We flew out from MSY on Friday, not a holiday weekend, and I can report that the parking situation is very challenging. Our original plan was for me to drop Mr. travelmad478 at Departures to check our bags and then go park in the ST lot (since it’s only $2/day more expensive than the LT lot, this is my usual M.O. for trips of 5 days or less). No spaces, and cones and airport personnel were physically blocking the entrances to the garage (which I normally would have snuck into, because there is ALWAYS at least one space). Same for the LT lot. I ended up battling massive traffic on Veterans Blvd. to get to the Economy lot. Miraculously found a space on the third floor of the garage that was hidden behind a big pickup truck, sprinted down the stairs to the shuttles, and equally miraculously was called over by a shuttle driver who had an empty bus and volunteered take me and two other passengers over to the terminal immediately. Made it to the gate just as boarding started. For once, I’d built in a tiny bit of extra time when leaving the house because of our need to check bags (highly unusual), and I needed every second of it!