I have never transited through SFO but have LAX many times. As a general rule do things tend to be a bit faster getting through at SFO if you are coming in on international & going on to a domestic flight?
Thanks J

Hello jules, I have never experienced Immigration and customs being "fast" at SFO either when I have arrived or when waiting to meet someone coming in on an international flight. It, in my experiences, always seem that many international flights arrived around the same time. How much time to you have from the time your international flight arrives until your domestic flight departs from SFO?

The connections I am looking at give us 2 hours between flights.

J

SFO is my base airport: I have come and gone both east and west through customs and what takes the time is getting the luggage. Most of the time I am out of there in about 45 min sometimes 1/2 hour.

Checking in is another story as they are pretty on top of things and of course there is always the person who is not on the ball. I would allow at least 30-45 min you go through twice once to get to concourse area then once to international area.

I usually go through immigration at LAX two or three times a year, and I think just about any other airport is more efficient than LAX. In my opinion, SFO is pretty easy.

SFO has fog at times and this can play havic with your connections!

I have a side question that involves SFO. I have two kids who have never flown. One is 3 and the other is 18 months. We are going from SEA to SLC. There are nonstops and then there is a cheaper flight that goes through SFO. Would you recommend the first trip to be nonstop or do you think the kids would do ok making a connection.

Nothing to do with SFO or any other airport but if I had two toddlers I would opt out for a non-stop. JMHO.

Connection = More miles, more segments, and more flightmemory.com entries for the kids!



Please ignore me.

DBA, just think of all the explaining you need to do, a 3-year-old will question you to death: why are we leaving? where are we going? why can't we stay on this plane?

And if this is at his nap time... plus another baby...

Make it easier for youself, take a non-stop even if it's a little more expensive.

Now factor in potetial fog, maybe your connecting flight has delays or gets cancelled- much more time on the ground in SFO..... get the non-stop and save the worries!