February 18, 20169 yr I still don't understand why we are so harsh on Hopkins?! I've flown all over the US and world and while Hopkins is far from the biggest terminal, for it's size it has pretty good amenities. It's very clean too. Are the hallways paved in granite? No, but do they really need to be? Sure I would love it if they rebuilt the whole airport, but at this point, I would not say we are in a league of our own. +1 on that. I do get a little dejected in seeing (as I did the other night) the airport concourses nearly shut down at 7:30 pm, with just 10 more departing and a few more than that arriving flights for the rest of day - but the place functions for me.
February 18, 20169 yr I agree. I don't need fancy or big. Give me destinations, good price and in/out. I don't hang out in the terminals. I get there as late as I can. The checked bag system needs updated for sure though.
February 18, 20169 yr I still don't understand why we are so harsh on Hopkins?! I've flown all over the US and world and while Hopkins is far from the biggest terminal, for it's size it has pretty good amenities. It's very clean too. Are the hallways paved in granite? No, but do they really need to be? Sure I would love it if they rebuilt the whole airport, but at this point, I would not say we are in a league of our own. Nothing wrong with Cleveland pride but name an airport as outdated as Hopkins in a metro of over 1 million people. I know this has been said before but they are important points: The Customs facility can't handle real international flights. Airport debt and landing fees are high for a such an old facility. Cleveland should be served better for a metro of it's size. The airport itself is a big obstacle in getting airlines interested in expanding service. It is what it is.
February 18, 20169 yr Advice to any even mildly frequent flyer: Sign up/get interviewed/pay $85 (good for 5 years) for TSA pre-Check. No shoes off. No belt off.. No pulling out laptop. No scanning xray machine. Shorter line. None of the horrors outlined in Glaser's PD article. It makes life so much easier (even at CLE).
February 18, 20169 yr I still don't understand why we are so harsh on Hopkins?! I've flown all over the US and world and while Hopkins is far from the biggest terminal, for it's size it has pretty good amenities. It's very clean too. Are the hallways paved in granite? No, but do they really need to be? Sure I would love it if they rebuilt the whole airport, but at this point, I would not say we are in a league of our own. Nothing wrong with Cleveland pride but name an airport as outdated as Hopkins in a metro of over 1 million people. I know this has been said before but they are important points: The Customs facility can't handle real international flights. Airport debt and landing fees are high for a such an old facility. Cleveland should be served better for a metro of it's size. The airport itself is a big obstacle in getting airlines interested in expanding service. It is what it is. NEO has 3.5-4MM population and a 2MM metro-sized airport - and the largest metro without non-stop Euro service. Charlotte has a 2MM metro and a 6MM metro-sized airport... and there are many more examples... St Louis is 3MM hub-loss metro with 30+ more non stop cities than CLE (and no Euro?.)
February 18, 20169 yr I still don't understand why we are so harsh on Hopkins?! I've flown all over the US and world and while Hopkins is far from the biggest terminal, for it's size it has pretty good amenities. It's very clean too. Are the hallways paved in granite? No, but do they really need to be? Sure I would love it if they rebuilt the whole airport, but at this point, I would not say we are in a league of our own. Nothing wrong with Cleveland pride but name an airport as outdated as Hopkins in a metro of over 1 million people. I know this has been said before but they are important points: The Customs facility can't handle real international flights. Airport debt and landing fees are high for a such an old facility. Cleveland should be served better for a metro of it's size. The airport itself is a big obstacle in getting airlines interested in expanding service. It is what it is. NEO has 3.5-4MM population and a 2MM metro-sized airport - and the largest metro without non-stop Euro service. Charlotte has a 2MM metro and a 6MM metro-sized airport... and there are many more examples... St Louis is an NEO sized hub-loss metro with 30+ more non stop cities than CLE (and no Euro?.) St. Louis is a large focus city for Southwest. Not quite a hub but doing better than Hopkins. I don't believe St. Louis has Euro international but they are quite a bit further west than Cleveland. Pittsburgh and Cincinnati have non-stops to Paris. BA and Columbus are at least talking about a non-stop to London. Cleveland international service? Crickets. There's a reason for that.
February 19, 20169 yr Advice to any even mildly frequent flyer: Sign up/get interviewed/pay $85 (good for 5 years) for TSA pre-Check. No shoes off. No belt off.. No pulling out laptop. No scanning xray machine. Shorter line. None of the horrors outlined in Glaser's PD article. It makes life so much easier (even at CLE). So, uh, I'm pretty sure the PreCheck line was longer than the regular line on Tuesday morning. Like, it was backed up past the Delta ticket counter. Thank god I have SkyPriority too, lol!
