kevanyalowitz

I'd hope IAH isn't considered UA's flagship hub. There is no facilities for premium international passengers - simply overcrowded UCs - and little/no 3-cabin service. It's a great example of how the product suffers when no competition exists.

Indelaware

What US airport isn't better than IAD?

DFW, IMO, sucks. Little room to sit, long distances to walk or train, poor food service options.

Premium international passengers are only very small subset of an airline's passengers. In order for an airport to be large enough to be called a flagship, it must have the facilities and flight operations to cater to large number of passengers, rather than simply being concerned with those who have egos and large bank accounts.

REPUBLIC757

What US Airport isn't better than IAD? EWR for one.

Not sure what you mean by long distances to walk for the DFW Skylink. The are multiple stops in each terminal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFW_Skylink

"The longest trip between farthest stations is 9 minutes with an average 5 minute journey. This allows most passengers to make a connection from any one flight to another in around seven minutes, not including walking time to and from the stations."

Moreover, DFW Skylink is relatively new and departs every 2 minutes.

Plus DFW as an airport is impressively very self-sustainable from a facilities standpoint and Terminal D is better than anything at IAH.

kevanyalowitz

But they drive a massive amount of revenue, which is all UA cares about. They also purchase based on quality of product rather than purely price.

trust77

I've been transiting IAH for a long time now and while the Termianl E and now renovated Terminal B experience are still great experiences for me, Terminal C is starting to look old and dreary. Hopefully UA will put some TLC into Terminal C soon, and likewise renovate/refresh all the United Clubs in that airport.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

F revenue to UA at IAH? Not. Quality of product? UA's GF vs just about any other airlines comparable price-point cabin? You gotta be kidding. There's a reason UA's GF is full of non-revs and upgraders. Anyone who's spending $14k on a ticket and wants quality can spend $14K on a variety of better airlines. Those doing so are doing so because they've chose UA as their main carrier for a variety of reasons other than solely (and probably, in spite of) quality. The business traffic in/out of IAH is hugely oil-based or oil-related. Most oil companies have no better than a business seat policy for the vast majority of employees, and precisely why CO went to BF - which was (at that time) far better than most carriers' business. If someone wants an F experience out of IAH, there are other options- Singapore, Emirates, Qatar, etc.

Indelaware

I would take EWR any day over IAD. It is one of my favorite airports in the US.

The only U.S. airport I can think of that might come close to IAD in terms of being awful is JFK.

FortFun

Assuming you don't just mean hubs, LGA is certainly in the discussion.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

The space between stalls and sinks at an IAH restroom is wider than the IAD concourse.

jsn55

Pretty sure they're building a new terminal at IAH. No easy explain for grumpy people, tho.

physioprof

EWR is vastly better than IAD. For one thing, the whole train and space buggy business just to get to your gate from the curb is ridiculous. And the EWR UCs are much nicer (at least terminal C; can't speak to the others).

txflyer77

My only major gripe with IAH is that the TSA there seems to make up their own rules more often than other airports, but that's not UA's fault.

Most of my big complaints went away once they finished renovating B.

PV_Premier

You need to get out more.


Back on topic, I hate IAH. It's always crowded, other than Pappadeux the food sucks, and some of the walks between gates are outrageous.

But, I pretty much hate all the UA hubs. ORD is my favorite and that is not saying much. DEN used to be until it became an RJ beehive. SFO would be fine if it wasn't always backed up for WX.

My favorite Domestic hub on any airline is PDX (AS), followed by SLC and MSP (DL). JFK isn't bad either in general.

DCA writer

I connect through IAH ridiculously often and I generally don't mind it (provided I don't get stuck overnight, as I did on my last run through there). The UCs now have real food and there is a decent array of restaurants. But what I don't get is how often you have those carts rolling through. I get that IAH is a rather spread-out airport, but so are ORD and SFO, and you don't see them overrun with people-hauling carts.

sinoflyer

Agreed D is nice, but if you connect through DFW enough times, chances are better than good that one if not both halves of the connection involves C, B, and (most of) A, which are dingy, narrow, and throwbacks of the disco era. And because DFW's gates are laid out in a (looong) linear fashion, you are basically limited to the restaurants and service facilities that are located within the path between your assigned gates--unless you know where your favorite places are located, in which case you'd likely need to take the train twice.

IAH is not the ideal hub, but at least there are two central locations, one in C and one in E, with restaurants and stuff where many pax cross paths. And overall it feels brighter and more spacious. (I now remember PIT, which I forgot to mention upthread as another airport with a terrific hub experience, because most of the restaurants and the shopping mall are located in the center.)