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| - The airport improvement fee gets higher and higher but I don't see anything improving. It's getting worse. I hate this airport more and more. They added 2 gates at concourse A while adding no seating. In fact, they're taking seating and tables away and turning it into retail. So if you're like me and you don't show up to the gate an hour+ ahead of time, you won't find a seat. Particularly at gates 9 10 11 and 12. When 2 or more flights are going out, there is no space to move through the hallways.
The wifi is ridiculous, I really do not want to talk about it. But they added some standing laptop tables with outlets (the engineers that planned this never considered USB outlets, which even Oklahoma City airport has). My favorite part about this table is a sticker affixed to the table that states: "PASSENGER USE". Really? For me? The customer? I thought that the table is for the cleaning staff & diplomats. I'll upload a photo of it, I've never seen something so stupid in my life.
If you have a regional flight out of concourse A, you have to now walk up to 1.1km from the gate agent to the plane. They try to mitigate this through golf carts, which, again, shows how this airport thinks.
They also closed the concourse B security, so if you have a overseas flight out of B, you have to go through concourse A, walk 524m to the former concourse B checkpoint, then continue another few hundred m to your gate. I don't care about the walk, but it's this lack of customer focus on people who may not be able to walk ~800m on their own that epitomizes YYC.
Returning to Calgary (particularly in the winter) after a great trip, hell, even any trip at any time of the year, is depressing enough. Going through the YYC Canada Customs hall makes it even more depressing. First, you have the oppressive, third world demeanor of our wannabe law enforcers from the CBSA. Then you have a residents lineup and a visitors lineup. The visitors lineup has 5 officers helping no one, and the residents lineup is 15 people deep per officer. So I head for the visitors line. Standing at the entrance is a white-hatter dutifully enforcing the illogicality. I politely suggest that what I am doing makes sense. He insists that I am wrong: the sign says visitors. I again politely point out the illogicality. He won't budge: tax payers have to wait in line, visitors do not have to. I eventually make up some BS about how I'm technically a visitor. He relents. Take that & the window-less facility that this is contained within, you have something truly soulless & depressing. When you come down the escalators, you see in bland cursive writing on wood laminate: "Welcome to Calgary!" One reviewer said that it epitomizes Calgary greatly, and I agree: it's boring, it's uninspired, and it's cost effective. Affixed to the concrete and linoleum walls of the baggage claim is a recent art undertaking. Of what, you may ask? Photos of Calgary's architecture? Photos of its inhabitants? Hell, photos of nature? Sculptures of some kind? No. Pictures of babies in various ethnic outfits. Good fucking lord, this is my home town's cultural offering to people who just landed in our city: pictures of fucking babies.
The curbside arrivals also epitomizes how YYC thinks. 66% of the curb is for taxis and sedans--remember that $2/cab fare goes to the airport. These lanes tend to be completely devoid of taxis and full of un-utilized, overpriced sedans. The curbside for private vehicles is sparse, and the "no waiting: pick+go" policy is not enforced. People double park within this zone, and the gridlock gets pretty silly. However, the taxi zone is dutifully enforced by several airport marms. Only that they're male, but whatevz. One night during this curbside mismanagement, I told my friend to pick me up in the taxi zone. She will stop, pop the trunk, I will put my one carry on in the trunk, we go 20 within seconds. A nazi in a reflective vest from the taxi company politely asked me if I wanted a cab. I told him that my friend will be picking me up here. Realizing that no money for his company was in store, he told me in the most entitled, abrasive fashion that my standing in that area was forbidden. I told him that I'm not moving. He would have none of that. So I told him to fuck off. Not passive aggressive Canadian "go pound sand, mister!" fuck off, but to actually "fuck off". He calls security, threatens to have me arrested, and to "move along, this is an airport, you can't stand wherever you like." Two geriatric security guys tell me in a slightly less assholish fashion to move along and that I cannot stand on the curb at that location. During this 4 minute confrontation, not a single cab or taxi customer has come by. I tell them to call the police and to stop wasting my energy. Friend comes, I get in the car, we drive off, and they probably lost sleep that a cust, I mean, passenger of YYC did something so immoral.
While not as bad as YEG, it's certainly getting there.
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