I can't believe I haven't seen anyone in here mention LAX. Of all the airports I hate connecting through, LAX is at the top of my list. I just absolutely hate the design of the airport; every terminal has its own security checkpoints, and you can only transfer between certain ones without going out and re-clearing security. Connecting between terminals involves buses. The terminals are small, crowded, and have limited eating and entertainment options (especially terminal 4, since I'm usually on AA). About the only positive is getting to watch the large numbers of 747s and other large aircraft from lots of carriers for whom LAX is their only US destination.
I used to hate connecting through DFW, but they fixed my main complaint with that airport - way, way, WAY too much walking - when they installed that train system a few years back. D Terminal in DFW has the best food. There's a great Mexican place there that makes killer margaritas.
ATL is a great airport when you consider the amount of traffic it handles. ATL is great as far as food choices and entertainment ... once you get off the plane. But prior to getting off the plane drives me nuts. Especially since they build the new runway which is out in the middle of bloody nowhere. If you land on that runway, good luck, because it's a 20-30 minute taxi to the gate. Unless you are fortunate enough to land on one of the two inner runways, you're pretty much screwed. If I'm connecting through ATL, I try to build 2+ hours into the layover.
I've only been through CLT once, but enjoyed it. I'll be flying through there again in about a week. Free wi-fi is a major plus. Nice alternative to ATL.
MEM is a dump. It looks like it was built in the 70s and hasn't been remodeled since. It's that whole narrow corridors, brown color scheme and small, limited windows. There must have been some school of thought back then that people didn't want to see airplanes (TYS had the same look until they remodeled in the mid-90s by tearing most of the old terminal down and completely rebuilding it with HUGE glass windows).
I haven't been through CVG in ages - I try really, really hard to avoid it because I hate CRJs specifically. Glad to hear they closed the holding cell that was Terminal C.
Best - SLC, easy to walk between terminals and a 25 minute connection is plenty of time. The staff is friendly and the club is pretty nice.
Worst - JFK, rude and useless people, long lines for take off, and the terminals need to be demolished yesterday. I wish DL would send their connecting traffic elsewhere or anywhere else. It's the only airport where my luggage didn't make it. The only upside is that the food at the clubs is upgraded and I can't figure out why.
ATL isn't bad if you don't have to deal with storms. I wish the food selection was more like SFO or AUS as opposed to all the generic fast food places. I made a 35 minute connection from the high end of B to the high end of C when the shortcut walkway was closed.
I hated DTW, but that was 1995 and I hated that place. I guess the new terminal had to be better.
I've been to MSP twice and once my connecting gate was across from my arrival gate and that was easy. The other time was a 2 hr connection, so there was no issue with the walk between teh gates.
CVG was fine, but there are so few flights that go through there anymore.
MEM feels like the 1960's and that place needs some re-work IMO.
ATL isn't bad if you don't have to deal with storms. I wish the food selection was more like SFO or AUS as opposed to all the generic fast food places. I made a 35 minute connection from the high end of B to the high end of C when the shortcut walkway was closed.
I hated DTW, but that was 1995 and I hated that place. I guess the new terminal had to be better.
As for ATL, we get a 45 minute hold in Florida for storms in ATL, and when you get there there is not a cloud in the sky and the weather channel showed no rain for ATL. ATL- Too many planes, too little gates. The only time I found ATL good for connecting were the two years after Eastern went out of business, and the two years after Sept. 11, 2001.
In my post above I was going to mention the old Detroit. Not only was the terminal old and difficult to conect, the old taxi way system was constantly clogged. You could land 25 minutes early and be 20 minutes late getting to the gate. The only bad experience with the new Detroit was the first week it opened, and NWA had not worked out the logistics of getting agents from gate to gate. I landed 20 minutes early and missed my connection. But NWA worked out the logistics and I have not had a connection problem since.
Programs: Delta Gold Medallion,AA,USairways,Midwest Airlines, National Emerald Club
Posts: 1,437
Best U.S. hub: DTW
Worst U.S. hubs: ATL & JFK. A little thunderstorm or two throws ATL into chaos; too many unempowered employees that can do little or nothing to help. JFK needs a total makeover. It reaaly is unfortunate that the first thing many foreign travelers see is ATL of JFK, the appearance of these airports sends the wrong message about the U.S.
