Charlotte airport is a pit, and for me it’s where connections go to die. The airport wasn’t built for the volume of traffic it gets. The corridors are packed body to body with passengers. The American Airlines clubs aren’t much better.
The airport has some of the longest walks outside of Miami. Arrive on a regional jet on the E concourse and you can easily be looking at 15 minute walks to a connection, or longer when people movers are broken as they seemingly often are.
And they’re proud of it! They are touting being ‘the most financially-efficient’ airport, year after year.
The airline sells 35 minute connections for those flights, too. It’s technically possible to make it from one flight to another even coming from a regional jet at E, where you first need to wait for your carry on bags to be delivered planeside. If you hoof it over you may arrive at your connection before doors close. But not always. It really depends on what runway you land on, and whether your plane gets caught in an alleyway.
When it doesn’t involve those regional jets on the E concourse you’ll find 30 minute connections. If your inbound flight has a short delay, your connection goes away. American Airlines operates about 90% of flights at the airport – and 70% of their passengers are connecting.
There are two American Airlines Admirals Clubs and both are miserable. The main one is still in the old US Airways style. They shut it down for half a year for renovations and didn’t actually bother to renovate (largely just doing fire work). It’s undersized and overrun. And the secondary lounge is too small and in the 2017-era ‘modern hospital’ style.
What’s attractive about Charlotte isn’t that it’s a good airport, it remains in American Airlines good graces by being low cost. Put another way, it’s undersized, poorly-designed, and has gone decades without enough investment to upgrade the experience. And they’re proud of this.
The airport brings out the worst in passengers like this restroom brawl, they probably shouldn’t have gotten rid of the bathroom attendants you were expected to tip because at least those could call for help in situations like this. Tipping, of course, is a way for employers to pay lower wages – which is the most on-brand thing ever for the Charlotte airport.
Things will get a bit better in the future with a Capital One lounge, an Amex Sidecar to join the Centurion lounge, an American Airlines business class Flagship lounge and new Admirals Club to replace the current main one along with the secondary club, Provisions Grab ‘n Go, The Club and Minute Suites locations.
And they’ll eventually convert the main Admirals Club to more retail, it’s centrally located and can generate more revenue that way. They do need better food options at least, but that’s in some sense giving up – the airport is a place that people wind up spending too much time at, and getting delayed at, while a better airport would mean far less time airside.
I always love how everyone wants an airport that offers convenient flights to everywhere… but then the complaint is that the airport is SO big, it takes forever to get between gates.
Lots of convenient, direct flight >>> Many planes >>> Lots of gates to park the many planes >>> long distances from one end of the airport to the other
Agree it’s the worst connecting hub terminal in the U.S.
It’s almost as bad as Atlanta
It’s my airport of last resort. I only use it if I’m on American flying to the Deep South.
In a fun twist, CLT rubs us the wrong way!
An airport fitting of the “premium” AA experience. 15 years ago it was a decent airport. Now it’s a toilet.
CLT has been my main airport for years, as I live in the area. I have switched all of my flights to either have a layover from GSO (direct flights to ORD, LGA, EWR, ATL, etc.) or just leave from RDU. I can’t stand CLT and avoid it like the plague.
@Parker — But, but… rocking chairs!
@rtp — No more CLT for you! Niccce.
I agree! I try to avoid CLT and have been fortunate to have only flown through CLT twice in the past five years. Unfortunately, both of those connections were severely delayed including one requiring an overnight stay. At least they were on the return trip home each time.
CLT needs to do what Detroit did… Just build a completely different Airport and make the flip overnight.
But keep the BBQ joint in the center. That place rocks
God… I’m the weirdo who steps in to say “is it really that bad when it’s the 3rd largest US hub and so many seem to keep using it over and over…”
“The corridors are packed body to body with passengers. ”
Out of curiosity, Gary. how often do you go to CLT? I’m not about to suggest it has the open air and emptiness of JFK T8 or Mirabel but I’ve flown through CLT a lot and never seen it quite like you’re describing.
