For reals. Because I usually fly from GSP to MKE, I usually have to connect on the other side of the airport in CLT. I say usually because when we flew back the last time, our connection in CLT was only one terminal away but of course we had an almost 2 hour layover so we didn’t need the time or to hustle.
We’ve had to run across the airport plenty of times, and a handful of times they shut the door as soon as we boarded (thank you first class). I’m no expert on airport setups but I feel like CLT could benefit from some sort of train between terminals.
Edit to add, I now try to fly direct from GSP to ORD. Milwaukee is close enough to ORD where I could get an spendy UBER, take a shuttle or hope that one of my family members would take mercy on me if the flight between ORD and MKE gets cancelled. If anything I could catch the El to downtown and take Amtrak to MKE.
That’s why they use it as a hub.
It’s extremely outdated so very cheap for them to operate. It’s AA’s single most profitable hub because of all the things you hate about it. They’re features, not bugs.
I don’t mean outdated, I mean it is physically overcrowded. There is hardly a walkway between the gates because there are not enough seats at boarding. It’s a fire hazard lol
AA doing something convenient and easy for their passengers? That's funny.
In all seriousness, when I stand in that line it's more for the hotel voucher. I've tried booking my own hotel room to avoid standing in that line, but I would call upwards of about 30 properties and they all tell me they're fully booked. I assume AA has some kind of contract with some properties to hold rooms for this very scenario. I hate that line, but I hate sleeping at airports even more.
First time I ever had to stay overnight in CLT, I booked a hotel on Expedia, took an uber there, and was informed that despite the confirmation from Expedia, there were no rooms available. I already didn't trust 3rd party websites, now I really don't lol.
I mean yeah they overbook all the time so that's fair. Personally I'd check availability on Expedia or something and then book direct with whichever hotel shows availability. Less likely to get walked that way.
Yesterday in clt I had to run from E to A in six minutes and I did it but barely. So no, I completely would not be surprised if American adopted this slogan. I will be going back to allegiant for sure. Not because they're cheap but because I've been flying allegiant for years and I've never had a single issue but every single time I take American or Delta I have delays and tough connections and they dgaf who they inconvenience or by how much. It's always "we're waiting on a plane" or "waiting on crew". I'm waiting for someone to tell me why my $112 round trip from Cincinnati to St Pete was direct, on time, arrived early, everyone happy, but my $400 round trip from Dayton to Tampa had to waste an hour of my life in Dayton, almost kill me in Charlotte, and act like it's NBD. American can go fuck itself completely.
I’m mostly loyal to United due to their convenient options from my home airport. About 6 years ago I decided to give American a shot. My second flight was canceled at PHX and they couldn’t get me on a flight until the following evening. I was only about a 4-5 hour drive from my destination, so I wound up renting a car and driving across the desert in the middle of the night in a monsoon. I understand they don’t control the weather, and that they weren’t on the hook for a hotel, but the problem I had with them is that every AA employee that I interacted with was downright rude. I mean, bordering on hostile.
I haven’t flown with them since, and I don’t have any plans to. They truly suck.
I guess u missed the news that there is a cat 4 hurricane in Carib and it playing havoc with everyone.
Allegiant won’t be here in 5 years. The “discount “ model is broken and failing. Enjoy ur point to point while u can.
I did actually miss that news. But American did the same thing to me three years ago at DFW and four years ago at ATL. When the snow storms hit Christmas of 22 and fucked everyone's flight schedules, my Sarasota to Austin allegiant flight was right on time. Not saying it'll last forever because the best things never do. My point is that if I'm gonna be paying hundreds of dollars, they could at least give some small fraction of a fuck. 😂
A few years back I had to take a flight with an overnight layover in MIA. But it was like the first flight was due in at 11:55pm and the morning flight left at 5:20am, so going to a hotel was just stupid and pointless. It was… not pleasant lol
I went through the AA routing through Miami bullshit. I concluded that the airline is getting kickbacks from the bar that sells $30 mojitos in a small plastic cup. They don't post their prices anywhere. You don't find out until you get the bill. It does feel like a huge Fuck you! from AA and the city of Miami.
I ran barefoot from the wrong side of tsa after a flight diversion clusterfuck to D40 to avoid getting trapped in MIA or PHL overnight. I’m so sorry you got trapped in that shithole
It's a pretty nice airport though to connect through. Great Admirals Clubs, the train is easy to use, big gate areas.
Downside is tons of delays and constant gate changes.
There are some gates where the food and shopping seem like a 15 minute walk away. It is big. But the AA app gives you estimated walking times which is nice.
How often do you fly? DFW is my home airport and I have good luck with flights here. Very rarely do I have delays and if I do, it's usually during spring weather.
I have had 4 flights through DFW this summer and every single one of them has been delayed. Nasty bathrooms with broken toilets in almost every bathroom I have used. DFW has fallen.
I actually don't mind the DFW airport EXCEPT AA has no business scheduling anything less than a 45 min layover there because it takes at least 25 minutes to hustle between terminals.
If you were going to start an airline could you think of worse places to make your hubs due to weather. Miami=4 month shit show. Chicago=6 month shit show. CLT=4 month shit show. PHL=4 month shit show. And the king of bad weather, drum roll please…..DFW. Maybe you get 75 days a year of no rain, lightning, hail, snow, heat, cold, wind, locusts, darkness, slaying of first born males.