February 19, 20169 yr Advice to any even mildly frequent flyer: Sign up/get interviewed/pay $85 (good for 5 years) for TSA pre-Check. No shoes off. No belt off.. No pulling out laptop. No scanning xray machine. Shorter line. None of the horrors outlined in Glaser's PD article. It makes life so much easier (even at CLE). So, uh, I'm pretty sure the PreCheck line was longer than the regular line on Tuesday morning. Like, it was backed up past the Delta ticket counter. Thank god I have SkyPriority too, lol! All the same, I am happy to wait a little while to keep my shoes, belt, coat, and hat on.
February 19, 20169 yr Advice to any even mildly frequent flyer: Sign up/get interviewed/pay $85 (good for 5 years) for TSA pre-Check. No shoes off. No belt off.. No pulling out laptop. No scanning xray machine. Shorter line. None of the horrors outlined in Glaser's PD article. It makes life so much easier (even at CLE). So, uh, I'm pretty sure the PreCheck line was longer than the regular line on Tuesday morning. Like, it was backed up past the Delta ticket counter. Thank god I have SkyPriority too, lol! Though usually shorter than the regular TSA line, in my personal experience, CLE consistently has the longest TSA Pre-Check line of the 4 or 5 I frequent...
February 19, 20169 yr Though usually shorter than the regular TSA line, in my personal experience, CLE consistently has the longest TSA Pre-Check line of the 4 or 5 I frequent... I'm happy they at least have a Pre-Check line in CLE. When I fly United out of DFW, there is no Pre-Check there at Terminal E. Plus, not all of the security entrances at the other terminals have Pre-Check either. Adequate staffing seems to be an issue at lots of airports.
February 19, 20169 yr NEO has 3.5-4MM population and a 2MM metro-sized airport - and the largest metro without non-stop Euro service. Charlotte has a 2MM metro and a 6MM metro-sized airport... and there are many more examples... St Louis is 3MM hub-loss metro with 30+ more non stop cities than CLE (and no Euro?.) When your civic leaders demand less, they get less. Demand more of your "leaders." "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
February 19, 20169 yr Though usually shorter than the regular TSA line, in my personal experience, CLE consistently has the longest TSA Pre-Check line of the 4 or 5 I frequent... I'm happy they at least have a Pre-Check line in CLE. When I fly United out of DFW, there is no Pre-Check there at Terminal E. Plus, not all of the security entrances at the other terminals have Pre-Check either. Adequate staffing seems to be an issue at lots of airports. DFW Terminal E is easy though. There are checkpoints every 10 gates or so feeding into the same small concourse. Definitely not the nicest terminal at DFW, but if you arrive at a non peak time with status and TSA Pre, you can get away with getting dropped curbside 30 minutes before your flight (I do this all the time).
March 2, 20169 yr http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2016/02/cleveland_hopkins_passenger_tr.html Cleveland Hopkins International Airport drew more than 8.1 million passengers in 2015, a 6.45 percent increase over the year before, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The uptick in travelers, however, came after a dramatic drop in 2014, when passenger traffic decreased 16 percent in the year that United Airlines eliminated its hub in Cleveland.
March 15, 20169 yr http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/designreview/drcagenda/2016/03182016/index.php ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS Ordinance No. 291-16(Ward17/Councilperson Keane): Authorizing the Director of Port Control to enter into an amendment to Contract No. CAL 1989 for Concourse "C" and Contract No. CAL 1997 for Concourse "D" with United Airlines, Inc. fka Continental Airlines, Inc. to transfer certain ancillary facilities from one lease to the other, to extend the term of the Concourse " C" lease, and to change other terms of the leases in order to restate and memorialize United's presence at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, for the Department of Port Control. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 15, 20169 yr http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/designreview/drcagenda/2016/03182016/index.php ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS Ordinance No. 291-16(Ward17/Councilperson Keane): Authorizing the Director of Port Control to enter into an amendment to Contract No. CAL 1989 for Concourse "C" and Contract No. CAL 1997 for Concourse "D" with United Airlines, Inc. fka Continental Airlines, Inc. to transfer certain ancillary facilities from one lease to the other, to extend the term of the Concourse " C" lease, and to change other terms of the leases in order to restate and memorialize United's presence at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, for the Department of Port Control. Meh, this engineer hates legalese. Does this mean that United Continental is giving up its lease or whatever it's technically called on the D concourse?
