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My least favorite is probably MCI (Kansas City Intl). The place would barely pass as a bus stop, it's dated, crowded (or a ghost town, depending on the terminal), zero basic airport services compared to most airports and now seems to have fewer flights and cost more than ever to fly into.
My favorite is BWI (Baltimore-Washington). Easy, short lines, short walks, nice large wide open terminals with lots of natural light, plenty of shops and places to eat, cheap and close parking yet with plenty of transit options, well connected and relatively in-expensive.
Oddly, those are the two airports I use the most, or at least have used the most.
Understanding that all airports suck, the ones I like the most (other than BWI) are probably Denver and MSP and interestingly enough, those are also probably my two favorite metro areas as well.
I have had good and bad experiences with places like ATL, LaGuardi and LAX. The new terminals in Phoenix, Detroit, JFK are very nice.
Indianapolis is awesome, Orlando is nice. I always wondered why Vegas kinda sucked, but it's getting better. Most of the rest I don't recall good or bad I guess or it's been too long to remember. I would say if you don't remember an airport, that's a good thing. Unless I fly a lot through an airport, I just don't remember unless they really suck and I rarely use the same airports (other than DC area) more than once every few years. The bad ones I remember, especially when you have more than one bad experience.
Atlanta has one of the best lay outs for an airport that I've ever seen....It's very straightforward.
It's extremely good (perhaps nearly optimal) for handling a very, very large number of connecting passengers. The maximum gate-to-gate walk is about 2,000 feet, and you can go between any two gates in about 15 minutes. No small feat, when you've got over 200 gates.
It's a mediocre layout for O/D traffic, however, since you've got a substantial hike to get to each and every gate (except a handful on T).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fastphilly
My only gripe about Atlanta is your basically forced on Delta. Almost every fortress hub airport that has a lack of competition always jack up the fares. Pittsburgh was one of the more expensive airports to fly out of when US Air had a big operation there, now it's a spoke city and airfares have gone down there substantially. Why? Because there is no dominant carrier and competition drives prices down.
I have always preferred the level of airline services more than ease of terminal layout or amenities. I don't live at an airport, I just fly out of them.
Yep. You're basically forced to fly Delta (especially since the demise of Airtran, may it rest in peace). This of course isn't much of an issue for Atlanta's business traveling community, who love to fly Delta and amass Skymiles and premium status. Trust me...basically NEVER having to connect if you're flying domestically is a pretty big perk.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AZLiam
I've never heard even the best airport enthusiasts or connoisseurs describe the bathrooms at Sky Harbor as annoying (and inadequate), but hopefully once the Sky Train completes stage two, you can just take that from Sky Harbor to the rental car center...and use the bathrooms there.
Maybe they aren't flying into the US Air terminals? The bathrooms have a zig-zag 4' wide entryway configuration that gets clogged all the time with pax and baggage. And the bathrooms are probably a third the size of a normal Atlanta airport bathroom. Thankfully I never have to fly through Phoenix anymore--maybe they have changed the layout in recent years.
Except that this list isn't sorted by fares? There are plenty of more expensive airports on the list. Atlanta is barely above average.
We get completely owned on several routes (mainly regional nonstop monopoly markets, of which Nashville is currently the most prominent/annoying). Those will run $900 for a round trip. Otherwise Atlanta isn't that expensive.
My favorite airport are those that offer a variety of international flights on numerous foreign carriers. I despise being held hostage to a host airline that dominates almost all foreign traffic at a given airport. ATL, CLT and DFW come to mind as those kind of airports. I prefer JFK, LAX, SFO, ORD and IAD.
I dont agree about DFW. There are 11 foreign flags at DFW and Atlanta has 7 which still provides a good number of options. Charlotte is a different story.
DTW - easy to navigate, clean, restaurants, etc
MSP - have always had pleasant experiences at this airport
ATL - constant gate changes are a pain, but easy layout
JAN - yes it's small and doesn't have much, but I can go thru the parking lot/boarding pass kiosk/security and be at the gate in less than 15 mins.
