Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. 

SFO is home to one Priority Pass airport lounge and two restaurants.

But how do you find these lounges/restaurants and which terminals are they located in?

This article will tell you how to get to these Priority Pass SFO lounges and what to expect when you get there when it comes to things like food, drinks, showers, crowds, etc.. I’ll cover the Air France/KLM Lounge, the Giants Club House, and the Yankee Pier and also show how to connect to the domestic and international terminals.

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What Priority Pass lounges are at SFO?

There is only one true Priority Pass lounge at SFO and two restaurants.

• Air France/KLM Lounge — International Terminal 
• San Francisco Giants Clubhouse — Terminal 3 
• Yankee Pier — Terminal 3 

How to get Priority Pass

You can get Priority Pass by purchasing a club membership but I always recommend considering credit cards that offer you a Priority Pass Select membership.

These cards would be cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Platinum Card from American Express. Those cards do come with higher fees so you might want to think about credit cards with lower annual fees that offer Priority Pass like the Hilton Ascend card, which offers you 10 free lounge visits every year.

If you don’t normally spend a lot of time visiting airports and traveling, then 10 lounge visits is more than enough for you and you’ll benefit from the lower annual fee.

SFO terminals

You can connect to all of the different terminals pretty easily with the AirTran but note that there’s currently a lot of construction going on which could make things a little complicated. Many of the terminals cannot be reached when traveling airside so you might have to re-enter security when going between terminals. Given the ongoing construction, my advice is to do specific search inquiries for the terminals you’d like to connect with.

Here’s a helpful FlyerTalk thread on SFO airside terminal connections.

You should be able to clear security in any terminal in SFO with a valid boarding pass departing that day. You might get some push back from the TSA agents but if you explain to them that you’re trying to access a lounge, they should let you get through.

Check here for more information.

Terminal 1

Delta

Air France/KLM Lounge — International Terminal

Hours

• 06:45 – 00:15 daily.
• Access may be restricted due to capacity constraints (often around 11am to 2:30 pm and 7pm to 10pm)

Location

• Airside – Concourse A, first left after the TSA Checkpoint. Flights departing from Concourse A only.

Conditions

• Maximum 3 hour stay
• Children under 2 years are admitted free
• Alcoholic drinks are only available to passengers 21 years of age or older.

The Air France/KLM Lounge is a pretty basic Priority Pass lounge. It’s decently spacious with great views of the tarmac and lots of seating (although not a lot of privacy). The lounge can get crowded at times and outlets aren’t very easy to come by, so during peak times it can be a bit of a frustrating lounge visit.

There’s a special area for first class passengers though it appears it’s often used by other passengers.

The lounge offers a nicely stocked bar with a nice selection of spirits, as well as wine and beer. You’ll also find hot food items like pasta, rice, soup, etc. and things like salads and sandwiches along with some basic snacks like pretzels, cookies, etc. For a Priority Pass lounge, the food selection is mostly satisfactory and is one of the stronger features of the lounge.

There are no showers in this lounge.

San Francisco Giants Clubhouse — Terminal 3

Hours

• 05:00 – 23:00 daily

Location

• Airside – after Security, Concourse F, near Gate 82. Please note that the restaurant may exceed their seating limit at certain times of the day & access to the restaurant is at their sole discretion.

Conditions

• Cardholders can use their lounge visit entitlement to receive $28 USD off the bill.
• Each $28 deduction represents a single lounge visit
• If a Cardholder registers 1 Guest they will receive $56 USD off their bill which will be charged as 1 Cardholder visit + 1 Guest visit on their account.
• Only 1 membership card per visit per Cardholder will be accepted at point of entry.
•  The US$28 is valid for purchase of any meal and/or drinks.
• To be eligible, Cardholders must present a Valid Card and Boarding Pass with confirmed same-day travel before placing an order.
• Cardholder is responsible for balance if total final bill exceeds US$28 per person. Any remaining balance cannot be used towards gratuity.

The restaurant only received 2 stars out of 5 stars on Yelp, so there’s been a lot of unhappy customers. However, plenty of others have enjoyed their food at the dining establishment. I think that if you’re getting $28 worth of free food, it’s a bit hard to complain and you should be able to find something you like as there are plenty of sandwiches, burgers, and other food items well under $28.

You can view the menu here. 

Yankee Pier — Terminal 3

Hours

• 05:00 – 21:00 daily

Location

• Airside – Concourse F, near Gate 72. Please note that the restaurant may exceed their seating limit at certain times of the day & access to the restaurant is at their sole discretion.

Conditions

• Cardholders can use their lounge visit entitlement to receive $28 USD off the bill.
• Each $28 deduction represents a single lounge visit
• If a Cardholder registers 1 Guest they will receive $56 USD off their bill which will be charged as 1 Cardholder visit + 1 Guest visit on their account.
• Only 1 membership card per visit per Cardholder will be accepted at point of entry.
•  The US$28 is valid for purchase of any meal and/or drinks.
• To be eligible, Cardholders must present a Valid Card and Boarding Pass with confirmed same-day travel before placing an order.
• Cardholder is responsible for balance if total final bill exceeds US$28 per person. Any remaining balance cannot be used towards gratuity.

Yankee Pier serves seafood, clam chowder, lobster and crab and has a full bar. It’s got better online reviews than the Giant’s Clubhouse so you might want to give it a shot if you’re a bit of a picky eater.

Final word

SFO only has one true Priority Pass lounge and two restaurants so in the lounge department it seems to be lacking a little bit. With only one lounge and limited airside connections, it can be a little bit of a headache to visit the Air France Lounge, especially since there are also often restrictions on Priority Pass members. However, the Air France lounge isn’t that bad and at least there are some options for grabbing some grub in some of the other terminals.

Cover Photo by Gregory Varnum via Flickr. 

Daniel

H-Town based Attorney turned credit card rewards expert. Founder of UponArriving.com.