March 16, 20169 yr Good question. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 16, 20169 yr http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/designreview/drcagenda/2016/03182016/index.php to change other terms of the leases in order to restate and memorialize United's presence at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, for the Department of Port Control. Memorialize? Is this the beginning of the final chapter for United here?
March 16, 20169 yr It's a legal term for officially observing something by putting it in writing. But this is something that council's Aviation & Transportation Committee can do and probably should do. I'm not understanding why Planning Commission has a jurisdiction on this. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 16, 20169 yr It's a legal term for officially observing something by putting it in writing. But this is something that council's Aviation & Transportation Committee can do and probably should do. I'm not understanding why Planning Commission has a jurisdiction on this. I think a nice statue of a fist with a middle finger raised would be an appropriate memorial for the relationship between United and Cleveland.
March 16, 20169 yr Would there be any benefit to the airport, maybe runway wise, if concourse D was leveled?
March 16, 20169 yr Would there be any benefit to the airport, maybe runway wise, if concourse D was leveled? Runway wise, no. I wish Cleveland could convert it to hold larger aircraft and then build a direct tunnel from D to the Main Terminal. Never going to happen though.
March 16, 20169 yr It's a legal term for officially observing something by putting it in writing. But this is something that council's Aviation & Transportation Committee can do and probably should do. I'm not understanding why Planning Commission has a jurisdiction on this. I think a nice statue of a fist with a middle finger raised would be an appropriate memorial for the relationship between United and Cleveland. I would pay a premium on every trip to Hopkins to see this.
March 16, 20169 yr With all the recent talk of building a local movie studio, to entice moviemakers to choose CLE as their filming spot, it would seem concourse D (sadly) could be a heck of a set for movie airport scenes... No travelers means the productions would have it all to themselves.
March 22, 20169 yr This provides insight to the planning commission agenda item I posted above: United Airlines reduces gates at Cleveland Hopkins; extends lease with city http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2016/03/united_airlines_reduces_gate_o.html#incart_river_index "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 22, 20169 yr This provides insight to the planning commission agenda item I posted above: United Airlines reduces gates at Cleveland Hopkins; extends lease with city http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2016/03/united_airlines_reduces_gate_o.html#incart_river_index With American's move, it's time to expand the FIS in Concourse A, IMHO. It needs to get done.
March 22, 20169 yr This provides insight to the planning commission agenda item I posted above: United Airlines reduces gates at Cleveland Hopkins; extends lease with city http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2016/03/united_airlines_reduces_gate_o.html#incart_river_index With American's move, it's time to expand the FIS in Concourse A, IMHO. It needs to get done. Or better yet---knock the entire thing down and start from scratch on a new, modern terminal there.
March 22, 20169 yr When AA does make their move, it will be nice to see AA's gate information monitors visible as United's passengers head to the banjo gates where there are STILL no LCD displays. UA has the most mainline flights out of CLE, and yet they still haven't brought their gates up to the standards of this decade. If United Airlines can put those displays up in their gates out of Northwest Arkansas Regional, surely they can do it in Cleveland, where they still claim to want to be a major player.
March 22, 20169 yr Was at Hopkins yesterday...I have to say, the low fare airlines have such a cadence of flights at unique times throughout the day, the A wing was actually pretty lively both times I went through it. A lot going on over there. I hope there continues to be growth from the low fare airlines. I flew Spirit for the first time. Not really sure what to make of it. The in-flight experience was actually fine. Space to move around, timely. Obviously you HAVE to prepare and know what you are getting into or you will lose a lot of money. My wife baby and I consolidated everything into one checked bag and one carry on to reduce costs, printed boarding pass at home. When I Was at FLL, the line was out the door to get bags checked and it was approaching an hour until flight time. I was like this is a disaster, there is no way im getting on this flight. But to Spirits credit, they got everyone through and arrived to CLE early. Now we had to wait 15 minutes on Hopkins runway because there was another plan in the Spirit gate. Really mixed bag of a shit show, yet they seemed to get the job done. I don't think I hated it to say ill never do it again, but preparation and plenty of time is your safest bet with them. One last Hopkins observation...I hope they are working overtime in that place. It seems like more of a disaster than ever before. Not sure how they will make that look nice by convention time.
