[StopHammoTime]

Just a clarifier for everyone - a fuel emergency is not what you think it is. They don’t run until the last drop. While it indicates the aircraft should be handled without delay, it’s also not going to fall out of the sky immediately either.

A fuel emergency would never be severe enough that they would be forced to land at SFO in this situation. In fact, if they were truly forced to land the pilots would lose their jobs because they left it way too late. Oakland was always a reasonable option.

Finally, fuel emergencies are not actually a standard call. It is a thing that is adhered to in the industry as courtesy. Unless there is a malfunction with the fuel system (which would be a mayday call) then it is mostly avoidable.

[epolanski]

A fuel malfunction does not lead to a mayday, there's a PAN PAN first.

[bombcar]

Depending on the issue and the pilots they can go straight to mayday, but that’s likely to to be “fuel is low because one wing is empty and the other is draining.”