CD747

I spent some time observing "Airside 4" (a.k.a. the BA/VS/LH/DL/SkyClub terminal). This is mostly written above, but thought I'd expand.

Arriving domestic passengers exit the aircraft directly into the Airside 4 terminal. This is in contrast to arriving international passengers, who exit the aircraft turning right after the jet bridge, and follow a series of descending passageways until they reach one level down from the Airside 4 terminal.

International passengers then follow signs to CBP, which is vertically segregated from the terminal at all times (although there are a number of elevators which connect the floors for those with authority to use them).

After clearing CBP, you are ejected into an Arrivals & Connections area. Connecting passengers turn left, and follow a series of walkways up to a security check area within Airside 4 itself (not the central security check). You can see this security check near The Club lounge, marked "Arriving International Passengers".

Arriving passengers, if the facility is open, can proceed up the escalator which leads to the same level as the terminal, and directly into a central area for transit boarding. This is separated from the transit exit (which exits on the outer sides). That central area can also be entered by arriving domestic passengers, and this (demarcated by glass doors) is the point at which domestic and international mix (and is therefore the "point of no return" for any arriving or connecting domestic passenger).

The transit then proceeds to Central Security, at which point all customers are escorted to the Exit (and not allowed to rejoin security). The "secure area" entrances are blocked off with tensabarriers, and departing passengers are temporarily prohibited from joining the central boarding area while a security check is carried out.

The whole process is quite staff-intensive, so the Airside 4 (non-central) Security Area can also be required to be used by all passengers when the volume of international flights is minimal.

It seems to me that the way to solve the problem would be to, say once every half hour, block the transit entrance to arriving international passengers for one "boarding session" and allow passengers who have entered transit boarding area directly from the terminal to join the transit without the segregation at the other end.

Rommie2k6

This is seriously ....ed up. Thanks for posting and letting travelers know.

Rommie2k6

These bloody morons should also publicize WHEN transiting between the two areas are not possible. How the f.a.r.k. do they expect people to travel with this kind of ambiguous crap? God d-a-m-n-e-d TSA.

chrisny2

It's a weird system, but I don't really think you can blame TSA for it. Atlanta used to have an even worse system years ago - where you'd have to recheck your bags and go through security after going through customs to take the train to the main terminal, even if ATL was your final destination. It's a result of strange airport design, although mitigated by the fact that for MOST travelers, MCO is an origin & departure airport, and not a connection one. Even now, I'm sure lounge users connecting to the one of 4 other concourses that this affects and the rare MCO connection or starbucks user is a miniscule percentage of travelers. (I use The Club at MCO, but I fly AA, which is on the other side of the airport, so I'd have to reclear security on the other side even without this weird system.)

petey2428

Hi Chrisny,

I'm a little confused. I'm thinking about flying LATAM from Lima connecting at Orlando and then flying on AA to Chicago. Would this set up allow me to access The Club at MCO? I assume I would have to clear immigration first, but after that, where would I exit from immigration? Are the air side gates connected? I've never flown to Orlando before.

chrisny2

Hi.


You would be able to access the lounge during your connection, but it will require going through security. I think if you follow signs for "connections", the security will put you right into the part of the airport near the lounge. If you end up on the train back to the main terminal, you'd reclear security there and take the train back to the lounge.

American flies out of a different side of the terminal, so going from the lounge to American Airlines requires 2 short train journeys, a bit of a walk, and another trip through security.

schalliol

First of all, thanks for this detailed post. Given that MCO seems to respond to messages, should we work together to request changes?

I'm taking a Disney trip over Spring Break and assume Disney is going to make us get back to MCO early so they can handle all the bags, etc. I'll be flying Southwest, which I think would be using the same side of the terminal, but in the other set of gates. I have TSA Pre, but my wife doesn't (with 3 kids). As I understand it, if we wait at the club until it's time to go to our flight, we might not be able to make it and have to do the re-check. That basically means we won't go.

To be clear relating to the title of this post, there's not a way to "be careful" and not have to go through security again. Essentially it just depends on timing of when flights come in, correct? Is there a way to check the arrivals board and understand for sure whether there won't be a flight that will screw you up?

flyingill

You can have Magical Express drop you off sooner to the airport. Magical Express runs every 30 minutes to your resort usually. So, call and ask for an earlier time. I did this on my last trip as I wanted to do more time in the airport shopping and dining.

However, if it is Spring Break - take the loss of the club and spend more time at the pool.

schalliol

Thanks for the reply. I definitely don't want to spend extra time at the airport, and it sounds like we'll have a bunch of time. II don't think it'll be so much that we'll want to risk going back through security though. I hop there's some way the can fix the issue before then.

Is there any way to check the arrivals info to be sure if they're going to do one of these overrides at a given time?

sethMCOflyer

I noticed on The Club's website that they don't allow JetBlue passengers to use the club, anyone have experience with this? I fly JetBlue a lot.

I'd imagine I'd have to hit security twice but I do have Pre-Check so it wouldn't be too bad. I live semi-close to MCO but like to arrive early since traffic jams up sometimes.

chrisny2

They're just overly cautious because they don't want to be responsible if either TSA doesn't let you in or you miss your flight going through security twice. There won't be a problem using a jetBlue boarding pass to enter the Club itself.

Meola10

I guess the same goes for United.

schalliol

Is there any way to determine when these "certain" times are? For example, when you get to the airport if you see no international arrivals expected around x minutes of the the window you desire to go from Airside 4 to Airside 2?

stifle

Why would Aer Lingus be using international arrivals or customs? Their flights are all precleared.

Swiss Tony

They are now. Historically you only did immigration in Ireland and customs on arrival in the US. The structure of that terminal was that all passengers ended up airside for the tram back to the central area, which meant a full TSA check. You also had to stuff your duty free into a suitcase as it was over the limit for liquids.

Thankfully this is no longer the case.