March 22, 20169 yr Was at Hopkins yesterday...I have to say, the low fare airlines have such a cadence of flights at unique times throughout the day, the A wing was actually pretty lively both times I went through it. A lot going on over there. I hope there continues to be growth from the low fare airlines. I flew Spirit for the first time. Not really sure what to make of it. The in-flight experience was actually fine. Space to move around, timely. Obviously you HAVE to prepare and know what you are getting into or you will lose a lot of money. My wife baby and I consolidated everything into one checked bag and one carry on to reduce costs, printed boarding pass at home. When I Was at FLL, the line was out the door to get bags checked and it was approaching an hour until flight time. I was like this is a disaster, there is no way im getting on this flight. But to Spirits credit, they got everyone through and arrived to CLE early. Now we had to wait 15 minutes on Hopkins runway because there was another plan in the Spirit gate. Really mixed bag of a S**t show, yet they seemed to get the job done. I don't think I hated it to say ill never do it again, but preparation and plenty of time is your safest bet with them. One last Hopkins observation...I hope they are working overtime in that place. It seems like more of a disaster than ever before. Not sure how they will make that look nice by convention time. Does it still look that bad? I flew out of Hopkins in December and just remembered thinking how much they had to go, assumed they'd be close by now! I'm going to L.A. in May and was hoping everything would be done! Btw, I fly Spirit a few times a year, cant beat it for the price really!
March 22, 20169 yr Does it still look that bad? I flew out of Hopkins in December and just remembered thinking how much they had to go, assumed they'd be close by now! I'm going to L.A. in May and was hoping everything would be done! Btw, I fly Spirit a few times a year, cant beat it for the price really! I fly once a month pretty much, and it is still pretty bad. It doesn't look like they've made much progress, mostly because they were doing it in segments and once one segment was done they moved on to the other without completely revealing the enhancements already done. I do believe they will get it finished in mid-June... just in time for the convention.
March 22, 20169 yr Does it still look that bad? I flew out of Hopkins in December and just remembered thinking how much they had to go, assumed they'd be close by now! I'm going to L.A. in May and was hoping everything would be done! Btw, I fly Spirit a few times a year, cant beat it for the price really! I fly once a month pretty much, and it is still pretty bad. It doesn't look like they've made much progress, mostly because they were doing it in segments and once one segment was done they moved on to the other without completely revealing the enhancements already done. I do believe they will get it finished in mid-June... just in time for the convention. Yeah, I agree. They haven't truly "finished" anything really, aside from maybe half of the exterior departures area. I overheard the B (currently Pre-Check) agent telling someone they would be moving Pre-Check to A and doing more work on B still - not sure if that's true. One thing I do hope is accounted for is moving the checked bag x-Ray to behind the ticket counters. Surely they are not doing all of these renos with the intention of leaving them where they are!
March 22, 20169 yr Really mixed bag of a S**t show This is a perfect assessment of Frontier and Spirit!
March 23, 20169 yr http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2016/03/cleveland_hopkins_airport_cons.html#incart_m-rpt-1
March 30, 20169 yr http://www.clevelandairport.com/company/history Hopkins saw a 13.2% total pax increase y-o-y in January. It's very early but Hopkins is on pace top 9 million pax this year already. Those are strong numbers with no connection passengers and no real international destination, not mention competition from Canton-Akron. Got to believe this will translate to additional service sooner than later.
March 30, 20169 yr http://www.clevelandairport.com/company/history Hopkins saw a 13.2% total pax increase y-o-y in January. It's very early but Hopkins is on pace top 9 million pax this year already. Those are strong numbers with no connection passengers and no real international destination, not mention competition from Canton-Akron. Got to believe this will translate to additional service sooner than later. There's the balance!
March 30, 20169 yr http://www.clevelandairport.com/company/history Hopkins saw a 13.2% total pax increase y-o-y in January. It's very early but Hopkins is on pace top 9 million pax this year already. Those are strong numbers with no connection passengers and no real international destination, not mention competition from Canton-Akron. Got to believe this will translate to additional service sooner than later. There's the balance! I was never unbalanced. Chill and check out all my posts. :)
April 6, 20169 yr New addition to Hopkins from the last time I was passing through in December, glad to see they're starting to market the city!!
April 6, 20169 yr I was never a fan of that mirror-ish ceiling... that's Concourse B, right? At least it's not as nasty looking as the drop ceilings at United's O'Hare gates. I wonder how often UA employees look up there at the water damage and dark spots and think to themselves, "That's what I'm breathing in all day?"
April 12, 20169 yr Last night I landed at the furthest United C gate possible, out on the "lollipop" C24. I should have turned on the "steps" on my phone: C 24 to baggage claim (now accessible only through the B checkpoint exit). B checkpoint exit down the escalators to the right all the way to the end, bag claim 10 for United from ORD. Then walked the opposite direction all the way back to door 2 where my ride was waiting (since the doors for United baggage are all closed). I'd say a good 1/2 mile? I've been in just about every airport in the country and this has to be one of the longer treks (with no moving sidewalks). I'm reasonably in shape and not complaining, but I can see why some of the couch potatoes in the area may choose to stay in their car and drive themselves down to CAK for "conveeeeeenience."
