GUIDE: CLT / Charlotte Douglas Airport - MCT, Connection, etc.
 

The Preferred line at the security checkpoint to the left of the US first class ticket counter (leading to the C/D concourses) isn't quick- when I flew out on Sunday afternoon, it seemed as though everyone except airport/airline employees was funneled into the Preferred line, and so it took about 20 minutes to get through security.

The one leading to the A/B concourses isn't particularly fast, either.

They had the preferred lines and the PreCheck Lines shut down early on Sunday. The sign for 'Preferred' was still there but there was no Preferred line. I asked a TSA agent and got barked at to go to the back of the normal line and wait like everyone else. Mentioned the bad temper to another agent and they said "Oh, he's the 'Behavior analyst' but always has behavior issues, sorry he was rude!"

No surprise here. The checkpoint to the left of the US first counter is the Bravo (B) checkpoint. You can almost always count on there being backups at both A and B checkpoints. Just walk down to C, D or E and make your entry there. The exercise will do you good and I guarantee the wait will be shorter at one of those checkpoints. There's a preferred lane at checkpoint C and a pre-check lane at checkpoint D as outlined at the top of this page. Checkpoints A and B aren't the only choices.

LOL ...

Figures ...

The last few times I flew out of CLT, maybe starting sometime in November if I remember correctly, they closed down the preferred lines in B and D altogether and made the entire C checkpoint preferred (and some airport employees in a separate line). There's even a gatekeeper to check you're preferred/first/etc. No idea if this is a permanent move or not, it looked that way. All I know is that it definitely isn't any faster than before.

Checkpoint B is not to the left of the US Air Counter. B is to the left of AA and WN and to the right of United. C is to the left of US Air. C is the Priority line that is a mess--it is also because they recently closed the B priority line. B now has two options: Normal Line or PreCheck. (At least this is how it was running last week)

Thanks for the update and correction. I was citing that info from memory. I haven't been outbound from CLT since late October. Obviously my memory failed me. I'll update the thread wiki to reflect that C is now the only priority lane.

Sorry to hear things are screwed up with the priority lanes. I've got PreCheck myself. I find it much more valuable insofar as getting through security is much quicker and more convenient with PreCheck than any airline "priority" status could ever provide.

Also, my prior statement about moving on to checkpoints D or E when A, B and/or C are backed up still stands. Navigating CLT checkpoints isn't that difficult when you know the tricks to get around the crowds.

Anyone know if they are going to add lanes at the terminal. They are well on the way with the new parking garages. I see no evidence they are going to add lanes in front of the terminal. Its quite pathetic that there is only two lanes for all arrival traffic.

Buses,hotel,taxis,rental cars, and everyone else- two lanes and a relative short drop off zone. The is more room at GNV for goodness sake.



other than that I like CLT

and working moving sidewalks would be good too- not that I can't use the exercise

It'd take 2 more years (Dec 2015 projected), but more lanes are coming.

Damn...just got a notice that US424 CLT-PDX is delayed from 6:15 to 8:15.

I can burn a special dividends day pass to the club but I'm traveling with a colleague and i don't know if he's going to want to buy his was in.

Anyone have any suggestions on where to hang out besides the club? I'm a PHL guy, i actually don't get through CLT too often at all. At PHL im usually content to sit at vino volo. But it looks like clt doesnt have one.

This could go on the "least substantial thing you can complain about" thread (don't think US has one though).
Anyway, at CLT, my home airport, I've heard a particular announcement several times...
In this announcement the lovely lady usese the work escalator.
However she pronounces it, es-qya-lator. (Kind of like those that don't know how to pronounce nuclear, and go with nook-qya-ler.
Amusing, but I do feel like an airport PA probably should have accurate pronunciations.

Now I'm going to hear that every time I leave and return home. Darn it all.... :D

WARNING TO Charlotte based flyers: they are wreaking havoc at CLT with construction and roads. Effective 1/8 Little Rock Road is now only one way towards the airport. Long Term Lots 1 and 2, and rental car cos are effected. You can't take Little Rock to I-85/I-77 now, you have to go only direction you can on little rock, right on Old Dowd, then right on Marshall will take you to Wilkinson Blvd.
I discovered this Friday nite leaving LT 2, turned right into oncoming traffic. Not well lit (pitch black actually) and no signage visible.
Whoppeee!

US Club men's restroom Monday AM
 

Hello FT
Anyone else frequent US clubs in CLT Monday mornings?
I think it's insane that for a pretty big club between C and D there is one bathroom and 4 stalls for men!
It's comical to see men in suits and ties waiting in a stinky bathroom for the privilege to plop down on a still hot toilet seat-- (let alone the stench!)
I have given up, and find a more pleasant experience when the need arises using the public restrooms! Sacrilege, I know but in CLT C they are pretty much the same as the Clubs, and no waiting.
More stalls please US Club!