Dislike:
PHL - yuck, bathrooms were gross
DCA - the Delta terminal was awful
IAH - maze-like and dirty
And DIA doesn't? You HAVE to take a tram to get to most of the concourses and if you have to connect from one concourse to another 20 minutes will NOT do it in most cases. I agree that MSP has a seriously long concourse (the A,B,C,D concourses I believe), but they also connect in the middle if you need to cross to the other side of the airport (which I bet some ppl don't realize). So unless you arrive at the very end of that concourse and have to be at the opposite end in 20 minutes, you should be fine. That's also what those carts are for -- to scoot passengers back and forth at 15 mph.
P.S. it's never ideal to connect to another plane in anything less than 45 minutes to an hour between flights (in my experience)!
But the thing with DIA is that the tram gets you to any concourse you need to get to pretty quickly and you never have to walk too long/far. At MSP, even where it connects in the middle takes a while, and isn't there only 1 tram on one side of the airport? This isn't to say MSP isn't a great airport though. It's one of the nicer ones imo.
But the thing with DIA is that the tram gets you to any concourse you need to get to pretty quickly and you never have to walk too long/far. At MSP, even where it connects in the middle takes a while, and isn't there only 1 tram on one side of the airport? This isn't to say MSP isn't a great airport though. It's one of the nicer ones imo.
I agree that it can be a hassle at MSP, but I'm saying if you have 20 minutes to connect to your gate then I'm not sure DIA is any better than MSP for that purpose, simply because you have to wait for a tram to get to the next concourse, whereas at MSP even though it's quite a journey at times you have a choice (to walk or tram). As far as why there's only a tram on that one (longer) side, it's because the other side is maybe half as long, but that's the concourse that is going to get expanded to a similar length as the long ABCD concourse. And when that happens there will be a 2nd tram there and, if I remember correctly, there may be a 3rd tram connecting the two down the middle (where you can connect to the LRT line). Regardless, airports these sizes are always going to have this problem -- it's a near-certainty.
I dont agree about DFW. There are 11 foreign flags at DFW and Atlanta has 7 which still provides a good number of options. Charlotte is a different story.
Compared to the major five CSA's in the country DFW has a small amount of foreign carriers. For domestic service DFW is a juggernaut, but for international flight options JFK, LAX, SFO, ORD and IAD destroys DFW.
Compared to the major five CSA's in the country DFW has a small amount of foreign carriers. For domestic service DFW is a juggernaut, but for international flight options JFK, LAX, SFO, ORD and IAD destroys DFW.
You have faulty reasoning. The fact youre comparing DFW to JFK and LAX is comical. You're assuming there is a direct correlation between population and foreign flag carriers and CSA size. Dallas is not a port city nor does it receive any tourists. The international O&D is almost all business travel and VFR. Therefore it is not comparable to the others.
Last edited by Cowboys fan in Houston; 07-22-2013 at 07:23 PM..
MIA is SOOOOOOO much better now that the American Terminal renovations are completed, the AAirtrain is in service and the MIAMover is operating to the multimodal transportation center where one can access rental cars, Metrobus and finally Metrorail.
RDU's Terminal 2 is absolutely beautiful and efficient.
DEN is beautiful but it's sooooo far away from the city center. That's my only gripe about it.
I love how MCO and TPA are laid out....very efficient.
I can't stand LAX. I don't think I've ever connected flights in the same building. I hate waiting for and taking those buses.
You have faulty reasoning. The fact youre comparing DFW to JFK and LAX is comical. You're assuming there is a direct correlation between population and foreign flag carriers and CSA size. Dallas is not a port city nor does it receive any tourists. The international O&D is almost all business travel and VFR. Therefore it is not comparable to the others.
Where did I say there is a direct correlation between population and foreign flag carriers? You have poor reading comprehension skills.
The Bay Area for example has 7.5 million which is fairly close in population to DFW 6.8 million.
Foreign carriers serving the Bay Area 30
Foreign carriers serving DFW 11
All I did was mention that a few specific airports have a far superior international service than DFW and you get your panties in a wad and diss my post.
Last edited by Fastphilly; 07-22-2013 at 08:54 PM..
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