New BART to Airport app offers mobile ticketing for discounted group airport travel
This pilot ended March 31, 2021.
BART is launching a new app that not only simplifies getting to and from the airport, it will save groups money on their airport transit trips. The BART to Airport app was originally designed as a one-year test of mobile ticketing at BART, marking the first time BART is offering mobile tickets through an app. The BART to Airport app will be operational until further notice.
Discounted tickets will be available for purchase through the app and must be used within 90 days of purchase.
How it works
Friends, families, and business travelers of two or more can use the BART to Airport app to purchase discounted tickets in advance for airport trips with the stored tickets on the buyer’s phone ready for use any time. The app offers the convenience of no paper tickets to keep track of, no need to carry cash and no need to wait in line at a ticket machine with the hassle of purchasing multiple tickets.
The BART to Airport app is fast, secure, and convenient. Riders just download the free app, register a debit card, credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal account into the account, then purchase a ticket. When they are ready to take BART, they activate the ticket and show it to a Station Agent as they enter and exit stations. The app calculates the discounted fare for you and the one mobile ticket is all you need for the entire group.
"With the BART to Airport app, group travelers won’t have to worry about finding and paying for expensive parking at crowded airport lots or sifting through the chaotic curbside pick-ups and drop-offs at airport terminals,” said BART Board President Robert Raburn. “We want to test how mobile ticketing could work at BART while also making group travel on transit more affordable.”
The app will discount 20% for one-way trips to or from either San Francisco or Oakland airports. Round-trip tickets will be discounted 25%.
The BART to Airport app expands the agency’s breadth of digital services, joining the official BART app that features trip planning, real time departures and advisories and the BART Watch app for reporting suspicious and illegal activity happening in the stations or in trains.
BART offers frequent service to/from SFO and OAK
BART is the best way to avoid sitting in Bay Area traffic. BART offers frequent service directly to the doorstep of both OAK and SFO airports. Three to four trains per hour depart from the SFO International Terminal and it’s just 30 minutes to downtown San Francisco. The Oakland Airport BART Station is a short walk to both airline terminals and trains run every 6 minutes until 11pm and every 20 minutes after 11pm.
BART also offers affordable airport long-term permit parking at our stations that can be purchased in advance through our website.
Details about all official BART apps: www.bart.gov/apps
Groups must be travelling together and must be heading to or coming from the airport to use the app, the mobile ticket and to get the discount. Other BART discounts do not apply with use of the app and a visual inspection by a Station Agent is required- the app does not communicate with the fare gates.