On a recent multi-city trip, the SFO security team was friendly and cheerful, with one guy actually singing to travelers as he checked their IDs. The best I could say about the security people at BOS, EWR, and IAD is that they were... only a little bit rude.

I live in SF, so my most frequent airport is SFO, and I cannot remember a single instance with rude, power-tripping security staff. I don't think I can say that about literally any other airport in the US. (I won't make judgments about other countries, considering language barriers and cultural differences that I may not be aware of.)

On top of all that, SFO security had zero delays and staffing issues during the recent time period when DHS was partially shut down.

I fly to or through there 2-3 times a year, tiny sample size and I’m only flying through there to go back home in the evening. But it seems to be a consistently good experience. It’s a well run airport.

I fly out of JFK and a smaller city airport in the northeast mostly. JFK is crazy. The smaller one is excellent, except like 20% of their flights leave at 6AM and TSA starts at 4, so the lines can be awful during peak events (like winter breaks when half the population to going to Florida via low cost airline).

It is hard to disentangle that variable from other things like season, time of day, size of airport, and of course n=1 subjectivity.

I think overall regional culture plays the biggest factor.

And in that regard, I far prefer SFO over any experience I've had in Texas, Atlanta, Philly, NYC, etc. It does not feel like the security agents are on a power trip trying to intimidate you or make you feel stupid.

With one class of exception (everyone with an early-morning flight piling in before the airport opens and creating a security backlog around Thanksgiving and Christmas), it's never once been more than 10min from walking in the front door to being at my gate, out of dozens of flights at all sorts of days and times.

During the recent shutdown, SFO was one of the airports with no TSA backlogs because they weren't dependent on the DHS funds in question.

Outside of holiday surge, I have never waited more than 1-3 minutes in TSA precheck.

Having flown in and out a lot of the last decade, it is a stupendously run airport.

SFO has no line for business class or high status travelers. (they have pre and clear).

That's the only difference.

No, it feels the same as any other airport. It’s like hiring roofing contractors. Either one you choose the experience is going to be pretty similar regardless of choice.