I don’t think US transborder will be in the new international terminal. You’re right though, its partitioned because the other side is domestic gates and US prescreened passengers need an isolated area. They can open/close the partition at various points depending on gate demand, but with the airport being so busy, generally you’re limited with options on the US side. For a mid-sized airport, its decent, nothing special. It works. But the cowboy hat tourist helpers are fun (and volunteers). And yes, Houston is actually a pretty good airport.
Was stuck in ORD for 6 hour on Wednesday, f that place.
Phoenix is pretty nice. I once flew out of Trenton, which is basically a bus station.
MSP is the nicest for that. Just ask Senator Larry Craig.
And to those of you yuppie Top 2 MBA SS ER types bashing airports, my questions to you is why don’t you have a private jet…can’t afford it, then STFU and fly contently like the rest of us hacksawers.
I used to take a Greyhound back when I was poorer from Chicago…
+1. Complete and utter fucking dump and just totally inefficient. Spend most of your time there standing in unnecessary queues. Wait for ages to collect your bag even if you’re just passing through and then queue to get out of the reclaim hall. Then walk 100 yards and hand your bag to some rude cunt that just lobs it onto a conveyer belt in front of you. Then another queue for security . What’s the point of having 6 security lanes if you create a bottleneck immediately before it with one guy checking all passports?
Most of the European ones on the list are a fucking delight in comparison. most of them are their cities 2nd airport and used by budget airlines so quite far out of town. If you’re paying £10 for a flight and you don’t research the options for transferring into town in advance then don’t blame it on the airport.
Charles de Gaul in Paris is terrible. I have to transfer there a lot. You spend about as much time taxi’ing on the runway as you do flying, then you get off and have to get on a bus to the terminal, then you walk for ages, then you get a train.
My favourite airports are ones that have an inbuild train/tram/underground transfer option where you just glide right through onto the train and then you’re in the city centre. Most large capital cities have no excuse for not having this infrastructure. Hong Kong is cool, you can check in and drop your bag at the central train station and then hop onto a train to the airport and glide right through.
Look at some of you beasts, complaining about queues and immigration.
As inefficient as Newark airport is, they somewhat make up for it by having Shake Shack and many other kinds of chains in the terminals. If you go to SFO or JFK, you have to eat at the over priced airport-run restaurants. The worst day at SFO was when they closed the Burger King.
Trenton is awesome. Not quite as nice as a bus station, but you can still pull up 20 minutes before your flight, park, clear security, and sit in your seat with time to spare. Was better when US Air Express flew out of there, but Frontier ain’t bad. Baggage claim leaves a bit to be desired though. It’s basically a pole barn next to the terminal where they literally slide open the back wall and pass the bags in. You then have to walk them up a hill on path that is basically a neighborhood sidewalk.
I wondered around and was like F this and thankfully had access to the lounge on the 2nd floor. They had food and free booze, helpful as I was nursing a hangover from a wedding the night before. The Kokenee and caeser helped, that was until our flight left nearly two hours behind schedule. There was no way I was hanging out in the terminal as it was a complete zoo.
In the days when I used to travel for work, my favorite airports were actually the smaller city/regional airports. They typically have free wifi, rental car counters and pick up at the terminal (none of that shuttle bus BS), shorter security lines, etc. Big city airports were utilitarian when designed and have adapted poorly to the new world.
I’ll reiterate that Newark is a sh*thole. When I was through there earlier this year, I was joined at my seat in the terminal by pigeons and the power outlet didn’t work. Literally, I’d try to plug in my phone charger and it fell out of the outlet immediately.