LKN704

Boy oh boy. Go ahead and continue to vilify an entire group of people - how very genocidal of you.

Yup, very modular. The screens can be easily popped in/out from the seatback unit if they need to be replaced.

Current generation fiber optic systems are extremely fast, lightweight, and reliable. The screens these days detect heat rather than touch - so you don't need to tap incessantly and disturb your neighbor. On the 25 or so flights I've taken this year with PTVs - I haven't had a single incident of one crashing or any sort of problems. I actually can't think of the last instance when my monitor crashed - I think it was on a US A332 10 or so years ago. That system that they had installed was horribly slow and clunky, and I remember it being difficult to physically tap items on the screen. Current systems are entirely different. On the contrary, I can often not get streaming IFE to work. Plus, my AirPods won't make it through an entire transcontinental flight without needing a charge. By that time comes around, my phone will likely need a charge, too. You can't charge your iPhone and have headphones plugged in at the same time. Watching things on my laptop is uncomfortable because then you need to have the tray table down the entire time. It's something that people clearly care about - United is spending a ton to reinstall seatback video onto its domestic mainline fleet.

Eventually, there will come a time when it is far more costly to continuously update the terminal (and the old infrastructure begins to affect AA's bottom line) than it is to just replace it outright. AA doesn't care about anything related to the overall passenger experience - the airline has bragged about ripping out IFE from the domestic fleet and the CRO has repeatedly said AA does not compete on anything service/experience related - the schedule is the product. If AA had its way the terminal at CLT would probably look like this (though it does often feel like this on B/C these days):

RDU T2 only cost $570 million or around $800 million in today's dollars.

The fact that they updated the value of the project ($4 million), scrubbed the site, and then renamed the CLT section of the website to "Charlotte Douglas International Airport 4th Parallel Runway Program" from "Charlotte Douglas International Airport Multi-Billion Dollar Capacity Enhancement Program" makes me think the project is actively being considered/discussed between relevant stakeholders. $4 Billion seems like a good estimate. SLC's new terminal cost that amount, but SLC also needed to build a brand new landside terminal building as well. The two parallel concourses on the now-scrubbed CLT rendering seem a bit more complex than SLC's. SLC also doesn't have an APM as of yet (but does have tunnels for one).

My point is - how do we know CLT isn't/will not pursue this development? The previous terminal LPA for the airport's master plan has substantially been altered (deletion of third A North pier, removal of OAL terminal) and we have yet to see the airport release an updated alternative. Again, I am not trying to argue or anything, and I agree CLT will likely not pursue this type of development, but given how the airport fails to fully disclose development plans/projects until they are essentially shovel-ready, it's difficult to say that this development was 100% rejected. We know the airport has plans for a potential midfield concourse structure at some point in the future, and we know the airport will be constructing an APM tunnel at some point in the coming years to "future-proof" the area for further development - I've seen far crazier plans come to fruition.

I guess I implied that the left (center) satellite would just be used for regional jets. To be fair, I question the need for a dedicated regional concourse going forward. 50-seat aircraft will sunset within the next five years, and CRJ-900s/E175s can easily use mainline gates. To be fair - United built a brand new $41 million dollar business class lounge at Dulles that will eventually be knocked down in the coming decade. I get that WAS/CLT are different markets, and AA has a different outlook on terminal projects than say United and Delta. I posted the link in my post, too - and as I noted, the rendering was only uploaded three days ago. I don't disagree with you - the rendering is likely dead ... I just find it strange that an architectural firm would use a "dead" rendering as the master image for an airport project they are working on. The price tag on the RS and H site is also bizarre - $48 billion. In context, the new SLC terminal complex only cost $4 billion and the new LGA complex cost $8 billion.

Here's a rendering I've never seen before! I did a quick image source search - it looks like it was posted only three days ago. It's from an architecture design firm called RS&H. I have so many questions and given how secretive CLT leadership seems to be about the master plan, I fear I will never get answers. It looks fairly accurate - given that it features the elimination of A North Phase III which was recently deleted from the master plan. It looks well thought out - the middle pier seems to house mainline aircraft, while the satellite furthest to the right seems to house regional jets. I highly doubt an architecture firm would do that on its own - someone clearly advised them on that. My main question is - what is the point of this rendering? The airport wants to build a sterile corridor for FIS flow from C to D. They want to add "stingers" onto B and C (which I suppose could one day form the middle satellite). Those two projects alone are easily years of continuous construction that will last until the early 2030s. Why go through the effort of completing those projects if you are just going to take on this project once they are complete? It seems fiscally irresponsible to do so. Personally, if I had it my way, I would prioritize the construction of the satellite furthest to the right. Once it is open, you can decommission B and C. Once B and C are decommissioned, you can then start work on the middle satellite pier and the redesigned atrium. Once that opens, you can decommission E. Once complete, you can do a full overhaul of the part of D that is left to bring it up to the same design as A North and the new satellite piers. Once complete, CLT essentially has a brand new airport - with the exception of the old A Gates. The rendering is taken from: https://www.rsandh.com/projects/charlotte-douglas-international-airport/ Interestingly, that "halo" H-shaped design seems to be all the rage lately. A similar design has been proposed to replace the 1980s "temporary" shacks that United uses as a hub at Dulles.