Sorry for the "poopy rant"!:D:D

Could always try the club bathroom in concourse B? :)

Actually, since CLT put the full-time attendants in the concourse restrooms I find that they're normally clean and pleasant. Admittedly someone can have an unpleasant movement with plenty of obnoxious gas anywhere, any time and if you happen to enter the restroom during/immediately after that there's not much anyone can do. But I haven't had that experience yet.

Jim

I have never had an "odorous" experience in the ladies room at this Club. It is always clean and relatively pleasant (for a restroom).

Unfortunately, I think most ladies are more considerate than most men when it comes to public restrooms :)

Jim

How is the pre-check line on Monday Mornings?
 

I try to avoid Monday morning flights whenever possible because of the long security lines. I've found that I can get through security in about 5 minutes any other time of the week, but I allow a half hour or more on Monday mornings.

It's been a while since I've flown Monday morning, but the last time I did, the pre-check line was huge, so I used the regular line instead, and it did take a while. They have opened a second pre-check line since then. Tomorrow morning I have a 7:30am flight, and am debating how early I need to arrive at the airport. Are the Monday morning lines still crazy, or has it balanced out?

With the pre-check line at D now the waits for pre-check have been 5-10 minutes. They were trying some Randomizer thing a few weeks ago which overwhelmed the system and backed it up to 20 minutes. I haven't seen it in a couple of weeks.

Parking is getting worse not better. Last Monday it was 20 minutes from pulling into business valet to getting off the bus at the terminal. Not sure if it was a bad day for them or if that is the norm now, but be warned about parking.

Thanks for the feedback on the queue.

I've started just taking a cab to the airport. I've had trouble with all the parking options.

There is frequent public transportation between the airport and uptown Charlotte

Despite what post 1 says, there is frequent bus service between the airport and uptown (center city) Charlotte. A Charlotte Transit "Sprinter" bus leaves every 20-30 minutes from a bus stop located outside the lower level of the airport; if you're leaving baggage claim, exit and go to the right. The fare is around $2-ish and the bus will take dollar bills and coins. Schedules are available by looking for Route 5 below:

http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/c...s/default.aspx

The post at the top of the thread is a Wikipost, which means anyone can make edits or corrections. I've gone ahead and linked to your post with the correction.

I took the bus to downtown myself around Thanksgiving. It was a 20+ minute freezing cold wait for the bus to come, but once it did, it was a clean and quick ride downtown.

Can anyone provide any details on the state or the long term lots with all the snow?
I'm thinking I may need to pick up a retractable scraper/brush to get my car out. Those lanes are so freaking tight to drive thru-no way they plow between the aisles.
Only hope is tomorrow supposed to be warmer. Maybe some melts.

Lyft recently expanded their coverage area to use 485 as the basic perimeter so they can pick up at the airport now.

UberBlack has been able to do airport pickups for a while ($45 flat rate to uptown which is more than the $25 flat rate yellow cab), but now UberX can do airport pickups as well. I assume it's metered but I haven't tried yet. From my house in SouthPark to the airport on UberX it is $26 without traffic. It would be over $30 in a cab.

The links are normal (as in not affiliate) links. I do have promo codes for Lyft and Uber if you don't have a code from anyone else and you can PM me.

Lyft in Charlotte is currently in "Pioneer" which means if you are brand new to Lyft, your first 2 weeks of rides will be free up to $25/ride...no code needed. This is city specific so your rides won't carry over when you go home if you live in another Lyft market.

And parking rates just went up ... (all rates per day)
Daily went from $7 to $10.
Business Valet from $10 to $14
Daily North is still $7 (when open)
Long Term is $5 (I think that is up from $4, but I haven't parked there since it was $3 years ago).

And Curbside Valet is $28. I think that was $28, but then after Hourly closed it seemed to match that rate at $18.
Hourly is still under construction and if you park in curbside valet your car will be searched.

Looks like the Preferred lane before security is now basically gone, at least on weekends.

There used to be a Preferred lane at the entrance to the C concourse, then it moved over to the A/B entrance, and now it's back at the C concourse; if you're facing the US Airways first class/Preferred ticket counters, it's to the left.

However, the only lane at the C concourse, at least on the past few Sundays when I've flown, is for Preferreds (and first class); there is no "regular" lane. (There are two lanes, but one, which is the old Preferred lane, is closed, and the old "regular" lane, is marked "Preferred" but is open to anyone.)

I've noticed a huge line in that lane- just as long as the regular line at the entrance to the A/B concourses. When I've started to enter, I've noticed the sign saying "Preferred/First Class", and a security person asks, "Are you Preferred or first class?" when I start to enter.

However, the sole lane at the entrance to the C concourse, despite being marked "Preferred", is clearly used by just anyone who wants to use it, since the line is very, very long-much longer than it used to be- and is full of people who don't look like frequent flyers, and since the security person doesn't check boarding passes.

So I have used the D or E security lanes, which are much faster, even though there is no Preferred lane.

