travelmad478

Bummer. That changes the calculation slightly; we might shift shorter trips to the LT garage rather than the ST as we’ve been doing. But maybe not. Still cheaper than 2 Lyfts for anything under 5 days.

Blumie

Yeah, of course none of us likes price increases, and we can expect no shortage of people to complain, but I can't see changing my behavior: driving myself for shorter trips and taking uber for longer ones.

When I do uber, I often find it easier and cheaper to hop in a taxi on my return rather than deal with uber. And when I get my daughter or a friend to pick me up, I always ask them to pick my up on the upper Departures level, which is so much less chaotic than dealing with the Arrivals level.

travelmad478

That is a thought. You do have to just eyeball the level of automotive chaos at Arrivals before making a decision though—I’ve only had to wait more than a few minutes for the Lyft to show up a couple of times.

Always. Under the Alaska Airlines sign! (Closest door to the escalator )

swampwiz

Since this seems the be the official new MSY thread, I feel I should make a comment/question here.

I live in Washington Parish, which is about a 70 mile (1-1/2 hour) trip out, so I have no option but to use ground transportation that is bit more expensive than Uber, since Uber drivers only want to go about 40 miles out. I pay more for it, but the company owner keeps his promise, and will go out himself if he can't get a driver. Anyway, he said that I am supposed to wait at doors 9-11 on the inner ring for my driver (I always use a placard that has the name of his company and my last name (this works very well as he always has new drivers). But on 03-28, there were plenty of regular folks that were picking up folks (from non-commercial drivers) that were stopping along doors 9-11, and taking so much time, that my placard would have blocked by these behemoth vehicles. Whenever I could get security to come over, they would tell these drivers that they can't stop - and my understanding is that only commercial vehicles (this would include Uber) can even use the inner circle. I was personally telling folks that they aren't supposed to be picking up there, and one [mod edit] man told me that shouldn't be such as a33 about it.

So what is the deal on the pickups?

travelmad478

Unfortunately the deal is just that the pickup area and protocol at MSY are poorly designed to the point of near-unusability, so people are just doing whatever they can to not have to be stuck in a 20-minute traffic jam to move 200 feet. I myself always tell my friends/family to go to Departures, not Arrivals, when I pick them up. The main “enforcement” at Arrivals is the crossing guards shouting at pedestrians to stay on the sidewalk so cars can go by.

Phillbsb1979

This is a smart workaround, thanks!

kale73

I usually rent a car at MSY these days, but when someone picks me up they usually ask me to go to the Departures side as well.

I've been tempted to tell them to pick me up at the Rental Car Center. I don't mind the shuttle bus ride and there's rarely any traffic congestion on the south side of the field anymore.

Blumie

It’s great that you don’t mind going to the rental car center. I find it torture. And as long as your ride knows to pick you up on the Departures level, there’s just no need for that extra step.

Blumie

On the topic of renting cars in New Orleans, it may well be a better option to rent a car in town than at the airport. Doing so allows one to (1) avoid the time and torture (at least for some of us) of dealing with the painfully slow shuttle to the rental car center, (2) avoid paying the extra airport rental car surcharges, which may, depending on your situation, offset or more than offset the cost of taking a taxi or uber from the airport, and (3) again, depending on your situation, pay for fewer days for the rental car. (All of this is true not just at MSY, but at most airports in the US.)

travelmad478

During my first year in New Orleans, when I was splitting my time between my previous home in DE and flying back and forth, I rented cars in NOLA. I always rented off-airport. The cost of the Uber/Lyft from the airport to whatever Enterprise or Hertz office that AutoSlash found for me—even, on occasion, in Chalmette!—was always well more than offset than the aggregated excess per-day charges that came with renting a car at the airport. Obviously, YMMV depending on how long you need the car for, but if it’s any more than 5-6 days, it’s definitely worth checking on.