Unfortunately there was not sufficient space to create check-in islands. For whatever reason check-in islands are now “best practice” and most new terminals at major international airports now utilize them. I suppose they are a better use of space. Lots of U.S. airports now have them - RDU Terminal 2 does. Before the project was cancelled/put on hiatus, the OAL Terminal headhouse for Concourse A North was supposed to have check in islands.

Some things I noticed last night when flying out last night: They installed extra, new LED lighting in the atrium. The atrium might have been a little dim before, but it is extremely bright now. They also installed new overhead way-finding pendant signs in the atrium. It kind of makes the space look busy, but it was needed. I wonder what the plan is for the A connector that takes you from the atrium to A/A North. It's just a series of moving walkways surrounded by what looks like temporary walls. I'm not sure if they planned to install some sort of public art or put in windows but it feels very claustrophobic. The first series of moving walkways on the A North connector is still surrounded by temporary walls - and has been for the entire summer. I can't imagine it is a simply moving walkway repair (because they would just block off the walkways if so) so I can't figure out what is going on. United's growth at CLT as part of the United Next program is pretty incredible - it's impressive how much they have grown. There were three United 737s boarding at once when I landed from IAD the other day. The agent at the Amex Centurion Lounge said that United was looking into building a club on A - but I can't see it. United doesn't have its own employees in Charlotte (other than a station manager - it's a contract station) and I believe clubs are operated by internal United employees. Charlotte wasn't one of the stations that United announced it would insource (but Raleigh was - which does now have a United Club) last month, so I can't see it.

I meant to say in the summer - I don’t think we will see Mount Baldy or Mount San Antonio with snow in the summer time anytime soon Delta’s partner WestJet flies ATL-YVR.

I'm very interested to see how CLT-YVR performs. US attempted PHL-YVR several years ago but it only lasted one season. There's an insane amount of Alaskan cruise traffic into/out of YVR in the summer months that tends to be high-yielding, so it should theoretically work. Vancouver is one of the strangest cities in North America - and I mean that in a good way. I can't think of another city in North America where you can relax on a palm tree-lined beach and see hints of snow-capped mountains in the background. With its excellent transit system and airport with far-flung flights to exotic destinations, it feels like a big city but in reality, Metro Vancouver is smaller than the Charlotte CSA, and outside of the great nature - it is actually a very boring city. Still, it's definitely well worth a visit. Weird how it is hidden so deep in the PR - which is largely LGA adjacent. Most of those *new* LGA routes are old AA routes that were ended as part of the failed jetBlue alliance. Nice to see Hyannisport regain commercial service by a U.S. network carrier - US used to fly there back in the day.

I think your rebuttal is fair and frankly, I would even agree with you in regard to the coastal elite. I've encountered plenty of people from the northeast (haven't really experienced with people from the west coast) who were disgusted that I lived in NC for some time. My friend comes from a working-class background and grew up in public housing so I wouldn't necessarily consider her coastal elite. She works at a non-profit and just finally started making 55k - below the per capita income of DC. Like you said, people are often willing to make compromises to make city living work. She does so by living in a row house with four other people - certainly not everyone's cup of tea. In regard to the "where are you really from" question, that is a microaggression that specifically affects the Asian American community. It's racist. No one has ever asked me "where I was really from" (as in what part of Europe) as a white man.

One thing I would add - she really liked the Diamond! I personally thought it went downhill (though I didn't say anything because I didn't want to influence her opinion)...I vaguely recall there being more Greek-ish items on the menu (they might have even had a Greek section on the menu at one point?) but it is still a treat as DC lacks divey diner spots. Their chicken salad sandwich and sweet potato fries were as good as I remember. I thought about taking her there - but I was a bit worried about drinking in public here. I regularly drink in public in DC - I'll walk to bars or a friend's house at night with an open beer or a drink in a plastic cup or I will have a picnic with a bottle of wine but I wasn't sure about local etiquette or if CMPD actively would cite folks for that.

