Last week I waited at the Charlotte International Airport for almost an hour to pick up my grandparents who are visiting from Romania. The process of parking and finding where to go can be the most aggravating and nerve wracking part of the experience. On this particular day, the daily and hourly lots were both closed. The lots are meant to be close to the doors of the airports so that people can be close to their cars when they arrive in Charlotte. We had to drive all the way to the long term parking lot and park and take a bus to the airport. We weren’t quite sure how this was going to work out since both of my grandparents are older and unable to walk longer distances.
From this picture, which you can go to by following this link, http://www.ifly.com/charlotte-douglas-international-airport/Charlotte-Douglas-CLT-Airport-Parking, shows that the long term parking lots are the furthest out from the airport. They are staying for five months so we knew that they would have a lot of luggage and that this would be the biggest inconvenience for us.
- This terminal map shows how organized and easily accessible each of the terminals is. This time around I was aware of the signs posted everywhere and looked to see if I saw one that said arrivals near the actual door. The only one I saw was above the cars as you drive to the building where there are both arrivals and departures. Once we walked in there were no other signs. Luckily for us, we have been in an out of this airport multiple times each year, every year. Had we not been familiar with the architecture we could have missed their arrival and been late to pick them up. If there were signs somewhere in the vicinity, we were not able to see them, so either way they should be either remade or there should be more added into the area; inside and out.
http://www.airportterminalmaps.com/charlotte-airport-terminal-map.html (This link takes you to the map)
- Once they came out, they already had their luggage, and as we suspected they had about 8 bags total. My parents went to get the cars while we sat and waited. Unfortunately because of how far we had to walk, this took a long time and we had almost lost one of the bags already. I took my grandmother to the restroom, which was clearly marked unlike anything else, and by the time we got back out I only saw a wheel chair and one of their bags sitting alone; I had already lost my grandfather. Luckily no one had taken the chair back with our bag attached.
- As though the experience had not already felt like a circus, by the time my grandparents walked out to the car, a police officer had approached my mother and tried to give us a ticket for being so close to the door where only busses were allowed to unload. I think the Charlotte Airport should rethink this layout as my grandparents would not have been able to walk all the way down to the appropriate loading and unloading zone.
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