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| - I've been in and out of Sky Harbor quite a bit and it's wearing thin on me. Here are the things that keep it from being a good airport:
1) The rental car center, accessed by lumbering buses, is too far away and is heinously slow for picking up a car. If you are going to shunt your rental car center to some godforsaken corner of the valley, couldn't you at least arrange a dedicated skyway for the buses or a tram or monorail or train that whisks arriving passengers there? This is one of the few things SFO has done well, while Cleveland Hopkins and Sky Harbor have done it poorly.
2) The food options are not all that great, and as one other reviewer noted, the best bits are outside security! Who has the cool and collected psyche to sit there idling away over a meal while gigantic queues may be forming, unseen, at the security gate while you linger? When I arrive at an airport, my goal is to get through security at the earliest possible moment to avoid any nasty, nerve-wracking surprise death marches. Which brings us to....
3) The security lines are WAY too understaffed for the size of this operation. Narrow little chokepoints with TSA agents of the bellowing variety, and rarely more than two lines open to get into any concourse, unless you want to walk endlessly to see if the line is shorter at another entry. Heinous!
4) Add in an unimaginative mix of vendors and drab, Houston Bush-esque brown decor and you've got a dreary experience whether it's your destination, your departure point, or a hub for transfers.
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