Philly now has a cell phone lot so that people picking someone up at the airport can wait for a the call and drive right over. I am not sure that it helps. Whenever my parking shuttle arrives at the airport, the driver still has a hell of a time getting in with all the people just sitting in their cars waiting. When I got back from LA on Wednesday, the number of cars piled up at the terminal was unreal.
When I have had to pick people up at the airport, I park and go inside. I can sit down and relax. If the flight is late, maybe I grab a soda or buy a newspaper and wait. I can check the boards inside to see if the flight is on the ground.
I cannot imagine wanting to sit in my car for an hour in the cell phone lot or sitting at the terminal and hoping that the airport cops don’t ticket me. But that’s just me. Is it really that hard to pull into short term parking? Its $3.00 for a half hour and $5.00 for an hour at PHL. Could be more other places, some are less.
Most airports don’t let you just sit there in your car. Either your picking someone up or circling around again. So, outside of Philly, the cell lots work.
As ShibbOleth said, most airports don’t allow you to park right in front of the terminal. In fact, I’d be surprised if Philly does.
Like the OP, I usually park the car and wait inside the terminal when I’m picking someone up. But many people like to circle around until their party appears at the curb. That creates lots of congestion. In recent years airports all over the country have set up cell phone lots to relieve this congestion. The driver waits there until he is called to the terminal. It works very well, from what I hear.
I try to time my arrival so I can drive up to the arrivals loading area, pop the person’s suitcase in my trunk and leave. Orlando International Airport isn’t particularly busy, even considering how many visitors we have, because most tourists arrive via Orlando Sanford International.
If I’m picking someone up at the airport there is (based on data from this past year) a 100% probability that they are coming in from Newark and their flight will only be declared as being 2 hours late about 15 minutes after the estimated arrival time. So I arrive at the last minute on the off chance the person is on time, and pay for parking. I bring a book/ipod and settle in at a café to wait. We can take the shuttle back to my car together.
I am pretty certain its illegal here. in fact before they set up the cell phone lot, people parked on I-95. They got $I50 tickets for that. But I have never seen a Philly airport cop enforce the rules at the terminal, therefore it is de facto legal. Usually its takes about 10 minutes for the shuttle arrive so I will see people at the terminal with engines off the entire time.
Other airports may do a better job of shooing people away. Vegas is lousy as well.
I just picked up a friend coming in from London. I parked the car, went and sat outside of baggage claims and waited for him. I wasn’t there even a full hour, but paid 8 bucks for the parking. Next time I may have him call on a cel phone - but connection for his UK phone is not always reliable here in the states.
At the Atlanta airport, I circle around until I see my people waiting. Usually I tell them to go to the end of the strip where fewer cars are trying to pick people up. If the people I’m picking up are familiar with the airport, I tell them to meet me on that underground part that you make a left turn into right before you get up to the main loading and unloading place.
I live near the Philadelphia airport, and I use the cell phone lot. Of course, we only live about 20 minutes from the airport, so I just compulsively check online to see if my husband’s plane is delayed, leave when it’s landed, wait a few minutes in the cell phone lot for him to get his luggage, and pick him up. I find the cell phone lot to be incredibly convenient.
When my wife is flying in, she calls me once she’s off the plane. Usually, by the time i get myself organized, jump in the car, and drive to the airport, she has picked up her checked luggage and is standing on the concourse waiting for me. Works perfectly.
I’ve waited for 20-30 minutes at the Philly airport terminal. I wasn’t aware of a cell phone lot, so I’ll probably use that next time if I think it could be a long wait. In Atlantic City, I just wait at the terminal or on the side of the road that goes to the airport and wait for a call.
I live ten minutes from Detroit Metro, and those guys are fierce about not letting people park for pickup. They will bust on you if you’re slow hustling grandma’s bag into the trunk even. AFAIK, everyone mostly uses the nearby Big Boys and gas stations and hotels as default cell phone lots while waiting.
One time, however, I literally abandoned my vehicle in the pickup lane, fully aware I’d be ticketed to all hell and back and it’d be towed away to Og knows where. I needed to get my minor child to a relative he was flying out of state with, and had overslept. Since they hadn’t bothered to call me, I figured that meant they weren’t going to wait for him either, so I drove hellbent to the airport and ran carrying him and his bag right to the gate and got there just as they were boarding. Amazingly, my truck was still there, untowed and unticketed, so I just drove back home guiltily.
So if I’m picking up I wait for the “I’ve landed” phone call, and hop in the car and hit the pickup lane just as my party hits the pickup lane. If my husband is picking up, he watches the airport’s webpage and leaves when it indicates the plane has landed.
God, PHL is such a horrid airport. I honest to god don’t know if there was an actual lot, but for years there’s been a tiny little sign, just as you get off 95 going to the airport, which I think had an arrow or something like “cell phone lot, keep left”. And then there was absolutely no further indication of where this alleged lot was. My parents, making at least a couple trips every year to pick up my sister or myself, tried occasionally to find it. Never did. (Google tells me it’s just on the far side of 291 from the airport - tellingly, there’s all of a dozen cars parked there in satellite view).
Anyway, since I never pick people up from the airport, I know that my parents would just circle the airport in Philly - if someone was hung up waiting for a bag, they’d just re-enter the airport and do another loop.
When I’ve had people pick me up out here at the Albuquerque airport, they’ve generally parked, because A) it’s a crazy long drive from Santa Fe and B) parking is ridiculously cheap at the Albuquerque airport - a dollar for half an hour.
It depends on the airport, day of the week, and time of day–what would be terribly rude behavior at DFW at 5:00 on a Friday is perfectly ok when picking someone up from tiny Love Field at 2:00 in the afternoon on a Saturday.
Similarly when I visit my parents, they live 15 minutes from Burbank airport. I call as we’re taxiing to the gate (allowed by Southwest Airlines), and my dad is at the curb just as we’ve retrieved our bags.
It sort-of depends on who I’m picking up. If it’s somebody I haven’t seen in years arriving from overseas, I’ll generally park and pop in and meet them at the gate. If it’s just another friend on a domestic trip, I’ll sit in the lot and wait for a phone call.
<hijack> Err… what? AFAIK, the only scheduled domestic service into Sanford is on Allegiant, which is even in the process of moving most of its operations into MCO. I’m not sure what tourists you’re thinking of, but last year, Sanford had something around 1.7 million in traffic vs. the ~31 million using MCO. </hijack>
As to parking or sitting, I prefer neither. I’ll track the flight of whoever I’m picking up online, and try to time my arrival accordingly. I may have to circle around if I’m early, but I try to adjust my arrival as best as I can.
My wife grew up that close to the Philadelphia Airport, and that’s what they did also. Now cell phone lots are great. SFO has a nice big one, Oakland has a good one (which was full the last time I picked up my wife) and in San Jose, there are some spots on a nearby street reserved as a cellphone lot.