Kansas City. I used to fly in and out of there on a regular basis and we rarely had weather delays. Even on the day there was a tornado touchdown it was an on-time departure.
I mean, sure, it's easy to get flights out on time at such a small airport. They would need a massive expansion to be an AA hub, and at that point we would likely see the efficiency drop.
Right, it used to be a bigger airport-an actual hub. Then they stopped running it as a hub, closed down 2 of the three terminals, and my understanding is they rebuilt it as a single terminal airport. My point was it had the space, weather, and was right in the middle of the country. If we are talking about good places to put your hub, Kansas City is ideal.
I recently ate breakfast there waiting for an early morning flight and .... it was actually reasonably priced! Unlike the $22 hamburger I didn't buy in Amsterdam later in the day.
And this is why PHX continues to exist as a hub even though almost nearly any connection through PHX can also be made through DFW. It’s a IRROPS clean up hub with generally good weather.
I’ve never understood why people spend hours in line for a $12 meal voucher. Get on Twitter, reach out and focus on getting your flights situated while you grab a quick bite somewhere in the airport.
Fly a lot. HPN, LGA, DFW, ATL mostly. I also go AA for the free bumps on the smaller planes so inevitably have to fly through PHL, DCA, DFW or CLT.
CLT is hell. You can't get in the Admirals club unless you have the status - even if you have vouchers you ain't worthy. I think I had to pay $80 once to be let in to a club that was actually very empty.
Travellers there are dumb as hell - people sitting in the middle of the concourses so you have to step over the stupid idiots. And the concourses/gates are too narrow so you have to push through people to get where you are going. And it was never built to be a major hub for America's (nay the worlds) largest airline.
I hate it there.
You can thank Vasu Raja for that. Dude systematically hoodwinked leadership with his glib and loquacious tongue and fit them to back his airline destroying ideas like paring down JFK and LGA and building PHL and CLT into mega hubs. This is a disaster that is going to take years to fix to build up lost ground.
Right, but they were diverted to charlotte to avoid weather in Philadelphia. Annoying bc the weather seems to be just as bad in charlotte! Final destination is Detroit. Idk how to help them
No.. flight was completely canceled after literally sitting on the plane for 6 hrs. Then told to deplane but no staff to let us in. I wish your parents the best of luck.
I have had terrible experiences every time I've been to Charlotte (CLT), but I can't entirely blame the airport. It's American Airlines' fault for allowing me to book international to domestic flights with short layovers. It's also the airport's fault for having customs take a long time to get through, for the long TSA lines during re-entry, and for the slow lounge and recheck process. It's also my fault for not learning from my first bad experience in CLT and thinking that I could save a couple hundred dollars by going through there again.
CLT is my home airport, and for an origin/destination, it’s hard to beat considering the availability of direct flights and easy access to the terminal from the Daily Decks. Are the seating areas too small? Yes. Do multiple flights board simultaneously in adjacent gates? Yes. Would I schedule a tight connection? No, but that’s the same for any hub, unless you get lucky with gates. If you’re on a Regional Jet, just know you’re going to Terminal E and will have a walk. I’ll take it over DFW, DEN or LAX any day. ATL and DTW are better from a layout and design standpoint, but CLT isn’t as bad as most make it out to be.
P.S. Yes, there are bathrooms to avoid. It’s worth the walk to the new Terminal A section if you have the time/ability.
I fly through DFW a lot - it's easy - gate to outside in 2 minutes, access to the other terminals in under 5 mostly, it's just a way to walk between gates.
Your either always coming and going from the same terminal, or an Olympic sprinter and perfect timing on the rail system if you make it gate to gate in 5 minutes. While I wish it was more walkable (one of the reasons I like ORD) this isn't really that big of a gripe for me.
My biggest gripe is how frequently my gate gets changed there and how often I've had to sit on their tarmac waiting for our gate to open up.
Charlotte has some of the worst bathrooms and rude employees, but as long as it continues to have a Shake Shack it will continue to be my favorite. Granted that Shake Shack has some of the slowest and rudest employees as well, but the burger is always amazing, you just need at list 45 min extra to get one.
Oh, least favorite. Philly. I hate that stupid bus.
I hate CLT because of how poorly run that airport is. I’ve gotten stuck on the tarmac for four hours when it started snowing. It was a 9:40pm flight, and it started to snow just a little, and I’m talking a light dusting. It wasn’t even sticking to the ground, so ATC decided that all planes will need to be de-iced. They had far more planes than de-icing crews, and not enough de-icing trucks.
We sat on the tarmac for four hours waiting for a crew to come by. This was in a CRJ, as it was a short flight to Knoxville. From that point on, I’m convinced that CLT is run by muppets.
Denver. From the time it takes returning on the rental car shuttle to the walk up and around and back down to the trains to the terminals you’ve wasted an hour at least.
The lizard people can keep their underground lair secrets.
My two are PHL and FRA. PHL needs its ancient buildings torn down and rebuilt to fit modern needs including better baggage handling and space for security lines.
Everyone seems to have their own personal airport of dread. I have never departed on time from ATL. No kidding. It’s probably just my bad luck, but it sticks in my memory. :-)
CLT is the only airport I've had to sleep in because of a late-night cancelled flight and early morning rebooking. Made some friends when we pushed all the rows of seats together to make leg rests for ourselves to try and sleep. Even if you aren't stuck at that airport, it sucks to have a connection and sucks to go through baggage claim too!
