I'm dropping a friend off very early for a flight out of OAK so I've been looking for a lounge to buy a day pass so she can relax, but I haven't found anything. Am I slow or does the Oakland airport need some serious upgrades?
Or a legacy airline with enough flights to support a lounge? Isn't OAK 80% WN these days? In general, those day passes are fairly expensive for what you get. You probably get more bang for the buck by spending it in airport restaurants.
The "legacy" carriers that are left are down to just a few flights a day, max. AS has more flights, but not a tremendous amount. The best bet (in T-1) is to buy something at Starbucks and hang out around there with a plug and a laptop and the airport's free wifi.
Yes, their traffic is down but they still run more commercial traffic than SJC which isn't a major hub either and I believe they have an Admirals Club. Perhaps the Port of Oakland and the airlines can get together and put a lounge between the two terminals. That could possibly attract more passengers. Don't get me wrong I'm not a fan of paying for lounge access either, but when I'm going to be there for a while (four hours in her case) the serenity is priceless, lol.
SWA has an entire terminal there. They should open something up for there "business select" passengers.
Maybe drop her off at a hotel with a decent restaurant, wifi, and an airport shuttle? I flew LUV out of OAK recently, and was pleasantly pleased by the comfy waiting area with lots of plugs.
That's the solution I came up with, there's a Hilton near by. The funny thing is that this was more of a concern for me than her and she's the one that'll be waiting around all morning with the crowds, lol. I think I'm just used to flying out of the larger Hub airports where things like this are a given. I've never researched OAK until now (AA doesn't fly here) so this caught me off guard a bit.
Didn't know that...they seem to be slowly turning their focus away from SJC. That's too bad because I think it's the best of the three airports as far as efficiency of travel goes.
UA also abandoned OAK so the primary remaining tenants are Southwest, Alaska and Jetblue with a smattering of other flights. OAK is my favorites airport in the bay area but sadly lacking when it comes to amenities. Thankfully the food & bev selection has improved since T-2 was built out for WN. Clubs tend to make sense at hubs and airports with frequent delays - OAK is neither. So sadly I don't see this being remedied soon.
