Alright airport - Big, bright and airy with a decent amount of eateries. Probably worthy of 4 stars if my last experience here hadn't been so bad...
Return from Montego Bay to SFO after a Christmas vacay we were late to leave MoBay because of ''delays at Charlotte'. Yeah.. no specific information, just delays. Little did we know it would get worse..
We arrive in Charlotte with 45 minutes to get off the plane, collect our luggage, recheck our luggage, go through security and board before our connecting flight takes off. It's one crazy mad dash which we amazingly make in time but not before the a$$holes at security deliberately pick out all of those in rush and send us through the full body scanner! Pi$$ed off is an understatement. Should we have had time we would have told them ''hell no!''. I guess they have targets to hit and knew we really had no choice - it was go through or miss our flight. Or so we thought..
After the sprint through the airport and board the plane with minutes spare we got told the flight would then be delayed at least an hour. The pilot said it could be 2-3 due to ''bad weather in San Francisco'' but would see if he could get the time down.
Really? There was no bad weather in San Francisco. Apart from being a bit cold it was actually a very still and fog free night (I checked on my cell). Passing the blame for the airport effing up is not cool.
An hour went by and it's declared we're ok for take off but then proceed to sit on the runway for almost another hour! I don't know what the problem was but they didn't even bother to tell us, it's like they had just given up trying to make excuses.
We finally got back to SFO almost 2 and a half hours later than we were meant to thanx to whatever issues Charlotte were clearly having that night.
One bad experience out of 4 or 5 isn't so bad though, generally the airport is pretty good.
Seating in the terminals is ample but the chairs are not so comfortable so I recommend heading to the center of the airport where all the terminals meet. That's where they keep the comfy rocking chairs and where all the eateries and shops are. Places to eat include Chilis, Burger King, Papa Johns and Pinkberry.
Restrooms here are nice too and is one of the few airports I have visited that still have assistants. Lovely ladies that supply you with breath mints, sanitizer and a spritz of perfume.
Bonus Tip Free wireless!