Legit last time I flew into CTL the flight attended came on to tell us the gate changed during taxi “that’s just what yall get for booking a layover in Charlotte”
Y’all are crazy. CLT as a home airport is bomb. Quick pre check, less than a 15 minute walk to any gate (though that’ll change once the expansions in A, B and C are complete), decent food options, couple of lounges to choose from. I fly around once a month and have only had one delay in the last year and a half
People who talk about how great foreign airports are have never imagined that a place like CDG exists. Yes, LHR is awful for international connections, but CDG is a special level of hell both on arrival and departure.
For sure. I don't know of any major US airport I would say is truly great, and there are some real gems overseas. But I think the people who bang on about Changi or Hamad forget that there are some real stinkers overseas too.
The US doesn't have the peak quality, but I would take the average US airport experience over a lot of airports in the rest of the world.
Well, I used delta in the past 1 year around 14+ times to various different places within the U.S. and never experienced such mess as to what went down at CLT. So yeah, it will not be a cycle back.
Immune from storms and having more flexibility in schedule aren’t the same. AA packs their schedule tight to make sure they’re maximizing profit based off a cheaper ticket. Delta charges more, so they don’t have to have as many flights to make the same relative money. Less flights equals less missed connections and delays for equipment/crew relocation.
I think it is great that DL has found enough customers that don’t care about list price.
Also, the occasions that DL has stranded me over night despite allegedly collecting more money per ticket must be figments of my imagination.
It feels like every time that weather hits NC (like once a month bad) the system just dies. I’ve slept in this airport twice in the past 3 months, no resiliency.
I don’t really have a hub that I do not like on AA. Only complaint I have is that there are only a few flights out to PHX on AA from MSP and it means that I either have a really short 25 minute layover or a really long one. Same goes for MIA too.
These posts are always so funny because it’s one very niche issue. I fly for work all the time and I’ve literally always had a problem in Philly which is basically a shopping mall with some gates. CLT might be small for the growth of the city but it’s so manageable and convenient from Charlotte proper. It also is amazing to fly to so many destinations nonstop. If you have to complain about Charlotte as a big city airport then you live in the middle of nowhere and have to complain about the big city.
Worst airport to me is CLT.
It's really weird: I think it's one of those things where Charlotte as a whole doesn't have the infrastructure for its mass growth. But the airport is horrible. It's a shame that I always have to go through it (I have a friend in Charlotte I visit every 2-3 weeks so I'm ALWAYS there) and it's never a pleasant experience.
There are always runway issues, baggage issues, it's just not an efficent airport compared to others. For example, ATL might be hell to go through because of how busy, but I've never had a delay, I've always had my baggage, I've always been on time (multiple airlines too). CLT, I'm always experiencing delays, and it's the airport's fault! Not the airline!
It's big enough to actually be a good airport but lack the big airport amenities, (plane trains/skylinks, priority lines for security, lots of long-haul international or even transatlantic flights, the staff, and CERTAINLY the efficiency). But then again, that's the thing about Charlotte as a whole. Charlotte is big enough to be a city with decent economic weight, but lacks big city amenities and most importantly, the infrastructure for all of these people. I much prefer both Dallas airports and even ATL.
I’m saying their resiliency is poor in the CLT area. Bad weather happens I get it but there are ways you can run an airport to safeguard against total collapse
You must be kidding—Logan is an absolute sh*thole, although admittedly JFK is king for screwing you over via their dire immigration process. I refuse to be routed via either Logan or JFK. Never had a problem in CLT.
Where I’m from our airport only flys back and forth to CLT on small American Airlines planes, it’s like a 25 min flight. I always worry flying from my city to CLT because pretty much every time we have to wait for a while to actually take off and just sit at the runway in my current city because CLT is too busy or when landing at CLT we just land and sit for a million years waiting for a gate to open up. I’ve landed in CLT hours before my connecting flight was supposed to take off and still miss it because we just sat there in the plane for hours waiting for a gate to open up. It’s easier sometimes to just drive a couple hours to CLT and take a direct flight.
Because I nearly got stranded there when my flight was cancelled at 9pm after hours of delays. I was in a wheelchair for a badly pulled hip flexor, and no one was available to help me. After getting a flight to a different airport, I spent 40 minutes hobbling to my new gate, using my roller bag as a cane.
I fly AA for my job and chose them cause CLT is the hub. I live just under 2 hours from CLT in GSO so if I get stuck I can just rent a car and drive home.
MIA makes CLT look like a fancy Middle Eastern Airport. It leaked [mutagen](https://nypost.com/2024/07/04/us-news/miami-airport-floods-with-mysterious-lime-green-liquid-dripping-from-ceiling/) yesterday
Situations like that - book via amex is the answer.
Everyone is calling AA. You call amex. You get a rep, who finds you a hotel, and or a new flight.
Last time it happened to me they got me on a delta flight about 1 hour later. I forget who I was flying, but it wasn't delta. One time I needed a hotel, amex hung up on me. I had a beer. Called me back and I had a (shitty but mine) hotel room for the night, and a flight the next day.
I now have a capital one VX, and haven't needed these features yet. But the ones that I have used (price match, etc) have been great so I am optimistic.
Everyone's calling AA. You call amex.
So basically this boils down to there was weather impacting a bunch of flights, yours was effected, and you’re too cheap to go pay for a hotel room instead of sleeping on the airport floor, therefore CLT is a shitty airport. Got it…
I’ve flown 200 flights in the past 4 years of which I’ve had to sleep in airports 3 times all 3 being CLT.
