Kansas City Airport

The airport lacks enough restrooms. Passengers have to leave terminals to get food and come back in through security and wait in line to get rechecked. The airport need to be remodelled to give passengers comforts that other airports have.

Used Kansas City as a base for a quick vacation - flew in on Continental out on Air Canada and had a return flight on Southwest in between. MCI is terrific for arrivals as the unique design allows one to be off the plane and on the street quicker than a small town airfield. Rental cars are centralized but shuttles are frequent and the rental car building is bright and pleasant. On the other hand it is an pain to get from one terminal to another (give yourself at least 20 minutes). There are slim pickings at the gate and if you are on an early morning flight (ie 06:20) don't expect the cafe in the secure area to have coffee... Long story short: I have been to worse and I have been to better.

KCI is my home airport and for short trips I can park in short term parking and literally walk across the street and be thru security and at my gate in 5-10 mins after shutting my car door! The security points at each gate save time; no trains to ride or fighting several hundred other people at central security points People are friendly and helpful.

While probably a good airport for passengers flying into or out of the area it is one of the worse for passengers making connections. I nearly missed making a connection because of the need to be rescreened even though the gates were in the same terminal and only four gates apart. The airport's archaic design requires separate screening when going from one gate to another unless they are literally next to each other. Accessing the restaurants also requires rescreening. To make matters worse they have a private firm doing the screening that is much less efficient than TSA. I'll never book another flight that requires connecting in Kansas City!

On the plus side for a 6.00am departure on AA it was 16 minutes from leaving a nearby hotel and we were through security. This airport has incredibly short walks for arriving and departing passengers. On the negative side although there was a Starbucks outside of security (how convenient for arrivals or airport employees) the little bar kiosk was not open at 5.00am so there was no place to buy a coffee or water or doughnut after security. I couldn't even find a drinking fountain. As long as all you want to do is board a plane this airport is great. If you have time to kill it's a hassle.

KCI seems to be a nice airport if you are not connecting though it. If you are connecting through it you may have to go through security again and that means you will have to get rid of that water bottle. Only one small bathroom per gate area with each gate area having 5 gates. Food choice in gate areas is just bad with Wolfgang Puck. Not worth the price.

True for connecting passengers MCI is not the best place to fly. but if it is your destination or departing point by far the best airport in the USA (this is out of the 30+ airports I flown in or out of) I hate feeling rushed when I am close to missing a plane every airport makes me feel like that. When I land at KCI (and I have no luggage checked) it is so awesome to walk off the plane into your car - like you just stopped at the local gas station.

I don't think David has been to KCI (known by locals) in a while. Restrooms are located within the gates. You don't have to go through security again to use a restroom.

MCI was designed in a pre-security era. The terminals are semi- circular with each group of 4-5 gates having its own security checkpoint. All of the shops restaurants and restrooms are outside the secured area. If Kansas City is your destination terrific. If it is your connection you'll loathe it. Per previous comments Kansas City's TSA staff might be the biggest buffoons of the lot. The last time I flew through there those jokers made me throw away a just-opened 20 oz. bottle of soda because they couldn't run it through the x-ray machine without a cap.

Thoughtful comments here - they capture what's good and bad about the airport. In short if you begin or end your trip in KC it's probably the single best airport in the country. Curbside to gate in 25 feet - an amazing and efficient design. However this is accomplished by every gate area being in it's own sterile security area just off curbside which poses the aforementioned headache for connecting passengers. KC for whatever reasons has never been good as a hub for airlines (recall back to Braniff 1 and 2 Eastern US Airways and the lowly and now defunct Vanguard Airlines) so most likely you're just an origin/destination passenger. The renovation has made it more up-to-date better services and better aesthestic design. It still suffers from no services even restrooms in the gate areas though. Security can be odd - I was once told that I could wear my tennis shoes through the detector but then pulled aside for complete pat-down because I did wear my tennis shoes (by the same guy who told me I could wear them an then pulled me aside for the same reason)- where's the logic? Good airport nevertheless.