America's Best and Worst Airports - Page 2

LosAngelesSportsFan · #21 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 7:41 AM**

ive never understood the hate for LAX. ive flown in and out of LAX maybe 50 times, dropped off and picked up people and i swear i may have had one bad experience, if that.

There is no arguing the place is dated and isnt exactly very nice and has horrible transit access, but thats all changing. the airport is in the midst of a 5 billion + remodel and trains will be accessible in the near future. also, i love the horseshoe layout. seems so logical to me.

my lease favorite airport is ohare. im 0 -3 there. 3 bad experiences.

iheartthed · #22 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 2:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lipani

Out of the 14 airports I've been to in the last two months, LaGuardia was by far the worst. Not only was the place just filthy, but the archaic check-ins and the long security lines didn't help much.

I fly through LGA a lot and the security lines are actually tolerable to me. Last week I was though LGA's security line in less than 5 minutes. My vote for worst security lines is O'Hare.

jaxg8r1 · #23 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 4:31 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

ive never understood the hate for LAX. ive flown in and out of LAX maybe 50 times, dropped off and picked up people and i swear i may have had one bad experience, if that.

There is no arguing the place is dated and isnt exactly very nice and has horrible transit access, but thats all changing. the airport is in the midst of a 5 billion + remodel and trains will be accessible in the near future. also, i love the horseshoe layout. seems so logical to me.

my lease favorite airport is ohare. im 0 -3 there. 3 bad experiences.

I've never had any particularly bad experiences at LAX either. Seems pretty average to me (and considering how busy it is, pretty good).

I hate flying into Charlotte. Every time I fly there it seems as though I've timewarped back into 1993.

bunt_q · #24 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 5:15 PM**

LAX is the absolute worst. I have little patience for any airport that is structured so that you can actually be forced to go through security on a domestic connection. Unacceptable. It's bad enough to have to buy water after security (or risk the inevitable TSA flagging that an empty reusable water draws from the X-rays). It's completely unacceptable to have to do it twice. Add to that the general dumpiness and bad food options... Yeah, if New York didn't manage to be so horrible, LAX would have to be the worst airport on the continent. Living in Honolulu, I went out of my way to make sure flights went through SFO, Seattle, or occasionally Portland.

The one I'm not sure about is Dulles. Sure, I fly into National whenever I can, but that's because of location. I don't really have any complaints about Dulles otherwise, and once the Metro is done, it'll be a perfectly good airport.

I also have no problem with O'Hare. Anything to avoid Midway - a complete dump, and home to Southwest...an airline I truly despise.

min-chi-cbus · #25 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 5:34 PM**

Is Chicago-Midway not done with their expansion/reno? I thought Midway was supposed to be a LOT better after that project....otherwise I kind of like Midway because it's easier to get to the city from there and it's not nearly as bad to connect through as ORD, if you have to connect.

Steely Dan · #26 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 5:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bunt_q

I also have no problem with O'Hare. Anything to avoid Midway - a complete dump

there seems to be some hate for midway in this thread, but i don't really find it to be all that disagreeable of an airport. from my vast experiences with both o'hare and midway, i just don't see this giant chasm in quality between the two that others seem to. i mean, neither are great airports that would wind up on a "best airport" list, but they seem pretty damn similar to me in terms of the overall quality of the airports.

and midway has another advantage for me, it's a much shorter el ride from downtown than o'hare. you have the reliable orange line vs. the slow-zone festival that passes for the blue line, and that's not even considering that o'hare is twice as far out from the city center; o'hare is 15.5 miles from state/madison as opposed to only 8.8 miles for midway.

Steve2726 · #27 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 5:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by OhioGuy

LAX
LAX ranked at the bottom of most categories—that includes location (20th),

What's wrong with the LAX location? It's right in the middle of the greater city area. I can be home on the west side in 15 min after getting my car. Compare that with Denver that's what, 60 miles out of town? No thanks.

bunt_q · #28 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 5:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve2726

Compare that with Denver that's what, 60 miles out of town? No thanks.

Seriously? I get so sick of that nonsense. It's 25 miles from Downtown Denver to the airport.

O'Hare in 19 miles from the Loop.

LAX is 18 miles from Downtown Los Angeles.

Don't worry, once we have the opportunity to sprawl halfway to Kansas, L.A.-style, the airport won't seem as far out. (And our current mayor sure seems hell-bent on doing that, too.)

Oh, and the metro connection from LAX to downtown L.A. takes, what, an hour at best? Hour and a half is more realistic. Our train, when it's done in a few years, will be 29 minutes from Denver International Airport to downtown.