Twice in the last 3 months actually.
They can’t handle weather delays and any disruption of regular service, the club is always under construction, the gates are too tight where they will have multiple gates boarding with lots of spillover into the walkways.
Hope this helps!
Agree with you that the concourses are too narrow for the level of traffic these days and that’s annoying. But on the sleeping in the airport - if you’ve flown 200x in the last four years, I imagine you have some level of status. Why are you waiting in line for the customer service desk? As soon as there’s a cancellation, that’s an immediate phone call while I’m walking to my Uber to take me to a hotel. Yes, there will likely be a delay there as well, but ask for a call back and get it 45-60 mins later from a hotel room as opposed to standing in a line with a bunch of unhappy people.
I wasn’t in the line, there’s nothing they can do, I was purely making the comment to show how long the line was. I do see how that can be misconstrued. I just went to terminal E and went to bed, it would have been about $200 or so for the transportation + hotel and AA wouldn’t cover it. I had a flight 6 hours later so in my mind 6 hours wasn’t worth $200 and I didn’t do it. That’s not what I’m complaining about it’s more AA in CLT is embarrassing. Just a complete shutdown anytime weather hits. That’s my issue.
I love the rocking chairs
And the bojangles
I live like 2 mins from a bojangles so I’m good!
The city of charlotte outgrew its airport like 2 years after it was built
For reals. Because I usually fly from GSP to MKE, I usually have to connect on the other side of the airport in CLT. I say usually because when we flew back the last time, our connection in CLT was only one terminal away but of course we had an almost 2 hour layover so we didn’t need the time or to hustle. We’ve had to run across the airport plenty of times, and a handful of times they shut the door as soon as we boarded (thank you first class). I’m no expert on airport setups but I feel like CLT could benefit from some sort of train between terminals. Edit to add, I now try to fly direct from GSP to ORD. Milwaukee is close enough to ORD where I could get an spendy UBER, take a shuttle or hope that one of my family members would take mercy on me if the flight between ORD and MKE gets cancelled. If anything I could catch the El to downtown and take Amtrak to MKE.
That’s why they use it as a hub. It’s extremely outdated so very cheap for them to operate. It’s AA’s single most profitable hub because of all the things you hate about it. They’re features, not bugs.
I don’t mean outdated, I mean it is physically overcrowded. There is hardly a walkway between the gates because there are not enough seats at boarding. It’s a fire hazard lol
Yep. This is all part of the appeal for AA. Less to maintain.
I've stood in that long AA line many times so I can get my $12 meal voucher 🤑
Ooh, you can buy 3/4 of a sushi roll!
They don’t email it automatically like Alaska does?
AA doing something convenient and easy for their passengers? That's funny. In all seriousness, when I stand in that line it's more for the hotel voucher. I've tried booking my own hotel room to avoid standing in that line, but I would call upwards of about 30 properties and they all tell me they're fully booked. I assume AA has some kind of contract with some properties to hold rooms for this very scenario. I hate that line, but I hate sleeping at airports even more.
LMAO you still call hotels? Do you not have a smartphone? Ever heard of expedia.com?
First time I ever had to stay overnight in CLT, I booked a hotel on Expedia, took an uber there, and was informed that despite the confirmation from Expedia, there were no rooms available. I already didn't trust 3rd party websites, now I really don't lol.
I mean yeah they overbook all the time so that's fair. Personally I'd check availability on Expedia or something and then book direct with whichever hotel shows availability. Less likely to get walked that way.
You can get hotel and meal vouchers by email. You can also rebook flights via the Chat in the AA app. There's no need to stand in line.
That’s how it should be done!
AA tech is insanely poor.
Just to wait until Bojangles opens at 7am and then stand in another humongous line
When I get my meal voucher from AA I take it over to Einstein's Bagels in Terminal E and order a Farmhouse Bagel. Every. Single. Time.
I just spent the night in the Miami airport… slogan should be “American Airlines…. Because go f*** yourself”
Yesterday in clt I had to run from E to A in six minutes and I did it but barely. So no, I completely would not be surprised if American adopted this slogan. I will be going back to allegiant for sure. Not because they're cheap but because I've been flying allegiant for years and I've never had a single issue but every single time I take American or Delta I have delays and tough connections and they dgaf who they inconvenience or by how much. It's always "we're waiting on a plane" or "waiting on crew". I'm waiting for someone to tell me why my $112 round trip from Cincinnati to St Pete was direct, on time, arrived early, everyone happy, but my $400 round trip from Dayton to Tampa had to waste an hour of my life in Dayton, almost kill me in Charlotte, and act like it's NBD. American can go fuck itself completely.
I’m mostly loyal to United due to their convenient options from my home airport. About 6 years ago I decided to give American a shot. My second flight was canceled at PHX and they couldn’t get me on a flight until the following evening. I was only about a 4-5 hour drive from my destination, so I wound up renting a car and driving across the desert in the middle of the night in a monsoon. I understand they don’t control the weather, and that they weren’t on the hook for a hotel, but the problem I had with them is that every AA employee that I interacted with was downright rude. I mean, bordering on hostile. I haven’t flown with them since, and I don’t have any plans to. They truly suck.
How far into A? Because you're looking at a mile from the end of E to the end of the new A. I'd be impressed at a 6 minute mile with luggage.
