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July 30, 2007
About the airport
We never lost the airport, just the terminals. And even then not really. We simply got lost trying to figure out which terminal we should be going to. We got to the airport exits on the interstate and they read "Humphrey Terminal Exit 5a", "Lindberg Terminal Exit 5b" or something similar. That was it. NO indication what so ever of which one was which. I've been to lots and lots and lots of airports around the world, never have I been confronted with a choice like that. No indication of which was the international terminal. No indication of which airlines flew out of which terminal. Nothing. So we had to choose. We chose poorly. So we were following signs to the Humphrey terminal (which AirTr*an fly into). That was fine, except it is not possible to return your rental cars from there. Thus the mild panic and widespread confusion.
It slowly began to dawn on me that clearly the Humphrey terminal was not what we wanted, but by that time we were down in the maze of roads that run around an airport. Humphrey terminal reminded me of going to the cargo terminal in Atlanta. Luckily we managed to follow the signs to the Lindberg terminal. Once we got over there it was EASY to follow the signs to rental car return. The best part was calling our rental car agency and asking them which terminal to choose -- they had absolutely no idea.
Oh and the MN airport is actually shaped like a U with the rental car decks in the middle and the entrance/exit at the open end. So when we returned to the airport we followed the following sequence of events:
1) return rental car (3rd floor), take elevator to basement and then take tram 1 stop (there is only one stop) to the basement of the main terminal
2) check bags
3) take tram back to where we came from and take elevator to 2nd floor
4) proceed through security which had absolutely no line...
5) to find food walk all the way back around until directly over place where we checked bags (just 2 floors up).
6) walk rest of way around the terminal to return to our gate.
Clearly this is an airport which can be very friendly if you know where you are going and which gate. If not, good luck.
Posted by kfeigh at July 30, 2007 11:06 AM