The second YouTube clip has a good explanation of SFO procedures from the ATC perspective. ATC are most definitely able to provide the full ILS approach, but (1) they need advance warning, and (2) you are going to be delayed while they get the required hole in the sequence to fit you in. I wouldn't expect a foreign crew to have full appreciation of the traffic situation, so perhaps ATC could have kept them better updated on expected approach time etc, but unfortunately that's always going to be imperfect in busy airspace. Even so, declining a fairly straightforward approach that everyone else was happily doing, and ending up in a low fuel diversion to an offline airport is poor TEM. Which was the riskier option?
Last edited by Verbal Kint; 14th Nov 2023 at 15:40.