April 12, 20169 yr Last night I landed at the furthest United C gate possible, out on the "lollipop" C24. I should have turned on the "steps" on my phone: C 24 to baggage claim (now accessible only through the B checkpoint exit). B checkpoint exit down the escalators to the right all the way to the end, bag claim 10 for United from ORD. Then walked the opposite direction all the way back to door 2 where my ride was waiting (since the doors for United baggage are all closed). I'd say a good 1/2 mile? I've been in just about every airport in the country and this has to be one of the longer treks (with no moving sidewalks). I'm reasonably in shape and not complaining, but I can see why some of the couch potatoes in the area may choose to stay in their car and drive themselves down to CAK for "conveeeeeenience." GoogleEarth measures it as about 3,300 feet or 0.62 mile. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 12, 20169 yr I'm reasonably in shape and not complaining, but I can see why some of the couch potatoes in the area may choose to stay in their car and drive themselves down to CAK for "conveeeeeenience." H Just depended on where i was going. Sometimes Hopkins was a better option. Sometimes, CAK was.
April 12, 20169 yr Last night I landed at the furthest United C gate possible, out on the "lollipop" C24. I should have turned on the "steps" on my phone: C 24 to baggage claim (now accessible only through the B checkpoint exit). B checkpoint exit down the escalators to the right all the way to the end, bag claim 10 for United from ORD. Then walked the opposite direction all the way back to door 2 where my ride was waiting (since the doors for United baggage are all closed). I'd say a good 1/2 mile? I've been in just about every airport in the country and this has to be one of the longer treks (with no moving sidewalks). Sometimes when I arrive a little early for a flight, I like to take a little walk around the airport. If I have a long layover somewhere, it's also something I like to do at other airports, too. CLE is a little easier to do this at than some since it isn't often very crowded unless it's a morning flight. I miss being able to include Concourse D in the walk; when it was open, that walk was over a mile and was good exercise at a brisk pace, especially when you take the stairs instead of the escalator getting to and from the tunnel. I miss Concourse D... I liked eating at Gordon Biersch or Obrycki's over there.
April 12, 20169 yr Last night I landed at the furthest United C gate possible, out on the "lollipop" C24. I should have turned on the "steps" on my phone: C 24 to baggage claim (now accessible only through the B checkpoint exit). B checkpoint exit down the escalators to the right all the way to the end, bag claim 10 for United from ORD. Then walked the opposite direction all the way back to door 2 where my ride was waiting (since the doors for United baggage are all closed). I'd say a good 1/2 mile? I've been in just about every airport in the country and this has to be one of the longer treks (with no moving sidewalks). I'm reasonably in shape and not complaining, but I can see why some of the couch potatoes in the area may choose to stay in their car and drive themselves down to CAK for "conveeeeeenience." GoogleEarth measures it as about 3,300 feet or 0.62 mile. I was close! :)
April 12, 20169 yr I flew out of Pittsburgh last week for the first time in awhile. It has nearly the same # of passengers as Hopkins (in a smaller metro than NEO) and also lost a hub. However, while the main terminal and concourse are a bit dingy (with empty gates), the central mall/retail/restaurant portion that the airport train feeds passengers into - with a huge # of shops, high ceilings, Bar Symon, etc - is sparkling, full of options and totally "big-city." It makes CLE look like a backwoods airfield.
April 13, 20169 yr http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20160412/BLOGS03/160419955?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social Cleveland Hopkins ranked as one of the country's best airports for wireless internet service If you find yourself stuck for a while at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, take solace in this: Hopkins is one of the country’s best airports for wireless internet service. Business Insider breaks down some numbers from Root Metrics, which provides wireless carriers with measurements about how strong and fast their service is at various locations. Recently, Root Metrics tested how reliable the cellular internet should be at any given airport.
April 13, 20169 yr http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20160412/BLOGS03/160419955?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social Cleveland Hopkins ranked as one of the country's best airports for wireless internet service If you find yourself stuck for a while at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, take solace in this: Hopkins is one of the country’s best airports for wireless internet service. Business Insider breaks down some numbers from Root Metrics, which provides wireless carriers with measurements about how strong and fast their service is at various locations. Recently, Root Metrics tested how reliable the cellular internet should be at any given airport. See? It's not ALL bad news.
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