Quote:
Originally Posted by Keep-SA-Lame
I'm going to take this opportunity to maybe go against the grain on this forum and say I've never not enjoyed flying out of SAT. Last time I flew I was from my downtown area home to standing at my gate waiting to board in under 30 minutes (during a relatively busy time of day). At my large coastal city destination, it took more than that to just get to the airport, then by the time you navigate the huge airport, do security and all that, it probably took an hour and a half total. Plus you often have to wait on the tarmac for a takeoff slot. It's clean, I've never had to fight anyone for a urinal, and even though I usually bring my own food, I think the restaurants they have are a pretty cool selection of local options (by airport standards).
I think the ticket hall at SAT is dope and will be sad when it's demolished. I think having a large number of nonstop international flights is incredibly overrated (how often are y'all flying to Paris???). It's just an easy airport to fly in and out of. I really don't give a shit if I have to change planes in Atlanta or wherever sometimes. Most major destinations in the continental US you can get to with a direct flight if that's really important to you.
Granted, I only fly a couple times a year for pleasure (I am not a business traveler). But so are most people at the airport. Yeah there's no lounges, again, who gives a shit, I'm at the airport for like an hour at the absolute most anyway. The new terminal(s) will be nice, terminal A has felt crowded before. Better transit connections would be great. But I'm always struck by how relatively stress free SAT is compared to wherever I'm flying to. Medium sized airports rule.
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I concur with all of this. I fly into see my family in New Braunfels/SA quite often. Previously have used ABIA as my airport of choice, but as of recent have been choosing SA. With ABIA becoming more or less a mess at the times of day I usually fly, SA is a better, more pleasant experience. Security is ALWAYS a breeze. There's plenty of food/drink options if I'm there early enough, and gates are never more than a 2 minute walk from security. I live in Denver, so I just need a good selection of departure times, which between Southwest and United, my two airlines of choice, I have usually between 6 and 8 options on any given day. And pricing has moderated over the last 4 years since I moved to Denver, so I usually never even think about looking at Austin anymore for price comparison.