Programs: DL PM & MM™ PC Plat, HHonors Diamond, Cholula General Member
Posts: 15,382
Quote:
Originally Posted by hazelrah
Best U.S. hub: DTW
Worst U.S. hubs: ATL & JFK. A little thunderstorm or two throws ATL into chaos; too many unempowered employees that can do little or nothing to help. JFK needs a total makeover. It reaaly is unfortunate that the first thing many foreign travelers see is ATL of JFK, the appearance of these airports sends the wrong message about the U.S.
I agree with you wholeheartedly about the foreign travelers first seeing JFK. There isn't anything wrong with the appearance of ATL. When was the last time you were there? They spent a lot of money redoing the interior.
Worst U.S. hubs: ATL & JFK. A little thunderstorm or two throws ATL into chaos; too many unempowered employees that can do little or nothing to help. JFK needs a total makeover. It reaaly is unfortunate that the first thing many foreign travelers see is ATL of JFK, the appearance of these airports sends the wrong message about the U.S.
"According to our CEO they just refinanced 1.5 billion of debt at 8% and the financing to bulldoze T-3, redo T-4 and expand and fix T-2 should be announced shortly."
I agree with you wholeheartedly about the foreign travelers first seeing JFK. There isn't anything wrong with the appearance of ATL. When was the last time you were there? They spent a lot of money redoing the interior.
The appearance of ATL isn't so bad. It isn't as grand and beautiful as some Asian airports..but it isn't bad...
The problem with ATL are for people arriving on int'l flights who are NOT connecting at ATL who go through the whole "disembark->passport->luggage pick up->customs->luggage drop off->SECURITY->tram->luggage pick up" process...
Programs: DL Plat, SK Silver, BA Silver - Gift, CO Plat - Match
Posts: 3,924
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)
ATL - "When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid!" As big as it is, it can still feel claustrophobic. We did find a great restaurant at the College Park train stop - "The Feed Store" - and would gladly go back there on our next long layover!
CVG - I actually remember changing planes here mainline to mainline once - but it has been a long, long time. One can pick up Cincinnati chili here (I suppose you still can) - and I am not a Texas chili snob - I like variety!
DTW - Awesome - it is fun to get in the front car of the elevated train and see that there are no tracks. It is the very opposite of ATL in terms of feeling NON-claustrophobic. Wow - compare the regional jet facilities to ATL or SLC - NO COMPARISON!
IND - I will use it to change planes this week for the first time - it is already being de-hubbed - my IND-AUS connecting flight (booked a LONG LONG time ago on a great sale fare) will now be IND-MEM-AUS. I am flying on "free day" at the Sky Clubs so looking forward to checking it out.
JFK - Never used it to change planes.
MEM - Just like everyone else says - looks like you are walking through a 1950s junior high school - but fairly efficient - smells like BBQ - great if you want some - bad if you don't. Not the best place for long layovers.
MSP - I have had excellent service here. Lots of dining options. The upstairs "quiet area" over the shopping corridor is a nice plus for long layovers (for folks like me who are WAY too cheap to buy a club membership). A nice plus - the easy trek by train to the Mall of America, with the VERY easy security check to get back to your gate.
SLC - Nice facilties and easy to connect. But a big thumbs down to the RJ gates. Yuck.
Last but not least...
AMS - Very easy for a supposedly "non-English-speaking" airport. We missed the museum because we did not realize it was inside security - so will look forward to trying that again some time.
Last edited by Watchful; Sep 6, 09 at 5:13 pm.
Reason: corrected flight routing to IND-MEM-AUS
Programs: DL PM & MM™ PC Plat, HHonors Diamond, Cholula General Member
Posts: 15,382
Quote:
Originally Posted by Watchful
IND - I will use it to change planes this week for the first time - it is already being de-hubbed - my IND-AUS connecting flight (booked a LONG LONG time ago on a great sale fare) will now be AUS-MEM. I am flying on "free day" at the Sky Clubs so looking forward to checking it out.
IND hasn't been a hub all along. Focus city, yes. Very few people have connected there at any point. I hope you aren't planning on visiting the SkyClub in IND because there isn't one.
IND hasn't been a hub all along. Focus city, yes. Very few people have connected there at any point. I hope you aren't planning on visiting the SkyClub in IND because there isn't one.
If you have time walk around IND as it is a brand new facility and is VERY pretty!
There is a walkway/hallway connecting the two concourses but it is all glass so you can see into the central "airside" and it is really nice...
IND hasn't been a hub all along. Focus city, yes. Very few people have connected there at any point. I hope you aren't planning on visiting the SkyClub in IND because there isn't one.
OK - be that way - I guess I WON'T visit the IND Sky Club!