I'm in town for a week visiting my folks, and a friend from DC was also here (for the first time) for a work conference for the past two weeks. I picked her up at her hotel earlier today and we went to lunch in Plaza Midwood and then walked around Camp North End and drove through the South End before I dropped her off at the airport. Here's what she thought of the city (criticism really): She thought the city had an amazing business environment - in the sense of the excellent spots in Uptown to go for lunch, the nice convention center, the ample hotels around Uptown, the decent bars to go to after work - that sort of thing. She said she wouldn't mind attending a conference again in Charlotte. She thought UNC Charlotte was beautiful and was an asset to the city. She said she was bored throughout her trip and took the light rail to campus a few times and just walked around. She said it was easily one of the most beautiful campuses she's ever seen. She thought the city was devoid of culture...she said the region had a generic "Applebee's culture" and she felt people who live in Charlotte just go to work, hang out with co-workers at a brewery after work, and then just go home and do nothing else. One thing that she thought was weird is that people in Charlotte said they loved to live in Charlotte because "it's close to Charleston" or "because it's close to the mountains." She said that would be like saying "I like to live in DC because it's close to Philly" or "I like to live in SF because it's close to Lake Tahoe." The lack of third spaces bothered her. She asked if there was a park we could go to and have a bottle of wine and people-watch in the middle of the day (as we often do in DC)...that type of thing just doesn't exist in cities outside of NYC/DC/SF so it really isn't a fault of Charlotte. She thought the neighborhoods outside of Uptown - NoDa, the South End, and Plaza Midwood in particular, all felt incredibly rural to her. She said she was excited to go to NoDa and pictured it being like Greenwich Village (which I can understand as that's how it is somewhat described) and was sad to see it was just a tiny commercial strip. She was shocked at how car-centric the South End was and how suburban it felt. She said something akin to "Do people who live here just drive to bars and then return home and stare out the window of their apartment onto that road?" She's Asian American and said that people she interacted with were constantly asking "where she was from" and that she got cat-called here on the light rail more in the past two weeks than she ever did in DC in the past two years. Other than that she did like the light rail and thought it was fine if you planned your day around its schedule. A lot of the things she noted weren't really unique to Charlotte but rather common to all of Charlotte's peer cities (Indy, Columbus, Kansas City, etc.)...she was born and raised in NYC, has only ever lived in NYC/SF/DC, and hasn't traveled throughout the South, other than going to bachelorette parties in Austin and Charleston, so just keep that in mind. She'd likely say the same thing about any other city that wasn't NYC/SF/DC/LA/BOS/CHI.

You were likely just unlucky - I believe the only time the train was down for an extended period was during the pandemic. I've connected in Detroit numerous times and never had a problem, and I've often had to walk to the satellite concourse which houses regional flights. Much shorter (and pleasant) walk than trying to move through the masses in CLT when connecting from say B to E. In any case, folks aren't taking these surveys based on how far the airport is from the center city. Connecting traffic (who is the primary target for these surveys) could care less where an airport is located geographically. The WorldGateway terminal in Detroit is simply beautiful. IMO it's no surprise it receives high rankings. Compare that to CLT:

A survey I can get behind IMO - CLT's score seems about right. I'm surprised to see Denver score so high. It isn't a bad airport and its terminals are much roomier than Charlotte, but the terminal needs a giant refresh. The whole terminal feels like (and looks like) a shopping mall that was designed in the 1990s, which is essentially what it is. Not sure how Miami scored so high...a literal dump.

It is confirmed. 5x weekly service starting June 2024 - believe the aircraft type will be an A333. I believe Raleigh will be the smallest metro area to have transatlantic service on all three airline alliances and a LCC transatlantic carrier (which is essentially what Icelandair is). It's my understanding that RDU and local Triangle governments/businesses moved heaven and earth to land this flight. They were also in negotiations with KLM pre-pandemic, so I wonder if the incentives that were tied to KLM ultimately went to Lufthansa. Really a textbook case study of a successful air service development program, which I believe CLT still lacks. From what I gather the RDU-FRA flight is less about Germany and more about enhanced onward connections to the Indian subcontinent. I do wonder how stable all that service is over the long run. Icelandair thrives in underserved medium-sized markets in the U.S., and I can't really see them staying put. Raleigh will now have three European carriers while Charlotte only has one - never thought I would see this day!

Didn't you say you just moved from Boston on another thread here, but yet you had firsthand knowledge of shopping at Eastland Mall (see the Northlake thread) in its heyday? Now all of a sudden you lived in/live in NYC? The math ain't mathing here.

I don't think they are attacking the overlook, but just pointing out the irony in building a fancy new park for the non-traveling public when CLT's own customers (the traveling public) have to put up with deplorable conditions inside the airport terminal.

I feel like @Miesian Corners and I sound like a broken record, but how do brand-new terrazzo floors get dirty/dingy so quickly? The image below is taken from the photo above...those large marks definitely do not look like precasted materials.

This is such a weird interview to me because it's almost like the two interviewees aren't even remotely familiar with CLT's master plan program, which I suppose they might not be, as Stuart Hair does community engagement for CLT, rather than anything in a planning capacity. There are concrete plans to eventually expand Concourse B/C. There are plans to build a people mover (the tunnel for the APM is literally in the current master plan project). Labeling such plans as "current thinkings" and then stating "who knows what technology would develop in the next 10 or 15 years?" in terms of building an APM (like CLT is known for technological innovation in any aspect of its airport operations)...is just weird. Bingo. AA's small fleet of widebody aircraft (especially when compared to United's) really has a substantial impact on its overall network strategy. They have 30 787-9s on the way, but some of those will undoubtedly be used to replace older 772s. Even with the A321XLRs on the way, I don't expect to see a dramatic international push from AA until they place a further order for widebody aircraft later this decade. I'm willing to bet they order 787-10s to replace the rest of the 772 fleet. I've gotten into the reasons behind AA's smaller intercontinental network when compared to DL/UA but even with this announcement, it's still fascinating to see how much smaller their network is compared to United's. AA: UA:

Normally I don't like to feed the troll, but what????

I believe the new signage went up when the last segment of 485 opened.