11
Mar
Gary Leff on View from the Wing today wrote about transfers at San Francisco (SFO) or Los Angeles (LAX), and in particular about which is better for travellers flying to/from Australia and NZ. This is a subject I am very familiar with, more than I’d like to be, since I travel between Australasia and USA and Europe several times a year – and SFO and LAX happen to be the most convenient gateways or transit points to use. So I have lots of experience, but too much to put into a comment on Gary’s post. I hope he doesn’t mind this piggyback post.
Both Star Alliance and Oneworld have options for both SFO and LAX to both Australia and New Zealand – except there is no direct Oneworld flight between SFO and New Zealand. Skyteam only has the Delta flight from LAX to Sydney.
Why use SFO?
For me, the main reason for flying through San Francisco is the far easier immigration process for non Americans. While I have sometimes been stuck behind a few hundred others at SFO immigration, I have never waited more than an hour. At LAX, the immigration lottery sometimes sees well over a thousand people in the queue ahead of me and a wait at immigration alone of more than an hour with further lengthy wait at customs (those thousand people have managed to get their checked bags in the time you’ve been waiting).
If the connection is long then it is quick and very easy to hop on the BART and spend some time exploring the city, meeting friends or shopping.
Transfers are also fairly simple at SFO due to the design of the terminals and smaller size. Even though some require going back through security this is generally quick in my experience. International connections within an alliance are straight forward (or rather as simple as any in USA – other countries which don’t require immigration for international transit are simpler still). International to domestic connections or vice versa are also fairly easy.
Why use LAX?
As Gary writes, the main reason for transferring through LAX is the far greater flight options. SFO has relatively few flights to/from Australia and New Zealand whereas LAX has plenty. American and United both have lots of routes from Los Angeles. Alliance partners also have more international flights at LAX than at SFO. Not only are there more routes, but also more flights which means greater availability and more chance I can get a flight closely matching my preferred schedule.
Note for both LAX & SFO there are the constraints that most USA to Australia/NZ flights leave late evening, most flights NZ to USA leave in the evening and most flights Australia to USA leave in the afternoon. Taking Auckland to LAX as an example – there is a choice of an afternoon flight on Qantas, an early evening flight on Air New Zealand or a mid evening flight on Air New Zealand. If none of those times suit you can fly via Australia leaving NZ in the morning and arrive in LAX early morning instead of later in the day, or via Vancouver leaving NZ late evening.
The airline lounges at LAX are much nicer, at least for the airlines I fly. When I fly Air New Zealand or Air Canada there is the great Air New Zealand lounge in T2 – probably the best lounge of all at LAX and one of the best anywhere in USA. American and Qantas have a great lounge in T4. Star Alliance and Oneworld lounges in TBIT are average – not terrible, but not great either. Compare this to SFO where both Oneworld and Star Alliance have very mediocre lounges. Although the Singapore Airlines lounge at SFO is nice it is only open for limited hours (often not coinciding with flights Down Under).
Weather at LAX rarely delays or cancels flights, whereas I’ve had a whole day waiting in vain to fly to SFO when rain or fog closed the airport.
My choice
While the LAX immigration and transfer processes are downright unpleasant I almost always fly via LAX. The other advantages are just too good to outweigh the negatives. If SFO had nicer lounges and more flight options then I would probably switch.
In the meantime I’m also looking out for news on new routes between Down Under and airports east of California – Chicago or Dallas for Oneworld, Chicago or Houston for Star Alliance. They’ve been talked about for years but so far have not eventuated.
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