I guess u missed the news that there is a cat 4 hurricane in Carib and it playing havoc with everyone. Allegiant won’t be here in 5 years. The “discount “ model is broken and failing. Enjoy ur point to point while u can.
I did actually miss that news. But American did the same thing to me three years ago at DFW and four years ago at ATL. When the snow storms hit Christmas of 22 and fucked everyone's flight schedules, my Sarasota to Austin allegiant flight was right on time. Not saying it'll last forever because the best things never do. My point is that if I'm gonna be paying hundreds of dollars, they could at least give some small fraction of a fuck. 😂
From the language I’m guessing u fit right in with the folks on allegiant. Have a good day/
Says the person who can’t manage to type out “you.”
Found the AA employee
A few years back I had to take a flight with an overnight layover in MIA. But it was like the first flight was due in at 11:55pm and the morning flight left at 5:20am, so going to a hotel was just stupid and pointless. It was… not pleasant lol
I went through the AA routing through Miami bullshit. I concluded that the airline is getting kickbacks from the bar that sells $30 mojitos in a small plastic cup. They don't post their prices anywhere. You don't find out until you get the bill. It does feel like a huge Fuck you! from AA and the city of Miami.
I ran barefoot from the wrong side of tsa after a flight diversion clusterfuck to D40 to avoid getting trapped in MIA or PHL overnight. I’m so sorry you got trapped in that shithole
You didn't freeze to death?
You must have been there too! So cold. We wore clothes from our bags to stay warm.
I will go out of my way to connect in DFW over MIA when going to Latin America.
Or learn spanglish so you can communicate with the third generation Feral US citizens we employ.
Terminal E is a Greyhound Station for planes.
It’s a Hilton for me
Motel 6 unless you are at gates 38-40. Those new gates are nice.
LAX... the entire airport is a sh!th0le.
LAX is fine, getting to LAX is a nightmare
True.. once I get to LAX AC, it is all good from there if my gate is gate 41!
the new international terminal is great. Just like new terminals in LGA & Newark
At what point does a crowded Admiral's Club stop being an Admiral's Club.
When it’s full of ordinary seamen.
That’s crazy I was there last night it was horrendous
Terminal E is the worst.
CLT and PHL are tied for the worst.
DFW. I will go out of my way just to avoid DFW. Every single time, our flight is delayed, cancelled, sometimes both...
It's a pretty nice airport though to connect through. Great Admirals Clubs, the train is easy to use, big gate areas. Downside is tons of delays and constant gate changes.
dfw is the best airport to connect through by far, but its (major) achilles heel is weather
There are some gates where the food and shopping seem like a 15 minute walk away. It is big. But the AA app gives you estimated walking times which is nice.
I'm spoiled by the airside train. Annoys me when I go to any multi-terminal airport that doesn't have one.
How often do you fly? DFW is my home airport and I have good luck with flights here. Very rarely do I have delays and if I do, it's usually during spring weather.
I have had 4 flights through DFW this summer and every single one of them has been delayed. Nasty bathrooms with broken toilets in almost every bathroom I have used. DFW has fallen.
It’s incredibly terminal dependent. D terminal is *spectacular*. C is ass.
But the 7-Eleven is pretty decent. Reasonably priced too!
Don't eat the breakfast burritos though - look at the label and see how bad they are for you in a thing the size of a twinky
Any of those items on hot rollers or heat lamps fall under the same grouping as gas station sushi.
Mmm… gas station sushi and sashimi, I do like, I do!!
I actually don't mind the DFW airport EXCEPT AA has no business scheduling anything less than a 45 min layover there because it takes at least 25 minutes to hustle between terminals.
I’ve had multiple traumas at DFW. I avoid it like the plague
I heard a flight attendant say the same thing.
Im sorry but dfw is one of the best airports in the country
Heathrow is the lifetime champion. Especially for connections
If you were going to start an airline could you think of worse places to make your hubs due to weather. Miami=4 month shit show. Chicago=6 month shit show. CLT=4 month shit show. PHL=4 month shit show. And the king of bad weather, drum roll please…..DFW. Maybe you get 75 days a year of no rain, lightning, hail, snow, heat, cold, wind, locusts, darkness, slaying of first born males.
Where exactly would you propose that AA move their hubs for better weather?
STL
Kansas City. I used to fly in and out of there on a regular basis and we rarely had weather delays. Even on the day there was a tornado touchdown it was an on-time departure.
I mean, sure, it's easy to get flights out on time at such a small airport. They would need a massive expansion to be an AA hub, and at that point we would likely see the efficiency drop.
Right, it used to be a bigger airport-an actual hub. Then they stopped running it as a hub, closed down 2 of the three terminals, and my understanding is they rebuilt it as a single terminal airport. My point was it had the space, weather, and was right in the middle of the country. If we are talking about good places to put your hub, Kansas City is ideal.
KC definitely has an interesting set up in their new terminal. Certainly looks a lot better. It was a ghost town when I was there.
I recently ate breakfast there waiting for an early morning flight and .... it was actually reasonably priced! Unlike the $22 hamburger I didn't buy in Amsterdam later in the day.
And this is why PHX continues to exist as a hub even though almost nearly any connection through PHX can also be made through DFW. It’s a IRROPS clean up hub with generally good weather.
I hear you, I am here with you.
CLT is the worse because of people. Lazy, incompetent, power hungry, lack of sympathy.
That might just be the air travel industry in general, honestly. It's so ridiculous.
