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Had the pleasure of picking my daughter up from the airport yesterday however that was the only pleasure as the drive out there was a traffic nightmare, then once at the airport the multistage parking area is not obvious to get to and of course i missed it and had to do a half hour detour to get back to it.Once inside the airport one gets to walk vast distances as most of the entry doors into the place are blocked off for some reason,then the plane lands at 4;40 and it takes till 6;15 to finally get the baggage and be outta there, parking costs are outlandish as 2 hour parking cost me $36 then we got to battle the traffic again going home.
I remember when i used to like going to airports but i guess those days are over.
Trudeau has been bad for a while. It seems that they're always doing construction on the roads around there. Last time I went to the airport I just took the 747 bus and it was so much less stressful. Someone else handled the driving and for some reason they were using a coach bus so it was more comfortable than the traditional city bus.
It's not the most pleasant experience that's for sure. Air baggage handlers in Montreal and Toronto are the slowest I've experienced.
To be fair, your daughter's flight landed at THE worst possible moment though. Late afternoon is always the busiest by far with a slew of jumbo jets from Europe. Then there's the matter of rush hour traffic...
Maybe next time, you can wait at the cellphone parking (summer) or the Dorval Train station (winter) (south side of the track has indoor heated seating, north side parking is something like 1 intersection from the airport cellphone parking) or the Dorval shopping center (5-10 minutes drive to the terminal). Wait there until baggage is clear.
Normally I'll wait off site till the person we are picking up calls and tells us they are standing curbside then i'll drive over and pick em up,in this case however it was my daughter who i havent seen in 6 months,it was -20 and i thought she would enjoy/appreciate the extra effort i made to meet her at the gate.
Ah god, Jambo; I fully understand as one who was a frequent flyer on RapiAire to and fro for years during the 80's and 90's when chunks were falling off the overpasses and the buses and taxis had special routes through suburb streets to get between the airport and urban core.
I would have thought those days were behind Dorval forever but it seems every major Canadian hub takes a few lurching steps forward only to take great leaps backwards in accommodating consumers.
I now fly out of regional airports exclusively to avoid such nonsense and consider walking across the apron to climb a ramp into the aircraft small penance in comparison to the hundreds of other inconveniences associated with the major airports.
In particular, I avoid anything with the Air Canada logo on it like the veritable plague. I'll fly RicketyAir before I ever get into another one of their planes.
There are several things wrong with that airport, starting with the very confusing layout coming off (and on) of the 20. Could they really not just have a proper interchange for the two expressways there, along with clear exits directly to and from the airport?
Then, there is that strange setup inside the airport. When exiting from baggage claim, what's with having to walk three different levels of hallways (with nothing along them) to get to the pick up location? One tall escalator would be perfectly fine. It's been about 5 years since I flew in, so maybe they changed this?
The one thing I will say positive about Canadian airports, is that I've never had any issues with their customs. Entering the US, despite my LIVING here for the past 14 years, has proven to be an absolute chore. I've been "detained" several times, at the airport, the Lacolle/Champlain customs, and coming in from cruises, without any explanation whatsoever, for reasons unknown.
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