MilesBuzz! - San Diego Int'l Airport

Apologizes in advance to anyone from San Diego. It's a wonderful city, I want to
"drop out" at Pacific Beach -- but ...

If there is an airport (besides JFK and many
of the third world airports) that is crying
out "MAKEOVER" -- it's San Diego's airport.

Yes, it is clean -- modern, but seems small
considering the number of passengers I've seen there Friday night/Sunday morning:

Baggage area: MORE BAGGAGE AREAS!!! It's very confusing to have bags from UA, US airways and the cattle car airline (Southwest) all on one belt and having people
fight each other like a football game to get
one little shopping bag.

The UA ticket line stretched forever (although there were agents to move people to
the front of the line with near departing flights) Being elite pays off, so I was checked in two minutes.

It's a scary scene at the gate area with
many many passengers racing for planes and a
big Starbucks in the middle of the area.

Confusing "van for hire" area... I was turned
away from three vans before I got a very nice
San Diego Cop (they really are nice Rudi, this woman cute too!) who hailed me a van.

But this airport has a sense of humour:

At entrance to security check-in (which reads something like:)

"Do NOT make jokes about having guns or bombs. We take all these comments very very
seriously." CATMAN

Catman, sorry you did not have the best experience at SAN. However, if you had seen it less than a year ago, you would have really been disgruntled. They have totally upgraded the airport for Superbowl 1998. No offense taken, and I do know the Van situation is somewhat disorganized. Hope you had a nice time anyway in "America's Finest City."

The City of San Diego should have taken over NAS Miramar when the navy left. The Marines
could have used Lindberg.

Miramar would have given them tons of space,
3 runways in place, plus instant freeway access to the entire county with I-15, SR-163 and SR-52 there I-8, I-5 and I-805
all less than 10 miles away. And with the
rail link from Miramar Road to downtown, it
would be simple to run rail service to downtown. San Diego is nice, but the limited size of Lindberg will hurt the in the future.

I have no familiarity with Miramar you are
talking about Boomer, but that would have been a great use for an international airport. (What became of Miramar? Is it still available?)

Then San Diego would probably have built a rail link faster than NYC! (it's only underway NOW!)

RiceChek, the airport (and an annoying
business trip) were the only things I did NOT
like about San Diego. It is among America's
finest cities, and I salute you and all who
live there. When I get tired of the rat race
and dont' want to go to Cairns, Australia,
I want to "drop out" to Mission or Pacific
Beach. I'll learn to deal with wearing shorts all year. CATMAN

Catman, you actually used the easier of the terminals to navigate. Terminal two (you were at Terminal One) has an old section and new section and the gates can be much farther from the sidewalk than on old Terminal One. Ever since the newest section of Terminal Two opened around the beginning of the year (I believe that Delta, Continental & America West use that section), the San Diego Union has printed tons of .....es about it (very badly designed if you check luggage - you have to go up & down & up & down and it is a real pain). I personally hope they keep the current airport, mainly for the reason that it is so centrally located, just a couple minutes from downtown and within about a 20 minute drive from most of San Diego. Besides the great location, most flights take about 1 minute to get to the gate after the plane lands rather than the 20 minute drive to the gate like the monsters such as O'Hare..

Calair has some excellent points, and as far as location it does work well. I live in the city so its great because I can usually find a friend to take me, but if not, a cab is only $12 one way. Personally, I like the new terminal, I think it lends a bit more class----I thought that old one was a nightmare. The traffic in and out is still bad, but that seems that any big city airport has that problem.

In regards to Miramar, the city has been arguing over that one for years. Apparently, at least 15 years. I dont know why that did not work. Miramar is still there Catman, but now it is Marines.