SFO terminals

What is your connection time? What time of day? Coming from where? Going to where? All on one ticket?

I’m flying from Chicago to SFO arriving around 10 am. My time connection is 55 minutes. I’m going to Asia.

I was surprised how easy it was to get to the SFO international terminal from a domestic flight. My experience is from 2019, and I don't think it took even 15 minutes. I stayed inside of security , so no additional screening.
Safe travels!

Thanks Pat, I guess my worry comes from how long is going to take to get out of the plane. I don’t mind running to catch my other flight, though.

That’s a shorter connection than I would be comfortable with. Assuming your flight from Chicago is on time, and it takes 10-15 minutes to de-plane, then 15 minutes to change terminals. Your flight will be boarding before you get to the gate. In theory you would have maybe 20 minutes leeway, but I wouldn’t make any stops on the way. Is there a later flight from SFO in case your flight from Chicago is delayed?

I don’t think there’s a later flight leaving SFO, but I can move my first flight earlier, for a price of course. I wasn’t planning in lingering around the terminal, I was ready to just get out of the plane and run like the hounds of Hell were after me.

I’ve had a tight connection before, from Heathrow to Dallas, and the gate agent told me after she saw me running and out of air giving her my boarding pass: “don’t worry, planes never leave on time”, I’ll never forget that. Still, wouldn’t want to risk it.

Transferring terminals at SFO is very easy, especially with the AirTrain connection. But I personally would not trust United Airlines to get my first flight to SFO on time to make that 55 minute connection, especially for an international departure. I would move to an earlier flight. SFO is a pleasant airport if you have extra time to spend.

Do not use the AirTrain because it takes you out of the secured area. You would then have to go back through security, which can be slow at SFO. Just follow the signs to where your gate is. The signage is clear, and it shouldn’t be more than a 15 minute walk.
Having said that, I would change to the earlier flight. It will be way less stressful. One of the common situations at SFO is a long wait once you land until you are cleared to park at your assigned gate. That could easily eat up most of your 55 minutes.

Good point about the AirTrain. I did not realize one could go directly from T3 to the international terminal airside (I thought that route was only for international arrival passengers transiting to domestic).

Thank you everyone for your response! I think I’ll move it early. I personally prefer a shorter connection than being 3-4 hours at the airport, but I know 55 minutes is too little time.

I’m always wary of leaving the secure area, I didn’t know the shuttle to change terminals was outside of it at SFO. I’ll keep that in mind.

I think you’re wise to take the earlier flight. I fly from Sacramento to Europe on United or a partner airline and most often change at SFO. I try to have a minimum of 2 hours to change planes. Depending on when you’re traveling the SFO bound plane can be delayed because of fog. In October 2019 I was taking my elderly uncle to Germany to visit his family there. We had a 3 hour layover and our flight was delayed by 2 hours. By the time we reached the gate for our Frankfurt bound flight they were already boarding. We walked quickly and didn’t stop anywhere.

Andrea is correct about the Bay fog in SFO contributing to delays. Use Flight Aware to check the on time record of your flight at SFO.
Good luck!

Thank you very much, you have helped me a lot.