I guess I’m a minority, but I’d still pick CLT over the trailer park of ATL (if it was only between those two) for an equivalent itinerary. I prefer the CLT walk over the ATL packed train. I just haven’t ever had a good ATL experience. The people working. The stacked double wide trailers they call terminals. the old delta planes… Maybe it’s a status issue between the airlines
Do I go directly to my gate at CLT? no because I know that’s always packed at CLT but if you know CLT, there are plenty of places to go to avoid all this
I love the small footprint so I walk less, main food court area and rocking chairs.
I hate it as much as Heathrow for connecting.
@John — Small footprint? LOL. American regularly sells absurd 36-minute MCT itineraries with gates on opposite spokes. The only way you make it is if you sprint. Good workout, I guess.
CLT is the Frontier Airlines of airports. Cheap, crowded, tacky, dirty and disorganized. The only saving grace is the Admirals Club grab and go.
As someone who travels to and from CLT every single week for work, not only can I confirm the accuracy of every part of this article, but I’ll add that (1) the Admiral’s Club has not accepted day passes during most hours of the day for AGES; (2) the wait for The Club that’s accessible to Priority Pass members regularly can have up to a 2 hour wait list for entry; (3) the moving sidewalks very frequently do not work, such as the ones in Terminal D/E that have been inoperable for most of this year; and, (D) the restaurants are overpriced. That said, the employees who work in CLT are some of the nicest that I’ve ever experienced.
The “E” concourse is made out of plywood with no work ever getting complete. yep, that’s economical.
I use CLT as my local airport usually. And I fly United. For a local passenger flying on UA, it isn’t horrific. Security wait times (even though PreCheck is only on the wrong end of the terminal for anybody not going to D/E) with touchless are very low. I don’t check bags. There’s now an exit from the base of A back out to where off-site parking picks up. I can hit off-site valet 75 minutes before departure and still have time to hit the restroom and make 1K boarding. I don’t allow enough time for a Club visit (and I’ve been to the Centurion maybe twice in 4 years).
Yes CLT is horrid.
But your CLT jokes work better with Little Rock…KLIT
I live in Charlotte. So I don’t have the experience of connecting here. But I travel very often; I’m bi-coastal and commute every other week. I like CLT. The parking is easy and always has space available (I use the express decks. Pricey but my work pays for it). The main terminal (pre-security) is one of the easiest to navigate of any major US airport. And the most important factor (to me) — ONE security gets you to ALL gates! Such an underrated airport trait.
Yes, the concourses get crowded. But no, it’s not the end of the world (again, local perspective here). There’s plenty of places to sit and kill time. The best gates are the newer A gates. It’s like walking into a spa. But of course those are the only gates AA doesn’t use.
Capital One Lounge to the rescue! Hopefully before 2030…
Yup. Worst. Airport. In. The. USA. For all the reasons above. ALL.
Avoid it at all costs. I will connect at any other airport rather than CLT.
I am often headed to GSP and can usually get there direct. And have avoided the CLT connection since covid ended. Anyone who has flown in or out of GSP will tell you it is the nicest small airport in the USA.
@L737 — Was that a deep-cut at Chase for delaying MIA Sapphire to 2029? (Citi Nights! 6x after 6PM EST! LOL)
I moved from LA to Charlotte. Give me CLT over LAX any day. Charlotte has gone from the 15th to soon to be the 10th largest city in America. This no doubt has increased the local traffic on top of all the connections. Someday other airlines will pay to expand clt in order to break AA’s monopoly in a major city. Until then it will have issues for connectors but it is very manageable for Charlotte residents who can pretty much fly non stop to almost everywhere in the US out of CLT, and get salads and sandwiches from the admiral grab and go to take on the plane.
@1990 — The tortoise and the tortoise, bah. (And woohoo! Earn ’em and churn ’em!)
From the comments, it seems like it works decently for local folks originating and terminating. But as an east coast AA flyer (who therefore by definition connects at CLT regularly), I can attest to Gary’s assessment. The layout and crowding are the obvious results of piecemeal expansion in the absence of a cohesive master plan and an airline insisting on ramming ~30% more humans through a hub than it can comfortably handle.
