Charlotte Airport

Not Verified | So I like American Airlines, they have new planes and treat their frequent flyers really well. I have been the highest status on United, Delta and American in the past five years and am currently highest on Delta and American. Needless to say I travel a lot. I will book about 250000 miles this year. Mostly domestic wth 10 international trips. I will go to 80 airports a year in average. Sadly Charlotte is the closest airport to my home and is the worst airport I travel through (yes, this includes JFK and CDG). The worst part is the staff are genuinely nice and really try hard but the airport operations are a complete disaster. I have gone through Charlotte 31 times this year and have averaged a 35 minute taxi time. I have missed 14 flights this year trying to go through Charlotte. I have driven home 11 times (I am 80 miles away). Yes, there is perpetual. construction but LaGuardia is much worse there. It is simply they don’t know how to route planes on the ground. I am literally typing this as I am taxiing (45 minutes so far). I am baffled that LaGuardia and JFK figured out how to move aircraft in the ground but Charlotte can’t. Maybe the air traffic team at Charlotte should benchmark any other airport in the world (I mean this literally) to understand how to move aircraft on the ground. This task is clearly beyond their comprehension. This is frankly confusing in the home of Nascar! It is a shame too because the services on the airport are actually pretty good. Yes, if you have a regional you have to do the march across the world to the E but people are genuinely friendly as you walk so it isn’t that bad. So Charlotte. Figure out how to move airplanes on the ground and you could actually be a good airport. But until you do you are not worth the hassle. I will go through Atlanta (bet you never thought you would hear that huh).

✅ Trip Verified | Based on others' reviews, it is evident that the CLT site is fairly consistent in poor service, missed connections, and overall negative experiences. Our flight was delayed due to the President's visit and inclement weather. When we finally reached our gate after sitting on the tarmac for over an hour, we were delayed further due to a lack of staffing to park our aircraft. Once deplaned, we raced to our connection only to find the flight had closed (well outside of the 10-min window of departure time). The excuse provided for the lack of staffing at our arrival gate: lightning and staff safety. Yet, staff were evidently not in any danger to guide our departing flight out of the gate, a fact we found quite interesting. Many customers were left stranded and when trying to rebook flights, the responses from AA workers ranged from eye rolls to terse replies. Never did any employee of the airline or the airport acknowledge what every passenger was feeling. A simple, "We understand you are upset and we are doing what we can to make the rest of your trip as pleasant as possible." As we stood in a customer service line, one airline employee passed out customer service number tickets. When asked by several passengers where our luggage might be, she replied, "Whatever flight you were supposed to be on, that's where your luggage is." Many people informed her that our connections had already left before we arrived. Yet, she stuck with her (obviously incorrect) statement of next-flight luggage transport, absolutely clueless. We were able to rebook on a flight the next day (2 p.m.) but needed to find something earlier for work obligations. At 11:50 p.m. we left the main concourse, past the TSA area, and headed to the main ticketing counter. Unbeknownst to us (and hundreds others), TSA closes their gates at midnight. No signage, no verbal notice, no nothing. We were locked out of any food, beverages, seating, carpeting, etc. until the airport reopened at 4:30 a.m. We found a quiet place to sit (on the floor, with a locked door next to us) and charge our devices near the baggage carousel. Not long after settling in, an airport employee saunters up and says, "You gone hafta move from that do'." As we gather our things to move, the employee then says, "I don't know why you so upset. You know you can't sit in front of that do'." Our response: "Because this airport is horrible." His response: "Ain't nobody tole you to come heah." And this was the basic attitude of every single employee we encountered from our arrival until our eventual departure. We did attempt to make a purchase at the Starbucks at the ticket counter. True to CLT form, the oven was broken and they had run out of the one thing I cared to order. And passengers were due to arrive in less than 4 hours. To be served what remained to be seen. If the presence of a high-profile official and a brief storm delay can render this airport all but useless, an actual emergency will bring the entire city to its knees. There is clearly no plan to address the lack of airport personnel, availability of rental cars, hotel rooms, etc. and neither American Airlines nor the CLT airport gave any effort whatsoever to aid passengers in navigating such a challenging experience. I am committed to avoiding CLT at all costs. The level of incompetence is staggering. Since the airport is owned and operated by the City of Charlotte, I can only imagine what disasters occur throughout the city on a daily basis.

