airport express?

[LMS]

Has anyone taken the Airport Express to oakland before?
We are going out of town from the 31st to the 9th and we are exporing other options rather than paying $240 to park our car at the airport.
Everyone is booked for rental cars for the 31st, except hertz who is going to charge us $140 (kind of a waste, kwim?)... we WERE going to rent a car from SR to OAK then from OAK to SR on the way home (that's what we normally do)
but now that can't happen.
This looks like our only option...
unless anyone has a large car/van who wants to volunteer to take us up there. We have about $175 that we can spend on this, and i'd happily pay.
I'm just seeing no other options at this point.

[LMS]

ugh. and in hindsight we can't take the airport express b/c if we had someone drop us off at the SR doubletree instead of parking there, we wouldn't be back to be "picked up" from doubletreeuntil 2am.
This is such a pita... i'm so confused and stressed.

sorry to vent. yall can ignore me if you want.

[KaisaG]

Jackie- I don't have a large car - just truck and my little car... Would everyone (your family + Me) fit in your Explorer? I'm thinking maybe I could meet you at your house and y'all could drive there and then I could drive your car back to your house and drive my car home. I've only been in one accident and it was the other guy's fault if that puts you at ease :)

PS- and it would be a free ride!

[LMS]

Kaisa, Thank you so much for the offer.
My only concern is that our flight back into town comes in pretty late.
Here's our itinerary

Dec 31: Leave Oakland at 1150pm
get into fort lauderdale at 8:01am on the 1st

Dec 9th: leave ft.l at 720pm
get into oakland at 1055pmon the 9th

I think we are probably just going to have to cough up the 240$ on parking at the airport.
This is such a pita.

I've been *so* unbelievably stressed for the last week - literally on the brink of losing it - and this isn't helping matters.
GRR. vacations can be SO stressful

[KaisaG]

What time do you want/have to be at the airport in Oakland on the 31st?

As for the 9th I could go into work later the next day if I was too tired. I have some vacation & sick time.

Don't worry about it either- consider it payback for the countless hours you put into running this site.

[Mom of 2]

Sorry. I have only been to SF on the airporter,and the few times that Ken and I flew out of oakland, we parked at his work and took a cab the couple of miles to the airport.

Kate
Mom to Patty and Tyler

[jellybeanmichelle]

Jackie - If you take the airporter, I would be more than happy to pick you guys up at the doubletree or where ever in Santa Rosa. Even if it would be 2am in the morning.

[LMS]

Awe, thanks guys! I'm gunna let JR know about the options and we'll see what he says. he's kind of being a pita about the airport shuttle, i dunno why :(

[Lynette]

The Airporter is totally easy when we took it, drops you right off at the gate and you don't have to think at all which is great when flying those late hours.

You could have someone drop you off and then leave a spare key for the Explorer so they could park your car in the Doubletree lot the evening you come home :)

[meeg124]

Jackie - what about getting a hotel room for the night you fly home? That way you could come back up on the Airporter during the day. The Airporter does add quite a bit of time to your trip, because you have to wait for it to pick you up and they definitely drive slower than I do :) However, it's nice to kind of zone out and not worry about paying attention to the road. You could also get a cab back from the drop off. We've done that when we were going out of town. Most of the cab companies will give you a discount when they pick you up from the Airporter.

[lmfike]

Also if you opt to get on Airport Express in Petaluma you can park your car in the parking lot. My mom has done this in the past when she's flown from here to WA

[alowe]

Jackie we fly out of Oakland alot and we either rent, which sounds like it isn't gonna work or use off site parking. The offsite is way cheaper and they have a shuttle that drops you off right up front, which is easier with a kid and all the stuff that goes along with them. I usually just google oakland airport parking, but there is one site I have used a few times. I think it is airportparkingreservations.com. I will also ask my dad also cause he just parked for 10 days and found a place that was only $8 a day. The only thing is on the shuttle there isn't always a place to buckle up the kids. The only time we had Lucca with us the shuttle was actually a van so we could buckle her up, but other times they are just those shuttles with the hard plastic seats.

[alowe]

The other thing I just thought of is that there are some hotels that allow you to park for free if you stay the night. Maybe if you do that on the return since it will be so late you can park for free and just get a hotel for a night. I know all the local ones have an airport shuttle.