When I first flew from SFO (San Francisco International Airport) back when I was in college and I didn’t have the best experience.
Mainly because I was using standby tickets and a snowstorm hit the East Coast that all flights were diverted to San Francisco and I was literally stuck in San Francisco for three days.
Granted, it wasn’t the airport’s fault, it’s part of reality that the East Coast is hit by snowstorms every winter and diverting flights to make sure people who are traveling, get to their destination.
But as I have flown to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) multiple times, I wanted to try SFO once again.
While I do feel LAX has a wonderful airport for International travelers, it’s probably one of the biggest clusterf—s of airports, because it’s so huge, there are many inconveniences.
In fact, while it is the nation’s second-busiest airport and the world’s fifth busiest, Skytrax ranks it at #98 out of 100.
May it be the long walk to get from where you arrive to Tom Bradley International Terminal is so inconvenient. And if you think going departing LAX is a big clusterf—-, coming back to LAX to get to your departing domestic flight after an international flight is one of the biggest pain in arse things to do because there is so much walking involved and to get from point A to point B involves a lot of walking (and it’s not cool when you have your luggage to lug around) [as you can’t use a luggage carrier for that part of walking].
And LAX knows they have a problem.
In an article on “Forbes”, Deborah Flint, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports (which operates LAX), said that changes are “needed yesterday,” citing choking traffic, poor wayfinding, inconvenient transit connections and an overall poor experience.
With San Francisco International Airport, it doesn’t have the bling that LAX has but I found it to be convenient, convenient and slower-paced. Especially less crowded than LAX.
Heck SFO, even had to poke fun at LAX back in 2010.
But San Francisco International Airport is the seventh busiest airport in the US and the 24th busiest in the world.
The history of SFO is that the airfield was known as Mills Field Municipal Airport of San Francisco back on May 1927 and several years later, changed the name to San Francisco Airport in 1931. The word “International” would be added at the end of World War II.
One thing that I liked about LAX is the availability of restaurants (like KFC or Pizza Hut that are not overpriced), while SFO has airports with airport prices, sandwiches that are expensive for a half of a sandwich.
But when it comes to experience, chilling and relaxing…I liked SFO a lot more in that respect.
But when I try to get tickets, it seems flying in and out of LAX is a much cheaper ticketwise. LAX has more flights and has less weather delays, especially during the winter.
So, both SFO and LAX have their positives and negatives. But which of the two airlines do I prefer? My answer… whichever ticket is the most inexpensive for me to get to my travel destination and back.