Not Verified | Out of all my travels (and I fly quite frequently,) this airport is by far the worst. Plan to spend more time on the tarmac than in the air, and if waiting, you will be seated in an unclean area, and surely sweating profusely. Tight connection? Plan to miss. Terrible design in this airport, and there is always construction inside and out, with no real progress. Avoid at all costs.

✅ Trip Verified | I have traveled all over the world and have never encountered a bigger bunch of rude and overall unwelcoming employees in this airport. Absolutely no exception. Horrible place and people. If there is any possibility of flying somewhere else, do it. Avoid this place like the plague. There are no redeeming qualities to be found here. It doesn't matter where you go in this airport you will be treated like dirt. Service is a complete foriegn language here folks.

Not Verified | We travelled from NYC to Charlotte and our flight was cancelled from Charlotte to TriCities airport due to weather. The staff were not prepared to handle the number of stranded customers and the service was horrible. Also, there were no rental cars available and the car rental staff were rude and of no help. We decided to call a friend and stay in Gastonia, NC which is 20 minutes from the airport and we rented a car outside of the airport in Gastonia and drove 3 hours the next day home to Johnson City in order to attend a funeral. The airlines (American) cancelled all flights and American nor the Charlotte airport staff could handle the influx of customers. My main concern for Charlotte is to prepare your staff for a disaster and how to handle a crisis when there is an influx of people in your airport. I would expect that your facility has a disaster plan and if this is your disaster plan, it needs to be revamped so that you can meet the customer needs. Very concerned on how this went down!

Not Verified | Charlotte airport has the worst baggage claim system I have ever seen. I live in Charlotte therefore I have to use this airport all of the time. It always take 45 minutes to an hour for bags to arrive. I have used the airport approximately 7-8 times in the past year and there is always an insane delay with the luggage. The area for pickup is way too small and the people running it never stop blowing their whistles so no one has any clue what or where to go. Terrible experience every time but I don’t have another option. Unacceptable and really needs some changes.

Not Verified | I had the absolute worst experience in my life traveling through Charlotte. I'm not sure if it was American Airlines or just the lack of organization by the airport. We landed with a 90 minute layover from Cancun. Lightening was spotted so we were told we had to wait before they could let anyone off of our first plane. We missed our connecting flight somehow even though we made it to the gate before departure time. Nobody was helpful or seemed to care that we were upset and lost on what to do next. They said we had to stay in a room until the next morning and that's all there was to it. No "I'm sorry" or anything of the sort. Our luggage was supposedly sent to Indy without us, but when we got to Indy 7 hours later to pick it up, it was nowhere to be found. Our luggage was left in Charlotte last year as well. We will avoid this airport at all costs from this point forward.

❌ Not Verified | Now to start my company and myself are not rude or impatient. We are quite empathetic and understanding. That being said this is the least organized airport I have ever had the displeasure of visiting. We flew in from Jamaica for a connecting flight. First we were forced to stay on the airplane for an extra 35 minutes because customs was clogged. Mind you we already had a terrible flight experience with American Airlines. Upon entering customs we observe chaos. Different TSA employees are yelling at hundreds of customers to “direct” us all. After finally getting through customs we are yelled at to get our bags, fine. At the third threshold however three more TSA agents start giving everyone three different varieties of wrong directions. We end up missing our connecting flight and at the wrong area completely. More employees continue to curtly tell us we are all in the wrong area (although we had been yelled at to do so) and that we are SOL. We and another hundred customers then waited an additional 40 minutes to recheck in and get new flights. We did not come across one decent treating polite employee during this entire experience. I wish my job allowed me to be rude and discourteous to good paying customers. I have flown my entire life, I disliked this experience more than O’Hare and will be avoiding this airport at all costs.

❎ Not Verified | Me, my mother's boyfriend and my mother were traveling and had to take multiple flights to get home, Charlotte was the last. The TSA harassed me and my mother's boyfriend randomly checking us and never really explaining at all. My mother's boyfriend has metal knees and it took them a good half hour to realize that's not a problem. The TSA were overly aggressive when talking to us and just told us to go away after the check was done. Then later when we check our bags we find that they checked our luggage too. If I ever fly again I am definitely not visiting Charlotte Airport.

✅ Trip Verified | This is the second time that we have flown from this airport and had our bags soaking wet on the other end of the flight. Both times our luggage has been soaked through on all sides of the bags and we could wring water out of our clothes. We had to take them to a laundromat this time to dry them out so we could wear them. Never have we experienced this at any other airport and to have it happen twice now at the same one is extremely odd. It was like someone just dropped them into a huge deep puddle of water and let them sit there for an hour.