Charlotte Airport

There is very little to make this otherwise nondescript airport stand out except for one unique redeeming quality: the availability of free wireless internet. When I used this airport a couple of years ago to visit family I regretted not having brought my laptop.

We transited CLT twice: going from Rio to San Francisco and going from Washington DC to Rio. Going through Immigration and Customs was a snap. There were plenty of shops and restaurants but we spent out waiting time in the larger US Airways club (sure wish they had showers). We didn't see much of the airport but all in all it seemed clean modern and relatively easy to navigate (less chaotic than say Atlanta Hartsfield).

The main building with check-in counters is easy to negotiate landside. You can hardly have the check-in counters closer to the entrance doors than here. Once airside though long walks await the traveler. Security is strange with male pax asked to remove their sweatshirts (not females though wonder why). First time this has happened to me anywhere in the world and I can understand the public support for an anti-TSA demonstration prior to Thanksgiving. More curiosity at the "Carolina Beer Co." restaurant where the waiter asked to see my ID after ordering a beer. When I presented my driving licence he refused this as "it was from out of state" and asked for my passport instead. He accepted it although it was most definitely "out of state". When I enquired as to what this fuss was all about I was informed that they had orders to check the age of patrons to make sure there was no underage drinking. Laudable cause indeed - but one would think they would be able to recognize the absence of any potential problem without resorting to checking IDs when a traveler is like me 50+ years old. WiFi is free at this airport.

We arrived at CLT on Saturday evening at 6:30 pm from Cancun - only four immigration officers (out of nine stations) working at a time when several hundred passengers were in line to have their passports stamped. We had a two hour layover between flights and barely made our connecting flight. If that wasn't bad enough after passing immigration retrieving our bags and going through customs then rechecking our bags - we spent another 20 minutes getting through security again. They seemed to be experimenting with the new full body scanner and the process was not working correctly having to rescan a child several times in addition to wanding him. This makes no sense whatsoever. Situations like this backed up security at a time when passengers were trying to get to their next flights. One of the security employees even announced that security is not related to immigration and customs -basically saying it wasn't the TSA fault that immigration was so slow. We certainly understand the need for these protections but they must work more efficiently. The flights are scheduled well in advance why not have sufficient officers working to handle the passengers.

I used this airport for my holidays in the USA I was transiting through Charlotte. For me the positive point is that they were no big queue for admittance in the USA making it easy. After collecting bags I just have to let them in the xray and it was finished. As I got 4 hours transit I went in the city of Charlotte which is quite nice for transiting. WHen I went back to the airport I found controls ok but I found the airport style a little bit old fashioned. Anyway it's a nice airport.

I have connected through Charlotte many times for both domestic and international flights. We are always happy to go through this airport. Immigration/Customs efficient and the one time we ended up getting in late and missing our connecting flight we were given a decent voucher for food while waiting for a later flight home to PIT. Staff are friendly and helpful and there are lots of food choices.

I dread Atlanta and avoid at all costs. Charlotte makes for a wonderful alternative and the US Airways ground staff are informative and hospitable.

I travel for a living and connect through Charlotte at least twice a month and guess I just have bad luck? I fly from Raleigh which should be a thirty minute flight max but for some reason we always get grounded due to air traffic and the flight seems to now take an hour and a half. I've had to run through this airport countless times and since there's no rapid transportation going from the A terminal to the E terminal can be hell. And once I catch my connection taking off takes forever. However the free Wi-Fi is lovely and I always appreciate airports with Chili's!

Unlike the other reviewers here we had a very bad experience that might be specific to certain days of the week at CLT and/or elsewhere. We arrived in CLT on a Saturday from Mexico and went through customs around 6 pm. At that point there were maybe 2 planes full of people ahead of us and only 6 customs officers screening people. It took well over an hour for us to get through customs. While waiting 3 additional flights arrived and were queued behind us. We heard later that it took many people over 2 hours to get through and that many missed connecting flights as a result. What makes this experience especially unfortunate is that it is really unnecessary: a TSA agent told us that this is a recurring situation on Saturday nights - which means the Dept. of Homeland Security at Charlotte could have planned ahead knowing the number of international flights coming in on weekends. Instead it appears they assigned more people to herd us and/or tell people to put away cellphones and cameras than there were US customs agents. Signage in the airport is mediocre at best requiring people to direct travelers at times. On the positive side we found the selection of restaurants to be excellent and the airport clean and modern-looking.

CLT is compact well-signed easy to navigate and most importantly-not overcrowded. Only negative- my flight waited on the tarmac for 15-20 minutes for a gate to become available (not sure whether or not this occurrs frequently). Excellent alternative to transiting through Atlanta.