It’s an addiction.
Next chance to get my fix: PDF.
Fri May 22, 17:49: US 3409, YUL-PHL, arr 19:35 Mon May 25, 20:45: US 3906, PHL-YUL, arr 22:23
For some reason, I thought Monday was a holiday in Canada as well but it’s the Monday before. So I’m just going to drive to PHL fairly early and work from the lounge…
THat was the flight that really buggered me last night. Philly is the worst airport ever.
Worse than LHR?
LHR is a good airport, just big.
PHL is a stupid inefficient airport that has weather phobias. And it’s Big.
BOS is a stupid airport, too political and bad fog.
YYZ is full of stupid people, too political, run by Canadians and is too big.
No way. LHR is the worst airport in the civilized world, and several 3rd world airports beat it hands down.
It’s been over capacity for about 30 years with no plans to expand. There are now 5 terminals, and you have to take buses between them, so connections take forever. They’ve set it up so you have to rescreen when changing terminals too, so forget about keeping that bottle of water you bought before your first flight.
They have a terrible baggage system that seems to lose more bags than most, and when you do lose a bag it goes into “the system”, where it will emerge 5 days later if you’re lucky.
Most of the concourses are loud, obnoxious, crowded shopping malls with no quiet places to sit (thankfully I usually have lounge access.)
The gates are weird, and you generally don’t know your gate until 10 minutes before boarding starts for international. For domestic, you can go to the gate, but there are no screens telling you if you’re in the right place or even people you can talk to (the boarding desk is behind a door that they don’t open until boarding starts.)
WiFi is inconsistent and costly (when it exists.)
Driving there requires navigating a confusing nightmare of tunnels and poorly-labeled roads (until you’re actually on BAA property, you have no idea which road leads to which terminal, and even then it’s sketchy.)
All in all, FAIL.
And there’s only 2 runways. Not nearly enough for an airport that big. As soon as you miss your takeoff slot, you’re playing timetable roulette. Could be waiting ten minutes, could be waiting two hours.