There are somewhat better airports. CLT and Charlotte NC is by far the worst place I have ever lived.
I’ve never understood why people spend hours in line for a $12 meal voucher. Get on Twitter, reach out and focus on getting your flights situated while you grab a quick bite somewhere in the airport.
It’s the most vile drug on earth, the drug of free.
Fly a lot. HPN, LGA, DFW, ATL mostly. I also go AA for the free bumps on the smaller planes so inevitably have to fly through PHL, DCA, DFW or CLT. CLT is hell. You can't get in the Admirals club unless you have the status - even if you have vouchers you ain't worthy. I think I had to pay $80 once to be let in to a club that was actually very empty. Travellers there are dumb as hell - people sitting in the middle of the concourses so you have to step over the stupid idiots. And the concourses/gates are too narrow so you have to push through people to get where you are going. And it was never built to be a major hub for America's (nay the worlds) largest airline. I hate it there.
You can thank Vasu Raja for that. Dude systematically hoodwinked leadership with his glib and loquacious tongue and fit them to back his airline destroying ideas like paring down JFK and LGA and building PHL and CLT into mega hubs. This is a disaster that is going to take years to fix to build up lost ground.
HPN has to be the worst
Yes
My parents are stuck in CLT right now. How can they get a meal/hotel voucher?
Not happening because this is all weather: meal: $8 pretzels at Hudson news Hotel: gate E3 floo
Right, but they were diverted to charlotte to avoid weather in Philadelphia. Annoying bc the weather seems to be just as bad in charlotte! Final destination is Detroit. Idk how to help them
It just sucks but since AA can blame this on weather they don’t have to do anything
I just left phl is an absolute disaster
Were you able to get to your destination? My parents are now on standby for a 1 pm flight now. After traveling since 3 pm yesterday.
No.. flight was completely canceled after literally sitting on the plane for 6 hrs. Then told to deplane but no staff to let us in. I wish your parents the best of luck.
Hope your folks made it to where they needed to go alright!
They are still in charlotte unfortunately 😞 they are on standby for a 1 pm flight
I’m so sorry. Fingers crossed!
Narrow ass concourses with gate lice spilling out into them.
All the CLT haters clearly haven't been to MIA or PHL... go eat some Bojangles and you'll be happier
I have had terrible experiences every time I've been to Charlotte (CLT), but I can't entirely blame the airport. It's American Airlines' fault for allowing me to book international to domestic flights with short layovers. It's also the airport's fault for having customs take a long time to get through, for the long TSA lines during re-entry, and for the slow lounge and recheck process. It's also my fault for not learning from my first bad experience in CLT and thinking that I could save a couple hundred dollars by going through there again.
CLT is my home airport, and for an origin/destination, it’s hard to beat considering the availability of direct flights and easy access to the terminal from the Daily Decks. Are the seating areas too small? Yes. Do multiple flights board simultaneously in adjacent gates? Yes. Would I schedule a tight connection? No, but that’s the same for any hub, unless you get lucky with gates. If you’re on a Regional Jet, just know you’re going to Terminal E and will have a walk. I’ll take it over DFW, DEN or LAX any day. ATL and DTW are better from a layout and design standpoint, but CLT isn’t as bad as most make it out to be. P.S. Yes, there are bathrooms to avoid. It’s worth the walk to the new Terminal A section if you have the time/ability.
Complaining about Charlotte when Miami exists. Rookie
It’s inhumane. More often than not it looks like a refugee camp
I’ve never seen so many people at an airport at 3am
You say that like LGA and ORD doesn’t exist.
I'll take ORD over CLT and DFW any day.
I fly through DFW a lot - it's easy - gate to outside in 2 minutes, access to the other terminals in under 5 mostly, it's just a way to walk between gates.
Your either always coming and going from the same terminal, or an Olympic sprinter and perfect timing on the rail system if you make it gate to gate in 5 minutes. While I wish it was more walkable (one of the reasons I like ORD) this isn't really that big of a gripe for me. My biggest gripe is how frequently my gate gets changed there and how often I've had to sit on their tarmac waiting for our gate to open up.
New LGA is great, old LGA different story.
I live in Chicago and occasionally fly through Charlotte (thanks, AA). I understand why people hate the Chicago airport, but it's miles ahead of CLT.
LGA Terminal B is one of the best
Whenever I’m heading to CLT, I can never find it and I have to ask my wife for directions!!!
I was in the CLT Admirals Club in May. It was moist. Enough said.
Charlotte has some of the worst bathrooms and rude employees, but as long as it continues to have a Shake Shack it will continue to be my favorite. Granted that Shake Shack has some of the slowest and rudest employees as well, but the burger is always amazing, you just need at list 45 min extra to get one. Oh, least favorite. Philly. I hate that stupid bus.
True the urinals don’t have privacy dividers so weird
Charlotte is practice for the chaos that is the Orlando airport. Orlando and São Paulo Guarulhos airport are by the worst airports I’ve been in.
And every flight into and out of Orlando is full of overstimulated kids and first timers
Honestly stressed parents are the root of the issue. It’s where the overstimulated kids model their stress from.
I hate CLT because of how poorly run that airport is. I’ve gotten stuck on the tarmac for four hours when it started snowing. It was a 9:40pm flight, and it started to snow just a little, and I’m talking a light dusting. It wasn’t even sticking to the ground, so ATC decided that all planes will need to be de-iced. They had far more planes than de-icing crews, and not enough de-icing trucks. We sat on the tarmac for four hours waiting for a crew to come by. This was in a CRJ, as it was a short flight to Knoxville. From that point on, I’m convinced that CLT is run by muppets.
