chollie

What about parking?

There are shops at the airport that are much closer to me than their sister shops 15 miles farther away at a mall.

Even if the shops were in the non-sterile area, I am not paying premium airport parking prices when parking at the mall is free (and even downtown hourly parking is both cheaper and more convenient than airport parking).

Boggie Dog

Here there is a toll to access the airport, a toll to park at the airport, and not the most convenient parking on top of that. I can't imagine any reason that a mall type setup would be successful unless some other changes took place first.

That being said I think anyone who has business in the terminal, post TSA, should be able to enter as long as they comply with the screening requirements.

chollie

I kind of feel sorry for the restaurants outside the sterile area. We used to sit at the eatery closest to the gate to enjoy our last moments together.

Now, of course, we don't do that anymore because we never know how long it will take to get through security.

cbn42

I've never driven around Pittsburgh, but I have a lot of trouble believing that the terrain is so difficult to navigate that people would rather go through a TSA checkpoint.

In theory, that's true, but what would those unique offerings be? In practice, I con't think of anything that would work.

CKA1

I would prefer it if non-pax stayed landside. I've been flying since I was 19 years old, and it really isn't special enough that I need to have an adult walk me to the gate.

I think if you need more places to say goodbye, it should be made up of off-site restaurants. Take your five year old to McDonalds downtown, then hop on a plane and explain that Daddy is coming back Monday. I grew up with a Dad who made lots of sales calls as part of his business and I never thought for a moment that he was in danger or wouldn't be coming back. He even flew in really tiny planes which would scare me today, but there wasn't anything special about his travel after a while.

If there were places in the airport which were conductive to having a meal or a drink or a meal and a drink in the landside areas, you could say goodbye there instead of insisting that the whole family come to the gate area.

The only way I'd be okay with a person accompanying somebody else to the gate is if the pax has a legitimate medical issue. Not an emotional support dog, but say, has a busted hip and leg (ie a car crash victim) and needs to go through the airport in a wheelchair. This only makes sense in places which are small and don't have the golf cart system.

I am largely against having anybody but the people who are getting on the plane to be at the gate. Unless you work in the sterile area (including flight crew, FAs, GAs or airport security), or are a passenger, you should not be there

jkhuggins

Well, let's put it this way. In theory, navigating Pittsburgh is easy, because every road is either parallel to the river or perpendicular to it. In practice, it's horrible, because there are three rivers that come together at an odd angle --- and that road that's parallel to the river could be parallel to any one of the three.

Plus, you have the same problems of older cities in that lots of buildings are built right up against the roads and rivers, meaning that there's little room to build new roads or expand them. There are a couple of highways down there that honestly feel like the trenches of the Death Star when you're trying to navigate them.

I grew up in the Midwest, where if you miss your turn, you're taught just to go down a mile to the next intersection and take a trip around the block. I tried to do that in Pittsburgh once and ended up in Cleveland.

But, I'm digressing.

Somehow, it happens all the time. People keep building new mega-malls, even when there are plenty of existing malls around --- and presumably those malls are making money since they keep building them.

cestmoi123

Well, if you're comparing driving in Pittsburgh to driving in a very rural area, then sure, it might be difficult. For the vast majority of the US population who live in urban areas, however, it's really not that tough.

Section 107

And Pissburgh is much easier to drive in than Boston. At least in Pittsburgh it is clear one is not supposed to drive on the sidewalks.