I don’t know. My typical choice for connections is CLT vs PHL. CLT always wins. PHL had been ranked worst airport in the country what 5 years running? The only saving grace for me personally is if I miss my connection or the last flight of the day cancels at PHL… I can always drive home from there. CLT I am just stranded.
We just need to get Allegiant to fly there from Rickenbacker International Airport.
@L737 — (They) ‘apologize… for nothing!’
Nooooooooobody likes the Charlotte Airport…I have been @ CLT exactly once (for a connection from CHS to SFO), and I did the “E to B desperation run.” Weaving in and around people in packed corridors, I made it, barely, but the experience was enough to make me avoid any future connection at CLT. I’ll take DFW and change terminals back and forth four times on the skytrain (or whatever they call it) before I voluntarily choose CLT again.
But “riddle me this:” does AA have a likable hub where a sizable percentage of travelers have a tight connection to make? PHX? No. PHL? Feh. DFW? Only if you like changing terminals more frequently that changing one’s underwear…I might like CLT or other AA hubs if they were my departing or arriving airport, but connecting….no way!
Ok ok but it’s important to distinguish between the airPORT and the airLINE. Those ridiculously short connections are sold to you by the airLINE. They should know better.
Those crappy, overcrowded lounges? Also the airLINE. The CLT airport has actually invested in quite a major overhaul. The food options across all terminals have increased and are upgraded. The check in, security and baggage areas have been vastly improved.
The A terminal is brand new and very nice. The E terminal is getting a make over. The challenge will remain with the narrow and overcrowded B and C terminals.
And yes, it’s a longish walk from E to A or
end of B. But let’s be honest: if you’ve just been sitting on a plane, and are connecting to sit on another plane, a brisk would is good for you.
Finally, having visited 40+ airports around the world, I find CLT not better but certainly not worse than some others.
last time I flew through CLT, I couldn’t find a single shop selling a newspaper. for a city that claims to be a banking center…give me a break, you can’t even sell a Wall Street Journal ? But, then again, I live in Europe, and most of us can still read long form news
I hate to disagree with most commenters and the author, but the older dated design with more and closer packed gates than newer hubs means it is actually easier and quicker for me to make connections, even speed walking across opposite ends of CLT. And yes, always look forward to Brookwood BBQ in the food court during my layover. This makes connections between 1-2 hour legs time (and money) competitive with nonstops from Houston to east coast, without using people movers at all. As a connecting passenger, I would not like to see CLT old main terminal complex replaced with a more spacious “up to date” facility as that would undoubtedly mean much longer layover hikes between gates with greater chances of missed connections and forced use of “people movers” versus walking.
Just horrible. I’m forced to use it when flying north from SAT and AUS on AA to places like IND, CLE, CMH, PIT, etc. For some reason the DFW connections in premium classes are always significantly more than CLT. Now that DL is expanding at AUS I’m switching to their new nonstops from AUS to avoid so many connections.
The AA club has the worst employees I have ever experienced. Unhelpful, uninformed, rude and on some kind of arrogant power trip. The place is dirty and no one seems to care. Boarding regionals can include walking outside. Why this is a hub is amazing to me. It literally stinks.
I have a completely different perspective, which is that I live in metro Asheville and if I can’t get a nonstop out of Asheville I will make the 2 hour drive to Charlotte and from there I can just about go anywhere non-stop; I have been burned too many times with connecting flight out of Asheville being delayed or canceled and then missing the flight out of CLT.
We flew through CLT many years ago, and it was wonderful, so we chose a flight with connections through CLT instead of through DFW on our way home last week. We had plenty of time for our connection, that wasn’t the problem, but other than the little area with the rocking chairs, every aisle was packed. You could barely get through the crowds. There were no seats in the gate areas and the employees pushing the wheelchairs and driving the carts were completely obnoxious. I mean, if we couldn’t get through the aisle, there was no where to move to let them by to get where they were going either. It was awful. Funny thing is, I don’t remember getting a survey from American in the past, so I was surprised when I received a request to complete one for this trip.