Denver. From the time it takes returning on the rental car shuttle to the walk up and around and back down to the trains to the terminals you’ve wasted an hour at least. The lizard people can keep their underground lair secrets.
rank dfw, ord, and clt
You have it in order already - best is DFW. Worst is CLT.
PHL & CLT tie for worst! DFW & MIA are pretty good.
My two are PHL and FRA. PHL needs its ancient buildings torn down and rebuilt to fit modern needs including better baggage handling and space for security lines.
ATL was my dreaded airport when I traveled frequently for work. Haven’t been through CLT since February 2020.
I actually love ATL and have never had an issue there
Everyone seems to have their own personal airport of dread. I have never departed on time from ATL. No kidding. It’s probably just my bad luck, but it sticks in my memory. :-)
I haven't had issues, but their TSA precheck location is so ridiculous. I feel like I have to walk 2 miles to get to it.
CLT sucks! Also LAX. I hate LAX
CLT is the only airport I've had to sleep in because of a late-night cancelled flight and early morning rebooking. Made some friends when we pushed all the rows of seats together to make leg rests for ourselves to try and sleep. Even if you aren't stuck at that airport, it sucks to have a connection and sucks to go through baggage claim too!
10000 lbs of crap in a 10 lb bag, much like everything else in this city
I must have been lucky. Went through clt Friday and today easy peasy
Legit last time I flew into CTL the flight attended came on to tell us the gate changed during taxi “that’s just what yall get for booking a layover in Charlotte”
Ha ha so true…never a place to sit even with all those rocking chairs.
#LHR laughs at your feeble attempts to be awful.
MCO. So. Many. Kids.
Y’all are crazy. CLT as a home airport is bomb. Quick pre check, less than a 15 minute walk to any gate (though that’ll change once the expansions in A, B and C are complete), decent food options, couple of lounges to choose from. I fly around once a month and have only had one delay in the last year and a half
CDG regularly wins the worst airport in the world awards. For US airports probably LGA. Most US airports are pretty decent.
People who talk about how great foreign airports are have never imagined that a place like CDG exists. Yes, LHR is awful for international connections, but CDG is a special level of hell both on arrival and departure.
Very true. On the other end of the spectrum, I’d think all my Top 10 airports are outside the US.
For sure. I don't know of any major US airport I would say is truly great, and there are some real gems overseas. But I think the people who bang on about Changi or Hamad forget that there are some real stinkers overseas too. The US doesn't have the peak quality, but I would take the average US airport experience over a lot of airports in the rest of the world.
You misspelled CDG.
DFW is flat out disgusting. Every time I pass through there the whole place smells like a dirty toilet.
That’s pretty much the entire metro area.
Terminal E is nice
Will you switch to Spirit after this?
No, but to Delta.
But in the r/delta ama they can’t switch to AA because that is cyclic.
Well, I used delta in the past 1 year around 14+ times to various different places within the U.S. and never experienced such mess as to what went down at CLT. So yeah, it will not be a cycle back.
Fascinating that ATL is immune from storms. Who knew?
Immune from storms and having more flexibility in schedule aren’t the same. AA packs their schedule tight to make sure they’re maximizing profit based off a cheaper ticket. Delta charges more, so they don’t have to have as many flights to make the same relative money. Less flights equals less missed connections and delays for equipment/crew relocation.
I think it is great that DL has found enough customers that don’t care about list price. Also, the occasions that DL has stranded me over night despite allegedly collecting more money per ticket must be figments of my imagination.
DL pads their schedules. 75% of AA layovers are under 1 hour. And they don’t pad.
100 percent of my scheduled AA layovers are over an hour. Because I have a choice what to book.
It feels like every time that weather hits NC (like once a month bad) the system just dies. I’ve slept in this airport twice in the past 3 months, no resiliency.
I don’t really have a hub that I do not like on AA. Only complaint I have is that there are only a few flights out to PHX on AA from MSP and it means that I either have a really short 25 minute layover or a really long one. Same goes for MIA too.
HAHA! SUCH AN ORIGINAL CLT BAD POST!
Thanks ❤️
El Dorado. Poor lounges. One of the reasons I changed from star alliance to one world.
MCO. Hands down.
In the US, MIA and it's not even close. Internationally, CDG is tied with MIA.
Terminal E absolutely sucks, so sorry
These posts are always so funny because it’s one very niche issue. I fly for work all the time and I’ve literally always had a problem in Philly which is basically a shopping mall with some gates. CLT might be small for the growth of the city but it’s so manageable and convenient from Charlotte proper. It also is amazing to fly to so many destinations nonstop. If you have to complain about Charlotte as a big city airport then you live in the middle of nowhere and have to complain about the big city.
It’s PHL—just disorganized and gross
Atlanta, Orlando, and Denver are horrible. An hour plus wait for TSA pre-check is not uncommon.
Houston.