So...any way to contact the US station manager and get this situation fixed? The closed lane at the C concourse security entrance should be reopened and made a Preferred lane, as it used to be, or the Preferred lane should be enforced as just for Preferreds.

Thanks.

What time were you flying? I asked the TSA once, and they said they shut all the preferred (and PreCheck) lanes at 8pm on weekends. (and I've noticed sometimes as early as 7:30)

Early afternoon on Sundays, both today and a few weeks ago (12:15pm today and about 2pm earlier).

The D concourse security lane was totally closed today.

What's irksome is that there are 2 lanes at the C concourse, but the old Preferred lane is closed, leaving one lane that's "Preferred" in name only (but for everyone). All that needs to be done to restore the old Preferred lane is to just remove the rope that shuts off the lane. There has always been just 1 TSA ID-checker there, so that doesn't need to change.

What's a good minimum connection time for international to domestic at CLT for US passport holders with checked bags, arriving from Cancun? Seems like a lot of connections US is offering are around the 90 minute mark, would that be sufficient?

What time of day? If you catch the afternoon TATL arrivals or last inbounds from the Caribbean/L America it could be a little tight - a lot of people are clearing ICE at those periods - but otherwise it should be ok.

Jim

So today they had a new approach road to the terminal and more importantly the daily lot. It was generally pretty quick and straightforward to head to the daily lot from Billy Graham Pkwy. That approach is now closed at the light before you get to the deck and all traffic had to turn right, go a block past the longterm lots and then left towards the terminal. Little Rock Rd I think.

That in itself I can live with, but it means the shuttle to the terminal now has to backtrack past the long term lots to get to the terminal. You might as well park in longterm then. I don't know if this is a permanent closure or not, I really hope not.

The day one can walk to the terminal again fom the daily lot can't come fast enough.

On the plus side though, the preferred checkpoint C was guarded and the line was really short. You could also do pre-check there, although the ID check was shared, but it didn't matter much. This was the first time I've seen them do pre-check there as well since they turned the whole checkpoint into preferred only.

Having flown out of CLT twice this week, the new approach / road work is a DISASTER. The signage is terrible, and the promised extra staff to direct traffic were non-existent.

On Thursday AM curbside valet was closed and was told to circle the terminal. The only problem with that is that the typical route around the daily lots is now closed and you have to go all the way out to little rock road. You might as well park at Long-Term or Biz Valet at that point.

Yesterday on return, the daily lot buses were few and far between, namely because they have to circle all the way back to Little Rock Road.

Traffic was backed up everywhere.

LEAVE EXTRA TIME FOR NOW IF DRIVING TO CLT. The airport has really screwed this up.

CLT airport a new adventure daily :D

How exactly did they screw this up? They anticipated every delay, and used every conventional and social media to warn all travelers to arrive extra early, expect delays, and monitor the signage. When you perform heavy construction in a small land-constricted area like the airport, everyone has to get delayed. No one is above it, and I can't see what else they could have done....

What would have you done? Area is VERY limited and construction has to be done to fix the growth issue. Not like you can magically teleport to the gate.

Use something like Business Valet or other park service down the road near the interstate and your problem will go away. On the second thought, maybe don't use the former as it is getting crowded as it is.

I was flying CLT-CDG yesterday and I was a little bit surprised about how unorganized and tedious the boarding process was. After spending some time at the Lounge, I arrived at the gate when Business Class was boarding so I joined the queue. I was turned away by a lady who was checking boarding passes and asked me to have my Passport verified. I showed her my DOCS OK mark on my BP, but she said it wasn't valid and that every single passport had to be verified by the gate agent. Looks like they announced this while I was in the lounge, so the line at the podium was very long, took around 10 minutes as most passengers were completing the process.
When I was done, I was sent over to the General boarding line, as, for some reason, the Priority line was CLOSED! Asked the same lady who turned me away and she was reluctant to let me and other Business Class passengers board through the Priority Line. In the end, another gate agent stopped the general line and allowed us to cut in front.

Is this document re-verification a standard procedure at CLT?

It is a standard procedure, and not just at CLT. On an international itinerary, you will have a document check at the gate for whichever segment actually crosses the border. You'll have to do that regardless of whether you presented your passport to an agent on an earlier segment.

There are two reasons for this: because they want to make sure you can legally enter the country you're traveling to (hence, for example, you'll be turned away from a flight to Brazil if you don't have a visa), and because the US has a documentation requirement for exiting the country.

Other carriers (at least AA, DL, AF, BA, KL) will just verify your passport while scanning your BP during boarding. This is the first time I've seen that you need to go to the podium before being able to have your BP scanned. This is why I asked if this was a standard procedure at CLT, since I've never seen it done that way.

This has always been my experience with US at CLT. I forget what LH did when I flew them. I agree that it is usually done at boarding with any other carrier and I've never flown internationally on US from any other gateway, but every time from CLT I've had to visit the podium before boarding.