Steely Dan · #29 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 5:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bunt_q

O'Hare in 19 miles from the Loop.

how are you measuring? the center of o'hare's terminal circle is only 15.5 miles from state/madison, as the crow flies.

Steve2726 · #30 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 5:53 PM**

Fair enough re: DEN, but it doesn't explain why LAX is at the bottom. Just because traffic is bad once you land doesn't make it a bad location.

And most people arriving at LAX aren't going anywhere near the "downtown" area so the time to get there is mostly irrelevant. If you need to get downtown quickly, Burbank airport is very convenient instead.

Lipani · #31 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 6:04 PM**

My biggest pet with LAX is the security. The last four times that I flew out of LAX the guards were constantly screaming at every passenger. One of the guards even tried stealing my phone after it went through the scanner.

Steve2726 · #32 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 6:13 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lipani

My biggest pet with LAX is the security. The last four times that I flew out of LAX the guards were constantly screaming at every passenger. One of the guards even tried stealing my phone after it went through the scanner.

I agree there as well, but that's the TSA, not the airports fault. The airport authority has no control of the security screeners.

bunt_q · #33 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 6:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

how are you measuring? the center of o'hare's terminal circle is only 15.5 miles from state/madison, as the crow flies.

However google maps measured.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve2726

Fair enough re: DEN, but it doesn't explain why LAX is at the bottom. Just because traffic is bad once you land doesn't make it a bad location.

And most people arriving at LAX aren't going anywhere near the "downtown" area so the time to get there is mostly irrelevant. If you need to get downtown quickly, Burbank airport is very convenient instead.

I don't know why LAX is rated low on location. Where is the "center of gravity" for metropolitan L.A., any idea? I'd guess it's somewhere farther east. Having LAX up against the ocean in a metro that sprawls away from it might be why, but I really don't know... Still, the airport itself is bad enough, I doubt it needed to be dinged on location.

But as for "most people arriving not going anywhere near downtown," that could be said of any city. O'Hare is plenty convenient for folks in the west suburbs (most of my family). DIA is quite convenient for anybody heading to the east/north suburbs of Denver. Dulles is great if you live/work in BFE Virginia. So naturally, for you, on the west side of L.A., LAX is convenient.

Cirrus · #34 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 6:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

I hate them all. I much prefer the large Asian airports (esp. Seoul Incheon)

What's different about them that would merit such a sweeping generalization?

novawolverine · #35 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 6:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve2726

Fair enough re: DEN, but it doesn't explain why LAX is at the bottom. Just because traffic is bad once you land doesn't make it a bad location.

And most people arriving at LAX aren't going anywhere near the "downtown" area so the time to get there is mostly irrelevant. If you need to get downtown quickly, Burbank airport is very convenient instead.

I agree. DC is similar. People love to bitch about Dulles, but most people probably are not heading downtown. It's the same distance from downtown as Denver's airport. Northern Virginia is bigger than most metros by themselves and has a lot of jobs and commerce, so it makes sense to have its own airport, basically. Reagan National Airport is minutes from downtown and has good transit links. BWI is inconvenient for most in the DC metro as well, but it's consistently rated high. The main reasons why Dulles and some of these other places like O'Hare and LAX are rated low is because of the layout and ease of use of the facility, amenities, wait times, delays, and other reasons besides the location.

bunt_q · #36 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 6:44 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cirrus

What's different about them that would merit such a sweeping generalization?

Clearly, Fentress-designed airports outside the U.S. = good. Fentress-designed airports inside the U.S. = bad. It's a wonder why any architect would even keep their offices here, when so obviously everything about Asia is better. We should all emigrate now, before it's too late.

10023 · #37 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 7:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

how are you measuring? the center of o'hare's terminal circle is only 15.5 miles from state/madison, as the crow flies.

I'll remember this next time I'm flying into town from ORD on a crow.

10023 · #38 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 7:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cirrus

What's different about them that would merit such a sweeping generalization?

No TSA and better maintenance staff?

Steely Dan · #39 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 7:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 10023

I'll remember this next time I'm flying into town from ORD on a crow.

even with driving distances, google maps says state/madison to o'hare terminal 1 is 18.0 miles. i was just curious how bunt got 19 miles.

bunt_q · #40 Posted: **May 1, 2012, 7:52 PM**

I think I asked for directions from ORD to "Downtown Chicago," or "Chicago Loop," maybe. I am sure there's a range... 17, 18, 19 miles, not sure it matters.

60 miles versus 25, that's a difference that matters.