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Other time-kills

Walking off the airport property is out of the question because it's miles, so Uber would be required. The Hegenberger area is pretty desolate but it has an In-n-Out Burger (thanks Zach Lipton).

The town of Alameda has back-road access to the airport and is very nice. Consider either its Park St. downtown (over 100 shops and local eateries) or South Shore mall (fast-casual food). Either one is a 10 minute Uber from the airport.

There are Clipper machines at "virtual OAK station"

• Board the BART-OAK cable car*. There will be a conspicuous lack of fare-gates or entry controls. You will fear this is a proof-of-payment system. It's not. Don't worry about it.
• Exit at Coliseum Platform 3.
• There is nowhere to go except through fare-gates or back to OAK!
• Buy your Clipper card(s) right there.

If you intend onward travel on BART, tap through the fare-gates, and you are now in the paid area of BART. Where to go next will be obvious. Your card will be encoded as having entered the BART system at OAK Airport.

If you do not want to ride BART today, buy your Clipper tickets and hop right back on the cable car for a free ride back to OAK. This is legit. It's quite fast, and you could do it while your companions collect luggage.

How does that work? BART is a variable-fare system, meaning you must card-in when you enter, and card-out when you leave. However, the OAKland Airport cable-car is a simple 2-station shuttle, and for design-geometry reasons, the Coliseum end empties only into the paid area of the BART station at platform 3. There's no way to get landside from platform 3. So BART displaced the OAK fare-gates to the Coliseum end. Now they do not need to staff the Airport station.

Since the fare-gates are there, so are the ticket/Clipper sales machines.

* Yeah. It's really a cable car. Not quaint, but modernistic because BART. It doesn't have a grip or gripman, and the cable is permanently bolted to the car, unlike the system across the bay. The cable stops and starts to move the car. You can watch the sheaves turn at the OAK end; that's the powerhouse.

There are Clipper machines at "virtual OAK station"

• Board the BART-OAK cable car*. There will be a conspicuous lack of fare-gates or entry controls. You will fear this is a proof-of-payment system. It's not. Don't worry about it.
• Exit at Coliseum Platform 3.
• There is nowhere to go except through fare-gates or back to OAK!
• Buy your Clipper card(s) right there.

If you intend onward travel on BART, tap through the fare-gates, and you are now in the paid area of BART. Where to go next will be obvious. Your card will be encoded as having entered the BART system at OAK Airport.

If you do not want to ride BART today, buy your Clipper tickets and hop right back on the cable car for a free ride back to OAK. This is legit. It's quite fast, and you could do it while your companions collect luggage.

How does that work? BART is a variable-fare system, meaning you must card-in when you enter, and card-out when you leave. However, the OAKland Airport cable-car is a simple 2-station shuttle, and for design-geometry reasons, the Coliseum end empties only into the paid area of the BART station at platform 3. There's no way to get landside from platform 3. So BART displaced the OAK fare-gates to the Coliseum end. Now they do not need to staff the Airport station.

Since the fare-gates are there, so are the ticket/Clipper sales machines.

Joyriding the BART system proper

BART has an "excursion fare" intended for joyriding the BART system by entering and exiting the same station. Normally this is overpriced, but from the Airport station it's the cheapest fare to anywhere, at $6.

So if you want to joyride BART proper, you can enter the faregates and take the normal BART trains. Complete your joyride within 3 hours or you'll have to see the agent and accept a stern look.

• The Dublin line is easiest to access and it's #2 for scenery.

• The Fremont line is just more of what you see on the boring part of the Dublin line.

• The scenery king is the Pittsburg/Bay Point line, but you must change trains to reach it (this isn't too bad though).

• San Francisco line is dead last for scenery as it's all underground west of Oakland. The cool spots east of Embarcadero are the railyards and the Imperial Walkers (really) at West Oakland and the black coolness of the Transbay Tube.

• Richmond Line, only the far half is scenic, and it's a long drag underground through downtowns Oakland and Berkeley to get to it.

The short trip is a bounce to East Dublin and back. The longer trip is to Embarcadero then Bay Point then Macarthur then Coliseum, but that's ambitious if you only have 3 hours to kill.

* Yeah. It's really a cable car. Not quaint, but modernistic because BART. It doesn't have a grip or gripman, and the cable is permanently bolted to the car, unlike the system across the bay. The cable stops and starts to move the car. You can watch the sheaves turn at the OAK end; that's the powerhouse.

There are Clipper machines at "virtual OAK station"

The BART-OAK cable car* is free to simply ride, if your mission is to buy a Clipper card and immediately return to OAK. The fare gates and Clipper sales machines are at the Coliseum end.

It's quite fast, and you could do it while your companions collect luggage.

BART is a variable-fare system, meaning you must card-in when you enter, and card-out when you leave. However, the OAKland Airport cable-car is a simple 2-station shuttle, and the Coliseum end empties only into the BART station at platform 3. There's no way to get landside from platform 3. So BART cheated. Since there's nowhere else you can go, they moved the OAK fare-gates to the Coliseum end.

Since the fare-gates are there, so are the ticket/Clipper sales machines.

Riding between OAK and platform 3 is free. The agent told me that's how you joyride, and that's also how you buy BART or Clipper tickets if you're at OAK and don't want to ride BART that day.

How does money work, then? If you pass through the faregates at Platform 3, you are deemed to have entered at OAK station (since there is no other way you could get here). The cable car goes from "free" to about a $4 premium over normal BART rides.

* Yeah. It's really a cable car. Not quaint, but modernistic because BART. It doesn't have a grip or gripman, and the cable is permanently bolted to the car, unlike the system across the bay. The cable stops and starts to move the car. You can watch the sheaves turn at the OAK end; that's the powerhouse.

There are Clipper machines at "virtual OAK station"

• Board the BART-OAK cable car*. There will be a conspicuous lack of fare-gates or entry controls. You will fear this is a proof-of-payment system. It's not. Don't worry about it.
• Exit at Coliseum Platform 3.
• There is nowhere to go except through fare-gates or back to OAK!
• Buy your Clipper card(s) right there.

If you intend onward travel on BART, tap through the fare-gates, and you are now in the paid area of BART. Where to go next will be obvious. Your card will be encoded as having entered the BART system at OAK Airport.

If you do not want to ride BART today, buy your Clipper tickets and hop right back on the cable car for a free ride back to OAK. This is legit. It's quite fast, and you could do it while your companions collect luggage.

How does that work? BART is a variable-fare system, meaning you must card-in when you enter, and card-out when you leave. However, the OAKland Airport cable-car is a simple 2-station shuttle, and for design-geometry reasons, the Coliseum end empties only into the paid area of the BART station at platform 3. There's no way to get landside from platform 3. So BART displaced the OAK fare-gates to the Coliseum end. Now they do not need to staff the Airport station.

Since the fare-gates are there, so are the ticket/Clipper sales machines.

* Yeah. It's really a cable car. Not quaint, but modernistic because BART. It doesn't have a grip or gripman, and the cable is permanently bolted to the car, unlike the system across the bay. The cable stops and starts to move the car. You can watch the sheaves turn at the OAK end; that's the powerhouse.