Safe layover time SFO
 

Hello. I am traveling from L.A. to Osaka in November with a layover in San Francisco. Does anyone knows if 1h is enough to go from United Terminal (Terminal 3 I think) and cross any security checkpoints to get to the international terminal in 1 hour?
Thanks a lot!

Are your flights already booked?

Personally I would be fine with a 1hr layover in SFO, but if you have concern then book the next earlier flight from LAX to SFO to give yourself more cushion.

If you've already booked your flights then your choices are take the flight you have or try to do a same day standby on an earlier flight which will cost you $50-75.

Um - based on the description you don;t have a layover (the plane stops but the passenger stays with it for the ongoing flight). You have a connecting flight. I don't know if this is the same airline - or a legal connection - but I would never allow an hour in any airport. (And a 1 hour window doesn;t give you a full hour - since planes usually stop boarding at least 20 minutes before flight time - so you might have 40 minutes - minus the time it takes you to get off the incoming flight.)

What if your incoming flight is late? (Have you checkd the ontime record?)

If this is one ticket you are at least protected - and the airline had to get you on anohter flight - but there is no guarantee exactly when.

If this is 2 separate tickets you have no protection. If you miss the second flight you are a no show and have to buy a new ticket at whtever rate is available.

If it were me I would take an earlier incoming flight - to give myself at least 2 hours.

I've done it at SFO with less than an hour so what has happened in the past doesn't mean much.

Do you know for certain you'll have to change terminals?

Have you looked at the SFO airport website?

Are your bags going to be checked all the way through?

Thanks a lot! I have not booked my flight yet but I will make sure to get more than 1 hour. Thanks again.

The International Terminal and the other terminals are all pretty much in the same building. You don't have to go outside like at some airports and go to a different building.

Here are maps of SFO. You can see that everything is in a circle, so it's very easy to get from one terminal to another. There are people movers between the terminals if you don't feel like walking.

http://www.airportterminalmaps.com/s...minal-map.html

The only downside to SFO is the chance that weather will delay a plane, either inbound or outbound, so I'd want to give it a bigger cushion in November.