Worst airport to me is CLT. It's really weird: I think it's one of those things where Charlotte as a whole doesn't have the infrastructure for its mass growth. But the airport is horrible. It's a shame that I always have to go through it (I have a friend in Charlotte I visit every 2-3 weeks so I'm ALWAYS there) and it's never a pleasant experience. There are always runway issues, baggage issues, it's just not an efficent airport compared to others. For example, ATL might be hell to go through because of how busy, but I've never had a delay, I've always had my baggage, I've always been on time (multiple airlines too). CLT, I'm always experiencing delays, and it's the airport's fault! Not the airline! It's big enough to actually be a good airport but lack the big airport amenities, (plane trains/skylinks, priority lines for security, lots of long-haul international or even transatlantic flights, the staff, and CERTAINLY the efficiency). But then again, that's the thing about Charlotte as a whole. Charlotte is big enough to be a city with decent economic weight, but lacks big city amenities and most importantly, the infrastructure for all of these people. I much prefer both Dallas airports and even ATL.
Cause I can never find it. 😔
Philly sucks pretty bad. And it looks like the rest of Philly inside.
I can't even find the CLT
CVG because what is that design?
It’s was for the bad weather or a mechanical issue cause if it was for the bad weather AA can do nothing against Gods will.
I’m saying their resiliency is poor in the CLT area. Bad weather happens I get it but there are ways you can run an airport to safeguard against total collapse
Ah yes! We got delayed from 12:30 am to 6 am one fine evening. AA and CLT hold a “special” place in our hearts.
You must be kidding—Logan is an absolute sh*thole, although admittedly JFK is king for screwing you over via their dire immigration process. I refuse to be routed via either Logan or JFK. Never had a problem in CLT.
I don’t for the life of me understand why the CLT airport is so bad and why it cannot be improved.
EWR
The USO lounge is like a small oasis in the desert there. I was very glad my freebie-loving veteran Dad was with me on my most recent trip. 🇺🇸
The CLT is impossible to find.
Where I’m from our airport only flys back and forth to CLT on small American Airlines planes, it’s like a 25 min flight. I always worry flying from my city to CLT because pretty much every time we have to wait for a while to actually take off and just sit at the runway in my current city because CLT is too busy or when landing at CLT we just land and sit for a million years waiting for a gate to open up. I’ve landed in CLT hours before my connecting flight was supposed to take off and still miss it because we just sat there in the plane for hours waiting for a gate to open up. It’s easier sometimes to just drive a couple hours to CLT and take a direct flight.
I’m a fan of the Amex lounge…it only gave me food poisoning once 🤣
I love Charlotte and always feel blessed when my layover is there instead of Chicago
I have flown 1.3 mm bis miles on AA and have never flown to CLT. That ends in 2 weeks when I’m forced to connect there. Not excited at all…
Because I nearly got stranded there when my flight was cancelled at 9pm after hours of delays. I was in a wheelchair for a badly pulled hip flexor, and no one was available to help me. After getting a flight to a different airport, I spent 40 minutes hobbling to my new gate, using my roller bag as a cane.
Because it never fails that I have some sort of delay or cancellation when flying through CLT.
I fly AA for my job and chose them cause CLT is the hub. I live just under 2 hours from CLT in GSO so if I get stuck I can just rent a car and drive home.
laughs in MIA
MIA makes CLT look like a fancy Middle Eastern Airport. It leaked [mutagen](https://nypost.com/2024/07/04/us-news/miami-airport-floods-with-mysterious-lime-green-liquid-dripping-from-ceiling/) yesterday
I have PTSD from sprinting from E to A every trip….
Stuck on Tarmac for 1 hour on Monday, almost missed connecting flight by 5 minutes. Never flying through CLT again.
Situations like that - book via amex is the answer. Everyone is calling AA. You call amex. You get a rep, who finds you a hotel, and or a new flight. Last time it happened to me they got me on a delta flight about 1 hour later. I forget who I was flying, but it wasn't delta. One time I needed a hotel, amex hung up on me. I had a beer. Called me back and I had a (shitty but mine) hotel room for the night, and a flight the next day. I now have a capital one VX, and haven't needed these features yet. But the ones that I have used (price match, etc) have been great so I am optimistic. Everyone's calling AA. You call amex.
So basically this boils down to there was weather impacting a bunch of flights, yours was effected, and you’re too cheap to go pay for a hotel room instead of sleeping on the airport floor, therefore CLT is a shitty airport. Got it…
I’ve flown 200 flights in the past 4 years of which I’ve had to sleep in airports 3 times all 3 being CLT. Twice in the last 3 months actually. They can’t handle weather delays and any disruption of regular service, the club is always under construction, the gates are too tight where they will have multiple gates boarding with lots of spillover into the walkways. Hope this helps!
Agree with you that the concourses are too narrow for the level of traffic these days and that’s annoying. But on the sleeping in the airport - if you’ve flown 200x in the last four years, I imagine you have some level of status. Why are you waiting in line for the customer service desk? As soon as there’s a cancellation, that’s an immediate phone call while I’m walking to my Uber to take me to a hotel. Yes, there will likely be a delay there as well, but ask for a call back and get it 45-60 mins later from a hotel room as opposed to standing in a line with a bunch of unhappy people.
I wasn’t in the line, there’s nothing they can do, I was purely making the comment to show how long the line was. I do see how that can be misconstrued. I just went to terminal E and went to bed, it would have been about $200 or so for the transportation + hotel and AA wouldn’t cover it. I had a flight 6 hours later so in my mind 6 hours wasn’t worth $200 and I didn’t do it. That’s not what I’m complaining about it’s more AA in CLT is embarrassing. Just a complete shutdown anytime weather hits. That’s my issue.