Tom E.
Yelp
When flying into southern cal, you have a few options in where to fly to (on a commercial flight, even more with private). Be mindful where you pick, as the drive to your final destination can mean the difference of hours. When I flew into LAX the other night, just to get from t2 to t7 it took 25 minutes (was on a rental car shuttle). Then add the commute from LAX to Anaheim. But, for my work schedule, this was a necessary evil.
For my flight home, you better believe I chose SNA- I mean why not, they have a few flight options daily to ATL (via Delta), and the commute is about half (along with the headaches of dropping off the rental). I had flown in/out here a few times over the years, and it gets the job done, but I do have to note a few shortcomings (especially with the amount of money that surrounds this airport).
For one, since it is a smaller airport, the car rental centers for the most part are NOT 24 hours. I wanted to catch the 630A home, but I couldnt trust dropping off my rental to a place that opened up at 0600 then make it to the gate (with precheck, I know I could, but I wasnt going to risk it, knowing my luck). Also, once I have left a rental after hours and tried to get charged some asinine fees, so I don't like messing with that headache. Just keep that in mind if you are flying early.
Checking in and security is easy, and they do have pre-check, but it seemed like none of the pre-check flyers were frequent flyers, which made the line go slower than the standard lines (but I have seen this at a lot of smaller airports in general).
There are 3 lounges here, but for AA and United. I understand that Delta not having a large enough market here for one, however, I am kind of surprised there is not a 3rd party like priority pass (or even like the one at OAK). With the dated leather seats in the terminal, I would think it would warrant one here.
My last thing, was the private aircraft rule here. In fact, I almost saw one collide with an Alaskan Air landing, and it was like nobody thought anything of it (or maybe they didn't see each other, or maybe just near misses are normal here). We sat on the runway an extra 40 minutes for "small aircraft" to do their thing. I honestly thought we were sitting for air traffic in ATL to clear up. When I heard that, I just shook my head.
The building has its modern touches in some areas, and dated in others. I keep hearing that this place is one of the top airports in the country for customer satisfaction. I mean maybe as a backup for LAX absolutely, but you have to remember because it smaller, you don't have as many options, which for my crap schedule, I need more often than not.
I would like to add on their webpage they do have "airpaws" therapy dogs that look absolutely adorable, but unfortunately I didn't get to a see a single one down at gate 2. But be sure to be on the lookout for them, they look so sweet!
Will I come back through here? Yea, if I ever decide to go back to socal. 3.5 stars.
