to another terminal. For anyone going into the city, the rail station sits inside the airport grounds and is reached from that same internal train, so there is no need to go outside and order a car unless you want to spend the afternoon on the bayside freeway.

How far the airport Wi-Fi gets you

The Wi-Fi here has a better reputation than the American average, but it still asks you to accept terms and still hands out limited sessions. What makes it different is the crowd: on a weekday morning a lot of people are running video calls at once, and speed drops in unpredictable waves. At the airport railway station and out on the platform, do not expect the terminal network to follow you. With a working mobile line you can buy a ticket and check departures without walking back inside to find a signal.

Getting into town

The rail exit runs from the station on airport land into the middle of the city in about half an hour, through the suburbs and then underground once it reaches town. Signal comes and goes on that underground stretch, so load your walking directions from the far station before you descend. If your destination is south in the valley, most people rent or order a car, and the distance is long enough that the map draws steadily. The bayside route holds signal almost all the way, but cross the hills towards the Pacific side and you will find genuinely thin patches. Heavy fog in some seasons pushes flights around, so allow data for checking a status page more than once.

What people ask about this airport

• The train is on site — You do not leave the airport to reach the train; the internal loop drops you at the station.
• Fog moves the schedule — In the foggy months departures shift often, so turn on airline notifications instead of refreshing a page yourself.
• The valley is the other way — If you are heading south, route out of the airport directly rather than going into the city and back out again.